Server-side JavaScript (SSJS) refers to JavaScript that runs on server-side. This term was coined because the language was originally limited to just client-side, i.e. client-side JavaScript (CSJS).
The first implementation of SSJS was Netscape's LiveWire, included in their Enterprise Server 2.0 product, released in 1996.
Examples of current uses of JavaScript on the server include:
- Whitebeam, using SpiderMonkey on the Apache HTTP Server
- Rhinola, using Rhino with gcj on the Apache HTTP Server
- Helma Object Publisher, using JScript as an ASP scripting language, the Ruby_on_Rails-like TrimJunction and OpenMocha.
Other common server-side programming languages are Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and ColdFusion amongst others.