Choosing your application server

An application server is software that helps a web server process dynamic pages. When choosing an application server, you should consider several factors, including your budget, the server technology you want to use (ColdFusion, ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, or PHP), and the type of web server.

Budget: Some vendors sell high‑end application servers that are expensive to buy and administer. Others vendors provide easier, more cost-effective solutions (examples include ColdFusion and JRun servers). Some application servers are built into web servers (such as Microsoft IIS) and others can be downloaded for free from the Internet (such as Jakarta Tomcat and PHP).
Server technology: Application servers use different technologies. Dreamweaver supports five server technologies: ColdFusion, ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, and PHP. The following table shows common application servers available for the five server technologies supported by Dreamweaver:

Server technology	Application server
ColdFusion	Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7
ASP.NET	Microsoft IIS 6 with .NET Framework
ASP	Microsoft IIS Sun ONE Active Server Pages
JSP	Macromedia JRun Apache Tomcat
PHP	PHP server

Note: Make sure the application server works with your web server. For example, the .NET Framework only works with IIS 5 or higher.

To learn more about ColdFusion, select ColdFusion Help from the Help menu.

To learn more about ASP.NET, visit the Microsoft website at http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/.

To learn more about ASP, visit the Microsoft website at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/activeservpages.asp.

To learn more about JSP, visit the Sun Microsystems website at java.sun.com/products/jsp/.

To learn more about PHP, visit the PHP website at www.php.net/.

Dreamweaver

Choosing your application server

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