Key Technology

webMathematica technology uses the request/response standard followed by web servers. Input can come from HTML forms, applets, JavaScript, and web-enabled applications. It is also possible to send data files to a webMathematica server for processing. Output can use many different formats, such as HTML, images, Mathematica notebooks, MathML, SVG, XML, PostScript, and PDF. The webMathematica User Guide includes examples that show how to produce these and other formats.

Security

Full compatibility with standard web-server security such as firewalls, trusted hosts, and HTTP-specific features; Mathematica-specific security to prevent execution of system-specific commands
Performance Overhead
Start-up overhead removed by Mathematica session caching, linear performance as load increases, multiple Mathematica licenses supported (suitable for multiprocessor machines), minimal overhead over normal Mathematica computation time

Specifications

Constituent Technology Included in webMathematica

• Mathematica
• The webMathematica web application, a special configuration of files arranged to run inside a servlet
container (includes J/Link, webMathematica packages, and various Java class files)
• The webMathematica kernel manager, providing support for launching and shutting down Mathematica kernels and for configuring and monitoring the site as it operates
• LiveGraphics3D, a Java applet for displaying and manipulating three-dimensional graphics

Documentation and Examples Included in webMathematica

• webMathematica User Guide
• Example webMathematica pages and templates
• Sample configuration files
• Sample applets
• Sample web pages
• Sample images
• Mathematica and Java source code for all constituent technology except Mathematica 7 and LiveGraphics3D

Compatibility

• Server Technologies Java Servlets and JSP
• Supported Java Versions Minimum version: Java 1.4 Recommended: Java 5.0 or later
• Servlet Engines Any engine compatible with Servlet 2.4 or 2.5, such as Apache Tomcat.
• Web Servers with Tested Compatibility Apache HTTP server, Microsoft IIS
• Supported Server Systems Any system supporting Mathematica 7 and Java 1.4 or later

Miscellaneous

• Security Features Full compatibility with standard web-server security such as firewalls, trusted hosts, and HTTP-specific features; Mathematica-specific security to prevent execution of system-specific commands
• Performance Overhead Start-up overhead removed by Mathematica session caching, linear performance as load increases, multiple Mathematica licenses supported (suitable for multiprocessor machines), minimal overhead over normal Mathematica computation time

Webpage Processing

How webMathematica Processes a Request

1. Make Request

The browser sends an HTTP request to the web server. The request references a particular webMathematica page and includes variables and their values. Then the web server performs any preprocessing steps, such as authentication, and forwards the request to webMathematica.

2. Acquire Kernel

webMathematica's kernel manager acquires a Mathematica kernel for the request from a pool of preinitialized kernels. Any variables and values are sent to this kernel.

3. Process Page

The Mathematica kernel loads the web page and processes any webMathematica tags. The kernel builds and then returns the result.

4. Release Kernel

webMathematica accepts the response and adds all of the necessary HTTP headers for return to the browser. webMathematica then clears any temporary settings in the Mathematica kernel and releases the kernel to its pool of available kernels.

5. Return Result

The web server performs any postprocessing steps and returns an HTML response which may use applets, plug-ins, or other features of dynamic HTML to the browser. Alternatively, the response can be in some other format, such as MathML, TeX, or a Mathematica notebook.