October 16, 2003
Class: David Adams on FastCGI and 4D
Along with many other developers (it was a very popular presentation), I attended David Adams' class on FastCGI. I had only heard of FastCGI previously, so I went in order to learn more. It was very informative!
Evidently, FastCGI is a special binary protocol used for many of the same reasons that Web Services are used. While Web Services use the same HTTP protocol and port as regular old HTTP, FastCGI uses its own protocol and port number. In the evolution of external web services (without capital W and S), CGI came first, then FastCGI, then Web Services. FastCGI, although a little older than Web Services, offers much in the way of performance — and that's why it's so interesting.
As with many software technologies, there is a special home page that gathers all the information together: http://www.fastcgi.com/.
David's demonstration centered around a component written in 4D. (See http://www.4d.com/knowledgebase?CaseID=27786.) The examples were well-done, and everyone went away with a good understanding of FastCGI and some ideas on how to use it with their next 4D-based web server project.
David Adams covers FastCGI — the class was packed!
Posted by bryan at October 16, 2003 01:00 PM