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Web Content

Mac OS X supports a variety of techniques and technologies for creating web content. Dynamic websites and web services offer web developers a way to deliver their content quickly and easily.

In addition to “WebObjects” and “Dashboard Widgets,” the following sections list ways to deliver web content in Mac OS X. For more information about developing web content, see Getting Started with Internet and Web.

In this section:

Dynamic Websites
SOAP and XML-RPC
Sherlock Channels

Dynamic Websites

Mac OS X provides support for creating and testing dynamic content in web pages. If you are developing CGI-based web applications, you can create websites using a variety of scripting technologies, including Perl and PHP. A complete list of scripting technologies is provided in “Scripts.” You can also create and deploy more complex web applications using JBoss, Tomcat, and WebObjects. To deploy your webpages, use the built-in Apache web server.

Safari, Apple’s web browser, provides standards-compliant support for viewing pages that incorporate numerous technologies, including HTML, XML, XHTML, DOM, CSS, Java, and JavaScript. You can also use Safari to test pages that contain multimedia content created for QuickTime, Flash, and Shockwave.

SOAP and XML-RPC

The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is an object-oriented protocol that defines a way for programs to communicate over a network. XML-RPC is a protocol for performing remote procedure calls between programs. In Mac OS X, you can create clients that use these protocols to gather information from web services across the Internet. To create these clients, you use technologies such as PHP, JavaScript, AppleScript, and Cocoa.

If you want to provide your own web services in Mac OS X, you can use WebObjects or implement the service using the scripting language of your choice. You then post your script code to a web server, give clients a URL, and publish the message format your script supports.

For information on how to create client programs using AppleScript, see XML-RPC and SOAP Programming Guide. For information on how to create web services, see WebObjects Web Services Programming Guide.

Sherlock Channels

In Mac OS X v10.4 and earlier, the Sherlock application was a host for Sherlock channels. A Sherlock channel is a developer-created module that combines web services with an Aqua interface to provide a unique way for users to find information. Sherlock channels combined related, but different, types of information in one window.

Sherlock channels are not supported in Mac OS X v10.5 and later.

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