As we started the project of our web site, we knew that the proprietary
software costs would be too high for our financial resources. Our only
option then was to make use of Open Source Code softwares.
However, within the Open Source Code there are lots of softwares to
choose from, and it´s up to the system analyst/programmer to pick the
ones that best suit the project goals.
In our case, we picked Linux as our operating system. However we faced a
big question: Which Linux distribution ? There are dozens of linux
distributions, each one with specific advantages, sometimes with or
without paid services.
We chose linux Slackware because we thought that it would suit better
our needs, in terms of stability and reliability. Slackware is a
conservative distribution, meaning that it only offers in its
distribution package kernel versions and third party libraries, once
it´s been proved to be stable and reliable. As a result, Slackware is
one the most stable Linux operating system on the market. If the user
wishes the most recent Linux kernel and libraries, we recommend to look
for a different distribution.
Another reason for us picking Slackware, was because of its text
interface, which at the beginning may become a bit difficult, in the
long run however it offers a better understanding of the Linux
environment. This way most of Slackware configurations are done thru
text scripts.
Once it was set the operating system, we picked Apache as our web
server. Apache is one of the most popular web server in the internet.
For server programming language, we chose PHP. Also, a very popular
programming language. Our experience with Apache/PHP proves that this
setup is very reliable, working extremely well in our production
environment. For workstation programming language, we chose javascript,
which besides of having a simple syntax, it offers lots of resources.
Apache web server is really a complete web server. Also, it can become very complex with many configuration setups.
For our database, we picked Postgresql. This database has been made
available to the public for more than 15 years, and besides of being
well debugged, it offers so many resources that it has become one of the
best database options from Open Source Code softwares. Extremely
reliable, Postgresql has reported cases where there have been databases
in production with over 4 terabytes. Besides all of that, Postresql is
not the most popular Open Source Code database. A matter of marketing ?
Probably.
As for the programming language PHP, we had to use an object oriented
application structure. There are many PHP application structures being
offered with Open Source Code license. Object oriented application is
very important, because it makes programming very easy and scalable up
to the point where the system may grow without many problems. Also, it
helps to keep PHP code separated from HTML, with the help of some
specific libraries, such as Smarty. We make use of Smarty library and we
believe that it is a very important resource, which can even make web
pages faster thru the use of its cache functions.
Also a very important set of libraries worth mentioning for PHP systems,
is the PEAR libraries. In PEAR web site, among the many libraries being
offered, there are the database interface DB and the MAIL_QUEUE, which
sends emails thru the use of database.
As we came to the end of our project, we had to use some sort of real
time database replication. For that we chose the DRBD and Heartbeat
libraries. The use of database replication is very important and should
not be postponed. Just after 3 months our system got into production,
our server hard disk became bad. Thru the use of DRBD/Heartbeat we were
able to put the system back into production within seconds, without
loosing any data. DRBD/Heartbeat replication is done thru the use of a
lan network between the server and slave nodes.
Our project also makes use of ImageMagick (enlarge and reduce images),
Iptables (firewall), Tsearch2(text search in portgresql) and Mon (linux
monitoring tasks).
Also a very important library worth mentioning is the pseudo APC
compiler for PHP. Speed is always a critical factor for internet sites.
Our web site is already in production and based upon our experience we
can say that the Open Source Code softwares we picked, proved to be
extremely reliable and stable. Open Source Code softwares can certainly
be an excellent option for developing web sites.