Architecture Overview

1. The Xebra HTTP Plugin (Apache Module or IIS7 Handler) forwards a request from the HTTP server to the Xebra Server and waits for a response.
2. The Xebra Server forwards a request to the appropriate web application and returns the result to the HTTP Plugin.

Website Development

A Xebra Web Application consists of two parts: The xeb-files and the controllers. Xeb-files consist of html code with embedded xeb-tags. They are translated to servlets. Controllers are Eiffel classes that connect the servlets to the rest of the Eiffel classes. Features of controllers can be invoked from within a servlet. Typically, web designers create xeb-files with a html editor and at the same time, web developers create controllers to provide business logic to the servlets. The web application is then translated which means that the xeb-files are generated to servlet eiffel classes and the whole webappliation is compiled to an executable file. The translation and compilation of the web application is initiated by the xebra server.

For a step by step guide on how to create a web application see tutorials.

Comparison to other technologies

Some of the features of Xebra are:

• Fully XML compatible for ease of xeb file validation
• Mapping of forms to objects and validation framework