# Introducing Jigsaw

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is happy to announce the 2.0beta2 release of Jigsaw, its new object oriented server. Jigsaw is entirely written Java, and emphasis on the object-oriented aspect of the HTTP protocol.

The Jigsaw area is the corresponding new area of the consortium web site. It links to the current distribution, and to the available documentation.

Jigsaw uses as much as possible the dynamic features of Java: each resource exported through Jigsaw is a first-class persistent Java object that is responsible for implementing the set of methods defined by the HTTP protocol. These resource objects are dynamically created either by the server itself, or by the server admin and the appropriate classes are loaded on demand. Resources can be customized through an HTML form-based editor. For more information on Jigsaw current design and performances, check out the introductory documentation.

As of 1.0beta, Jigsaw administration is entirely done through a remote Java written client named JigAdmin. This includes authentication (auth realm management, etc.), resource customization and general server properties (type of logger, server port, etc). The current implementation provides proof of concept, we will work on the user interface by itself. For more information on Jigsaw administration check out, Jigsaw administration manual.

As of 2.0alpha, the internal design of Jigsaw has changed to ease the implementation of new protocols within the Jigsaw framework.

By overtaking this effort the consortium has two main goals. The first one is to provide a replacement for the CERN-server (as a free server, provided with source code). The second one is to provide a framework for protocol extensions experimental implementations. Jigsaw comes with a server-side implementation of PICS, and a prototype implementation of the MUX protocol. Jigsaw activity statement describes these goals in more details.

Jigsaw supports most of the common server features. It is HTTP/1.1 compliant, supports content negotiation, persistent connections, both Basic and IP authentication and the PUT method. Among the pre-defined set of resource classes, Jigsaw provide a CommonLog format compatible logger, a high-level interface to forms, CGI script support, and more. Jigsaw complete feature list is available here.

Finally, the current Jigsaw release is a beta release, we are waiting for your feedback and bug reports before turning it into a final release.

Enjoy !

Jigsaw Team
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