questions on webmathematica
Lobotomy
I'm thinking of getting webmathematica, but i have a few questions
about how it works.
have i understood this correctly:
*webmathematica is a program that is to be installed on the webserver
right?
*If i have a mathematica notebook can i just upload it on the
webserver through mathematica and it will function and look the same
way as when you play it for instance in mathematica player?
to what extent do you need to program the interface and
serverconnections yourself?
David Reiss
> hello
>
> I'm thinking of getting webmathematica, but i have a few questions
> about how it works.
>
> have i understood this correctly:
> *webmathematica is a program that is to be installed on the webserver
> right?
Yes
>
> *If i have a mathematica notebook can i just upload it on the
> webserver through mathematica and it will function and look the same
> way as when you play it for instance in mathematica player?
No
>
> to what extent do you need to program the interface and
> serverconnections yourself?
This is indeed what you have to do.
Murray Eisenberg
and a "servlet container" such as Tomcat.
The webMathematica product consists of Mathematica itself as the
"engine" along with a set of Java files, configuration files,
documentation files, and examples.
* No, you do NOT just upload a Mathematica notebook to the server.
Rather, you prepare files called JavaServer Pages (JSPs) that include
blocks of Mathematica code. This code includes specialized functions
that cause the servlet container to call Mathematica which, in turn,
returns results that get inserted automatically into the page that is
actually served to the user.
Take a look at the examples at:
http://documents.wolfram.com/webmathematica/
(That index also entries for descriptions as to how webMathematica
works, what is required to set it up, etc.)
Except for the initial tiny bit of editing of a configuration file, all
the coding you do would be in such JSP files.
Lobotomy wrote:
> hello
>
> I'm thinking of getting webmathematica, but i have a few questions
> about how it works.
>
> have i understood this correctly:
> *webmathematica is a program that is to be installed on the webserver
> right?
>
> *If i have a mathematica notebook can i just upload it on the
> webserver through mathematica and it will function and look the same
> way as when you play it for instance in mathematica player?
>
> to what extent do you need to program the interface and
> serverconnections yourself?
>
--
Murray Eisenberg mur...@math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305
Bob F
The current version of webMathematica is 2.3 and works only with
Mathematica version 5.2, although they are working on an update
(called version 3) that will work with 7.0 that is supposed to be out
"soon" (see http://www.wolfram.com/products/webmathematica/newfeatures.html
for more info). It comes in a Professional version as well as an
Amateur version (free copy of Amateur is available with Wolfram
Premier Support I think). Differences between the two are listed at
http://www.wolfram.com/products/webmathematica/versions/ and there are
also restrictions on what you can do (see same versions page for more
info). You need to set up a servlet container (e.g. Tomcat) with a
full JDK and Java as part of the webMathematica installation.
Because of the need for version 5.2, you really need a separate system
to run it on, as mixing two versions of Mathematica on the same system
can cause problems, but doable I think if you maintain them in two
separate trees and have a way of switching the folders or directories
where the system libraries are stored, or keeping them from
interfering with each other.
Yes, you need a webserver running somewhere but not necessarily on the
same system as webMathematica (and does not need to be dedicated to
just webMathematica). Check out some examples at
http://www.wolfram.com/products/webmathematica/examples/
I think the best thing, if you have Wolfram support, is to just get a
free copy and play around and see how you like it.
-Bob
Gerry Flanagan
interact with Mathematica. You'll need to set up a server and a servlet
container. Wolfram recommends some open-source (i.e. free) software for
these, but you'll need to download and configure yourself. If you follow
all the Wolfram recommendations, the installation instructions are very
good. I managed it, and I'm not really a networks person or hard-core
computer systems person. Your server computer will also have a copy of
Mathematica running. Now you create web pages that interact with Mathematica.
You can call Mathematica functions, and there are utilities for gathering user
input data. The magic is that webMathematica will build a page on the
fly that represents the output of a Mathematica function.
Wolfram provides tools for building pages, and lots of examples, but you
pretty much have to be willing to do some HTML/Javascript programming to
get what you want. Notebook pages can be converted to web pages with
good fidelity, but they will not be live in the webMathematica sense. I
usually make documentation pages straight from notebooks, and program
live pages by hand.
Gerry F.
Scot T. Martin
that because the current version is compatible with only V5.2 of
Mathematica.
You need to know HTML and JSP to get webMathematica working. Using JSP,
you send commands to the Mathematica kernel. The kernel sends back either
text or IMG SRC graphic that gets dynamically inserted into the HTML by
the JSP server.
Bob F
According to Wolfram the webMathematica DOES NOT need to be on the
same webserver system, but it probably usually is. See
http://www.wolfram.com/products/webmathematica/qa/deployment.html#separate
for more info.
Is Wolfram mistaken about the two not having to be on the same
system?
-Bob