OpenWebServer: An adaptive web server using software patterns

The explosive growth of the Web requires servers to he extensible and configurable. This article describes our adaptive Web server, OpenWebServer, which uses the Reflection architectural pattern. The server supports the dynamic adoption of functionality, such as introducing additional protocols, modifying execution policies, and tuning system performance. This is achieved by specifying and coordinating metaobjects that represent various aspects within the Web server. We present a lava version of OpenWebServer, and describe its design using Reflection and other design patterns: Singleton, Bridge, Mediator, Observer, and Decorator. These patterns provide a better-factored design and allow the Web server to evolve continually beyond static and monolithic servers.