Getting Started with Internet & Web

Technology Overview

Mac OS X provides a wide variety of APIs and tools for developing web content and applications for the web. There are Web 2.0 technologies for creating and manipulating web content for Safari on the desktop, Safari on iPhone OS, and Dashboard. There are also web client APIs available to Cocoa and Carbon application developers to access web services and display and edit web content in desktop applications. There is WebObjects or pure Java to implement web server applications. There are also plenty of third-party APIs and tools for web server development available on Mac OS X (such as, PHP, Perl, Python, JSP, and MySQL).

Start Here

Before you begin to write any code, it’s a good idea to be familiar with the underlying Internet and web technologies. Start by reading Internet & Web for an overview of the tools available on Mac OS X.

Choose a Learning Path

There is a vast set of technologies related to Internet & Web development. The subheadings in this section identify four distinct paths of Internet & Web development. Choose the path that is most appropriate for your project.

Creating Web Content

If you are creating or editing web content—files or data types that are transmitted by web server applications and displayed by web client applications—for Safari on the desktop, Safari on iPhone OS, or Dashboard, then use Web 2.0 technologies that include access to the Canvas element and Document Object Model (DOM). If you are new to JavaScript on Mac OS X, read Apple JavaScript Coding Guidelines.

Creating Web Content for iPhone OS

If you are creating web content or applications specifically for iPhone OS, go to Web Apps Dev Center for details on creating web content for these handheld devices with touch screens.

Developing Web Client Applications

If you are developing web client applications using Cocoa or Carbon, you can use the WebKit to display and edit web content in your windows. If you just want to send requests to a web services application, there’s an API for that, too. There are also C, Objective-C, and Java APIs for using web standards such as XML and URL in your applications. If you are new to Cocoa or Carbon development, read Getting Started with Cocoa or Getting Started with Carbon for links to additional resources.

Developing Web Server Applications

If you are developing web server applications, especially database-driven web applications, you want access to all the J2SE and J2EE development and deployment tools, including WebObjects, EOF, and JavaServer. WebObjects is specifically designed for implementing database-driven dynamic web content. You can easily turn any HTML-based WebObjects application into a web services application by simply using an assistant.

Next Steps

The Internet & Web Reference Library includes the following high-level resource pages, which you can bookmark for easy access:

  • Guides

    Conceptual and how-to information for developing web server and client applications, and Internet and web content.

  • Reference

    Focused, detailed descriptions in reference format for Internet and web, including Java technologies and low-level APIs for handling XML and URLs.

  • Release Notes

    Late-breaking news and highlights of new or changed features in the latest release.

  • Sample Code

    Samples demonstrating how to use APIs and tools.

  • Technical Note

    Late-breaking documents on issues related to Internet and web.

  • Technical Q&As

    Programming tips, code snippets, & FAQs by Apple’s support engineers.



© 2004, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Last updated: 2008-11-19)


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