Server-side JavaScript

Server-side JavaScript (SSJS) refers to JavaScript that runs on server-side. This term was coined because the language is predominantly used on the client-side, i.e. client-side JavaScript (CSJS).

The first implementation of SSJS was Netscape's LiveWire, included in their Enterprise Server 2.0 product, released in 1996.

Examples of current uses of JavaScript on the server side

Project/product name	JavaScript Engine	Server Platform(s)	Comments	Website
10gen	10gen	10gen application server	Uses the Rhino parser. Compiles Javascript to Java.	[1]
Acre	Rhino	Jetty HTTP Server	Integrated with Freebase to power Freebaseapps.com, a collaborative hosting environment.
Apache Sling	Rhino	Any Java servlet container and standalone.	Sling is a generic Java web application framework that allows to use any script language via the standard Java Script Engine interface. Sling is RESTful by design and sits on top of a Java Content Repository, giving scripts full access to the JCR.
AppJet	Rhino(modified)		Also provides hosting in a virtual machine
Aptana Jaxer	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server	An actively developed open source ajax-server. HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are native to Jaxer, as are XMLHttpRequests, JSON, DOM scripting, etc. It offers access to databases, files, and networking, as well as logging, process management, scalability, security, integration APIs, and extensibility.	[2]
ASP	JScript	IIS
Axiom Stack	Rhino	Jetty HTTP Server	Actively developed open source SSJS server. JSON, E4X, List Comprehensions. Complete access to Java APIs. Built-in security. Lucene data store by default with JDBC access to relational databases.
Cocoon Flowscript	Rhino	Apache Cocoon		[3]
CouchDB	SpiderMonkey	Standalone HTTP	Used in MapReduce and update validation functions as well as to transform JSON documents and view results into HTML or other content-types.
DovetailDb	Rhino	Jetty HTTP Server	DovetailDB is a schemaless, JSON-based database with an Apache license. You can use the hosted database or install your own. You can override the handlers to supplement with access control, use map/reduce, install JavaScript stored procedures to call from the client, and more.	[4]
ESXX	Rhino	FastCGI and Stand-alone	Focus is on ease of use, web security and XML/XSLT (via Saxon). Has SQL, LDAP, HTTP/REST, SOAP and Java support. Can also execute JS scripts from the command line.	[5]
Ejscript	Ejscript	Appweb HTTP Server, Apache HTTP Server	Enhanced ECMA-262 Language and (Ruby on Rails like) web framework including Model/View/Controller paradigm, SQLite database connectivity, Ajax libraries and a suite of view controls. Includes command line generators and tools.	[6]
EditMe	Rhino	Hosted (Tomcat)	Wiki with embedded JavaScript engine and API for application development within the wiki	[7]
GLUEscript	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server, FastCGI and Stand-alone	Glueing Libraries Using Ecmascript (GLUE) ports sqlite, mysql, memcached, wxWidgets, ... to JavaScript. GLUEscript is the successor of wxJavaScript	[8]
Helma Object Publisher	Rhino	Jetty HTTP Server	Complete package with web server and framework.	[9]
Jack	Multiple	Multiple	A JavaScript engine and server-agnostic interface, much like Rack for Ruby and WSGI for Python.	[10]
jsext	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server, lighttpd and Stand-alone	Has modules for fastCGI, CGI, MySQL, SQLite, FTP, SMTP, HTTP, AJAX, JSON, SOAP, WSDL and more. Automatic inclusion of C libraries.	[11]
jslibs	SpiderMonkey	FastCGI and Stand-alone (TCP)	Native libraries bindings: NSPR, SQLite, FastCGI, libTomCrypt, librsvg, libpng, libjpeg, FreeType, libffi, ...	[12]
JSSP	Rhino	Any Java servlet container.	Contains a modified Rhino version for embedded SQL support	[13]
im-jssp	Rhino	Resin and any other Java servlet container.	"im-jssp" is a template engine that used Server Side JavaScript and HTML. And "im-jssp" has custom tag "jsspRpc" that is Server Side JavaScript can be called from Client Side JavaScript seamlessly.	[14] (Japanese)
JuiceScript	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server and Stand-alone
Junction	Rhino	Apache HTTP Server	Ruby on Rails port to javascript	[15]
Livelink WCM Presentation Server	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server, IIS and Sun Java System Web Server	A commercial content management system used in a number of European public-sector and financial organizations. It uses SSJS for dynamic features and to customize the behavior of built-in objects. Though still developed and supported for existing users, this SSJS product is no longer available for sale to new customers.
mod_js	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server	mod_js is a stand-alone module for Apache that is able to execute JavaScript on the server.	[16]
Myna Javascript Application Server	Rhino	Any Java servlet container, packaged with winstone	Myna is a general purpose, 100% open source, web platform modeled after Cold Fusion with centralized datasources, Web-based Administration, runtime Object Relational Mapping, templating, LDAP access, strong cryptography, SOAP and XML-RPC publishing and more.	[17]
NOTEX	SpiderMonkey	CGI/FastCGI script on any web server	NOTEX is a CGI script to run JavaScript files hosted anywhere on the network to process XML data with E4X	[18]
OpenMocha	Helma	Stand-alone		[19]
Persevere	Rhino	Jetty HTTP Server	JSON database integrated with JavaScript environment with a HTTP/REST, JSON-RPC, and Comet interfaces.	[20]
Phobos	Rhino	Glassfish and any other Java servlet container.
POW	SpiderMonkey	Mozilla Firefox	A Mozilla Firefox Extension which adds a server to your browser. Templates can use SSJS.	[21]
Rhino in Spring	Rhino	Spring		[22]
Rhinola	Rhino	Apache HTTP Server	Uses gcj	[23]
Server Side Execution (SSX)	Rhino	Devwex	JSP/ASP-like scripting; supports threads, object (de)serialization, access to local and remote filesystems, database connection via jdbc	[24]
Server Side Javascript	Rhino	Jetty 6	For writing servlets.	[25]
Torino	Rhino	Tomcat and any other Java servlet container.	Server-side JavaScript environment for developing web applications. Provides a rich server-side programming environment using Java APIs. Released under the GPL3 license.	[26]
Whitebeam	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server	Server-side JavaScript environment for developing web applications. Includes integration with graphics libraries and the PostgreSQL database. Actively developed and in use supporting commercial sites. Released under the BSD license. Latest release supports E4X.	[27]
wxJavaScript	SpiderMonkey	Apache HTTP Server and Stand-alone	With E4X and wxWidgets ported classes. GLUEscript is the successor of wxJavaScript	[28]
v8cgi	V8 (JavaScript engine)	Apache, cgi, fcgi and Stand-alone		[29]

Other common server-side programming languages are JSP, ASP, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and ColdFusion amongst others.

Specifications

• Reference for Server-Side JavaScript 1.2
• Guide for Server-Side JavaScript 1.2

See also

• JavaScript
• The Server-Side JavaScript Google Group dedicated to creating cross-platform SSJS standard APIs.