Chapter 5: Inside the ATL Server Architecture

Overview

ATL SERVER APPLICATIONS ARE ISAPI extension applications. It s possible to build a simple, lightweight ISAPI extension application with ATL Server (i.e., by using CIsapiExtension ). ATL Server provides myriad of features that you can use individually or bring together to form a rich framework. This framework provides a standard architecture for your application. You can pick and choose which parts of this architecture you want to use (for the most part), and you ll only pay for what you use.

We ve already touched on parts of this architecture at a high level in previous chapters, and by now you know the basic components of an ATL Server application (handlers, application DLLs, SRFs, and ISAPIs) and the roles they play. However, do you really understand what happens when a request comes into your server?

In this chapter we drill down into the ATL Server architecture and examine step-by-step what happens when a request is received by the server. After you ve read this chapter, you should have a good understanding of how a request is handled by ATL Server.