MivaScript
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Miva or MivaScript is a proprietary computer scripting language mainly used for internet applications such as e-commerce. It is developed by the Miva Corporation, based in San Diego, California, a subsidiary of FindWhat Corporation. Although quite a number of web hosting companies support Miva on their servers, it is significantly less widespread than its popular competitor PHP.
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History
The language was first developed under the name htmlscript by Joe Austin and others in 1995, and a company, htmlscript corporation, was formed the following year.
In 1997, Jon Burchmore extensively rewrote the language to make it more syntactically consistent, although the new engine supported both old htmlscript and new (named mivascript) syntaxes.
In 1998 the company became Miva Corporation, and in late 1998 the first version of the Miva Merchant commerce application was launched. This saw the start of a period of rapid growth for the company, with Miva Merchant becoming the flagship product and pushing the company into profitability.
On January 1, 2004 Miva Corporation was purchased by FindWhat in a deal worth approximately $US 8 million. Joe Austin remained as General Manager.
In June 2005 FindWhat rebranded itself and all subsidiaries as Miva, with the former Miva Corporation becoming Miva Small Business
There is a strong developer community based around mailing lists operated by Miva, and the company has mounted annual conferences in San Diego since 2000.
Language features
Miva script is often described as 'XML-like' although this is something of a misnomer. It consists of tags which may be interspersed with (x)html and which all start with <Mv . There are both paired and stand-alone ("empty") tags. In addition, from version 3.9 onwards, HTML attributes which are encapsulated with braces (e.g. <img src="{g.source}">) are evaluated by the Miva processor.
Probably the most significant feature of the language is that it has native support for the venerable dBase database platform, albeit with a proprietary (but very fast) index format.
Variables are untyped and are not pre-declared.
Proponents of the language cite a relatively short learning curve, fast script development and native database support as the principal reasons to use the language.
Implementations
Miva Empresa
In versions numbered less than 4.0, Miva Empresa is a script interpreter available for web servers running *ix and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The most recent interpreter version is 3.96. Interpreted Miva is still widely supported by many web hosts. Versions numbered 3.9x are a transitional form of the language, implementing some (but not all) of the new features found in version 4, such as arrays.
Since 4.0, Miva Empresa is a Virtual Machine for running compiled mivascript, again available in versions for *ix and Microsoft Windows.
Miva Mia
Miva Mia is a version of the miva engine designed to run on a Windows PC as a localhost server watching a specified port. (usually 8000 or 8080). No other server software is required unless the POP and SMTP functions are required. This provides a portable, stand-alone development environment.
There is a Miva Mia release to complement each Miva Empresa release, and once again, versions prior to 4 are interpreters while 4.0+ only work with compiled script. There are a few minor differences between.
Miva Script Compiler
The long-awaited Miva Script Compiler was introduced in mid-2002, offering both better performance and the closure of application source code. Compilability required some changes to the language, with support for the old htmlscript syntax and macros evaluated at runtime (often considered a security risk) dropped. The compiler produces a platform-independent bytecode which runs on the Miva Empresa and Miva Mia Virtual Machines (presently 2/15/2005 -- there are minor variations between Miva Empresa and Miva Mia Virtual Machines).
In May 2005, Miva Corporation made the miva compiler available free.
External links
- Miva Corporation website (http://www.miva.com) - official homepage
- Miva Developer Resources (http://www.miva.com/docs/api) - documentation for Miva Script development
- FindWhat.com, Inc website (http://www.findwhat.com) - parent company of Miva Corporation
- Webmaster.org: Miva Hosting Plans (http://www.webmaster.org/webhosting/plans/miva-merchant-empressa.htm) - Directory of companies offering Miva software with hosting plans.
- mivascript.org (http://www.mivascript.org) - Unofficial miva developer community site.fr:Miva