Server-side JavaScript is so 1999

It was the year when one of the earlier collaborative weblogs (yes, that’s what we called blogs at the time) called Helma turned into a corporate website…

Thus, the life of Helma, the web application framework begun. And with it, a serious effort of applying server-side JavaScript.

JavaScript on the server.
Long before NodeJS.
Way long.

Helma would not have been possible without the creative minds at the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, once called ORF Online, ORF.at nowadays.

They commissioned the precursor of Helma, a publishing system based on Marimba, and they used and further developed it for their in-house content management.

This early code blossomed into Helma and the content management organically grew into it, together with a bunch of sidelined applications, comprehending forum apps, podcast services and even SSL certificate management.

And all by writing JavaScript on the server.
Long before NodeJS.
Way long.

From ORF.at’s solid trunk a lot of colorful branches started to sprout, some of which still are around:

• Antville, the non-profit weblog hosting system, and its (at the time) corporate sibling Twoday
• Parq and Coplaner, two groupware platforms for “joint building ventures” (Baugruppen in German)

All written in JavaScript on the server.
Long before NodeJS.
Way long.

The people using Helma thought it was very convenient to write code in the same programming language for both, the client and the server. And they were not wrong: along came NodeJS and somehow suddenly JavaScript was everywhere.

Unfortunately, Helma was not. And so she became part of the JavaScript mythology. A blink of an eye in the history of the web. Almost forgotten. Blessed forever.

A little server-side JavaScript framework called Helma.
Long before NodeJS.
Way long ago.