NGINX for the Developer

Throughout the book so far, we have seen how to configure NGINX for a number

of different scenarios. What we have not yet done is look at the possibilities that
NGINX offers the application developer. There are a number of ways that NGINX

can be integrated directly into your application. We will explore those possibilities
in the following sections:

• Caching integration


• Changing content on-the-fly


• Using Server Side Includes


• Decision-making in NGINX


• Creating a secure link


• Generating images


• Tracking website visitors


• Preventing inadvertent code execution

Caching integration

NGINX is superb at serving static content. It is designed to support over 100,000

simultaneous connections while using only minimal system resources. Integrating a

dynamic web application into such a well-architected server may mean a performance
hit for the server. We may not be able to support as many simultaneous connections,

but that does not mean that we cannot still give our users a snappy web experience.