Supported application clients

This list describes the types of application clients that are supported by WAS:

• ActiveX application client
  The ActiveX application client model uses the Java Native Interface (JNI) architecture to programmatically access Java virtual machine (JVM) APIs. Therefore, the JVM code exists in the same process space as the ActiveX application (Visual Basic, VBScript, or Active Server Pages) and remains attached to the process until that process terminates. For more information, see Develop ActiveX application clients.

• Applet client
  In the Applet client model, a Java applet is embedded in an HTML document on a client machine that is remote from WAS. With this type of client, the user accesses an enterprise bean in WAS through the Java applet. The applet client is currently available only on the Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000 platforms. For more information, see Develop applet clients.

• J2EE application client
  The J2EE application client is a Java application program that accesses enterprise beans, JDBC, JavaMail resources, and Java Message Service. J2EE application clients run within the WAS client container. The client container allows the client to access resources available in the application server using aliases and provides other additional services that are not avaliable outside of the client container. The J2EE application client program can run on machines that do not have WAS installed. The Application Client Runtime component is required. For more information, see Install the client runtime support. The client runtime support is also installed when you install the WAS product. The client application program follows the same Java programming model as other Java programs; however, the J2EE application client depends on the application client run time to configure its execution environment, and uses the JNDI name space to access resources. For more information, see Develop J2EE application clients.

• Pluggable application client and Thin application client
  The pluggable and thin application clients provide a lightweight Java client programming model. These clients are best suited in situations where a Java client application exists but the application needs enhancements to use enterprise beans, or where the client application requires a thinner, more lightweight environment than the one offered by the J2EE application client.

  The difference between the thin application client and the pluggable application client is that the thin application client run time includes a Java Runtime Environment (JRE), and the pluggable application client runtime requires the user to provide a JRE. The thin application client run time includes the IBM Developer Kit for the Java Platform V1.3.1. The pluggable application client requires the Sun Microsystems Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). The thin application client uses the IBM Developer Kit for the Java Platform. The pluggable application client is only available on the Windows platform. For more information, see Develop thin or pluggable Java application clients.