Introduction: Client applications

Explore the key concepts pertaining to client applications. Application clients provide a framework on which application code runs, so that your client applications can access information on the application server.

Application Client for WebSphere Application Server

In a traditional client-server environment, the client requests a service and the server fulfills the request. Multiple clients use a single server. Clients can also access several different servers. This model persists for Java clients except that now these requests use a client run-time environment.

J2EE application client class loading

When you run your J2EE application client, a hierarchy of class loaders is created to load classes used by your application.

Resource Adapters for the client

A resource adapter is a system-level software driver that a Java application uses to connect to an enterprise information system (EIS). A resource adapter plugs into an application client and provides connectivity between the EIS and the enterprise application.

Data sources for the Application Client

WebSphere Application Server and the Application Client for WAS do not provide client database drivers to be used directly from a J2EE application client. If your application client accesses a database directly, provide the database drivers on the client machine.

URLs for application clients

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is an identifier that points to an electronically accessible resource, such as a directory file on a machine in a network, or a document stored in a database.

URL providers for the Application Client Resource Configuration Tool

A URL provider implements the function for a particular URL protocol, such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This provider, comprised of a pair of classes, extends the java.net.URLStreamHandler and java.net.URLConnection classes.

Asynchronous messaging in WAS using JMS

WebSphere Application Server supports asynchronous messaging as a method of communication based on the Java Message Service (JMS) programming interface. The JMS interface provides a common way for Java programs (clients and J2EE applications) to create, send, receive, and read asynchronous requests as JMS messages.

Java Message Service providers for clients

This topic describes the different ways that client applications can use JMS providers with WebSphere Application Server. A JMS provider enables use of the Java Message Service (JMS) and other message resources in WebSphere Application Server.

Java Web Start architecture for deploying application clients

Java Web Start is an application-deployment technology that includes the portability of applets, the maintainability of servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP) file technology, and the simplicity of mark-up languages such as XML and HTML. It is a Java application that allows full-featured Java 2 client applications to be launched, deployed and updated from a standard Web server. The Java Web Start client is used with platforms that support a Web browser.

Resource environment providers and resource environment entries

A resource environment reference maps a logical name used by the client application to the physical name of an object.


Related information
client applications