Types of client applications

You can write client applications that run separately from your application server. A client application uses the framework provided by an underlying client to access the resources provided by WebSphere® Application Server.

Several types of clients are installed either with WebSphere Application Server or, optionally, with the Application Client for WebSphere Application Server.

Figure 1. Clients provided for WebSphere Application Server
An application server being accessed by client applications running on stand-alone clients, and other types of client provided for WebSphere Application Server.
Stand-alone thin clients and resource adapter for JMS
The stand-alone thin clients are small, embeddable Java™ SE clients that you can run either on their own or, to provide different features, with one or more other stand-alone thin clients. The resource adapter for JMS is a stand-alone resource adapter that provides third party application servers with full connectivity to service integration resources running inside WebSphere Application Server.

The following table provides a comparison of the different types of clients that are available.

Table 1. Client comparison. Client comparison table
  Stand-alone thin clients Resource Adapter for JMS Java EE client (Java EE mode of Application Client) Java thin client (Java SE mode of Application Client) Java EE client (Java EE mode of Application Server1 Java thin client (Java SE mode of Application Server)1 Pluggable Client (deprecated)
Unique characteristics Embeddable single jar with small footprint JCA v1.5 resource adapter with small footprint Large client footprint with many files Large client footprint with many files Very large server footprint with many files Very large server footprint with many files Large client footprint with many files (subset of Application Client for WebSphere Application Server)
Supported execution environment Java SE Java EE v1.4 application server: Apache Geronimo, WebSphere Application Server Community Edition, JBoss Java EE client container Java SE Java EE client container Java SE Java SE
Supported Java vendors IBM®, Sun, and HP-UX As per J2EE vendor Supplied IBM application server Supplied IBM application server Supplied IBM application server Supplied IBM application server Sun
Supported Java version See Supported JRE versions
  • 1.5
  • 1.6
Supplied IBM JRE Supplied IBM JRE Supplied IBM JRE Supplied IBM JRE 1.5+
Supported transactions No transactions and local transactions No transactions, local transactions, and XA transactions for JMS No transactions, and local transactions for JMS No transactions, and local transactions for JMS No transactions, local transactions for JMS No transactions, and local transactions for JMS No transactions, and local transactions for JMS
Easily embedded Yes No No No No No No
Include JNDI lookup capability to WebSphere Application Server Available through the Thin Client for Enterprise JavaBeans™ (EJB) Not applicable (relies on host application server JNDI) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Connectivity support TCP and SSL TCP and SSL TCP, HTTP, and SSL TCP, HTTP, and SSL TCP, HTTP, and SSL TCP, HTTP, and SSL TCP and HTTP
Notable restrictions Thin Client for JMS does not support HTTP connectivity.

For Web services, the use of SOAP/JMS is not supported by the thin client environment

No HTTP connectivity None None None None No SSL support
License type IPLA (unlimited copy but no redistribution), and ILAN (redistribution) IPLA (unlimited copy but no redistribution), and ILAN (redistribution) IPLA (unlimited copy but no redistribution), and ILAN (redistribution) IPLA (unlimited copy but no redistribution), and ILAN (redistribution) IPLA IPLA IPLA (unlimited copy but no redistribution), and ILAN (redistribution)

1 The information in this column relates to WebSphere Application Server when used as the client runtime environment.

The following table provides additional information on the supported JRE versions for stand-alone thin clients.

Table 2. Supported JRE versions. Supported JRE versions for stand-alone thin clients
Type JRE Versions
Enterprise JavaBeans thin client
  • 1.5
  • 1.6
Java Message Service thin client
  • 1.5
  • 1.6
Java API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC) thin client
  • 1.6
Java API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS) thin client
  • 1.6
Administrative thin client
  • 1.6
Java Persistence API (JPA)
  • 1.5
  • 1.6



Subtopics
Terms used for clients
Application Client for WebSphere Application Server
Stand-alone thin clients
Java EE client
Java thin client
Applet client
ActiveX to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) Bridge
Pluggable client
Concept topic    

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