Terms used for clients
Clients provided by WebSphere® Application Server, and client applications that you develop, are referred to by similar terms. The terms described in this topic should help you better understand other client-related information.
- Application Client
- Application Client for WebSphere Application
Server is the package that you can use to install a variety of clients.
Application Client also forms the runtime for Java™ EE clients and Java thin clients on a system that does not have the Application Server installed.
- client
- Provides a framework on which an application runs, so that the
application can access information on an application server. Clients
are provided as part of the Application Client for WebSphere Application Server or as part
of a WebSphere Application
Server installation.
Clients are sometimes referred to as "application clients".
- client application
- The application program that you develop to access information on an application server. The application is built on the framework provided by one or more clients.
- Java EE client
- The Java Platform, Enterprise
Edition (Java EE) client is
a Java EE mode of using the
runtime environment of either an Application Client installation or
a WebSphere Application
Server installation. The Java EE
client uses the Client Container in the runtime environment to simplify
access to system services such as security, transactions, naming,
and database access for use by Java EE
client applications.
The Java EE client is sometimes referred to as the "Java EE application client" or "J2EE application client".
- Java thin client
- The Java thin client is
a JavaPlatform, Standard Edition
(Java SE) mode of using the
runtime environment of either an Application Client installation or
a WebSphere Application
Server installation. The Java thin
client runtime environment provides the support needed by full-function Java SE client applications for
object resolution, security, Reliability Availability and Servicability
(RAS), and other services. However, the Java thin
client does not support a Client Container that provides easy access
to these services.
The Java thin client is sometimes referred to as the "Java thin application client".
- stand-alone thin client
- Small embeddable Java SE clients that you can use either on their own or, to provide different features, with one or more other stand-alone thin clients. Stand-alone thin clients are provided as embeddable JAR files, and have names such as "IBM® Thin Client for feature"; for example, "IBM Thin Client for Java Messaging Service (JMS)".