Internet & Intranets: Transaction / Application / Web Servers
Intro
What is an application server? There are really many aspects to be considered: component technology, communication protocols, language or platform dependency, reliability, performance, scalability, security, etc. So it seems that there are no clear answers at the moment.
"How do objects and
middleware
fit together?
Middleware
is a layer of software that abstracts a company's business logic from the presentation layer at the client side, and the data resource at the backend. Objects are a way of modeling a business and further abstracting the business logic from the requirements of the client and server. Object-oriented
middleware
gives businesses the ability to effectively model a business problem and deploy and manage a business solution." (BEA Systems)
"What is an
OTM
? An
OTM
, or
Object Transaction Manager
, combines the production-ready runtime and transaction management environment of TP Monitors with the programming model and ease of use of object-oriented development tools. The
OTM
manages the objects in a distributed environment so developers can focus on solving business problems." (BEA Systems)
"The standard
Java transaction management
interfaces are defined in two separate standard extensions. (1)
Java Transaction Service (JTS)
defines a low-level transaction management specification intended for vendors who provide the transaction system infrastructure required to support application run time environment. (2)
Java Transaction API (JTA)
defines a high-level transaction management specification intended for resource managers and transactional applications in distributed transaction systems." (Sun Microsystems)
"What is
OLE Transactions
?
OLE Transactions
is Microsoft's object-oriented protocol for transaction management. The
OLE Transactions
protocol defines the interfaces that applications, resource managers, and transaction managers use to perform transactions. Applications use OLE Transaction interfaces to initiate, commit, abort, and inquire about transactions." (Microsoft)
"What is
Enterprise JavaBeans
?
Enterprise JavaBeans
is a cross-platform component architecture for the development and deployment of multi-tier, distributed, scalable, object-oriented Java applications.
Enterprise JavaBeans
can be deployed on top of existing transaction processing systems including traditional transaction processing monitors, web servers, database servers, application servers, etc." (Sun Microsystems)
"What is the difference between a
Java application server
and
servlets
?
Servlets
have been used generically to refer to any server-side Java application code, but
servlets
have come to mean
HTTP Servlets
---the Java industry standard for dispatching to server-side Java in HTTP and for returning HTML responses. A
Java application server
, however, supports Java application partitioning, wherein a Java application interconnects with another Java application over the network. So the Java industry defines a standard
Java application server
is an integrated server that supports the range of Java Enterprise APIs." (WebLogic)
"What is a
servlet engine
? A
servlet engine
provides a portable, Java servlet-based execution environment that turns Web application servers into Java-enabled Web application servers. It's the state-of-the art, easy-to-use, and extensible way of deploying and managing Web applications across your enterprise networks. A
servlet engine
is the nucleus of a scalable Web application platform." (IBM)