IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security - CGISecurity

6.1 Java clientsA client is a generic term used to refer to the process typically responsible forrequesting a service. The service is provided by the server. A client containermay be used to provide the necessary environment in which the client can issuea request for service.With version 5, the Application Server now consists of five application clientmodels.► ActiveX application client.► Applet application client► J2EE application client► Pluggable application client► Thin application clientThe ActiveX application client makes use of the Java Native Interface (JNI) toprovide programmatic access to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The JVM existsin the same process space as the ActiveX application, which may be written inVisual Basic, VBScript or Active Server Pages (ASP). Java objects contained inthe JVM can be accessed, via a proxy, from the ActiveX application. Thus, usingthe J2EE client programming model, the ActiveX application client can gainaccess to EJBs residing in the Application Server. However, due to the nature ofActiveX applications, this model is only available on the Windows platform.The applet application client makes use of a JVM embedded in the Web browserwhere the applet is running. There are no tools provided to aid the programmer indeveloping the applet, generating the client-side bindings and deploying thecode, although the applet application client will provide the runtime to supportcommunication with the server. Nonetheless, this model provides a lightweightclient that can be readily downloaded and installed and there is no need todistribute the applet to the client machine since this operation is performed by theWeb browser.The J2EE application client operates in its own JVM which provides access tosome J2EE APIs, such as JNDI, JDBC, RMI-IIOP and JMS. The applicationclient is written in Java and relies on the application runtime to configure itsenvironment. Tools are provided to aid the development, assembly, deploymentand launching of a J2EE application client. Another benefit of this model is theuse of short names in the deployment descriptor to identify remote and localresources.98 IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security Handbook