 - An application server is a server program in a computer in a distributed network that provides the business logic for an application program. The application server is frequently viewed as part of a three-tier application, consisting of a graphical user interface (GUI) server, an application (business logic) server, and a database and transaction server. More descriptively, it can be viewed as dividing an application into:- A first-tier, front-end, Web browser-based graphical user interface, usually at a personal computer or workstation
- A middle-tier business logic application or set of applications, possibly on a local area network or intranet server
- A third-tier, back-end, database and transaction server, sometimes on a mainframe or large server
Older, legacy application databases and transaction management applications are part of the back end or third tier. The application server is the middleman between browser-based front-ends and back-end databases and legacy systems. In many usages, the application server combines or works with a Web (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) server and is called a Web application server. The Web browser supports an easy-to-create HTML-based front-end for the user. The Web server provides several different ways to forward a request to an application server and to forward back a modified or new Web page to the user. These approaches include the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), FastCGI, Microsoft's Active Server Page, and the Java Server Page. In some cases, the Web application servers also support request "brokering" interfaces such as CORBA Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP).
| CONTRIBUTORS: |
Terrence Rourke |
| LAST UPDATED: |
01 Apr 2005
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