Before you begin
This topic is one in a series of topics described in
Planning the WebSphere Application Server product installation. Consider all of the
planning scenarios that are mentioned in the parent article to determine
the best approach to installing your e-business network. This topic
describes installing and using the WebSphere Application
Server Clients.
Avoid trouble: Having
multiple WebSphere Application client installs or instances on the
same machine is NOT possible and NOT supported.
gotcha
About this task
In a traditional client server environment, the client
requests a service and the server fulfills the request. Multiple clients
use a single server. Clients can also access several different servers.
This model persists for Java clients
except that now these requests use a client runtime environment.
In
this model, the client application requires a servlet to communicate
with the enterprise bean, and the servlet must reside on the same
machine as the application server.
The Application Client for WebSphere Application Server consists of
the following models:
- ActiveX application client
- Applet client
- Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) application client
- Pluggable and thin application clients
The following graphic shows a topology for installing
the Application Client and using client applications:

The example shows two types of application
clients installed in a topology that uses client applications to access
applications and data on Machine A:
- The ActiveX application client on Machine B is a Windows® only client that uses the Java Native Interface (JNI) architecture to
programmatically access the Java virtual
machine (JVM) API. The JVM code exists in the same process space as
the ActiveX application (Visual Basic, VBScript, or Active Server
Pages (ASP) files) and remains attached to the process until that
process terminates.
- The J2EE application client on Machine C is a Java application
program that accesses enterprise beans, Java Database
Connectivity (JDBC) APIs, and Java Message
Service message queues. The application program must configure the
execution environment of the Java EE
application client and use the Java Naming
and Directory Interface (JNDI) name space to access resources.
Use the following procedure as a example of installing
the Application Client.