A Hike through Post-EJB J2EE Web Application Architecture

Abstract

Since the mid-nineties, server-based Web applications have emerged as a convenient way to provide functionality to a user audience without any specific software or system requirements except the need for a reasonably up-to-date Web browser. The tricky integration, installation, and configuration tasks are under the control of an expert on the server side. These advantages apply to both the general public and small research teams. Typical Web applications have browser-based user interfaces for one or more user roles and might keep some information in persistent storage, such as a relational database. Since the early days of common gateway interface (CGI) scripting, technologies for developing Web applications have evolved by leaps and bounds to address growing expectations with respect to reliability, maintainability, extensibility, performance, scalability, and other goals. In this article - the first in a planned series about Web application development - we take an exploratory hike through the architectural layers of a Web application built with state-of-the-art, widely used technologies. The paper focus on the upper layers that provide the application's user interface. By no means intended as a complete treatise on Web application development, this article is an overview meant to spark your interest and provide a starting Doint for further exploration.