Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Network resource allocating
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-15
2004-11-02
Peikari, B. James (Department: 2186)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Network resource allocating
C709S221000, C709S201000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06813637
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of networked applications, and more particularly to a system and method for automatically partitioning application components between a web server and an application server.
2. Description of the Related Art
The field of application servers has recently become one of the fastest-growing and most important fields in the computing industry. As web applications and other distributed applications have evolved into large-scale applications that demand more sophisticated computing services, specialized application servers have become necessary to provide a platform supporting these large-scale applications. Applications that run on application servers are generally constructed according to an N-tier architecture, in which presentation, business logic, and data access layers are kept separate. The application server space is sometimes referred to as “middleware”, since application servers are often responsible for deploying and running the business logic layer and for interacting with and integrating various enterprise-wide resources, such as web servers, databases, and backend or legacy systems.
Application servers offer significant advantages over previous approaches to implementing web applications, such as using common gateway interface (CGI) scripts or programs. For example, application servers typically provide various application services for tasks that web applications and other networked applications commonly need to perform. Application servers often incorporate these services and components into an integrated platform specialized for creating web applications. The platform may leverage various standard software component models, such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), the (Distributed) Component Object Model (COM/DCOM), Enterprise JavaBeans™ (EJB), etc., or the platform may provide its own software component model or may extend standard component models in various ways.
The following list is a partial list of the types of application services that application servers may provide. By leveraging these types of integrated, pre-built services, web application developers may realize a significant reduction in application development time and may also be able to develop a more robust, bug-free application. Application servers from different vendors differ, of course, in the types of services they provide; thus, the following list is exemplary only.
Application servers may provide data access services for accessing various types of databases, e.g. through directly supporting proprietary databases, such as SAP, Lotus Notes, PeopleSoft, etc., or through standardized interfaces, such as ODBC, JDBC, etc. Also, application servers may enable database connection pooling or caching.
Application servers may also provide services for accessing network directories, such as directories that support the standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
Application servers may also provide application security services. Web application security may be considered at different levels, such as: client-to-server communication, application-level privileges, database access, directory service access, etc. Application server security-related services may include support for performing user authentication, performing data encryption, communicating via secure protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), utilizing security certificates, programming user access rights, integrating with operating system security, etc.
Application servers may also provide services enabling a web application to easily maintain user state information during a user session or across user sessions. Performing state and session management is especially important for applications that have complex, multi-step transactions.
Application servers may also support caching the results of application logic execution or caching the results of web page or application component output, so that for appropriate subsequent requests, the results may be reused.
Application servers may also support result streaming, such as dynamically streaming HTTP output, which may be especially useful for large result sets involving lengthy queries. A related service may enable an application to easily display a large result set by breaking the result set down into smaller groups and displaying these groups to the user one at a time.
Many web applications need to perform various types of searching or indexing operations. Application servers may also provide application services for indexing or searching various types of documents, databases, etc.
As noted above, many web applications may perform various types of complex, multi-step transactions. Application servers may also provide support for managing these application transactions. For example, this support may be provided via a software component model supported by the application server, such as the Enterprise JavaBeans™ component model, or via integration with third-party transaction process monitors, etc.
It is often desirable to enable web applications to perform certain operations independently, as opposed to in response to a user request. For example, it may be desirable for an application to automatically send a newsletter to users via email at regularly scheduled intervals. Application servers may support the creation and scheduling of events to perform various types of operations.
Many types of web applications need to perform e-commerce transactions, such as credit card transactions, financial data exchange, etc. Application servers may provide services for performing various types of e-commerce transactions or may provide an integrated third-party e-commerce package for applications to use.
Web applications often need to utilize various types of standard network application services, such as an email service, FTP service, etc. Application servers may provide these types of services and may enable applications to easily integrate with the services.
Web applications often need to log various conditions or events. Application servers may provide an integrated logging service for web applications to use.
Judging by the exemplary list above of computing services that application servers may provide for web applications or other networked applications, it is apparent that application servers may integrate a diverse range of services, where these services may interact with many different types of servers, systems, or other services. For example, an application server may act as a platform hub connecting web servers, database servers/services, e-commerce servers/services, backend or legacy systems, or any of various other types of systems or services. A benefit of many application servers is that they not only provide this service/system integration, but typically also provide centralized administrative or management tools for performing various aspects of system and application administration.
For example, application servers may provide management tools related to application development and deployment, such as tools for source code control and versioning, bug tracking, workgroup development, etc. Application servers may also provide tools related to application testing and deployment, such as tools for application prototyping, load simulation, dynamic code base updates, etc. Application servers may also provide tools for easily configuring the application to utilize various of the application server services described above. For example, administrators may use a tool to set the result caching criteria for particular application components or pages, or may use a tool to specify which documents to index or to specify indexing methods, etc.
One important class of application server administrative tools pertains to real-time application management and monitoring. Application servers may provide tools for dynamically managing various factors affecting application performance, e.g., by adjusting the application services and support features described above. For example, applicat
Kivlin B. Noäl
Meyertons Hood Kivlin Kowert & Goetzel P.C.
Peikari B. James
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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