An application server is a
server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
that hosts applications or
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...
that delivers a business application through a
communication protocol.
An application
server framework is a service layer model. It includes
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...
components available to a
software developer
Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invo ...
through an application programming interface. An application server may have features such as clustering,
fail-over
Failover is switching to a redundant or standby computer server, system, hardware component or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active application, server, system, hardware component, or network in a computer n ...
, and
load-balancing. The goal is for developers to focus on the
business logic.
Java application servers
Jakarta EE (formerly Java EE or J2EE) defines the core set of API and features of
Java application servers.
The Jakarta EE infrastructure is partitioned into logical containers.
*EJB container:
Enterprise Beans are used to manage transactions. According to the
Java BluePrints, the
business logic of an application resides in
Enterprise Beans—a modular server component providing many features, including declarative transaction management, and improving application
scalability.
*
Web container: the web modules include
Jakarta Servlets and
Jakarta Server Pages
Jakarta Server Pages (JSP; formerly JavaServer Pages) is a collection of technologies that helps software developers create dynamically generated web pages based on HTML, XML, SOAP, or other document types. Released in 1999 by Sun Microsystems, ...
(JSP).
* JCA container (
Jakarta Connectors
Jakarta Connectors (JCA; formerly Java EE Connector Architecture and J2EE Connector Architecture) is a Java programming language tool for connecting application servers and enterprise information systems (EIS) as part of enterprise application in ...
)
* JMS provider (
Jakarta Messaging)
Commercial Java application servers have been dominated by
WebLogic Application Server
Oracle WebLogic Server is a Java EE application server currently developed by Oracle Corporation. Oracle acquired WebLogic Server when it purchased BEA Systems in 2008.
Application Server versions
* WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1) - March 30, 2020 ...
by
Oracle
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination.
Description
The word ...
,
WebSphere Application Server from
IBM and the open source
JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP) by
Red Hat.
Microsoft
Microsoft's .NET positions their middle-tier applications and services infrastructure in the
Windows Server operating system and the
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...
technologies in the role of an application server. The Windows Application Server role includes Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide web server support, the .NET Framework to provide application support, ASP.NET to provide server side scripting, COM+ for application component communication, Message Queuing for multithreaded processing, and the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) for application communication.
PHP application servers
PHP application servers run and manage
PHP applications.
*
Zend Server
Zend Server is a complete and certified PHP distribution stack originally developed by Zend Technologies intended for high performance and scalable use cases.
Zend Server includes over 80 PHP extensions and supports Apache, NGINX and IIS Web ser ...
, built by
Zend
Zend or Zand ( pal, 𐭦𐭭𐭣) is a Zoroastrian technical term for exegetical glosses, paraphrases, commentaries and translations of the Avesta's texts. The term ''zand'' is a contraction of the Avestan language word ' (, meaning "interpret ...
, provides application server functionality for the PHP-based applications.
*
appserver.io
appserver.io is an application server for PHP based web environments. The project consists of middleware which delivers classical PHP web applications and provides additional services.
History
The basic idea of a WildFly equivalent for PHP was p ...
, built by TechDivision GmbH is a multithreaded application server for PHP written in PHP.
*
RoadRunner, built by Spiral Scout is a high-performance PHP application server, load-balancer, and process manager written in
Go.
Third-party
*
Mono
Mono may refer to:
Common meanings
* Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
* Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono
* Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
Music Performers
* Mono (Japanes ...
(a cross platform open-source implementation of .NET supporting nearly all its features, with the exception of Windows OS-specific features), sponsored by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
and released under the
MIT License
Mobile application servers
Mobile application servers provide data delivery to mobile devices.
Mobile features
Core capabilities of mobile application services include
* Data routing– data is packaged in smaller (
REST) objects with some business logic to minimize demands on bandwidth and battery
* Orchestration– transactions and data integration across multiple sources
* Authentication service– secure connectivity to back-end systems is managed by the mobile middleware
*
Off-line support– allows users to access and use data even though the device is not connected
* Security– data encryption, device control, SSL, call logging
Mobile challenges
Although most standards-based
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
(including
SOAs) are designed to connect to any independent of any vendor, product or technology, most enterprises have trouble connecting back-end systems to mobile applications, because mobile devices add the following technological challenges:
* Limited resources – mobile devices have limited power and bandwidth
* Intermittent connectivity – cellular service and wifi coverage is often not continuous
* Difficult to secure
– mobility and
BYOD
Bring your own device (BYOD )—also called bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP), and bring your own personal computer (BYOPC)—refers to being allowed to use one's personally owned device, rather than being required to u ...
practices make it hard to secure mobile devices
Deployment models
An application server can be deployed:
*
On premises
On- premises software (abbreviated to on-prem, and incorrectly referred to as on-premise) is installed and runs on computers on the premises of the person or organization using the software, rather than at a remote facility such as a server farm ...
*
Cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
* Private cloud
*
Platform as a service (PaaS)
See also
*
Application service provider
*
List of application servers
This list compares the features and functionality of application servers, grouped by the hosting environment that is offered by that particular application server.
BASIC
* Run BASIC - An all-in-one BASIC scriptable application server, can auto ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Application Server
Servers (computing)
Software architecture