Application Development

In three-tier applications, the application server:

• Contains the application logic segmented into services or business components.

• Makes services and business components available to the application clients.

• Connects to the data resources needed by the application.

The chapter summarizes the preparation steps needed for:

• JetNet Application Server

• Oracle Tuxedo Application Server

• WebSphere Application Server

In COM/MTS applications, distributed application processing is achieved by deploying COM components and their Panther service components on remote machines using DCOM or MTS. Refer to Chapter 5, "Deploying COM Components" in COM/MTS Guide for information.

JetNet Application Server

For the JetNet middleware adapter, the Panther application server can run on a Windows or UNIX machine. To prepare the application server for each application, you need to create the application directory, populate it with the necessary files, apply your environment settings, and configure the types of servers needed for the application.

Create the Application Directory

Create the application directory and populate it with the necessary files.

• For UNIX servers, a setup file with the location of the Panther installation, the license file, and the middleware configuration file at your site. For the default setup file, copy setup.sh from the config directory of your Panther installation.

• Three standard application libraries: client.lib, server.lib and common.lib. Copies of these libraries are in the samples/newapp directory of your Panther server installation.

• Three standard environment files:

  • machine.env for machine-specific settings used for all servers.

  • proserv.env for the standard server.

  • progserv.env for the conversion server (only used with applications converted from two-tier).

    Copies of these files are in the samples/newapp directory of your Panther server installation.

• The middleware configuration file. To create a middleware configuration file, use JetMan or the utility rbconfig, and record the settings for SMRBHOST, SMRBPORT, and/or SMRBCONFIG.

Configure the Application Servers

Panther provides you with the ability to configure three types of servers: standard servers for three-tier development and production environments, a conversion server to service three-tier applications you converted from a two-tier architecture, and file access servers used for both two- and three-tier development to provide the development team access to remote libraries, repositories, and report generation facilities.

The application servers in Panther for JetNet:

• Are designed to access built-in event handlers to accommodate and facilitate development and productions needs.

• Offer debuggable capabilities for development.

• Automatically connect to a database.

An application server invokes an executable that contains one or more services that can be called by clients and other servers. Server executables are provided and can easily be initialized using the JetNet manager provided with Panther.

As you develop your application you might find that you'll need to build new executables to incorporate your own C functions, or configure a standard server for production purposes as opposed to development.

See Also

For additional information on configuring the application directory and the server environment, refer to Chapter 2, "Setting the Enterprise Environment," in JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo Guide.

The tutorial also contains a lesson on setting up the server environment (refer to Lesson 2 in Getting Started-JetNet).

Oracle Tuxedo Application Server

For the Oracle Tuxedo middleware adapter, refer to Chapter 2, "Setting the Enterprise Environment," in JetNet Guide/Oracle Tuxedo Guide and follow the directions provided with Oracle Tuxedo for setting up and initializing servers.

WebSphere Application Server

WebSphere Application Server provides a full-featured distributed application environment for component-based systems using Java-based technologies. Enterprise JavaBeans created in the Panther editor can be deployed on WebSphere in both web and GUI environments.

For complete information on setting up your WebSphere application server, refer to "How to Set Up the Application Server Engine" in Panther for IBM WebSphere Developer's Studio.