Chapter 10. XML Application Server
In Chapter 1, we overviewed how Web applications have emerged and Internet technology has evolved. When the Web began, HTML files were statically prepared and the target audience was mostly humans using Web browsers. People worldwide have quickly adopted the Web. Thus, the role of the Web has changed from being a means of information sharing to providing a more business-oriented services infrastructure. To process business deals, the Web first enabled interactive access to backend business applications; that is, business-to-consumer (B2C) Web applications emerged. In many cases, the central data format was HTML. Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) were originally designed for building such Web applications in Java. However, as business deals have become more dynamic and automated, the central data format has become XML; that is, business-to-business (B2B) Web applications have emerged.
In this section, we discuss Web applications from an XML and B2B point of view. In Section 10.1, we describe the background of the XML application server. Then we introduce three important technologies that are related to an XML application server: Servlet in Section 10.2, JavaServer Pages in Section 10.3, and Apache Cocoon in Section 10.4. Finally, we describe how to develop Web applications by using and combining these technologies.
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