Glossary

• bundle  

  On Mac OS X systems, a bundle is a directory in the file system that stores executable code and the software resources related to that code. The bundle directory, in essence, groups a set of resources in a discrete package.



• CGI (Common Gateway Interface)  

  A standard for communication between external applications and information servers, such as HTTP or Web servers.



• component  

  An object (of the WOComponent class) that represents a Web page or a reusable portion of one.



• data-source adaptor  

  A mechanism that connects your application to a particular database server. For each type of server you use, you need a separate adaptor. WebObjects provides an adaptor for databases conforming to JDBC.



• deployment descriptor  

  XML file that describes the configuration of a Web application. It’s located in the WEB-INF directory of the application’s WAR file and named web.xml.



• HTTP adaptor  

  A process (or a part of one) that connects WebObjects applications to a Web server.



• HTTP server, Web server  

  An application that serves Web pages to Web browsers using the HTTP protocol. In WebObjects, the Web server lies between the browser and a WebObjects application. When the Web server receives a request from a browser, it passes the request to the WebObjects adaptor, which generates a response and returns it to the Web server. The Web server then sends the response to the browser.



• J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition)  

  Specification that defines a platform for the development and deployment of Web applications. It describes an environment under which enterprise beans, servlets, and JSP pages can share resources and work together.



• JAR (Java archive)  

  A file created using the jar utility (and saved with the .jar extension) that contains all the files that make up a Java application.



• JSP (JavaServer Pages)  

  Technology that facilitates the development of dynamic Web pages and Web applications that use existing components, such as JavaBeans and WebObjects components.



• Monitor  

  WebObjects application used to administer deployed WebObjects applications. It’s capable of handling multiple applications, application instances, and applications hosts at the same time.



• Project Builder  

  Application used to manage the development of a WebObjects application or framework.



• request  

  A message conforming to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) sent from the user’s Web browser to a Web server that asks for a resource like a Web page.



• response  

  A message conforming to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) sent from the Web server to the user’s Web browser that contains the resource specified by the corresponding request. The response is typically a Web page.



• servlet  

  A Java program that runs as part of a network service, typically a Web server and responds to requests from clients. Servlets extend a Web server by generating content dynamically.



• servlet container  

  Java application that provides a working environment for servlets. It manages the servlet’s interaction with its client and provides the servlet access to various Java-based services. Containers can be implemented as standalone Web servers, server plug-ins, and components that can be embedded in an application.



• TLD (tag library descriptor)  

  XML document that describes a tag library. A JSP container uses the information contained in the TLD file to validate a JSP page’s tags.



• WAR (Web application archive)  

  A file created using the jar utility (and saved with the .war extension) that contains all the files that make up a Web application.



• WOA (WebObjects application bundle)  

  A bundle that stores all the files needed by a WebObjects application.



• wotaskd (WebObjects task daemon)  

  WebObjects tool that manages the instances on an application host. It’s used by Monitor to propagate site configuration changes throughout the site’s application hosts.



• Web application, Web app  

  File structure that contains servlets, JSP pages, HTML documents and other resources. This structure can be deployed on any servlet-enabled Web server.