What is the architecture of the Web

A typical web application contains four tiers as depicted in the diagram below. Web
browsers on the client side render documents marked up in HTML. A web server for
processing and sending the data to the web browsers. An application server that computes
business logic and a database server program to store and retrieve data in a database. These
three types of server programs (web server, application server and database server) may run
on different servers or on the same server (machine).
Web browsers can run on most of the operating systems with limited hardware or software
requirements. They provide the graphical user interface for the clients to interact with the
web applications. A web browser provides the following features:

Interpret HTML markup and present the documents to the user.

Support hyperlinks in HTML documents.

Use HTML forms and HTTP protocol to send requests and data to the web server
and download documents.

Maintenance of cookies.

Support plug-ins to support extra functions like: audio-video files, running java
application and flash animations.

Implement a web browser sandbox policy. A sandbox prevents software components

like applets, java scripts and ActiveX running inside a web browser from accessing
the files and other resources on the local client system.

The web servers main functionality is to retrieve and send data to the web browsers
through HTTP requests. The response of a web server is a HTML document or other web
documents. If the client requests a static HTML page, the web server retrieves the page
from its hard disk and sends it back. If the client requests a dynamic page, the web server
uses its extensions (the green box in the diagram) like servlets, JSP or other technologies to
generate the dynamic content. This may involve sending and retrieving data from the
database.
The application server is responsible for computing the business logic of the web
application, like carrying out a bank account fund transfer and computing the shortest route
from one city to another. If the web application is only accessed or used by a small group of
people, the application server will be absent and the business logic will be computed by the
server extensions (Servlets, JSP, PHP etc). But for a large web application like Facebook,
a separate application server will take advantage of a separate hardware server machine to

run business logic more efficiently. This is a good application of divide-and-conquer

methodology.
Difference between web server and application server:

Factor / Type of
server

Definition

What is it?

Job

Functions

Application Server

Web Server

An application server is a software

framework that provides an
environment in which applications
can run, no matter what the
applications are or what they do.

Web server can refer to either the

hardware (the computer) or the
software (the computer
application) that helps to deliver
content that can be accessed
through the Internet.
A server that exposes business logic A server that handles request
to client applications through
through HTTP protocol.
various protocols including HTTP.
Application server is used to serve Web server is used to serve static
web based applications and
web documents.
enterprise based applications(i.e
sevlets, jsps and ejbs). because
application server contains web
server internally.
An API,Object life cycle
Keeping HTML, PHP, ASP etc
management,Session management, files available for the web
browsers to view when a user
Resource management (connection accesses the site on the web,
handles HTTP requests from
pooling),
clients.
Load balancing etc

Sun Java Application server,

Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft
Weblogic server, Apache Geronimo, IIS, Jetty
Examples
IBM WebSphere Application
Server, Glass Fish Server, Apache
Tomcat
Web browsers, search engine
Clients
GUIs, Web Servers
robots
Adds functionality? Yes
No, does not add any functionality.
Supports
Servlets and JSP
Only static content
Resource utilization Low
High