The Architectural Tiers

As discussed in the first section of this book, the distributed tiers of a J2EE application are logical divisions and do not necessarily relate to physically separate divisions. Components that are distributed across two or three tiers could reside on a single server (see Figure 32-1).

Figure 32-1. Components on multiple architectural tiers.

A J2EE application may reside on one or more of these tiers. Table 32-1 briefly describes these tiers. Subsequent sections will provide additional detail.

Client Tier

The client tier logically enough represents the client application. The purpose of this tier is to render the presentation ...

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