WebServer vs AppServer
Web servers and application servers are like helpers for the internet. They help us get stuff from the internet and make things work when we use websites or apps.
Real World Analogy
Imagine you’re at a restaurant. The Web Server is like the waiter who brings you the menu and the food you ordered. It gives you things like pictures and text when you visit a website. The Application Server is like the chef in the kitchen. It does more complicated stuff, like figuring out what you want to order, how much it costs, and making sure your order gets to the right place.
How does a web server work?
When you type a website’s address into your browser, it’s like telling the waiter where you want to sit. Then, the browser asks the web server for stuff like pictures or pages. The web server gets this stuff from a storage place called a database and sends it back to your browser to show you.
But when a website needs to do more than just show you pictures, like letting you buy things or sign in, that’s when the Application Server comes in. It’s like the secret behind-the-scenes worker.
When you click on buttons or fill in forms, the application server figures out what to do with that information. It talks to other parts of the system to make sure everything happens correctly, then it sends back new stuff for the web server to show you.
So, while the web server gives you the basic stuff like pictures and pages, the application server makes the website do all the fun and useful things, like letting you shop online or play games.
Let us see few real applications that we use for being Web Server and Application Server:
Tomcat: Apache Tomcat is an open-source Java Servlet Container. It’s essentially a web server and a servlet container.
It’s not a full Java EE server as it doesn’t support the full Java EE specifications
WebSphere: IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) is a software product that performs the role of a web application server. More specifically, it is a software framework and middleware that hosts Java-based web applications. It’s a Java EE application server
WebLogic: Oracle WebLogic Server is a scalable, enterprise-ready Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) application server. It’s a server software application that runs on a middle tier, between back-end databases and related applications and browser-based thin clients.
All three can act as both a web server and an application server, but only WebSphere and WebLogic are full Java EE application servers. Tomcat is primarily a web server and servlet container
I hope you find this article useful.
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