Glossary of Terms

This section provides definitions for some of the most common terms used during the installation of ActiveVOS Server.

API

Application Program Interface, a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.

Application Server

Also called an appserver. A program that handles all application operations between users and an organization's backend business applications or databases. Application servers are typically used for complex transaction-based applications. To support high-end needs, an application server has to have built-in redundancy, monitors for high-availability, high-performance distributed application services and support for complex database access.

DDL

Data Definition Language is used to specify a database scheme as a set of definitions expressed in a DDL script. The basic idea is to hide implementation details of the database schemes from the users.

EAR

J2EE modules that comprise an application are assembled into a single application Enterprise Archive (EAR) file.

J2EE

Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition, a platform-independent, Java-centric environment from Sun for developing, building and deploying Web-based enterprise applications online.

Java

A high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Java is an object-oriented language similar to C++, but simplified to eliminate language features that cause common programming errors. Java source code files (files with a .java extension) are compiled into a format called bytecode (files with a .class extension), which can then be executed by a Java interpreter.

JAR

Java Archive, a file format used to bundle all components required by a Java applet. JAR files simplify the downloading of applets since all the components (.class files, images, sounds, etc.) can be packaged into a single file. In addition, JAR supports data compression, which further decreases download times.

JNDI

Java Naming and Directory Interface™ (JNDI). Allows Java-enabled applications to use a unified interface to multiple naming and directory services in the enterprise. Part of the Java Enterprise API set. JNDI works with other J2EE technologies to organize and locate components in a distributed computing environment.

JVM

Java Virtual Machine. An abstract computing machine, or virtual machine, JVM is a platform-independent programming language that converts Java bytecode into machine language and executes it.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.

WAR

Java modules that comprise an application are assembled into a single application Web Archive (WAR) file.

Web Server

A Web Server a computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the server whose domain name is pcwebopedia.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser. That request can also cause complex logic to be executed and manage database access.

XML

Extensible Markup Language, a specification developed by the W3C. XML is a pared-down version of SGML, designed especially for Web documents. It allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations.