Although the majority of websites primarily publish static data, the number of sites that publish dynamic content is growing rapidly. Many corporations use intranets, the Internet, or both to provide easy access to applications and data. Online stores selling books, music, or computers are examples of an Internet client-server application.
Client-server applications offer huge advantages over traditional applications. Users don’t have to install the application on a client computer, which not only saves client disk space but ensures that the user always has the most up-to-date version of the application. Also, the client computers can be Macs, PCs, or anything that can run a Web browser with the necessary capabilities.
WebObjects allows you to develop two different types of Internet applications: Web applications and Java Client applications. Web applications are analogous to Common Gateway Interface (CGI) applications and consist of dynamically generated Web pages accessed through a Web browser. Java Client moves part of your application to the client-side computer and enlists Sun’s Java Foundation Classes (JFC) to give it the complete user interface found in a more traditional desktop application.