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Is Tomcat an Application Server or Webserver

 
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Hi all
Is Tomcat an Application Server or Webserver what is the main difference
between them please explain?

Thanks in advance
saiprasanna
 
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The short answer is "Both".

Tomcat is a servlet container that can also be run as a standalone webserver.

The distinctions between these terms is a bit blurry but here is
a rough description.
  • Appserver: Java term for an application that runs J2EE applications.

  • This includes EJB, Servlets, JNDI, JSP, and more..
  • Servlet Container: The part of an appserver that handles Servlets (most have JSP compilers built in With some, you have to pay more for this).
  • Webserver: An application running on a machine that handles HTTP requests.

  • Originally, these only handled static files and maybe CGI scripts.


    Tomcat can either be bound to an external webserver (such as Apache HTTPD or Microsoft IIS) but can also run as a stand-alone Webserver/Servlet container/JSP engine. It can also be embedded into a full Appserver such as JBoss.
     
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    I think it only qualifies as a web container. Here you can find more info about a web container. Web Container

    [Bear edit: fixed gnarly formatting issues]
    [ December 04, 2005: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]
     
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    You can certainly call it a web container. But that doesn't mean you cannot call it anything else; the terms are not precisely defined.
     
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