Re-tasking a java client application as middleware?

[KR Campbell]

Sorry; this may be a stupid question, but:

I have been given a java application spread across a number of jars to look at. It is essentially a client front-end that talks to a database on a back end server. Is it possible without entirely re-writing the application to write a JSP front end that runs the business logic part of the application as middleware on Tomcat? It's all written as java classes with no servlets or beans etc. that I am aware of at present. I'm not so worried about actually producing the jsp front end at the minute as trying to figure out whether the application can be re-tasked as middleware. Does it need to be re-written as servlets or something?

I appreciate I'll have to do some proper research, but I wondered if anyone could tell me whether it is basically feasible or not. If it is, what subject areas do I need to tackle?

Thanks for any guidance you may be able to offer.

[Ben Souther]

Without seeing the application, it's not possible for anyone here to say how much reworking your classes would need in order to run them in a webapp.

In theory it shouldn't be too difficult. If you were to write it as an MVC webapp, your POJOs could serve as the model if they fit the Javabean conventions. If not you could write beans that wrap them.