Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. Traditional Business Applications

2. Intranet Business Applications

3. Top Tier: The Web Browser as a User Interface

4. Middle Tier: The Web Server and Business Logic

5. Bottom Tier: The Database Server

6. Object-Oriented Programming

7. Internationalization and Platform Independence

Self-Test

Glossary

PDF of this tutorial

Definition
Intranet business applications use the local-area network (LAN) infrastructure within a company along with Internet Web technology to provide high-performance software solutions. Such solutions go beyond Web publishing, or Web-based forms, to provide front-office-grade software suitable for the customer service representative (CSR) speaking directly with customers. They have a network user interface (NUI) that resembles a graphical user interface (GUI) but that runs in a Web browser.

Overview
This tutorial provides a brief history of software applications and an overview of the technologies used to build intranet business applications. It is aimed at the technical professional who desires to understand the technology and the tradeoffs required as software systems migrate to Web-based tools and infrastructure. The tutorial assumes some familiarity with computing and Web concepts. After completing this tutorial, you should be able to accomplish the following:

• describe an intranet business application
• describe each of the common three tiers in the application
• discuss the major architectural issues