The initial point of contact between a client and a Windchill server is an HTTP GET or POST request. It is typically a GET request, activated by a link embedded in an HTML page, that initiates connection with the Windchill system.

The Windchill system responds with an HTML page. This page may contain JavaScript or JScript to coordinate window or frame usage within the browser.

Many simple accesses to the system may use only HTML presentation, with HTML form data serving as input. However, the typical client session requires that applet tags (used to carry out complex user interactions involving complex data) be embedded in these HTML responses.