Prerequisite Knowledge
This documentation is intended for the Arbortext PE server administrator. This document assumes advanced skill using servlet containers, web servers, and HTTP protocols. To install, set up, and configure Arbortext Publishing Engine, you should have substantial experience as a web server administrator. To understand the information in this manual, you should be familiar with the implementation at your site and with standard system administration tasks.
In a typical implementation, a client program or web browser sends an HTTP or SOAP request to a web server. The web server interprets the URL and passes the request to the servlet container. The servlet container knows how to call Arbortext PE Request Manager from its own configuration file, and it constructs and passes a request object and a response object to the Arbortext PE Request Manager. From the request object, the Arbortext PE Request Manager determines the client who sent the request, what work to perform, and what data to return in the response object to the servlet container. In turn, the servlet container returns the response to the web server, which then returns it to the client making the request.
A list of terms you should review:
• Request object — This is a Java object that contains all the information from a client HTTP or SOAP request. A servlet is configured to handle it by evaluating a portion of the URL for routing.
• Response object — This is a Java object that's created in conjunction with the Request object and constructed to handle the returned results. A custom application uses its methods to specify the information to be returned as the HTTP or SOAP response.
• Servlet — A web component, managed by a servlet container, that generates dynamic content. Servlets interact with web clients using a request and response model implemented by the servlet container. This request and response model is based on the behavior of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
• Servlet container — A servlet container deploys the web application into its runtime environment. It loads and manages a servlet throughout its lifecycle using the servlet context. When the servlet container initializes the servlet, it creates the servlet context object which contains information about the servlet's runtime environment.
• Servlet context — A Java object that manages the runtime state of a servlet for the servlet container. It defines the servlet's view of the web application it's running in.
• SOAP — Formerly, an acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol, but now it's simply known as SOAP. SOAP is a cross-platform communication protocol based on XML that controls an exchange commonly consisting of a request and a response. The data is exchanged in a SOAP message that usually uses HTTP as the transport mechanism. The server processes the SOAP message through a web service that the client calls when making a request.
• SOAP message — The SOAP message is an XML document that follows a specific format. The client sends a request in a SOAP message to the web service, and the message contains a SOAP envelope. The SOAP envelope can consist of Header, Body (required), and Fault elements. The SOAP envelope supplies a requesting call to a server-side application through the web service. The SOAP envelope also includes instructions for returning a response.
• Web application — A collection of servlets, JavaServer Pages, HTML documents, images, archives, or other data.
• WSDL — An acronym for Web Services Description Language, which is a server-side document that describes the criteria by which a client application can call an application using SOAP. WSDL defines a SOAP web service by exposing its structure in XML format.
