The primary purpose of Arbortext Publishing Engine is the manipulation of documents using XML and related technologies. The Arbortext PE Request Manager acts as the facilitator handling requests and responses, but it has no knowledge of XML. XML processing is performed by Arbortext PE サブプロセス.

Each Arbortext PE サブプロセス is a running instance of Arbortext’s XML processing engine, with the graphic user interface disabled and additional publishing and performance capabilities enabled. Groups of Arbortext PE サブプロセス are organized into Arbortext PE サブプロセス pools. When a dynamic Arbortext PE Request Manager component determines that it needs the services of an Arbortext PE サブプロセス, it invokes a method of the Arbortext Publishing Engine Request Context to obtain an Arbortext PE サブプロセス from a particular pool, uses it to perform one or more operations, and then releases it so that the Arbortext PE Request Manager can use it to fulfill other requests.

An Arbortext PE サブプロセス pool is a collection of identical Arbortext PE サブプロセス that are associated by the following:

Having multiple Arbortext PE サブプロセス pools offer two major advantages:

When a dynamic component (most frequently, a Request Handler) determines that it needs an Arbortext PE サブプロセス, it calls an Arbortext Publishing Engine Request Context routine and passes a reference to the HTTP request being processed. The Arbortext Publishing Engine Request Context offers the request to each Arbortext PE サブプロセス pool until one replies that it's configured to handle that type of request. The last Arbortext PE サブプロセス pool queried is always the default pool, which can allocate an Arbortext PE サブプロセス to fulfill any request not already handled.