HTTP gateway is a Java application executed as a servlet. It serves as the initial point of contact between a client browser and Windchill services. The HTTP gateway resides within Embedded Servlet Engine (which is embedded in the method server) and acts as a conduit to carry the requests and responses between the HTTP server (web server) and Windchill method servers.

The HTTP gateway invokes a special method to handle the HTTP request. The request headers (or CGI properties) set by the web server are passed on within the Windchill method server along with any submitted data. The invoked method determines what is being requested based on the submitted data. It delegates to appropriate submethods to generate an HTTP response, usually in the form of an HTML page with appropriate applets embedded within it.

Most requests to the HTTP gateway originate from an HTML browser window, either as a result of an embedded link within a static HTML page that is already being shown, or from a Java applet using the AppletContext.showDocument method to bootstrap a page into the HTML browser window.

This is a fundamental mechanism for linking federated systems, the Java classes from two systems cannot communicate directly. Showing pages from several Windchill systems in standard web browser HTML windows allows the client browser to be the center of a star configuration, linking the systems without requiring violation of the strict security restrictions placed on untrusted applets. Requests are forwarded between the systems by encoding appropriate GET requests against their HTTP gateways and delegating to frames within the web browsers HTML windows to submit these requests.