Business application development and deployment using Java has become much more popular in the past year. This is partly because of the redesigned java.awt library in the JDK 1.1, as well as other third-party JDK 1.1-compliant GUI class libraries and IDEs. Developers can now build sophisticated and complex GUI interface front-ends for their applications. As these frontends become heavier, special consideration needs to be given to the deployment strategy used to deploy the client side of a client/server application.

There are several different options available for deploying Java client applications. Some of the options are fairly familiar, while others are not. Even if you understand what options are available, it is not always as obvious which should be used in a given situation. This article reviews options available for client-side deployment of Java applications along with the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.

TRADITIONAL DEPLOYMENT

In most client/server applications, the deployment options for the client piece of the application is fairly limited. Usually, a client platform and programming language are chosen before development begins and the application is built with the target platform in mind. For example, a telephone invoicing client GUI application could be built using C++ on a Windows NT machine. On completion of the coding for the application, it would have to be manually or remotely installed on every Windows NT client machine that needed to use the application.