2 Overview of Stand-alone Clients

In the context of this document, a stand-alone client is a client that has a runtime environment independent of WebLogic Server. (Managed clients, such as Web Services, rely on a server-side container to provide the runtime necessary to access a server.) Stand-alone clients that access WebLogic Server applications range from simple command line utilities that use standard I/O to highly interactive GUI applications built using the Java Swing/AWT classes. The following sections provide an overview:

Distributing Client Jar Files
RMI-IIOP Clients
WebLogic Full Client (T3)
CORBA Clients
JMX Clients
JMS Clients
Web Services Clients
WebLogic Tuxedo Connector Clients
Client Types and Features
When to Use the weblogic.jar and wlfullclient.jar Files

Distributing Client Jar Files

For information on license requirements when using client JARs and other resources provided in Oracle WebLogic Server for creating stand-alone clients, see "Stand-Alone WebLogic Clients" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Licensing Information.

RMI-IIOP Clients

IIOP can be a transport protocol for distributed applications with interfaces written in Java RMI. For more information, see:

For more information, see "Using RMI over IIOP" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Programming RMI for Oracle WebLogic Server.

WebLogic Full Client (T3)

A WebLogic Full Client is a Java RMI client that uses Oracle's proprietary T3 protocol to communicate with WebLogic Server. The WebLogic Full Client requires the largest JAR file (wlfullclient.jar) among the various clients, but it has the most features and is the best overall performer. The wlfullclient.jar also provides IIOP support. See:

Chapter 3, "Developing a WebLogic Full Client"
"Using WebLogic RMI with T3 Protocol" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Programming RMI for Oracle WebLogic Server

CORBA Clients

If you are not working in a Java-only environment, you can use IIOP to connect your Java programs with Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) clients and execute CORBA objects. IIOP can be a transport protocol for distributed applications with interfaces written in Interface Definition Language (IDL) or Java RMI. However, the two models are distinctly different approaches to creating an interoperable environment between heterogeneous systems. When you program, you must decide to use either IDL or RMI interfaces; you cannot mix them.WebLogic Server supports the following CORBA client models:

JMX Clients

You can use a JMX client to access WebLogic Server MBeans. See "Accessing WebLogic Server MBeans With JMX" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Custom Management Utilities With JMX for Oracle WebLogic Server.

JMS Clients

WebLogic Server provides a number of JMS clients that provide Java EE and WebLogic JMS functionality using smaller client footprints than the WebLogic full client (wlfullclient.jar).

Tip:

The WebLogic Full Client requires the largest JAR file (wlfullclient.jar) among the various Java clients, but it has the most features and is the best overall performer.

JMS thin client, see Chapter 5, "WebLogic JMS Thin Client."
JMS SAF client, see Chapter 6, "Reliably Sending Messages Using the JMS SAF Client."
JMS C client, see "WebLogic JMS C API" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Programming JMS for Oracle WebLogic Server
JMS .NET client, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Using the WebLogic JMS Client for Microsoft .NET for Oracle WebLogic Server
WebLogic AQ JMS client, see "Stand-alone WebLogic AQ JMS Clients" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JMS for Oracle WebLogic Server. The WebLogic AQ JMS client obtains destination information using WebLogic Server JNDI and provides direct access to Oracle data base AQ JMS destinations using an embedded JDBC driver. It does not provide access to WebLogic Server JMS destinations.

Web Services Clients

A stand-alone Web Services client (wseeclient.jar) uses WebLogic client classes to invoke a Web Service hosted on WebLogic Server or on other application servers. See "Invoking a Web Service from a Stand-alone Client" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Getting Started With JAX-WS Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

WebLogic Tuxedo Connector Clients

WebLogic Tuxedo Connector provides inter-operability between WebLogic Server applications and Tuxedo services. See:

"Developing Oracle WebLogic Tuxedo Connector Client EJBs" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Tuxedo Connector Programmer's Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server
"How to Develop RMI/IIOP Applications for the Oracle WebLogic Tuxedo Connector" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Tuxedo Connector Programmer's Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server
"How to Develop Oracle WebLogic Tuxedo Connector Client Beans using the CORBA Java API" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Tuxedo Connector Programmer's Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server

Client Types and Features

The following table lists the types of clients supported in a WebLogic Server environment, and their characteristics, features, and limitations.

Note:

In this release, client applications should use the wlfullclient.jar file to provide the WebLogic Server specific functionary previously provided in the weblogic.jar file. You can generate the wlfullclient.jar file for client applications using the JarBuilder tool. See Appendix B, "Using the WebLogic JarBuilder Tool."

Table 2-1 WebLogic Server Client Types and Features

Client	Type	Language	Protocol	Client Class Requirements	Key Features
WL Full Client (T3)	RMI	Java	T3	wlfullclient.jar	Supports most WLS-specific features Supports WLS clustering. Supports SSL. Faster and more scalable than IIOP clients. Supports most JavaEE features. Supports WLS JMS and JMS SAF client. See Chapter 3, "Developing a WebLogic Full Client."
WLS-IIOP (Introduced in WebLogic Server 7.0)	RMI	Java	IIOP	wlfullclient.jar	Supports WLS-specific features. Supports WLS clustering. Supports SSL. Faster and more scalable than IIOP thin clients. Not ORB-based. Does not support WLS JMS (use T3 protocol with same Jar instead). See Chapter 8, "Developing a WLS-IIOP Client."
Java EE Application Client (Thin Client) (Introduced in WebLogic Server 8.1)	RMI	Java	IIOP	wlclient.jar JDK 1.5 and higher	Supports WLS clustering. Supports many Java EE features, including security and transactions. Supports SSL. Uses CORBA 2.4 ORB. See Chapter 4, "Developing a Java EE Application Client (Thin Client)."
CORBA/IDL	CORBA	Languages that OMG IDL maps to, such as C++, C, Smalltalk, COBOL	IIOP	no WebLogic classes	Uses CORBA 2.3 ORB. Does not support WLS-specific features. Does not support Java. See Chapter 9, "Developing a CORBA/IDL Client."
J2SE (or JSE)	RMI	Java	IIOP	no WebLogic classes	Provides connectivity to WLS environment. Does not support WLS-specific features. Does not support many Java EE features. Uses CORBA 2.3 ORB. Requires use of `com.sun.jndi.cosnaming. CNCtxFactory`. See Chapter 7, "Developing a J2SE Client."
JMS Thin Client (Introduced in WebLogic Server 8.1)	RMI	Java	IIOP	wljmsclient.jar wlclient.jar JDK 1.5 and higher	Thin client functionality WebLogic JMS, except for client-side XML selection for multicast sessions and JMSHelper class methods. Supports SSL. See Chapter 5, "WebLogic JMS Thin Client." Alternatively, you can use the faster WL full client with T3.
JMS SAF Client (Introduced in WebLogic Server 9.2)	RMI	Java	IIOP	wlsafclient.jar wljmsclient.jar wlclient.jar JDK 1.5 and higher	Locally stores messages on the client and forwards them to server-side JMS destinations when the client is connected. Supports SSL. See Chapter 6, "Reliably Sending Messages Using the JMS SAF Client." Alternatively, you can use the faster WL full client with T3.
JMS C Client (Introduced in WebLogic Server 9.0)	JNI	C	Any	wlfullclient.jar or wljmsclient.jar wlclient.jar JDK 1.5 and higher	C client applications that can access WebLogic JMS applications and resources. Supports SSL. See "WebLogic JMS C API"
JMS .NET Client (Introduced in WebLogic Server 10.3)	T3	.NET	T3	`WebLogic.Messaging.dll` dynamic library	Microsoft .NET client applications, written in C#, that can access WebLogic JMS applications and resources. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Using the WebLogic JMS Client for Microsoft .NET for Oracle WebLogic Server.
WebLogic AQ JMS Client (Introduced in WebLogic Server 10.3.1)	JNDI/JDBC	Java	IIOP/T3 + JDBC	`aqapi.jar`, `ojdbc6.jar`, `orai18n.jar` and the `wlclient.jar` or `wlfullclient.jar`.	See "Stand-alone WebLogic AQ JMS Clients" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JMS for Oracle WebLogic Server.
JMX	RMI	Java	IIOP	wljmxclient.jar	See "Accessing WebLogic Server MBeans with JMX" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Custom Management Utilities With JMX for Oracle WebLogic Server.
Web Services	SOAP	Java	HTTP/S	wseeclient.jar	See "Invoking a Web Service from a Stand-alone Client" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Getting Started With JAX-WS Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.
C++ Client	CORBA	C++	IIOP	Tuxedo libraries	Interoperability between WLS applications and Tuxedo clients/services. Supports SSL. Uses CORBA 2.3 ORB. See Chapter 11, "Developing a WebLogic C++ Client for a Tuxedo ORB."
Tuxedo Server and Native CORBA client	CORBA or RMI	C++	Tuxedo-General-Inter-Orb-Protocol (TGIOP)	Tuxedo libraries	Interoperability between WLS applications and Tuxedo clients/services. Supports SSL and transactions. Uses CORBA 2.3 ORB. See Chapter 10, "Developing Clients for CORBA Objects."

When to Use the weblogic.jar and wlfullclient.jar Files

The following sections provide information on how to use the weblogic.jar and wlfullclient.jar files:

Client-side Applications
Server-side Operations

Client-side Applications

Prior to WebLogic Server 10.0, the weblogic.jar file was required for T3 and WLS-IIOP client applications to provide WebLogic Server-specific value-added features. For WebLogic Server 10.x and later releases, client applications requiring these features should use the wlfullclient.jar file instead of the weblogic.jar. See WebLogic Tuxedo Connector Clients for more information on client types, features, and class requirements.

You can generate the wlfullclient.jar file for client applications using the JarBuilder tool. See Appendix B, "Using the WebLogic JarBuilder Tool."

Note:

Continuing to use weblogic.jar in client-side applications may result in a ClassNotFoundException.

Server-side Operations

Server-side operations continue to require a complete WebLogic Server installation, which includes the weblogic.jar. Typical operations requiring a complete WebLogic Server installation are:

Operations necessary for development purposes, such as the ejbc compiler.
Administrative operations such as deployment.
WLST and client-side JSR 88 applications that invoke server-side operations.