What is a Web Application?

A Web application uses a web site as its front-end and generally accepts data from a client, and executes 
business logic in a server to deliver the results back to the client.
Client is a computer that accesses a remote service on another computer by some kind of network. 
Server is a computer on a network that is dedicated to a particular purpose and stores all information and 
performs the critical functions for that purpose.

There are two types of Web Applications:
Presentation-oriented generates interactive web pages containing various types of markup language 
(HTML, XML, etc.) and dynamic content in response to requests.
Service-oriented are often clients of service-oriented web applications. A service is a unit of work done by a 
service provider to achieve desired end results for a service consumer.

A typical Web Application consists of Web components (JSP's/Servlets), static resource files (gifs), helper classes and libraries. 
JSP (Java Server Pages) is a scripting language based on Java for developing dynamic Web pages. 
Java Servlet is a Java application that runs on a server.

Some advantages of Web Applications include:
 there is no need to configure or allocate disk space for the application,
 they do not have to be installed or upgraded by the user,
 they are not bound by location, nor the software or the data that reside on the user’s computer, and,
 they use the user-friendly web browser as their interface.

Web Application examples include:
 Online Shopping websites
 News websites
 Stock Quote websites
 Weather reports

For more information goto: 
http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/1.0/tutorial/doc/WebApp.html
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/what_is_a_web_application.php





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