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Client-Server ExplainedClient/server is network architecture which separates a client (often an application that uses a graphical user interface) from a server. Each instance of the client software can send requests to a server. Specific Types of servers include: application servers, file servers, terminal servers, and mail servers. While their purpose varies somewhat, the basic architecture remains the same. Although this idea is applied in a variety of ways, on many different kinds of applications, the easiest example to visualise is the current use of web pages on the internet. For example, if you are reading this article on this website, your computer and web browser would be considered a client, and the computers, databases, and applications that make up this website would be considered the server. When your web browser requests a particular article from the website, the server finds all of the information required to display the article in the database, assembles it into a web page, and sends it back to your web browser for you to look at. Characteristics of a server:
Characteristics of a client:
Servers can be stateless or stateful. A stateless server does not keep any information between requests. A stateful server can remember information between requests. The scope of this information can be global or session. A HTTP server for static HTML pages is an example of a stateless server while Apache Tomcat is an example of a stateful server. The between client and server is often described using sequence diagrams. Sequence diagrams are standardized in the UML. Another type of network architecture is known as a peer-to-peer architecture because each node or instance of the program is both a "client" and a "server" and each has equivalent responsibilities. Both architectures are in wide use.
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