An evaluation of the JAVA-BASED approaches to web database access

Given the undeniable popularity of the Web, providing efficient and secure access to remote databases using a Web browser is crucial for the emerging cooperative information systems and applications. In this paper, we evaluat e all currently available Java-based approaches that support persistent con nections between Web clients and database servers. These approaches include Java applets, Java Sockets, Servlets, Remote Method Invocation, CORBA, and mobile agents technology. Our comparison is along the dimensions of perfor mance and programmability. Our findings point out that best performance is not always achievable with high programmability and low resource requiremen ts. Moreover, the mobile agent technology needs to improve its programmabil ity while giving particular emphasis on its infrastructure.