I am supposed to build a web application that will serve as a front end for a network device. The device runs c/c++ code. The web interface needs to store stuff to a light DB and provision the same data to the application on the device. (all the code,webserver,DB are hosted on the device, which is a linux box as of now). I assume having an appserver to run middleware code is an overkill. But without it how can the code running in a web container communicate with the device. Even if we use a standard appserver it can not communicate to an external device without using JDBC or JMS interfaces.. so.. does this lead to a customized middleware requirement? any ideas? suggestions? .. much appreciated.. -V

(all the code,webserver,DB are hosted on the device, which is a linux box as of now)

If everything is hosted on device with Linux operating system then you are free to use SOAP or simple HTTP to communicate with external appserver. Can you please elaborate your usecase a little more? Sachin