Glueware When integrating large commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages into your environment, often it is necessary to build additional applications or components that act as mediators to support the system's interactions with other applications or components. This additional software can be labeled as "glueware."

Portal A Web site "gateway" that provides multiple services, which could include Web searching capability, news, free-email, discussion groups, online shopping, references and other services. A more recent trend is to use the same term for sites that offer services to customers of particular industries, such as a Web-based bank "portal," on which customers can access their checking, savings and investment accounts.

SSL Secure Sockets Layer. Used by most commerce servers on the World Wide Web, this high-level security protocol protects the confidentiality and security of data while it is being transmitted through the internet. Based on RSA Data Security's public-key cryptography, SSL is an open protocol that has been submitted to several industry groups as the industry security standard. Denoted by the letters HTTPS in the URL.

Web Application In software engineering, a web application is an application delivered to users from a web server over a network such as the World Wide Web or an intranet. Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of the web browser as a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity.

Web applications are stored on a server and delivered to users over the Internet. A Web application is usually a three-tier structure, comprising a User Service tier (allowing user access to the application), a Business Service tier (allowing the user to carry out complex activities) and a Data Service tier (which allows data storage and retrieval).