A Java EE application client is a stand-alone application that is configured to work as part of a Java EE enterprise application. Any Java application can access remote EJB methods and web services, so you do not necessarily have to create a Java EE application client to access your enterprise application. The advantage of accessing enterprise applications from enterprise application clients is that application clients have access to services and functionality running on the enterprise application server, while regular Java applications do not. For example, you can configure security roles and permissions for an enterprise application client.
An application client is configured using deployment descriptors and is added to an enterprise application as a module. An application client has the following deployment descriptors:
In the IDE, you can create an application client project and import an existing application client into an IDE project. You can create an application client as part of a new enterprise application or create a single application client and add it to any existing enterprise application.