Smart Reference Data uses a "web-service-architecture".
Architecture Description
The client is a rich client Windows forms application with a wide range of powerful GUI interfaces. The client communicates to the Web Service on the application server. The communication is handled through SOAP Request and responses.
The web service handles the client request, does the work, communicates with the database server, and sends the responses to the clients.
The client receives the responses from the web service and displays the results. The client doesn't communicate with the database directly.
Web Service
The Web Service works as an Application server and handles the requests of the client. This can be simple Insert/Update and Delete commands, but can also be complex, long running business logic processes. The Web Service communicates with an Oracle database.
Database Tier
The database contains objects to store Smart Reference Data, the user and system data itself, as well as the second part of the Smart Reference Data business logic.