Building a Multi-tiered Application
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To create a multi-tiered database application:
The order of creation is important. You should create and run the server application before you create a client. At design time, you can then connect to the server application to test your client. You can, of course, create a client without specifying the server application at design time, and only supply the server name at run time. However, doing so prevents you from seeing if your application works as expected when you code at design time. You will also be unable to choose servers and providers using the Object Inspector.
COM-based servers need to be registered before being used. If you are not creating the client application on the same system as the server, and you are using a DCOM connection, you may want to register the application server on the client system. This makes the connection component aware of the server application at design time so that you can choose server names and provider names from a drop-down list in the Object Inspector. (If you are using a Web connection, SOAP connection, or socket connection, the connection component fetches the names of registered providers from the server machine.)