ISV Partners' Guide

Developing Applications

This chapter provides links to documentation that explains how to build, test, and deploy applications for WebLogic Server. This chapter also describes the software bundle that is provided to partners who enroll in the Partner Program. The software bundle contains WebLogic Server, and includes developer support and special licensing geared specifically to ISVs.

The following topics are included:

Building WebLogic Server Applications

WebLogic Server provides the infrastructure you need for creating, testing, and deploying e-commerce applications using the tools provided by Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) from Sun Microsystems, including:

Web application modules—HTML pages, servlets, JavaServer Pages, and related files
Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) modules—entity beans, session beans, and message-driven beans
Connector modules (resource adapters)—stand-alone code components that contain the Java modules and, optionally, native modules required to interact with an Enterprise Information System (EIS)
Enterprise applications—Web application modules, EJB modules, and resource adapters packaged as applications
WebLogic Web services—functions packaged into a single entity that is available to other systems on a network and can be shared by and used as a component of distributed Web-based applications

Table 2-1 provides links to documentation for information about how to create each type of application.

Table 2-1 Where to Find Information About Building WebLogic Applications

For information about developing . . .	See . . .
Web applications	Developing Web Applications, Servlets, and JSPs for WebLogic Server
Enterprise JavaBeans	Programming WebLogic Enterprise JavaBeans
Connector modules	Programming WebLogic Resource Adapters
WebLogic Web services	Programming Web Services for WebLogic Servers—Explains how to build Web services using the WebLogic Server programming environment
Additional WebLogic Server applications	Developing Applications with WebLogic Server Programming WebLogic JMS Programming WebLogic jCOM Programming WebLogic JDBC Programming WebLogic JNDI Programming WebLogic JSP Tag Extensions Programming WebLogic JTA Programming WebLogic RMI Programming WebLogic XML Monitoring and Managing with the J2EE Management APIs

Creating Custom Diagnostic Tools

The WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF) is a monitoring and diagnostic framework that defines and implements a set of services that run within the WebLogic Server process and participate in the standard server life cycle. Using WLDF, you can create, collect, analyze, archive, and access diagnostic data generated by a running server and the applications deployed within its containers. This data provides insight into the run-time performance of servers and applications and enables you to isolate and diagnose faults when they occur.

WLDF includes several components for collecting and analyzing data, including the following:

Instrumentation—adds code to instances of WebLogic Server and the applications running on them to execute diagnostics
Server Image Capture—creates a diagnostic snapshot from the server that can be used for post-failure analysis
Archiver—captures and persists all data events, log records, and metrics from server instances and applications
Harvester—captures metrics from run-time MBeans, including WebLogic Server MBeans and custom MBeans
Watches and Notifications—provides the means for monitoring server and application states and sending notifications based on criteria set in the watches

WLDF provides a set of standardized application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable dynamic access and control of diagnostic data, as well as improved monitoring that provides visibility into the server. ISVs can use these APIs to develop custom monitoring and diagnostic tools for integration with WLDF. For more information, see Configuring and Using the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework.

Creating Custom Security Providers

WebLogic Security Service includes modules that provide security services to applications for the protection of WebLogic resources. WebLogic Server provides a number of these modules, called security providers, out-of-the-box. Security providers "plug in to" a WebLogic Server security realm to provide security services, such as authentication, authorization, identity assertion, adjudication, role-mapping, credential-mapping, auditing, and so on.

Although the WebLogic Security Service provides end-to-end security out-of-the-box for a WebLogic Server deployment environment, the use of custom security providers enables users to accommodate specialized application security requirements. The WebLogic Security Service provides several Service Provider Interfaces (SSPIs), which ISVs can use to develop custom security providers for the WebLogic Server environment. SSPIs are available for Adjudication, Auditing, Authentication, Authorization, Credential Mapping, Identity Assertion, Role Mapping, and Certificate Lookup and Validation.

To develop a custom security provider, an ISV must:

Create run-time classes for the security provider by implementing the appropriate security service provider interfaces (SSPIs) from the weblogic.security.spi package.
Create an MBean type, which is used for configuring and managing the security provider.
Create a console extension to the WebLogic Server Administration Console to support management and configuration capabilities for the custom provider.

For detailed information about creating custom security providers, see Developing Security Providers for WebLogic Server.

Creating JMX-Compatible Management Systems

Java Management Extensions (JMX) is a specification for monitoring and managing Java applications. It enables a generic management system to monitor an application, raise notifications when the application needs attention, and change the state of the application to remedy problems. Like SNMP and other management standards, JMX is a public specification and many vendors of commonly used monitoring products support it.

To enable ISVs to integrate their management systems with the WebLogic Server management system, WebLogic Server provides a set of standards-based interfaces that are fully compliant with the Java Management Extensions (JMX) specification. WebLogic Server uses the JMX 1.2 implementation that is included in JDK 1.5.

ISVs can use these interfaces to build management applications that monitor WebLogic Server managed beans (MBeans) or custom MBeans, change the configuration of a WebLogic Server domain, and monitor the distribution of these changes to all server instances in the domain. ISVs can also use these interfaces to manage end-user applications that contain JMX instrumentation. Because BEA's implementation of JMX is fully compliant with JMX 1.2, JMX clients can perform all WebLogic Server management functions without using BEA's proprietary classes.

For more information about building JMX-compatible management systems, see Developing Custom Management Utilities with JMX.

Using the Partner Software Bundle

As mentioned in ISV Resources, Services, and Tools, when you enroll in the BEA Partner Program, you receive an application development and deployment software bundle. The software bundle includes a collection, on CD-ROM, of all major BEA products. The bundle also includes a set of licenses that enable you to develop, deploy, and test applications for WebLogic Server and BEA Tuxedo in the types of environments in which your customers will use them, including configurations that potentially require a great deal of scalability. The usage rights granted by the software bundle are especially useful for creating demonstrations, prototypes, and proofs-of-concept appropriate for your business.

Software Bundle Contents

The software bundle includes the following:

WebLogic Server test server licenses

Gives you the ability to load the WebLogic Server software onto a designated number of test servers. Note that although there is no limitation on the number of CPUs per test server, or on the number of server connections, you need to purchase additional test server licenses if your test environment exceeds the number of designated test servers. Use of this license is limited specifically to testing purposes.

BEA Tuxedo developer licenses

All partners receive ten developer licenses for BEA Tuxedo with Jolt, also limited specifically to development and testing purposes.

For comprehensive information about the contents of the software bundle, enrolled partners can access the BEA Partner Program Guide at the following URL:

ftp://pdownload:BUY_ME@ftpna2.bea.com/pub/program/BEA_Partner_Program_Guide.pdf

Installing the Software Bundle

When you receive your product CDs, install the software from them. For installation instructions, see the BEA Products Installation Guide.

Caution: If the BEA Home directory into which you plan to install the software bundle already contains other BEA products, back up the BEA_HOME\license.bea file that exists in that directory. (If you plan to install the software bundle into a different directory, you do not need to back up that existing license.bea file.) For more information about the BEA Home directory and the license.bea file, see "Selecting Directories for Your Installation" in Preparing for Your Installation in the BEA Products Installation Guide.

Downloading BEA Software

To start using BEA software immediately (instead of waiting for delivery of CDs), you can download it from the BEA Systems Download Center:

http://commerce.beasys.com

If you have an active WebSUPPORT account, use your WebSUPPORT login password for software downloads.

Software Products Not Included in the Software Bundle

Depending on your business, you might be interested in redistributing other BEA software that is not included in the software bundle. If you are interested in redistributing such software, contact your BEA account representative for more information.

Next Steps

After you install WebLogic Server and finish building the applications that you plan to distribute, complete the following tasks:

Configure a domain for developing and running your applications. See Configuring and Installing WebLogic Applications.

Create a template of the domain created in the previous step that reproduces the domain required for running your applications. See Configuring and Installing WebLogic Applications.

Distribute your files. See Distributing WebLogic Server.