Overview of the WebLogic Enterprise Product


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This topic includes the following sections:

Product Overview

The BEA WebLogic Enterprise product features the integration of BEA Systems Inc. industry-leading technologies - a high performance Java application server and a scalable back-end transaction platform. These technologies are now merged into a single product that gives you maximum choice and flexibility in building robust e-commerce applications that extend from the Web to the enterprise.

The T-Engine in the WebLogic Enterprise product is built upon the proven infrastructure provided in the BEA Tuxedo^TM product. The T-Engine delivers a scalable transaction platform with unparalleled choice of development and deployment options. Using the T-Engine, you can build integrated enterprise applications using multiple programming models. CORBA, J2EE, and Tuxedo applications can all be developed with fully integrated transaction management, security, administration, and reliability capabilities.

The J-Engine in the WebLogic Enterprise product is built upon the BEA WebLogic Server^TM technology. The J-Engine offers an award-winning Java application server that incorporates the most comprehensive implementation of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standards. The application server provides the foundation for the rapid development of Web applications and the performance and reliability required for mission-critical e-commerce sites.

The WLE product incorporates JOLT and WLEC connection pooling technology. The JOLT and WLEC products for scalable connectivity between the T-Engine and J-Engine.

Figure 1-1 illustrates the WebLogic Enterprise product.

Figure 1-1 The WebLogic Enterprise Product

The following sections outline the features of the T-Engine and J-Engine in the WebLogic Enterprise product.

J-Engine Features

The J-Engine in WebLogic Enterprise product provides the following set of features:

A complete implementation of EJB, servlets, Java Server Pages (JSPs), Java Message Service (JMS), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), and the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) as specified by the J2EE standard.
Web page and component clustering of EJBs across multiple servers.
Web page clustering handles transparent replication, load-balancing, and failover for presentation logic. Component clustering handles the complexities of replication, load-balancing, and failover for EJBs.
JSPs for easy development and deployment of dynamic Web content. JSPs can be used with personalization, database access, and transaction EJBs to development many kinds of high-performance Web applications.
Remote Method Invocation (RMI). With RMI, an application can use distributed objects as easily as local objects. RMI can be clustered across multiple WebLogic Servers.
JMS for applications requiring real-time information about changing application conditions. The JMS implementation in the J-Engine provides store and forward and point-to-point messaging with guaranteed delivery. JMS also provides a publish/subscribe event management model.
Multitiered JDBC which allows a Java application to access and update databases from anywhere on the network. The J-Engine includes its own native JDBC drivers for leading database products and also works with any third-party JDBC driver.
Support for Wireless Markup Language (WML) and integration with leading WAP servers for support of wireless clients.
XML support for any XML-compliant browser.
Interoperablity with Microsoft COM objects. Microsoft COM objects can be integrated into the Weblogic Server environment, wrapped with a Java class, and transparently shared over the network.
Access for Web browsers directly via HTTP request. Forwarding capabilities, such as HTTP proxy support, enable dispatching to servers other than the original Web server.
Support for the Java Transaction application programming interface (API) which allows client or server applications to initiate transactions that are propagated to other servers.
A Java management console for remotely monitoring and updating the state of applications and clusters. SNMP support which allows use of any third-party, SNMP-compliant management framework.
A Zero Administration Client (ZAC) which supports that automatic distribution of Java applets, applications, or systems. With ZAC, program libraries, even a new WebLogic Server release, can be installed centrally by an administrator.
Dynamic application partitioning and cluster membership.
Support for Oracle, Informix, Sysbase, and MS SQL-server databases.
Integration with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) including IBM VisualAge, Inprise Jbuilder, Microsoft Visual J++ or any Java 1.1 or higher compliant IDE.
Integrated security and firewall support. Network applications are secured with optional encryption, authentication, and authorization based on the SSL protocol, X.509 digital certificates, and access control lists (ACLs).
Management of IIOP connections that allows the restarting of a connection pool without affecting the availability of the Web environment.

T-Engine Features

The T-Engine in WebLogic Enterprise product provides the following set of features:

A full suite of server-side components including:
- BEA Tuxedo
- A CORBA C++ ORB
- A CORBA Java ORB
- EJB container
- RMI support
  One or more BEA Tuxedo, CORBA Java, CORBA C++, EJB, or RMI server components can be deployed in a single WebLogic Enterprise application.
  
  The WebLogic Enterprise product supports version 1.1 of the Sun Microsystems, Inc. Enterprise JavaBeans Specification.
Rich clients options including:
- Tuxedo /workstation client
- A CORBA C++ ORB client
- A CORBA Java ORB client
- A WebLogic Enterprise RMI client
- An ActiveX client
A proven runtime infrastructure for hosting e-commerce transaction applications, including client connection concentrators, high-performance message routing and load balancing, high-availability features, and database connection pooling.
Full support for Tuxedo 6.x applications.
EJB version 1.1 support for Enterprise Java Bean applications.
A Transaction Processing (TP) Framework for object state and transaction management in CORBA applications.
Interoperability with IIOP-compliant ORBs such as the JDK 1.2 Java ORB.
Access to databases from Java applications using two-phase commit via BEA JDBC-XA drivers. Support for XA-compliant databases using Tuxedo or C++. Drivers are provided for Oracle 8.0.5 and 8.1.5 databases.
A Management Information Base (MIB) that defines the key management attributes of WebLogic Enterprise applications. In addition, programming interfaces and scripting capabilities are available to access the MIBs.
An Administration Console graphical user interface (GUI) for the management of the WebLogic Enterprise environment.
Hot deployment of EJBs through the Deployer GUI tool.
The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) used by WebLogic Enterprise client applications to find WebLogic Enterprise server-side EJB Home objects and RMI objects.
The CORBA and Java Transaction Services (OTS and JTS) to ensure the integrity of your data even when transactions span multiple programming models, databases, and applications.
A security service that handles authentication for principals that need to access resources in a CORBA object or EJB in the WebLogic Enterprise environment. Access control lists (ACLs) are also provided for EJBs in your WebLogic Enterprise application.
The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt client to server communication on the wire. SSL support includes IIOP connection pools between the J-Engine and the T-Engine.
Propagation of the security context from the J-Engine to the T-Engine through IIOP connection pools.
A Security Service Plug-In Interface (SPI) for CORBA that allows integration of third-party security plug-ins.
A Notification Service that receives event posting messages, filters them, and distributes the messages to subscribers. The Notification Service provides two sets of interfaces: a CORBA-based interface and a simplified BEA-proprietary interface.
An implementation of the CosLifeCycle service.
An implementation of CosNaming that allows WebLogic Enterprise CORBA server applications to advertise object references using logical names.
An interface repository that stores meta information about WebLogic Enterprise CORBA objects. Meta information includes information about modules, interfaces, operations, attributes, and exceptions.
Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII) support. DII allows WebLogic Enterprise CORBA client applications to dynamically create requests for objects that were not defined at compile time.
Jolt for client-side access to BEA Tuxedo services. Jolt enables browser-based clients (both Java applets and applications) to invoke BEA Tuxedo services and process the results. Jolt is installed separately from the T-Engine.
Java Enterprise Tuxedo (JET) application programming interface (API) for server-side access to BEA Tuxedo services. The JET API enables Java server applications (CORBA Java, EJB, or RMI) running within a WebLogic Enterprise domain to invoke BEA Tuxedo services and process the results. The JET API is automatically installed when you install the WebLogic Enterprise product.

The rest of this Getting Started manual describes the programming environment of the T-Engine and the development process for CORBA objects and EJBs in the T-Engine environment. For a description of the programming environment and development process for the J-Engine, see the Overviews topic in the Weblogic Server portion of the online documentation CD.