Chapter 1   About the Application Server Foundation Class Library


This chapter gives an overview of the classes and interfaces that make up the iPlanet Application Server Foundation Class Library.

This chapter includes the following main topics:

• Support for Standard Java APIs

• How to Use the iPlanet Application Server API

Support for Standard Java APIs

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iPlanet Application Server supports several industry-standard Java APIs. In particular, iPlanet Application Server supports the APIs and technologies as defined by the following specifications:

• Java Servlet 2.1 API Specification

• Enterprise JavaBeans 1.0 Specification

• JavaServer Pages 0.92 Specification

• JDBC 2.0 Core API Specification

• JDBC 2.0 Standard Extensions Specification

Note that iPlanet Application Server 6.5 provides full support for JDBC 2.0. The supported JDBC 2.0 functionality is described in the Developer's Guide.

The specifications listed above are accessible from the following location:

installdir/iPlanet Application Server/docs/index.htm

where installdir is the location in which you installed iPlanet Application Server.

Note that Sun Microsystems owns the process of defining, creating, and publishing these specifications. As a result, you can find more information about these APIs at their web site:

http://java.sun.com

This web site also hosts the latest versions of the Java specifications, which are not necessarily supported in iPlanet Application Server 6.0.

How to Use the iPlanet Application Server API

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This guide, iPlanet Application Server Foundation Class Reference (Java), provides information on the iPlanet Application Server API. If you want to develop an application that is 100% compliant with the industry-standard Java technologies (servlets, JSPs, EJBs, and JDBC calls), do not use the iPlanet Application Server API.

However, there are three main situations for which the iPlanet Application Server API is useful:

• To take advantage of additional iPlanet Application Server features (see: Additional iPlanet Application Server Features)

• To use the development environment provided by iPlanet Application Builder. The iPlanet Application Server API is used in some of the code that iPlanet Application Builder automatically generates (see: The Development Environment of iPlanet Application Builder)

• To use deprecated functionality for backward compatibility (see: Deprecated Functionality)

Additional iPlanet Application Server Features

In many situations, you'd like your application to use functionality that is not supported by the industry-standard APIs (for example, application events, security, and distributed state).

In addition, your application may need to access code such as:

• code that was built to run on a previous release of iPlanet Application Server

• other proprietary code

For these situations, you may want to use the features listed in the following table:

Table 0.1

Classes	Interfaces
GXContext	HttpServletRequest2	IEnumObject
iPlanet Application ServerRowSet	HttpSession2	ILock
SqlUtil	IAppEventMgr	IMailbox
	IAppEventObj	IServerContext
	ICallerContext	IState2
	IContext

The Development Environment of iPlanet Application Builder

If you develop applications using iPlanet Application Builder, your generated code may rely on the classes or interfaces listed in the following table. Typically, only iPlanet Application Builder users use these classes or interfaces, although they are available to anyone developing applications in the iPlanet Application Server environment.

Table 0.2

Classes	Interfaces
BaseUtils	IListRowSet
DBRowSet	IRowSet2
DefaultHttpSession	IServletErrorHandler
DefaultHttpSession2
DefaultTemplateMap
MemRowSet
iPlanet Application ServerString
iPlanet Application ServerStringBuffer

Deprecated Functionality

iPlanet Application Server now supports a standards-based application model. As a result, many of the classes and interfaces in the iPlanet Application Server Foundation Class Library are deprecated. They are provided only for backward compatibility with existing iPlanet Application Server 6.0 applications.

Deprecated code will become unsupported in an upcoming release. iPlanet Application Server therefore recommends that new applications use equivalent functionality from the industry-standard Java APIs. In many cases, you may want to migrate existing applications, so that they operate within the new application model. For more information, see the Migration Guide.

The following classes and interfaces of the iPlanet Application Server API are deprecated. Within this reference guide, the corresponding headings are marked (deprecated).

Table 0.3

Classes	Interfaces
AppLogic	IAppEvent	IResultSet
GUID	IBuffer	ISequence
GX	ICallableStmt	ISequenceMgr
GXVAL	IColumn	ISession2
Session2	IDataConn	ISessionIDGen
TemplateDataBasic	IDataConnSet	IStreamBuffer
TemplateMapBasic	IError	ITable
Util	IHierQuery	ITemplateData
	IHierResultSet	ITemplateMap
	IObject	ITile
	IOrder	ITrans
	IPreparedQuery	IValList
	IQuery