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The Java EE 5 Tutorial

Part I Introduction

Part One introduces the tutorial and examples.

Chapter 1 Overview

Developers today increasingly recognize the need for distributed, transactional, and portable applications that leverage the speed, security, and reliability of server-side technology. In the world of information technology, enterprise applications must be designed, built, and produced for less money, with greater speed, and with fewer resources.

With the JavaTM Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE), development of Java enterprise applications has never been easier or faster. The aim of the Java EE 5 platform is to provide developers a powerful set of APIs while reducing development time, reducing application complexity, and improving application performance.

The Java EE 5 platform introduces a simplified programming model. With Java EE 5 technology, XML deployment descriptors are now optional. Instead, a developer can simply enter the information as an annotation directly into a Java source file, and the Java EE server will configure the component at deployment and runtime. These annotations are generally used to embed in a program data that would otherwise be furnished in a deployment descriptor. With annotations, the specification information is put directly in your code next to the program element that it affects.

In the Java EE platform, dependency injection can be applied to all resources that a component needs, effectively hiding the creation and lookup of resources from application code. Dependency injection can be used in EJB containers, web containers, and application clients. Dependency injection allows the Java EE container to automatically insert references to other required components or resources using annotations.

The Java Persistence API is new to the Java EE 5 platform. The Java Persistence API provides an object/relational mapping for managing relational data in enterprise beans, web components, and application clients. It can also be used in Java SE applications, outside of the Java EE environment.

This tutorial uses examples to describe the features and functionalities available in the Java EE 5 platform for developing enterprise applications. Whether you are a new or experienced Enterprise developer, you should find the examples and accompanying text a valuable and accessible knowledge base for creating your own solutions.

If you are new to Java EE enterprise application development, this chapter is a good place to start. Here you will review development basics, learn about the Java EE architecture and APIs, become acquainted with important terms and concepts, and find out how to approach Java EE application programming, assembly, and deployment.

Java EE Application Model

The Java EE application model begins with the Java programming language and the Java virtual machine. The proven portability, security, and developer productivity they provide forms the basis of the application model. Java EE is designed to support applications that implement enterprise services for customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and others who make demands on or contributions to the enterprise. Such applications are inherently complex, potentially accessing data from a variety of sources and distributing applications to a variety of clients.

To better control and manage these applications, the business functions to support these various users are conducted in the middle tier. The middle tier represents an environment that is closely controlled by an enterprise’s information technology department. The middle tier is typically run on dedicated server hardware and has access to the full services of the enterprise.

The Java EE application model defines an architecture for implementing services as multitier applications that deliver the scalability, accessibility, and manageability needed by enterprise-level applications. This model partitions the work needed to implement a multitier service into two parts: the business and presentation logic to be implemented by the developer, and the standard system services provided by the Java EE platform. The developer can rely on the platform to provide solutions for the hard systems-level problems of developing a multitier service.

Distributed Multitiered Applications

The Java EE platform uses a distributed multitiered application model for enterprise applications. Application logic is divided into components according to function, and the various application components that make up a Java EE application are installed on different machines depending on the tier in the multitiered Java EE environment to which the application component belongs.

Figure 1–1 shows two multitiered Java EE applications divided into the tiers described in the following list. The Java EE application parts shown in Figure 1–1 are presented in Java EE Components.

Although a Java EE application can consist of the three or four tiers shown in Figure 1–1, Java EE multitiered applications are generally considered to be three-tiered applications because they are distributed over three locations: client machines, the Java EE server machine, and the database or legacy machines at the back end. Three-tiered applications that run in this way extend the standard two-tiered client and server model by placing a multithreaded application server between the client application and back-end storage.

Figure 1–1 Multitiered Applications

Diagram of multitiered application structure, including client tier, web tier, business tier, and EIS tier.

Security

While other enterprise application models require platform-specific security measures in each application, the Java EE security environment enables security constraints to be defined at deployment time. The Java EE platform makes applications portable to a wide variety of security implementations by shielding application developers from the complexity of implementing security features.

The Java EE platform provides standard declarative access control rules that are defined by the developer and interpreted when the application is deployed on the server. Java EE also provides standard login mechanisms so application developers do not have to implement these mechanisms in their applications. The same application works in a variety of different security environments without changing the source code.

Java EE Components

Java EE applications are made up of components. A Java EE component is a self-contained functional software unit that is assembled into a Java EE application with its related classes and files and that communicates with other components.

The Java EE specification defines the following Java EE components:

Java EE components are written in the Java programming language and are compiled in the same way as any program in the language. The difference between Java EE components and “standard” Java classes is that Java EE components are assembled into a Java EE application, are verified to be well formed and in compliance with the Java EE specification, and are deployed to production, where they are run and managed by the Java EE server.

Java EE Clients

A Java EE client can be a web client or an application client.

Web Clients

A web client consists of two parts: (1) dynamic web pages containing various types of markup language (HTML, XML, and so on), which are generated by web components running in the web tier, and (2) a web browser, which renders the pages received from the server.

A web client is sometimes called a thin client. Thin clients usually do not query databases, execute complex business rules, or connect to legacy applications. When you use a thin client, such heavyweight operations are off-loaded to enterprise beans executing on the Java EE server, where they can leverage the security, speed, services, and reliability of Java EE server-side technologies.

Applets

A web page received from the web tier can include an embedded applet. An applet is a small client application written in the Java programming language that executes in the Java virtual machine installed in the web browser. However, client systems will likely need the Java Plug-in and possibly a security policy file for the applet to successfully execute in the web browser.

Web components are the preferred API for creating a web client program because no plug-ins or security policy files are needed on the client systems. Also, web components enable cleaner and more modular application design because they provide a way to separate applications programming from web page design. Personnel involved in web page design thus do not need to understand Java programming language syntax to do their jobs.

Application Clients

An application client runs on a client machine and provides a way for users to handle tasks that require a richer user interface than can be provided by a markup language. It typically has a graphical user interface (GUI) created from the Swing or the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) API, but a command-line interface is certainly possible.

Application clients directly access enterprise beans running in the business tier. However, if application requirements warrant it, an application client can open an HTTP connection to establish communication with a servlet running in the web tier. Application clients written in languages other than Java can interact with Java EE 5 servers, enabling the Java EE 5 platform to interoperate with legacy systems, clients, and non-Java languages.

The JavaBeansTM Component Architecture

The server and client tiers might also include components based on the JavaBeans component architecture (JavaBeans components) to manage the data flow between an application client or applet and components running on the Java EE server, or between server components and a database. JavaBeans components are not considered Java EE components by the Java EE specification.

JavaBeans components have properties and have get and set methods for accessing the properties. JavaBeans components used in this way are typically simple in design and implementation but should conform to the naming and design conventions outlined in the JavaBeans component architecture.

Java EE Server Communications

Figure 1–2 shows the various elements that can make up the client tier. The client communicates with the business tier running on the Java EE server either directly or, as in the case of a client running in a browser, by going through JSP pages or servlets running in the web tier.

Figure 1–2 Server Communication

Diagram of client-server communication. Application clients access the business tier directly. Browsers, web pages, and applets access the web tier.

Your Java EE application uses a thin browser-based client or thick application client. In deciding which one to use, you should be aware of the trade-offs between keeping functionality on the client and close to the user (thick client) and off-loading as much functionality as possible to the server (thin client). The more functionality you off-load to the server, the easier it is to distribute, deploy, and manage the application; however, keeping more functionality on the client can make for a better perceived user experience.

Web Components

Java EE web components are either servlets or pages created using JSP technology (JSP pages) and/or JavaServer Faces technology. Servlets are Java programming language classes that dynamically process requests and construct responses. JSP pages are text-based documents that execute as servlets but allow a more natural approach to creating static content. JavaServer Faces technology builds on servlets and JSP technology and provides a user interface component framework for web applications.

Static HTML pages and applets are bundled with web components during application assembly but are not considered web components by the Java EE specification. Server-side utility classes can also be bundled with web components and, like HTML pages, are not considered web components.

As shown in Figure 1–3, the web tier, like the client tier, might include a JavaBeans component to manage the user input and send that input to enterprise beans running in the business tier for processing.

Figure 1–3 Web Tier and Java EE Applications

Diagram of client-server communication showing detail of JavaBeans components and JSP pages in the web tier.

Business Components

Business code, which is logic that solves or meets the needs of a particular business domain such as banking, retail, or finance, is handled by enterprise beans running in the business tier. Figure 1–4 shows how an enterprise bean receives data from client programs, processes it (if necessary), and sends it to the enterprise information system tier for storage. An enterprise bean also retrieves data from storage, processes it (if necessary), and sends it back to the client program.

Figure 1–4 Business and EIS Tiers

Diagram of client-server communication showing detail of entities, session beans, and message-driven beans in the business tier.

Enterprise Information System Tier

The enterprise information system tier handles EIS software and includes enterprise infrastructure systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), mainframe transaction processing, database systems, and other legacy information systems. For example, Java EE application components might need access to enterprise information systems for database connectivity.

Java EE Containers

Normally, thin-client multitiered applications are hard to write because they involve many lines of intricate code to handle transaction and state management, multithreading, resource pooling, and other complex low-level details. The component-based and platform-independent Java EE architecture makes Java EE applications easy to write because business logic is organized into reusable components. In addition, the Java EE server provides underlying services in the form of a container for every component type. Because you do not have to develop these services yourself, you are free to concentrate on solving the business problem at hand.

Container Services

Containers are the interface between a component and the low-level platform-specific functionality that supports the component. Before a web, enterprise bean, or application client component can be executed, it must be assembled into a Java EE module and deployed into its container.

The assembly process involves specifying container settings for each component in the Java EE application and for the Java EE application itself. Container settings customize the underlying support provided by the Java EE server, including services such as security, transaction management, Java Naming and Directory InterfaceTM (JNDI) lookups, and remote connectivity. Here are some of the highlights:

Because the Java EE architecture provides configurable services, application components within the same Java EE application can behave differently based on where they are deployed. For example, an enterprise bean can have security settings that allow it a certain level of access to database data in one production environment and another level of database access in another production environment.

The container also manages nonconfigurable services such as enterprise bean and servlet life cycles, database connection resource pooling, data persistence, and access to the Java EE platform APIs (see Java EE 5 APIs).

Container Types

The deployment process installs Java EE application components in the Java EE containers as illustrated in Figure 1–5.

Figure 1–5 Java EE Server and Containers

Diagram of client-server communication showing servlets and JSP pages in the web tier and enterprise beans in the business tier.

Web Services Support

Web services are web-based enterprise applications that use open, XML-based standards and transport protocols to exchange data with calling clients. The Java EE platform provides the XML APIs and tools you need to quickly design, develop, test, and deploy web services and clients that fully interoperate with other web services and clients running on Java-based or non-Java-based platforms.

To write web services and clients with the Java EE XML APIs, all you do is pass parameter data to the method calls and process the data returned; or for document-oriented web services, you send documents containing the service data back and forth. No low-level programming is needed because the XML API implementations do the work of translating the application data to and from an XML-based data stream that is sent over the standardized XML-based transport protocols. These XML-based standards and protocols are introduced in the following sections.

The translation of data to a standardized XML-based data stream is what makes web services and clients written with the Java EE XML APIs fully interoperable. This does not necessarily mean that the data being transported includes XML tags because the transported data can itself be plain text, XML data, or any kind of binary data such as audio, video, maps, program files, computer-aided design (CAD) documents and the like. The next section introduces XML and explains how parties doing business can use XML tags and schemas to exchange data in a meaningful way.

XML

XML is a cross-platform, extensible, text-based standard for representing data. When XML data is exchanged between parties, the parties are free to create their own tags to describe the data, set up schemas to specify which tags can be used in a particular kind of XML document, and use XML stylesheets to manage the display and handling of the data.

For example, a web service can use XML and a schema to produce price lists, and companies that receive the price lists and schema can have their own stylesheets to handle the data in a way that best suits their needs. Here are examples:

SOAP Transport Protocol

Client requests and web service responses are transmitted as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages over HTTP to enable a completely interoperable exchange between clients and web services, all running on different platforms and at various locations on the Internet. HTTP is a familiar request-and response standard for sending messages over the Internet, and SOAP is an XML-based protocol that follows the HTTP request-and-response model.

The SOAP portion of a transported message handles the following:

WSDL Standard Format

The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is a standardized XML format for describing network services. The description includes the name of the service, the location of the service, and ways to communicate with the service. WSDL service descriptions can be stored in UDDI registries or published on the web (or both). The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8 provides a tool for generating the WSDL specification of a web service that uses remote procedure calls to communicate with clients.

UDDI and ebXML Standard Formats

Other XML-based standards, such as Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and ebXML, make it possible for businesses to publish information on the Internet about their products and web services, where the information can be readily and globally accessed by clients who want to do business.

Java EE Application Assembly and Deployment

A Java EE application is packaged into one or more standard units for deployment to any Java EE platform-compliant system. Each unit contains:

Once a Java EE unit has been produced, it is ready to be deployed. Deployment typically involves using a platform’s deployment tool to specify location-specific information, such as a list of local users that can access it and the name of the local database. Once deployed on a local platform, the application is ready to run.

Packaging Applications

A Java EE application is delivered in an Enterprise Archive (EAR) file, a standard Java Archive (JAR) file with an .ear extension. Using EAR files and modules makes it possible to assemble a number of different Java EE applications using some of the same components. No extra coding is needed; it is only a matter of assembling (or packaging) various Java EE modules into Java EE EAR files.

An EAR file (see Figure 1–6) contains Java EE modules and deployment descriptors. A deployment descriptor is an XML document with an .xml extension that describes the deployment settings of an application, a module, or a component. Because deployment descriptor information is declarative, it can be changed without the need to modify the source code. At runtime, the Java EE server reads the deployment descriptor and acts upon the application, module, or component accordingly.

Figure 1–6 EAR File Structure

Diagram of EAR file structure. META-INF and web, application client, EJB, and resource adapter modules are under the assembly root.

There are two types of deployment descriptors: Java EE and runtime. A Java EE deployment descriptor is defined by a Java EE specification and can be used to configure deployment settings on any Java EE-compliant implementation. A runtime deployment descriptor is used to configure Java EE implementation-specific parameters. For example, the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 runtime deployment descriptor contains information such as the context root of a web application, the mapping of portable names of an application’s resources to the server’s resources, and Application Server implementation-specific parameters, such as caching directives. The Application Server runtime deployment descriptors are named sun-moduleType.xml and are located in the same META-INF directory as the Java EE deployment descriptor.

A Java EE module consists of one or more Java EE components for the same container type and one component deployment descriptor of that type. An enterprise bean module deployment descriptor, for example, declares transaction attributes and security authorizations for an enterprise bean. A Java EE module without an application deployment descriptor can be deployed as a stand-alone module.

The four types of Java EE modules are as follows:

Development Roles

Reusable modules make it possible to divide the application development and deployment process into distinct roles so that different people or companies can perform different parts of the process.

The first two roles involve purchasing and installing the Java EE product and tools. After software is purchased and installed, Java EE components can be developed by application component providers, assembled by application assemblers, and deployed by application deployers. In a large organization, each of these roles might be executed by different individuals or teams. This division of labor works because each of the earlier roles outputs a portable file that is the input for a subsequent role. For example, in the application component development phase, an enterprise bean software developer delivers EJB JAR files. In the application assembly role, another developer combines these EJB JAR files into a Java EE application and saves it in an EAR file. In the application deployment role, a system administrator at the customer site uses the EAR file to install the Java EE application into a Java EE server.

The different roles are not always executed by different people. If you work for a small company, for example, or if you are prototyping a sample application, you might perform the tasks in every phase.

Java EE Product Provider

The Java EE product provider is the company that designs and makes available for purchase the Java EE platform APIs, and other features defined in the Java EE specification. Product providers are typically application server vendors who implement the Java EE platform according to the Java EE 5 Platform specification.

Tool Provider

The tool provider is the company or person who creates development, assembly, and packaging tools used by component providers, assemblers, and deployers.

Application Component Provider

The application component provider is the company or person who creates web components, enterprise beans, applets, or application clients for use in Java EE applications.

Enterprise Bean Developer

An enterprise bean developer performs the following tasks to deliver an EJB JAR file that contains one or more enterprise beans:

Web Component Developer

A web component developer performs the following tasks to deliver a WAR file containing one or more web components:

Application Client Developer

An application client developer performs the following tasks to deliver a JAR file containing the application client:

Application Assembler

The application assembler is the company or person who receives application modules from component providers and assembles them into a Java EE application EAR file. The assembler or deployer can edit the deployment descriptor directly or can use tools that correctly add XML tags according to interactive selections.

A software developer performs the following tasks to deliver an EAR file containing the Java EE application:

Application Deployer and Administrator

The application deployer and administrator is the company or person who configures and deploys the Java EE application, administers the computing and networking infrastructure where Java EE applications run, and oversees the runtime environment. Duties include such things as setting transaction controls and security attributes and specifying connections to databases.

During configuration, the deployer follows instructions supplied by the application component provider to resolve external dependencies, specify security settings, and assign transaction attributes. During installation, the deployer moves the application components to the server and generates the container-specific classes and interfaces.

A deployer or system administrator performs the following tasks to install and configure a Java EE application:

Java EE 5 APIs

Figure 1–7 illustrates the availability of the Java EE 5 platform APIs in each Java EE container type. The following sections give a brief summary of the technologies required by the Java EE platform, and the APIs used in Java EE applications.

Figure 1–7 Java EE Platform APIs

Diagram of Java EE Platform APIs for the applet, web, EJB, and application client containers.

Enterprise JavaBeans Technology

An Enterprise JavaBeansTM (EJB) component, or enterprise bean, is a body of code having fields and methods to implement modules of business logic. You can think of an enterprise bean as a building block that can be used alone or with other enterprise beans to execute business logic on the Java EE server.

There are two kinds of enterprise beans: session beans and message-driven beans. A session bean represents a transient conversation with a client. When the client finishes executing, the session bean and its data are gone. A message-driven bean combines features of a session bean and a message listener, allowing a business component to receive messages asynchronously. Commonly, these are Java Message Service (JMS) messages.

In Java EE 5, entity beans have been replaced by Java persistence API entities. An entity represents persistent data stored in one row of a database table. If the client terminates, or if the server shuts down, the persistence manager ensures that the entity data is saved.

Java Servlet Technology

Java servlet technology lets you define HTTP-specific servlet classes. A servlet class extends the capabilities of servers that host applications that are accessed by way of a request-response programming model. Although servlets can respond to any type of request, they are commonly used to extend the applications hosted by web servers.

JavaServer Pages Technology

JavaServer PagesTM (JSP) technology lets you put snippets of servlet code directly into a text-based document. A JSP page is a text-based document that contains two types of text: static data (which can be expressed in any text-based format such as HTML, WML, and XML) and JSP elements, which determine how the page constructs dynamic content.

JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library

The JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) encapsulates core functionality common to many JSP applications. Instead of mixing tags from numerous vendors in your JSP applications, you employ a single, standard set of tags. This standardization allows you to deploy your applications on any JSP container that supports JSTL and makes it more likely that the implementation of the tags is optimized.

JSTL has iterator and conditional tags for handling flow control, tags for manipulating XML documents, internationalization tags, tags for accessing databases using SQL, and commonly used functions.

JavaServer Faces

JavaServer Faces technology is a user interface framework for building web applications. The main components of JavaServer Faces technology are as follows:

The following features support the GUI components:

All this functionality is available using standard Java APIs and XML-based configuration files.

Java Message Service API

The Java Message Service (JMS) API is a messaging standard that allows Java EE application components to create, send, receive, and read messages. It enables distributed communication that is loosely coupled, reliable, and asynchronous.

Java Transaction API

The Java Transaction API (JTA) provides a standard interface for demarcating transactions. The Java EE architecture provides a default auto commit to handle transaction commits and rollbacks. An auto commit means that any other applications that are viewing data will see the updated data after each database read or write operation. However, if your application performs two separate database access operations that depend on each other, you will want to use the JTA API to demarcate where the entire transaction, including both operations, begins, rolls back, and commits.

JavaMail API

Java EE applications use the JavaMailTM API to send email notifications. The JavaMail API has two parts: an application-level interface used by the application components to send mail, and a service provider interface. The Java EE platform includes JavaMail with a service provider that allows application components to send Internet mail.

JavaBeans Activation Framework

The JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) is included because JavaMail uses it. JAF provides standard services to determine the type of an arbitrary piece of data, encapsulate access to it, discover the operations available on it, and create the appropriate JavaBeans component to perform those operations.

Java API for XML Processing

The Java API for XML Processing (JAXP), part of the Java SE platform, supports the processing of XML documents using Document Object Model (DOM), Simple API for XML (SAX), and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). JAXP enables applications to parse and transform XML documents independent of a particular XML processing implementation.

JAXP also provides namespace support, which lets you work with schemas that might otherwise have naming conflicts. Designed to be flexible, JAXP lets you use any XML-compliant parser or XSL processor from within your application and supports the W3C schema. You can find information on the W3C schema at this URL: http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema.

Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS)

The JAX-WS specification provides support for web services that use the JAXB API for binding XML data to Java objects. The JAX-WS specification defines client APIs for accessing web services as well as techniques for implementing web service endpoints. The Web Services for J2EE specification describes the deployment of JAX-WS-based services and clients. The EJB and servlet specifications also describe aspects of such deployment. It must be possible to deploy JAX-WS-based applications using any of these deployment models.

The JAX-WS specification describes the support for message handlers that can process message requests and responses. In general, these message handlers execute in the same container and with the same privileges and execution context as the JAX-WS client or endpoint component with which they are associated. These message handlers have access to the same JNDI java:comp/env namespace as their associated component. Custom serializers and deserializers, if supported, are treated in the same way as message handlers.

Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB)

The Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) provides a convenient way to bind an XML schema to a representation in Java language programs. JAXB can be used independently or in combination with JAX-WS, where it provides a standard data binding for web service messages. All Java EE application client containers, web containers, and EJB containers support the JAXB API.

SOAP with Attachments API for Java

The SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) is a low-level API on which JAX-WS and JAXR depend. SAAJ enables the production and consumption of messages that conform to the SOAP 1.1 specification and SOAP with Attachments note. Most developers do not use the SAAJ API, instead using the higher-level JAX-WS API.

Java API for XML Registries

The Java API for XML Registries (JAXR) lets you access business and general-purpose registries over the web. JAXR supports the ebXML Registry and Repository standards and the emerging UDDI specifications. By using JAXR, developers can learn a single API and gain access to both of these important registry technologies.

Additionally, businesses can submit material to be shared and search for material that others have submitted. Standards groups have developed schemas for particular kinds of XML documents; two businesses might, for example, agree to use the schema for their industry’s standard purchase order form. Because the schema is stored in a standard business registry, both parties can use JAXR to access it.

J2EE Connector Architecture

The J2EE Connector architecture is used by tools vendors and system integrators to create resource adapters that support access to enterprise information systems that can be plugged in to any Java EE product. A resource adapter is a software component that allows Java EE application components to access and interact with the underlying resource manager of the EIS. Because a resource adapter is specific to its resource manager, typically there is a different resource adapter for each type of database or enterprise information system.

The J2EE Connector architecture also provides a performance-oriented, secure, scalable, and message-based transactional integration of Java EE-based web services with existing EISs that can be either synchronous or asynchronous. Existing applications and EISs integrated through the J2EE Connector architecture into the Java EE platform can be exposed as XML-based web services by using JAX-WS and Java EE component models. Thus JAX-WS and the J2EE Connector architecture are complementary technologies for enterprise application integration (EAI) and end-to-end business integration.

Java Database Connectivity API

The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API lets you invoke SQL commands from Java programming language methods. You use the JDBC API in an enterprise bean when you have a session bean access the database. You can also use the JDBC API from a servlet or a JSP page to access the database directly without going through an enterprise bean.

The JDBC API has two parts: an application-level interface used by the application components to access a database, and a service provider interface to attach a JDBC driver to the Java EE platform.

Java Persistence API

The Java Persistence API is a Java standards-based solution for persistence. Persistence uses an object-relational mapping approach to bridge the gap between an object oriented model and a relational database. Java Persistence consists of three areas:

Java Naming and Directory Interface

The Java Naming and Directory InterfaceTM (JNDI) provides naming and directory functionality, enabling applications to access multiple naming and directory services, including existing naming and directory services such as LDAP, NDS, DNS, and NIS. It provides applications with methods for performing standard directory operations, such as associating attributes with objects and searching for objects using their attributes. Using JNDI, a Java EE application can store and retrieve any type of named Java object, allowing Java EE applications to coexist with many legacy applications and systems.

Java EE naming services provide application clients, enterprise beans, and web components with access to a JNDI naming environment. A naming environment allows a component to be customized without the need to access or change the component’s source code. A container implements the component’s environment and provides it to the component as a JNDI naming context.

A Java EE component can locate its environment naming context using JNDI interfaces. A component can create a javax.naming.InitialContext object and looks up the environment naming context in InitialContext under the name java:comp/env. A component’s naming environment is stored directly in the environment naming context or in any of its direct or indirect subcontexts.

A Java EE component can access named system-provided and user-defined objects. The names of system-provided objects, such as JTA UserTransaction objects, are stored in the environment naming context, java:comp/env. The Java EE platform allows a component to name user-defined objects, such as enterprise beans, environment entries, JDBC DataSource objects, and message connections. An object should be named within a subcontext of the naming environment according to the type of the object. For example, enterprise beans are named within the subcontext java:comp/env/ejb, and JDBC DataSource references in the subcontext java:comp/env/jdbc.

Java Authentication and Authorization Service

The Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) provides a way for a Java EE application to authenticate and authorize a specific user or group of users to run it.

JAAS is a Java programming language version of the standard Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) framework, which extends the Java Platform security architecture to support user-based authorization.

Simplified Systems Integration

The Java EE platform is a platform-independent, full systems integration solution that creates an open marketplace in which every vendor can sell to every customer. Such a marketplace encourages vendors to compete, not by trying to lock customers into their technologies but instead by trying to outdo each other in providing products and services that benefit customers, such as better performance, better tools, or better customer support.

The Java EE 5 APIs enable systems and applications integration through the following:

Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9

The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 is a fully compliant implementation of the Java EE 5 platform. In addition to supporting all the APIs described in the previous sections, the Application Server includes a number of Java EE tools that are not part of the Java EE 5 platform but are provided as a convenience to the developer.

This section briefly summarizes the tools that make up the Application Server. Instructions for starting and stopping the Application Server, starting the Admin Console, and starting and stopping the Java DB database server are in Chapter 2, Using the Tutorial Examples.

Tools

The Application Server contains the tools listed in Table 1–1. Basic usage information for many of the tools appears throughout the tutorial. For detailed information, see the online help in the GUI tools.

Table 1–1 Application Server Tools

Tool 

Description 

Admin Console

A web-based GUI Application Server administration utility. Used to stop the Application Server and manage users, resources, and applications. 

asadmin

A command-line Application Serveradministration utility. Used to start and stop the Application Server and manage users, resources, and applications. 

asant

A portable command-line build tool that is an extension of the Ant tool developed by the Apache Software Foundation (see http://ant.apache.org/). asant contains additional tasks that interact with the Application Server administration utility.

appclient

A command-line tool that launches the application client container and invokes the client application packaged in the application client JAR file. 

capture-schema

A command-line tool to extract schema information from a database, producing a schema file that the Application Server can use for container-managed persistence. 

package-appclient

A command-line tool to package the application client container libraries and JAR files. 

Java DB database

A copy of the Java DB database server. 

verifier

A command-line tool to validate Java EE deployment descriptors. 

xjc

A command-line tool to transform, or bind, a source XML schema to a set of JAXB content classes in the Java programming language. 

schemagen

A command-line tool to create a schema file for each namespace referenced in your Java classes. 

wsimport

A command-line tool to generate JAX-WS portable artifacts for a given WSDL file. After generation, these artifacts can be packaged in a WAR file with the WSDL and schema documents along with the endpoint implementation and then deployed. 

wsgen

A command-line tool to read a web service endpoint class and generate all the required JAX-WS portable artifacts for web service deployment and invocation. 

Chapter 2 Using the Tutorial Examples

This chapter tells you everything you need to know to install, build, and run the examples. It covers the following topics:

Required Software

The following software is required to run the examples.

Tutorial Bundle

The tutorial example source is contained in the tutorial bundle. To obtain the tutorial bundle, go to http://java.sun.com/javaee/5/docs/tutorial/information/download.html. The tutorial bundle is a zip file that you can unzip in a location of your choice.

After you have installed the tutorial bundle, the example source code is in the tut-install/javaeetutorial5/examples/ directory, where tut-install is the directory where you installed the tutorial. The examples directory contains subdirectories for each of the technologies discussed in the tutorial.

Java Platform, Standard Edition

To build, deploy, and run the examples, you need a copy of Java Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 or Java Platform, Standard Edition 6.0 (J2SE 5.0 or JDK 6). You can download the J2SE 5.0 software from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp. You can download the JDK 6 software from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/.

Download the current JDK update that does not include any other software (such as NetBeans or Java EE).

Sun Java System Application Server 9.1

Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 is targeted as the build and runtime environment for the tutorial examples. To build, deploy, and run the examples, you need a copy of the Application Server and, optionally, NetBeans IDE. You can download the Application Server from http://java.sun.com/javaee/downloads/.

Scroll down to the section entitled Download the Components Independently and click the Download link next to Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 (based on GlassFish V2).

Note –

You can also run the tutorial examples using Sun Java System Application Server 9.0, or using GlassFish V2.

Refer to the Java EE Tutorial Compatibility Wiki page for information about the versions of the Application Server and the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server with which the tutorial examples have been tested.

Application Server Installation Tips

During the installation of the Application Server:

This tutorial refers to the directory where you install the Application Server as as-install. For example, the default installation directory on Microsoft Windows is C:\Sun\AppServer, so as-install is C:\Sun\AppServer.

After you install the Application Server, add the following directories to your PATH to avoid having to specify the full path when you use commands:

as-install/bin
as-install/lib/ant/bin

NetBeans IDE

The NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE) is a free, open-source IDE for developing Java applications, including enterprise applications. NetBeans IDE supports the Java EE 5 platform. You can build, package, deploy, and run the tutorial examples from within NetBeans IDE.

You can download NetBeans IDE from http://www.netbeans.org/.

Refer to the Java EE Tutorial Compatibility Wiki page for information about the versions of NetBeans IDE with which the tutorial examples have been tested.

Apache Ant

Ant is a Java technology-based build tool developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://ant.apache.org/), and is used to build, package, and deploy the tutorial examples. Ant is included with the Application Server. To use the ant command, add as-install/lib/ant/bin to your PATH environment variable.

Starting and Stopping the Application Server

To start the Application Server, open a terminal window or command prompt and execute the following:


asadmin start-domain --verbose domain1

A domain is a set of one or more Application Server instances managed by one administration server. Associated with a domain are the following:

You specify these values when you install the Application Server. The examples in this tutorial assume that you chose the default ports.

With no arguments, the start-domain command initiates the default domain, which is domain1. The --verbose flag causes all logging and debugging output to appear on the terminal window or command prompt (it will also go into the server log, which is located in domain-dir/logs/server.log).

Or, on Windows, you can choose:

Programs -> Sun Microsystems -> Application Server PE 9 -> Start Default Server

After the server has completed its startup sequence, you will see the following output:


Domain domain1 started.

To stop the Application Server, open a terminal window or command prompt and execute:


asadmin stop-domain domain1

Or, on Windows, choose:

Programs -> Sun Microsystems -> Application Server PE 9 -> Stop Default Server

When the server has stopped you will see the following output:


Domain domain1 stopped.

Starting the Admin Console

To administer the Application Server and manage users, resources, and Java EE applications, use the Admin Console tool. The Application Server must be running before you invoke the Admin Console. To start the Admin Console, open a browser at http://localhost:4848/asadmin/.

On Windows, from the Start menu, choose:

Programs -> Sun Microsystems -> Application Server PE 9 -> Application Server

Starting and Stopping the Java DB Database Server

The Application Server includes the Java DB database.

To start the Java DB database server, open a terminal window or command prompt and execute:


asadmin start-database

On Windows, from the Start menu, choose:

Programs -> Sun Microsystems -> Application Server PE 9 -> Start Java DB

To stop the Java DB server, open a terminal window or command prompt and execute:


asadmin stop-database

On Windows, from the Start menu, choose:

Programs -> Sun Microsystems -> Application Server PE 9 -> Stop Java DB

For information about the Java DB database included with the Application Server, see http://developers.sun.com/javadb/.

Building the Examples

The tutorial examples are distributed with a configuration file for either NetBeans IDE or Ant. Directions for building the examples are provided in each chapter. Either NetBeans IDE or Ant may be used to build, package, deploy, and run the examples.

Building the Examples Using NetBeans IDE

To run the tutorial examples in NetBeans IDE, you must register your Application Server installation as a NetBeans Server Instance. Follow these instructions to register the Application Server in NetBeans IDE.

  1. Select Tools->Server Manager to open the Server Manager dialog.

  2. Click Add Server.

  3. Under Server, select Sun Java System Application Server and click Next.

  4. Under Platform Location, enter the location of your Application Server installation.

  5. Select Register Local Default Domain and click Next.

  6. Under Admin Username and Admin Password, enter the admin name and password created when you installed the Application Server.

  7. Click Finish.

Building the Examples on the Command-Line Using Ant

Build properties common to all the examples are specified in the build.properties file in the tut-install/javaeetutorial5/examples/bp-project/ directory. You must create this file before you can run the examples. Copy the file build.properties.sample to build.properties and edit it to reflect your environment. The tutorial examples use the Java BluePrints build system and application layout structure.

To run the Ant scripts, you must set common build properties in the file tut-install/javaeetutorial5/examples/bp-project/build.properties as follows:

Tutorial Example Directory Structure

To facilitate iterative development and keep application source separate from compiled files, the tutorial examples use the Java BluePrints application directory structure.

Each application module has the following structure:

Examples that have multiple application modules packaged into an enterprise application archive (or EAR) have submodule directories that use the following naming conventions:

The Ant build files (build.xml) distributed with the examples contain targets to create a build subdirectory and to copy and compile files into that directory; a dist subdirectory, which holds the packaged module file; and a client-jar directory, which holds the retrieved application client JAR.

Debugging Java EE Applications

This section describes how to determine what is causing an error in your application deployment or execution.

Using the Server Log

One way to debug applications is to look at the server log in domain-dir/logs/server.log. The log contains output from the Application Server and your applications. You can log messages from any Java class in your application with System.out.println and the Java Logging APIs (documented at http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/logging/index.html) and from web components with the ServletContext.log method.

If you start the Application Server with the --verbose flag, all logging and debugging output will appear on the terminal window or command prompt and the server log. If you start the Application Server in the background, debugging information is only available in the log. You can view the server log with a text editor or with the Admin Console log viewer.

    To use the log viewer:

  1. Select the Application Server node.

  2. Select the Logging tab.

  3. Click the Open Log Viewer button. The log viewer will open and display the last 40 entries.

    If you wish to display other entries:

  1. Click the Modify Search button.

  2. Specify any constraints on the entries you want to see.

  3. Click the Search button at the bottom of the log viewer.

Using a Debugger

The Application Server supports the Java Platform Debugger Architecture (JPDA). With JPDA, you can configure the Application Server to communicate debugging information using a socket.

    To debug an application using a debugger:

  1. Enable debugging in the Application Server using the Admin Console:

    1. Select the Application Server node.

    2. Select the JVM Settings tab. The default debug options are set to:


      -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y, suspend=n,address=9009

      As you can see, the default debugger socket port is 9009. You can change it to a port not in use by the Application Server or another service.

    3. Check the Enabled box of the Debug field.

    4. Click the Save button.

  2. Stop the Application Server and then restart it.