J2EE EAI Book

[JeanLouis Marechaux]

Hi Matjaz.

A couple of questions about the book.
First of all, welcome here.
1) Is Chapt 13 the same than "J2EE Connectors" from the Java Server Programming 1.3 (Wrox) ?
2) Could you tell us a little bit more about what is included in chap 15 and 16 (transaction & security): is it only from an EJB point of view or are there other aspect explained
3) Does the book deal with SOAP ?
If yes, can we find some security considerations about SOAP ?

4) according to you, what is the background a reader should have to really take advantage of your book (dummy, specialist, guru etc..)
Thanks in advance.

[Matjaz Juric]

Hi Bill,

Originally posted by Bill Bailey:
1) Is Chapt 13 the same than "J2EE Connectors" from the Java Server Programming 1.3 (Wrox) ?

Chapter 13 is not exactly the same as in Java Server Programming, although it's from the same author (as far as I know). In the Pro J2EE EAI book the chapter addresses the SAP resource adapter, shows how to use CCI with SAP-RA and presents an example.

Originally posted by Bill Bailey:
2) Could you tell us a little bit more about what is included in chap 15 and 16 (transaction & security): is it only from an EJB point of view or are there other aspect explained

Chapter 15, Transaction Management in EAI explains different transaction models, such as flat, nested and chained transactions, it explains the distributed transaction processing (DTP) and the two-phase commit (2PC). It explains the X/Open DTP standard (AP, TM, RM, TX , XA, and XA+). On the X/Open DTP the CORBA Object Transaction Service is based, which is also explained. As we know, CORBA OTS is the basis for JTS. This is very important for achieving transactional interoperability between different products. X/Open DTP is namely de-facto standard, supported by the majority of products. Next, the Chapter 15 shows an example how to develop a transactional wrapper for an existing application. Finally the Java Transaction Service and the Java Transaction API are explained, together with examples. At the end, transactions in EJB are discussed (CMT and BMT) and different isolation levels are explained.
Chapter 16, Security Management in EAI, first explains the basics of application security. Then it explains the Java security model, JAAS (Java Authentication and Authorization Service), shows examples, it addresses JSSE and JCE. Next, security questions on different tiers (web components, business logic tier, EIS tier) are discussed. Next CORBA Security Model is explained, it is shown how to achieve integration with Java and examples are given. Next Kerberos is explained and JGSS, JSEE and JAAS are compared. Finally it is shown how to achieve single sing-on for integrated applications.

Originally posted by Bill Bailey:
3) Does the book deal with SOAP ?
If yes, can we find some security considerations about SOAP ?

The book covers SOAP, but not into great detail. For more in-depth discussion of SOAP please look into Professional Java SOAP by Henry Bequet.

Originally posted by Bill Bailey:
4) according to you, what is the background a reader should have to really take advantage of your book (dummy, specialist, guru etc..)

To take advantage of the book, the reader should be familiar with Java. It helps, if he's familiar with J2EE too.
Cheers,
Matjaz

[Tiger Scott]

If I have to create my own JCA for a leagcy system- are there any examples on this.
Thanks
Sanjay

[Matjaz Juric]

Hi Sanjay,

Originally posted by Sanjay Bahal:
If I have to create my own JCA for a leagcy system- are there any examples on this.

Yes, examples are provided in Chapter 13. However, JCA might not always be the best solution. What's the best choice is discussed in Chapters 3, 4 and 9.
Cheers,
Matjaz

[Tiger Scott]

Matjaz:
Why do you say JCA may not be the best choice. I would opinion if you could create a JCA style wrapper for a legacy system it could be re-usable and be compatible with other systems etc.
Thanks,
Sanjay

[Ruilin Yang]

It seems to me there is always a problem in the following situation:
Java Swing based client application give us a rich user interface. It is the advantage in this aspect over a html based client. However, we have difficulties to integrate to J2EE system or any legacy system because of the protocol/communication problem. HTML based client (JSP, HTML) use HTTP protocol and easy to make integration.
I like to get some comments on this aspects. I also hope the book gives a good coverage on this aspects.
Thanks
Ruilin

[Tiger Scott]

Ruilin:
I do not know what integration issues a Java client may face. It should be easily be able to talk to any server incl a http server.
Sanjay

[Doug Wang]

Originally posted by Rulin Yang:
It seems to me there is always a problem in the following situation:
Java Swing based client application give us a rich user interface. It is the advantage in this aspect over a html based client. However, we have difficulties to integrate to J2EE system or any legacy system because of the protocol/communication problem. HTML based client (JSP, HTML) use HTTP protocol and easy to make integration.
I like to get some comments on this aspects. I also hope the book gives a good coverage on this aspects.

Hi, Ruilin
As for the situation you mentioned, pure Swing Client has nothing to do with networking. You can add some socket code or higher level http feature to your Swing client. For example, java.net.URL lets you access network easily. Want more powerful? Use java.net.URLConnection, or even write socket code yourself.
URL and URLConnection classes spend you minium work to achieve that.

[Matjaz Juric]

Hi Sanjay,

Originally posted by Sanjay Bahal:
Why do you say JCA may not be the best choice. I would opinion if you could create a JCA style wrapper for a legacy system it could be re-usable and be compatible with other systems etc.

JCA provides a standardized method for accessing EIS systems from J2EE and Java applications (from managed and non-managed environment). Clients access EIS systems through JCA through CCI (Common Client Interface). However, we need a Resource Adapter for the EIS system. For commercial EIS systems, such as ERP, CRM and other systems Resource Adapters are (or will be) provided by vendors.
If we have to develop a Resource Adapter ourselves this is not a trivial task. Therefore for simple legacy systems, where we do not need transaction, security, connection management and other contracts, simpler solutions can be easier to develop.
This is somehow comparable to JDBC. To access a certain database you need a JBDC driver. For accessing a legacy database, sometimes it is easier to access the file directly than to write a JDBC driver.
I don't want to say that JCA is not a good choice for integrationg with EIS systems - indeed it is! However not for every legacy application.
Cheers,
Matjaz

[Matjaz Juric]

Hi Rulin,

Originally posted by Rulin Yang:
It seems to me there is always a problem in the following situation:
Java Swing based client application give us a rich user interface. It is the advantage in this aspect over a html based client. However, we have difficulties to integrate to J2EE system or any legacy system because of the protocol/communication problem. HTML based client (JSP, HTML) use HTTP protocol and easy to make integration.
I like to get some comments on this aspects. I also hope the book gives a good coverage on this aspects.

I've answered (at least I hope I have ) your question in “This weeks Giveaway” http://www.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=11&t=002280