Java EE and Not Choosing EJBs

[Michael Finney]

I spoke with some people about Java EE and architectural topologies. One of the questions someone asked me was whether I felt EJBs were bloated and not good to use.

For a high volume enterprise system with a web interface, what is the best mix of technologies to use? Things mentioned were DAOs, Hibernate, � I get the feeling that most people are using some of the JEE technologies but not EJBs and are going with something else.

What�s going on in everybody�s architectural topologies?

[Jaikiran Pai]

One of the questions someone asked me was whether I felt EJBs were bloated and not good to use.

I have heard people saying EJBs (2.x) are no longer the right technology to use. Spring and Hibernate were considered to be the next best thing. I personally have never got a chance to work on Spring and as such dont have any comments on whether they were right or not. But i do believe that EJBs (2.x) are really not the right technologies for your application *now with the introduction of EJB3*. People who have experience working with EJB2.x would certainly appreciate the ease of using EJB3. The complexities that were part of EJB2.x are now simplified in EJB3.

I get the feeling that most people are using some of the JEE technologies but not EJBs and are going with something else.

Again, personally, i would say its just a little early to judge that. Though EJB3 has been now out for a while, there are few applications in production on this technology. It would definitely need some more time for the hype to settle down and only then would we have an answer whether EJB3 matches its expectations. Having said that, i do see people considering EJB3 an option for new applications.

[Michael Finney]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Any good website sources which have the pulse on what people are doing (as discussed above)?

[Jaikiran Pai]

Originally posted by Michael Finney:
Any good website sources which have the pulse on what people are doing (as discussed above)?

My comments were based on what i see at my work place But, yes i have seen articles where EJB3 has been most often compared against Spring. One of the good ones being this, by JavaRanch's bartender and author Michael Yuan.

[John Ament]

We have been using Spring with our software for about a year now. It was pretty good, did most of what we needed, but now we have to have remote management support, so EJBs became the way to go, along side JMX and JMS. Company also switched gears moving a lot of their .NET software to Java, and reducing the scope of C++ used.

It's been an interesting transition, but no , not everyone needs EJBs to start.

[Michael Finney]

Great info. Hmm. Someone I know says that he read that when it's a choice between Java and C#/asp/.net nowadays, 70% of them choose .net.