J2EE Framework components

[Abhijit Sontakey]

Hi,

I am in the process of crteating a J2EE framework for building collaborative applications such as: Social Bookmarking, Social Networking,
Media Sharing, Collaborative workspaces.

I request help mainly in identifying the layers and J2EE components for each layer. As an example ConnectionPooling for Db access, Logging.

The components will be generic so that can be used by all applictaions.
I am planning to use Struts for presentation and no framework as such as Business layer.

I need help in identifying the J2EE components in a framework that will be required. Any help in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Abhijit.

[Vassili Vladimir]

You can use EJBs as it provides both a business logic layer and a persistence layer.

Struts is a good choice for your presentation layer.

Using a persistence layer like what EJBs provide you, you can freely choose any RDBMS system you like.

Regards,

[Abhijit Sontakey]

Hi Vladimir,

Thanks for the reply. However it woud be great if you can provide some more information. I am looking for J2EE components that neeed to identified. Do i need to create a Notification Service, Exception Handlining component, Connection pooling, ? How to handle SSO across the enterprise in J2ee framework?

I would like to know these Data Access Layer and services layer components.
As all the applications would be developed in J2EE environment, will EJBs be required?

I would appreciate if you can provide the above mentioned information that I am looking for.

Regards
Abhijit

[Vassili Vladimir]

Well,

EJBs are not required. As a matter of fact you can use the Spring framework, it can provide you with all the services you are asking for.

Take a look.

Regards,

[Anirudh Vyas]

Man, If you want to produce a good presentation tier, use Wicket. Believe me, i have played with Struts (and other action based frameworks) and things like JSF and tapestry to know that Wicket is best and most easy to use. Should you need help in that respect, let me know.

For business Tier, you could go for Spring, but I'd say stay away from it, unless you plan to use its feature sets extensively. If you are an AOP fan, try Plexus. I would use Spring (I am in the Spring camp off and on ) only when the project scope is large enough (not being specific on purpose).

For Data access tier duh! no brainer : Hibernate, PERIOD!

Use common J2EE design patterns that make sense, like Presentation Tier elements ---> using Business Delegate ---> Service Locator (or DI for locating business services) ---> Session Facade --> BO (if using EJBs, if not skip it) ---> DAO.

For DAO, use Generic DAO pattern to model your stuff. (You can make a Generic DAO come closer to "Actual Generic DAO" if you are not using Java 5+).

Let me know how it turned out.

Regards
Vyas, Anirudh

[Vassili Vladimir]

Impressive

[Abhijit Sontakey]

Hi Anirudh and Vladimir

Thanks for the reply. It was very helpful.
However I have a few queries. These are listed below:

1) Is it true that Hibernate is used only when larege no. of database transactions are required? There won't be much of database transactions for collaborative applications. So is Hibernate required?
2)Apart from the components in data access tier, business tier and presentation tier, what will be the components in Services/Utilities tier? e.g. Notification Servcie.

I would appreciate if you can answer the above mentioned queries.

Regards
Abhijit