Java EE and .Net Interoperability: Integration Strategies, Patterns, and Best Practices

Structure of the Book:

This book covers two main constituents of any Java EE.NET integration. The first one pertains to the integration type such as synchronous or asynchronous, outlining how individual Java and .NET components can integrate using their diverse technology set. The second constituent relates to the quality of service requirements, such as security, reliability, and scalability, essential to meet a Service Level Agreement (SLA) across the heterogeneous enterprise environment. If you take a closer look at the book structure, you'll notice that the book represents a catalog of integration strategies that adheres to the following format:

• Strategy Name The strategy has a unique name that reflects its objective.
• Problem space Each strategy aims to address a specific Java EE.NET interoperability problem. Asynchronous reliable integration is an example of such a problem.
• Solution This part of the strategy details a strategy design and outlines technology choices.
• Benefits and Limitations Any interoperability strategy has its pros and cons that are highlighted here. For example, ease of maintenance or scalability are common benefits of some of the strategies.
• Related Patterns Industry patterns such as Core J2EE Patterns are used throughout this book to bring those that are familiar to you into the scope of Java EE.NET integration. Are there similar resources in the .NET space?
• Example Throughout the book, use cases from the WS-I Supply Chain Management Application (SCMA) are utilized to demonstrate how to implement a strategy. Most of the strategies have two sets of samples corresponding to the Java.NET and .NETJava communication.

The strategy catalog comprises the core of this book and can be used as a reference manual on Java EE.NET interoperability. Before delving into the strategy discussion, it is helpful to review the fundamentals of the Java EE and .NET platforms. The emphasis in reviewing these platforms will focus on their interoperability characteristics. Both platforms expose APIs to develop component-based, loosely coupled integration points. The platform overview is followed by Part II, "Synchronous Integration Solutions," which discusses common business scenarios and reasons for synchronous integration. The de facto technology to integrate disparate applications is based on Web services. Chapter 4, "Web Services for Synchronous Integration," demonstrates how a .NET application can discover and access a Web service implemented in Java and vice versa. The synchronous integration discussion continues with the .NET Remoting technology that remains an alternative to Web services and is adopted by open source and various commercial solutions. The .NET Remoting is shipped as part of the Microsoft Indigo Services. Chapter 6, "Resource Tier Synchronous Integration," details database and legacy integration. It demonstrates a simple strategy to build a Data Access Layer to connect to heterogeneous RDMSs, such as MySql and SQL Server. All in all, synchronous integration strategies are useful if you have two systems with tight coupling or strong dependencies. The industry, however, is heavily leaning toward asynchronous application integration.

Asynchronous integrations between Java EE and .NET systems are easier to maintain, less brittle, and tend to be more scalable. Therefore, the majority of the strategies in this book fall under Part III, "Asynchronous Integration Solutions." The first two strategies, Automatic Callback and Response Polling, are based on Web services technologies. They fundamentally differ from the approach taken in the previous section. The main goal of these strategies is to factor out remote calls from the rest of the request processing. The response can be sent via the callback or polling technique. Chapter 9, "Messaging," unveils five distinct strategies that help to automate and streamline the Java EE and .NET system integration around MOM, SMTP, and Enterprise Service Bus technologies. Reliable message delivery is the key differentiator of these strategies. Similar to the previous section, Chapter 10, "Resource Tier Asynchronous Integration," shows how to asynchronously communicate with back-end resources.

Part IV of the book addresses "Quality of Services" for interoperability. It incorporates several chapters that discuss how to implement a secure, reliable, interoperable Java EE.NET environment. This section encompasses distributed transactions and management of a heterogeneous environment, but most importantly it provides best practices on the enterprise architecture that mitigates security, manageability, availability, and reliability risks. The table here outlines strategies listed in this catalog.

Aside from the integration and systemic quality strategies, this book discusses how to deploy a .NET application under a Java EE application server and how to manually port a .NET application to Java. These strategies are included in Chapter 16, "Migrating .NET Applications to Java." Each chapter of this book intends to give the reader an overview of the technologies and concepts used by individual strategies. Messaging, resource pooling, threading, and asynchronous programming models differ under the Java EE and .NET platforms. Understanding these programming models under each platform enables the reader to effectively apply strategy within a specific domain.

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