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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THE Java™ EE 5 Tutorial

About This Tutorial:

THE Java™ EE 5 Tutorial is a guide to developing enterprise applications for the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5). Here we cover all the things you need to know to make the best use of this tutorial.

Who Should Use This Tutorial:
This tutorial is intended for programmers who are interested in developing and deploying Java EE 5 applications on the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.

How to Read This Tutorial
The Java EE 5 platform is quite large, and this tutorial reflects this. However, you don’t have to digest everything in it at once. The tutorial has been divided into parts to help you navigate the content more easily.
This tutorial opens with an introductory chapter, which you should read before proceeding to any specific technology area. Chapter 1 covers the Java EE 5 platform architecture and APIs along with the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.
When you have digested the basics, you can delve into one or more of the five main technology areas listed next. Because there are dependencies between some of the chapters, Figure 1 contains a roadmap for navigating through the tutorial.

The web-tier technology chapters cover the components used in developing the presentation layer of a Java EE 5 or stand-alone web application:
• Java Servlet • JavaServer Pages (JSP) • JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) • JavaServer Faces • Web application internationalization and localization

The web services technology chapters cover the APIs used in developing
standard web services:
• The Java API for XML-based Web Services (JAX-WS) • The Java API for XML Binding (JAXB) • The Streaming API for XML (StAX) • The SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) • The Java API for XML Registries (JAXR)

The Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technology chapters cover the components
used in developing the business logic of a Java EE 5 application:
• Session beans
• Message-driven beans

The Persistence technology chapters cover the Java Persistence API, which
is used for accessing databases from Java EE applications:
• Introduction to the Java Persistence API
• Persistence in the Web Tier
• Persistence in the EJB Tier
• The Java Persistence Query Language

The platform services chapters cover the system services used by all the
Java EE 5 component technologies:
• Transactions
• Resource connections
• Security
• Java Message Service
• The Connector architecture

After you have become familiar with some of the technology areas, you are ready to tackle the case studies, which tie together several of the technologies discussed in the tutorial. The Coffee Break Application (Chapter 37) describes an application that uses the web application and web services APIs. The Duke’s Bank Application (Chapter 38) describes an application that employs web application technologies, enterprise beans, and the Java Persistence API.

Finally, the appendix contains auxiliary information helpful to the Java EE 5 application developer:
• Java encoding schemes (Appendix A)

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Rapid J2EE Development: An Adaptive Foundation for Enterprise Applications

How This Book Is Organized:
The contents of this book are broken up into four logical parts:

Part I: Adaptive Processes

• Chapter 1: A J2EE Tutorial Adaptive Foundation. This chapter introduces the concepts behind the creation of an adaptive foundation for rapid development.
• Chapter 2: Rapid Application Development. Techniques commonly associated with the rapid development of software, including rapid development languages, approaches to prototyping, and timeboxed development methods, are described in this chapter.
• Chapter 3: Embracing Adaptive Methods. Chapter 3 explores the importance of lightweight development methodologies that incorporate an iterative approach to building software.
  

Part II: Agile Architectures

• Chapter 4: Designing for Rapidity. This chapter looks at how the choices we make at design time have implications for the project's timeframe.
• Chapter 5: Modeling Software. The topic of this chapter is the use of models for building software architectures, and it examines how UML diagrams enable the communication, validation, and exploration of system designs.
• Chapter 6: Code Generation. We discuss the merits of passive and active code generation. The use of XDoclet for generating boilerplate code artifacts for Enterprise JavaBeans is illustrated by example, along with the use of Apache's Velocity template engine.
• Chapter 7: Rapidity and the Database. The repetitive nature of data access code makes it a prime candidate for code generation. This chapter looks at the time savings to be had from the use of the code generation tool Middlegen, as well as at how object-relational mapping products can ease the process of mixing object-oriented technology with that of relational database technology.
• Chapter 8: Model-Driven Architecture. This chapter brings together models with code generation techniques to explore the MDA paradigm. The use of the open source MDA tool AndroMDA is covered by example.

Part III: Rapid Languages

• Chapter 9: Scripting. This chapter looks at the benefits of scripting languages and introduces the Java-compatible scripting language Jython.
• Chapter 10: Working to Rule. This chapter examines the benefits of using rule engines to maintain business logic. The open source, expert system shell Jess is introduced as an example of a rule-based language.
• Chapter 11: Aspect-Oriented Programming. AOP provides new language constructs for modularizing crosscutting concerns. The result is a powerful mechanism for applying changes dynamically to an application. This chapter introduces the AOP language AspectJ and the AOP framework AspectWerkz.

Part IV: Dynamic Environments

• Chapter 12: Optimal Builds. Chapter 12 addresses the importance of having a highly efficient and optimized build process in place for conducting rapid development.
• Chapter 13: The Integrated Development Environment. We examine the need to invest in sophisticated and integrated development tools. The open source developer's workbench Eclipse is introduced as an example of a suitable J2EE development environment.
• Chapter 14: Test-Driven Development. The practice of test-driven development is key to defining an approach that is resilient to changing requirements and designs. This chapter looks at the importance of constructing an automated unit test suite and covers the JUnit framework for writing unit tests as well as the use of mock objects in testing.
• Chapter 15: Efficient Quality Assurance. The final chapter looks at using automated testing tools for undertaking functional and performance testing. The open source tools HttpUnit and Apache JMeter are covered by example.

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