- A Brief Perspective
- J2EE Platform
- J2EE Patterns and J2EE Platform
- Summary
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
J2EE Patterns and J2EE Platform
As you can see from the overview, the J2EE platform standardizes a number of different technologies to provide a robust platform for building distributed multitier enterprise class applications. The J2EE platform is built on the J2SE platform. Since the J2SE platform forms the foundation of the J2EE platform, a Java developer can learn the J2EE technologies with relative ease.
However, there is a belief that learning a new technology by itself is sufficient to make us adept at designing systems based on that new technology. We respectfully disagree with this. We believe that in addition to learning the technology, we need other insights to build successful systems. Patterns can help facilitate the process of knowledge accumulation and knowledge transfer. Patterns help us to document and communicate proven solutions to recurring problems in different environments. Using patterns effectively, we can prevent the "re-invent the wheel" syndrome.
Our J2EE patterns are derived from our experience with the J2EE platform and technologies. The J2EE patterns described in this book address different requirements spread across all the J2EE tiers. In our tiered approach (see " " on page† ), we have modeled the J2EE multiple tiers as five tiers: client, presentation, business, integration, and resource tiers. This model allows us to logically separate responsibilities into individual tiers. In our model, for example, we separate the EIS tier into an integration tier and a resource tier. By doing so, we make it easier to separately address the requirements of integration and resources. Thus, the tiers in our model are a logical separation of concerns.
We've categorized the J2EE patterns described in this book into three of these five tiers—presentation, business, and integration. In our opinion, the client and resource tiers are not direct concerns of the J2EE platform. The patterns related to servlets and JSP technologies are described in Chapter 7, "Presentation Tier Patterns." The patterns related to enterprise beans and JNDI technologies, and those related to bridging the presentation and business tier components, are described in Chapter 8, "Business Tier Patterns." Finally, the patterns related to JDBC and JMS technologies, aimed at bridging the business tier with the resource tier, are described in Chapter 9, "Integration Tier Patterns."
Because our most intensive work has been in these core areas of the J2EE platform, we currently do not address patterns other than these aforementioned technologies. We feel that the developer community gains a huge benefit if we first document the patterns in these core areas. We also believe that this categorization allows us to be flexible, and as new patterns are observed, we will categorize and document them.
We believe that these patterns will prove useful to you as they did to us and our fellow architects. They may be reused as solutions to the problems you may encounter during your J2EE design and architecture experience. We are also aware that patterns evolve over time, and we expect that our patterns are no exception. The patterns presented here have been refined many times. They have been written and rewritten to make them better. This process of evolution will continue.