Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, Third Edition

An Enterprise Computing Scenario

The previous sections have been rapid-fire introductions to the Java Enterprise APIs that are part of the J2EE framework as well as a set of key de facto standard tools used commonly in the Java Enterprise space. Don’t worry if you didn’t understand all the information presented there: the rest of the chapters in the following two parts of the book cover the APIs in more detail. The important message you should take from this chapter is that the Java Enterprise APIs are building blocks that work together to enable you to write distributed Java applications for enterprise computing. The computing infrastructure of every enterprise is unique, and the Java Enterprise APIs can be combined in any number of ways to meet the specific needs and goals of a particular enterprise.

Figure 1-1 shows a schematic for a hypothetical enterprise. It illustrates some of the many possible interconnections among distributed services and shows some of the Java Enterprise APIs that facilitate those interconnections. The figure is followed by example scenarios that demonstrate how the Java Enterprise APIs might be used to solve typical enterprise computing problems. You may find it useful to refer to Figure 1-1 while reading through the scenarios, but note that the figure doesn’t illustrate the specific scenarios presented here.

Figure 1-1. The distributed computing architecture ...