Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Chapter 13. Remote Method Invocation

This chapter examines the Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) API—Java’s native scheme for creating and using remote objects. Java RMI provides the following elements:

• Support (API and runtime) for remote object implementations

• Support for client interfaces, or stubs , to remote objects

• A remote object registry for finding objects on the network

• A facility for automatically creating (activating) remote objects on demand

• A network protocol for communication between remote objects and their clients

Each of these elements has related Java interfaces within the java.rmi package and its subpackages and runtime support for the feature as part of the JVM services. Using these interfaces and runtime services, you can develop remote objects and the clients that use them as part of a distributed application that resides on hosts across the network.

What’s Covered Here?

This chapter covers the RMI API and runtime included in the JDK 1.5 (otherwise known as J2SE 5.0). In key areas, we’ll highlight features or behavior that varies in earlier versions of the JDK. The most notable RMI feature introduced in JDK 1.5 is the dynamic generation of client stubs for RMI remote objects. This makes the use of the RMI compiler optional since stub classes can now be generated on demand at runtime by the JVM. If your distributed system includes clients running in 1.4 or older JVMs, however, you’ll still need to generate stub classes with the RMI compiler so that these clients ...