WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

384 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

10.1 JCA resource adapters

The Java EE Connector Architecture defines a set of secure, scalable, and transactional

mechanisms that enable the communication of Java Enterprise Applications and EISs.

The JCA Resource Adapter is a system-level software driver supplied by EIS vendors or other

third-party vendors. The adapter provides the following functionality:

 Connectivity between JEE components, such as an application server or an application

client and an EIS

 Plugs into an application server

 Collaborates with the application server to provide important services, such as connection

pooling, transaction, and security services

JCA 1.6 defines a broad set of system-level contracts between an application server and

EIS. The resource adapter implements the EIS-side of these same system-level contracts:

–A

connection management contract allows an application server pool to connect to an

underlying EIS. This contract also allows application components to connect to an EIS.

The contract leads to a scalable application environment that can support a large

number of clients requiring access to EISs.

–A

transaction management contract between the transaction manager and an EIS

supports transactional access to EIS resource managers. This contract lets an

application server use a transaction manager to manage transactions across multiple

resource managers. This contract also supports transactions that are managed

internally to an EIS resource manager without the necessity of involving an external

transaction manager.

–A

security contract enables secure access to an EIS. This contract provides support for

a secure application environment, reducing security threats to the EIS, and protecting

valuable information resources managed by the EIS.

–A

lifecycle management contract allows an application server to manage the lifecycle

of a resource adapter. This contract provides a mechanism for the application server to

initialize a resource adapter instance during the adapter’s deployment or at startup of

the application server. The application server can also notify a resource adapter

instance during its undeployment or a requested shutdown of the application server.

–A

work management contract that allows a resource adapter to monitor endpoints, call

application components, and other work. This can be achieved by submitting Work

instances to an application server for execution. The application server creates threads

to execute the submitted Work instances to allow better control of the application

server’s runtime environment.

–A

generic work context contract enables a resource adapter to control the execution

context of a Work instance that was submitted to the application server for execution.

–A

transaction inflow contract allows a resource manager to propagate an imported

transaction to an application server. This contract also allows a resource adapter to

ensure that the ACID properties of the imported transaction are preserved.

–A

security work context enables a resource adapter to establish security information

while submitting a Work instance for execution to a WorkManager.

–A

message inflow contract allows a resource adapter to asynchronously deliver

messages to message endpoints residing in the application server.