J2EE Glossary

by Fyodor Kupolov

This glossary contains definitions of the most important J2EE terms. Many of them are borrowed from official Java Glossary and J2EE Glossary. 1. ABC

1.1. Antipattern
A frequently used, but largely ineffective solution to a problem. The term was originally used to refer to a pattern gone wrong. Just as a viable pattern describes the way from a problem to a valid solution, an antipattern describes the way from a problem to a poor solution.

1.2. Bean-Managed Persistence (BMP)

Data transfer between an entity bean's variables and a resource manager managed by the entity bean.

1.3. Collocation
In EJB collocation means that the enterprise bean is deployed on the same node as its client. In other words they are located in the same JVM.

1.4. Container-Managed Persistence (CMP)

Data transfer between an entity bean's variables and a resource manager managed by the entity bean's container. 2. DEF

2.1. Database Management System (DBMS)

A program that lets one or more computer users create and access data in a database.

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2.2. Document Object Model (DOM)

A tree of objects with interfaces for traversing the tree and writing an XML version of it, as defined by the W3C specification.

2.3. EJB Container

A container that implements the EJB component contract of the J2EE architecture. This contract specifies a runtime environment for enterprise beans that includes security, concurrency, life cycle management, transaction, deployment, and other services. An EJB container is provided by an EJB or J2EE server.

2.4. Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)

A component architecture for the development and deployment of object-oriented, distributed, enterprise-level applications. Applications written using the Enterprise JavaBeans architecture are scalable, transactional, and secure.

2.5. Entity Bean

An enterprise bean that represents persistent data maintained in a database. An entity bean can manage its own persistence or it can delegate this function to its container. An entity bean is identified by a primary key. If the container in which an entity bean is hosted crashes, the entity bean, its primary key, and any remote references survive the crash. 3. GHI

3.1. Home Interface

One of two interfaces for an enterprise bean. The home interface defines zero or more methods for managing an enterprise bean. The home interface of a session bean defines create and remove methods, while the home interface of an entity bean defines create, finder, and remove methods.

3.2. HTTPS
HTTP layered over the SSL protocol.

3.3. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

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A markup language for hypertext documents on the Internet. HTML enables the embedding of images, sounds, video streams, form fields, references to other objects with URLs and basic text formatting.

3.4. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The Internet protocol used to fetch hypertext objects from remote hosts. HTTP messages consist of requests from client to server and responses from server to client.

3.5. Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

A programming environment that has been packaged as an application program, typically consisting of a code editor, a compiler, a debugger, and a graphical user interface (GUI) builder. The IDE may be a standalone application or may be included as part of one or more existing and compatible applications. 4. JKL

4.1. Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)

The J2EE platform consists of a set of services, application programming interfaces (APIs), and protocols that provide the functionality for developing multitiered, web-based applications.

4.2. Java APIs for XML Processing (JAXP)

Enables applications to parse and transform XML documents using an API that is independent of a particular XML processor implementation. JAXP also provides a plugability feature which enables applications to easily switch between particular XML processor implementations.

4.3. Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS)

A package that enables services to authenticate and enforce access controls upon users.

4.4. Java Cryptography Extension (JCE)

A set of packages that provide a framework and implementations for encryption, key generation and key agreement, and Message Authentication Code (MAC) algorithms.

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4.5. Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

An industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java platform and a wide range of databases. The JDBC interface provides a call-level API for SQL-based database access.

4.6. Java Message Service (JMS)

An API for using enterprise messaging systems such as IBM MQ Series, TIBCO Rendezvous, and so on.

4.7. JMS Message

An asynchronous request, report, or event that is created, sent, and consumed by an enterprise application and not by a human. It contains vital information needed to coordinate enterprise applications, in the form of precisely formatted data that describes specific business actions.

4.8. JMS session

A single-threaded context for sending and receiving JMS messages. A JMS session can be nontransacted, locally transacted, or participating in a distributed transaction.

4.9. Java Management Extensions (JMX)

Represents a universal, open technology for management, and monitoring that can be deployed wherever management and monitoring are needed.

4.10. Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI)

An API that provides naming and directory functionality.

4.11. Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE)

A set of Java packages that enable secure Internet communications. It implements a Java version of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols and includes functionality for data encryption, server authentication, message integrity, and optional client authentication.

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4.12. JavaServer Pages (JSP)

An extensible web technology that uses template data, custom elements, scripting languages, and server-side Java objects to return dynamic content to a client. Typically the template data is HTML or XML elements, and in many cases the client is a web browser.

4.13. Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

A software "execution engine" that safely and compatibly executes the byte codes in Java class files on a microprocessor (whether in a computer or in another electronic device). Java HotSpot performance engine - the ultra-high-performance engine for a Java runtime environment which features an adaptive compiler that dynamically optimizes the performance of running applications. 5. MNO

5.1. Message Consumer

An object created by a JMS session that is used for receiving messages sent to a destination.

5.2. Message-Driven Bean (MDB)

An enterprise bean that is an asynchronous message consumer. A message-driven bean has no state for a specific client, but its instance variables can contain state across the handling of client messages, including an open database connection and an object reference to an EJB object. A client accesses a message-driven bean by sending messages to the destination for which the bean is a message listener. 6. PQR

6.1. Pattern (or Design Pattern)

A written document that describes a general solution to a design problem that recurs repeatedly in many projects.

6.2. POJO (Plain Old Java Object)

A normal Java object that is not a JavaBean, an Entity Bean , a Session Bean, etc., and does not serve any other special role or implement any special interfaces of any of the Java

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frameworks (EJB, JDBC, ...).

6.3. Profiler
A program that helps to figure out where a program is spending most of its time. It may also help to discover how it is using memory, how many of what sorts of object, resolve performance issues, performance bottlenecks. 7. STU

7.1. Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

A security protocol that provides privacy over the Internet. The protocol allows client-server applications to communicate in a way that cannot be eavesdropped or tampered with. Servers are always authenticated and clients are optionally authenticated.

7.2. Servlet
A Java program that extends the functionality of a web server, generating dynamic content and interacting with web clients using a request-response paradigm.

7.3. Servlet Container

A container that provides the network services over which requests and responses are sent, decodes requests, and formats responses. All servlet containers must support HTTP as a protocol for requests and responses, but may also support additional request-response protocols such as HTTPS.

7.4. Session Bean

An enterprise bean that is created by a client and that usually exists only for the duration of a single client-server session. A session bean performs operations, such as calculations or accessing a database, for the client. While a session bean may be transactional, it is not recoverable should a system crash occur. Session bean objects can be either stateless or they can maintain conversational state across methods and transactions. If a session bean maintains state, then the EJB container manages this state if the object must be removed from memory. However, the session bean object itself must manage its own persistent data.

7.5. Simple API for XML (SAX)

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An event-driven, serial-access mechanism for accessing XML documents.

7.6. Stateful Session Bean

A session bean with a conversational state.

7.7. Stateless Session Bean

A session bean with no conversational state. All instances of a stateless session bean are identical.

7.8. Structured Query Language (SQL)

The standardized relational database language for defining database objects and manipulating data.

7.9. Unified Modeling Language (UML)

A standard notation for the modeling of real-world objects as a first step in developing an object-oriented design methodology.

7.10. Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI)

UDDI project provides a global, public, XML-based, online business registry where businesses register and advertise their web services. UDDI defines an Internet version of the white and yellow pages in a telephone directory. 8. VWX

8.1. Web Services

Web Services are loosely coupled software components capable of collaborating with each other over multiple networks to deliver a specific result to an end user. In the process, they leverage an emerging group of standards that govern their description and interaction, including SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), UDDI (Universal Discovery and Description Initiative), XML (Extensible Markup Language), and WSDL (Web Services Description Language).

8.2. Web Services Description Language (WSDL)

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WSDL is an XML language that is used to describe a web service and to specify how to communicate with the web service.

8.3. Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)

XHTML is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML 4. XHTML family document types are XML based.

8.4. Extensible Markup Language (XML)

A markup language that allows you to define the tags (markup) needed to identify the data and text in XML documents. J2EE deployment descriptors are expressed in XML.

8.5. XSL Transformation (XSLT)

An XML file that controls the transformation of an XML document into another XML document or HTML. The target document often will have presentation related tags dictating how it will be rendered by a browser or other presentation mechanism. XSLT was formerly part of XSL, which also included a tag language of style flow objects.

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