EJB – an Introduction

Agenda
 Background
 JavaBeans
 What is EJB?
 Architecture
 Roles
 Steps involved
 Questions?
Monolithic systems
Background
No reuse

Fat clients,
data model reused
Client/server

Thin clients,
both data model and N-Tier
business logic reused
3-tier architecture
Presentation Clients, GUI

Business logic “middleware”

Data DBMSs
The J2EE
 Consists of 12 APIs:
 Naming service
 provides a common way of naming objects and
directories
 Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI)
 Transaction handling
 Java Transaction Services (JTS)
 Presentation (JSP, Servlet)
 Communication (RMI)
 Distribution, component model (EJB)
What is Enterprise Java
Beans?
 defines a standard to build distributed
systems on the server side
 frees developers from “plumbing” (s.a.
transactions , security, pooling, etc.)
 is a framework to create enterprise
middleware
Why EJB
 Independence of middleware (both
regarding hard- and software)
 Automatic transaction handling
 Automatic distribution
 Portability
 Scalability
 Tightly coupled to CORBA
JavaBeans
 Can be visible or
invisible
 Designed to run locally
 Are described with
Properties, BeanInfo
classes and
Customizers
 May be used as an
ActiveX control
vs. EJB
 Are always invisible
 Are distributed executable
components on a server
 Are described with a
DeploymentDescriptor
 Can not be used as a ActiveX
control
EJB
client architecture
EJB server
EJB container
EJB Home

EJBean
EJB Object

security
JNDI
JTS
…..
Different types of EJBs, 1
 Entity bean
 corresponds to a record in a
database
 Session bean
 handles business flow
(one per client)
 Different types of EJBs, 2
EJB

Entity Session

Bean managed Container managed stateless stateful

Entity EJBs
 Bean managed persistence (BMP)
 developer writes JDBC code and SQL statements
 Container managed persistence (CMP)
 Container generates methods to read and write
to the database
 Takes necessary information from the
Deployment Descriptor
Resource handling
 Passivation
 the process that stores the beans state to a secondary
memory, and swaps it out of primary memory
 Activation
 the opposite process of recreating the bean into primary
memory

This holds for every type of bean except the

stateless session bean
Session EJBs

 are mainly used for business logic

 should constitute the clients only interface to the
system
 controls processes that spans several entity
beans
 lives as long as the client is alive
 will not survive a server crash
 are difficult to reuse
Entity EJBs
 are used as the object model
 contains all JDBC code
 should guarantee the integrity of the
database
 lever as long as the database (“for ever”)
 survives server crashes
 should be reused
Automatic database
handling
 Create an entity bean with CMP
 Tell server what database you use
 Specify what attributes should go into what database
fields

-> all being made in the Deployment Descriptor

This completely cuts the code from the database
model and vendor, and frees the developer from
JDBC coding!
Roles in EJB Often the same vendor
Constitutes with the
platform
 EJB server provider
Developes the bean
 EJB container provider
Installs the bean in the server
 EJB developer Develops the client software that
calls and uses the bean
 EJB deployer
 Client software developer
Steps in creating an EJB, 1
 Write your Home interface
[create(...) and findByXXX(...)]
 Write your Remote interface
[implement your business methods]
 Develop your entity or session bean
 If it is a entity bean define a PrimaryKey
class
 Write your Deployment Descriptor
Steps in creating an EJB, 2
 Compile your files and generate container code
with the server tools
 Set up a data source to your database
 Install the bean in the server
 Develop the client application
 Start your server and run the client!
Home interface - EmployeeHome.java
Example
package examples.ejb.personnel;

import javax.ejb.*;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import java.util.*;

public interface EmployeeHome extends EJBHome {

public Employee create(Hashtable personInfo)

throws CreateException, RemoteException;

public Employee findByPrimaryKey(EmployeePK primaryKey)

throws FinderException, RemoteException;

public Enumeration findEmployeesByLastName(String lastName)

throws FinderException, RemoteException;
}
 Example
Remote interface - Employee.java
package examples.ejb.personnel;

import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import javax.ejb.*;
import java.util.Hashtable;

public interface Employee extends EJBObject {

public int update(java.util.Hashtable personInfo)

throws RemoteException;

public String name()

throws RemoteException;

}
 Example
Entity bean - EmployeeBean.java
public class EmployeeBean implements EntityBean {
public int EmployeeId; // also the primary Key
public String firstName
public String lastName;
public String title;
public String SSN;

public void ejbCreate(Hashtable personInfo) {

long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
this.EmployeeId = (int) now; //unique id
this.fornamn = (String) personuppgifter.get(”firstName");
this.efternamn = (String) personuppgifter.get(”lastName");
this.titel = (String) personuppgifter.get("title");
}

public String name() {

return firstName + " " + lastName;
}
...
 Example
Primary key interface - EmployeePK.java

• used to uniquely identify an entity bean

package examples.ejb.personnel;

public class EmployeePK implements java.io.Serializable

{
public int EmployeeId;
}
Example – Tools, 1
Example – Tools,2