Overview
Developers today increasingly recognize the need for
distributed, transactional, and portable applications that leverage the speed,
security, and reliability of server-side technology. Enterprise applications
provide the business logic for an enterprise. They are centrally managed and
often interact with other enterprise software. In the world of information
technology, enterprise applications must be designed, built, and produced for
less money, with greater speed, and with fewer resources.
With the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE),
development of Java enterprise applications has never been easier or faster.
The aim of the Java EE platform is to provide developers with a powerful set of
APIs while shortening development time, reducing application complexity, and
improving application performance.
The Java EE platform is developed through the Java Community
Process (JCP), which is responsible for all Java technologies. Expert groups,
composed of interested parties, have created Java Specification Requests (JSRs)
to define the various Java EE technologies. The work of the Java Community
under the JCP program helps to ensure Java technology’s standard of stability
and cross-platform compatibility.
The Java EE platform uses a simplified programming model.
XML deployment descriptors are optional. Instead, a developer can simply enter
the information as an annotation directly into a Java source file, and the Java
EE server will configure the component at deployment and runtime. These
annotations are generally used to embed in a program data that would otherwise
be furnished in a deployment descriptor. With annotations, you put the
specification information in your code next to the program element affected.
In the Java EE platform, dependency injection can be applied
to all resources a component needs, effectively hiding the creation and lookup
of resources from application code. Dependency injection can be used in EJB
containers, web containers, and application clients. Dependency injection
allows the Java EE container to automatically insert references to other
required components or resources, using annotations.
This tutorial uses examples to describe the features
available in the Java EE platform for developing enterprise applications.
Whether you are a new or experienced Enterprise developer, you should find the
examples and accompanying text a valuable and accessible knowledge base for
creating your own solutions.
If you are new to Java EE enterprise application
development, this chapter is a good place to start. Here you will review
development basics, learn about the Java EE architecture and APIs, become
acquainted with important terms and concepts, and find out how to approach Java
EE application programming, assembly, and deployment.
