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Java EE Application Model

<< Overview | Enterprise information system (EIS) >>
<< Overview | Enterprise information system (EIS) >>

Java EE Application Model

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.
Java EE Application Model
The Java EE application model begins with the Java programming language and the Java virtual
machine. The proven portability, security, and developer productivity they provide forms the
basis of the application model. Java EE is designed to support applications that implement
enterprise services for customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and others who make
demands on or contributions to the enterprise. Such applications are inherently complex,
potentially accessing data from a variety of sources and distributing applications to a variety of
clients.
To better control and manage these applications, the business functions to support these
various users are conducted in the middle tier. The middle tier represents an environment that
is closely controlled by an enterprise's information technology department. The middle tier is
typically run on dedicated server hardware and has access to the full services of the enterprise.
The Java EE application model defines an architecture for implementing services as multitier
applications that deliver the scalability, accessibility, and manageability needed by
enterprise-level applications. This model partitions the work needed to implement a multitier
service into two parts: the business and presentation logic to be implemented by the developer,
and the standard system services provided by the Java EE platform. The developer can rely on
the platform to provide solutions for the hard systems-level problems of developing a multitier
service.
Distributed Multitiered Applications
The Java EE platform uses a distributed multitiered application model for enterprise
applications. Application logic is divided into components according to function, and the
various application components that make up a Java EE application are installed on different
machines depending on the tier in the multitiered Java EE environment to which the
application component belongs.
Figure 1­1
shows two multitiered Java EE applications divided into the tiers described in the
following list. The Java EE application parts shown in
Figure 1­1
are presented in
"Java EE
Components" on page 44
.
Client-tier components run on the client machine.
Web-tier components run on the Java EE server.
Business-tier components run on the Java EE server.
Java EE Application Model
The Java EE 5 Tutorial · September 2007
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