Developing Enterprise Applications with BEA WebLogic® Server 5.1 Course

Audience:

This course is intended for Java programmers, Java architects, and project managers who will be developing enterprise applications and providing integration solutions using BEA WebLogic server.

J2EE Specifications:

EJB 1.1
Servlets 2.2

Prerequisites:

• Java Programming Skill and understanding of Object Oriented Design concepts.
• Experience in using JDBC for providing connectivity to remote databases.
• Basic understanding of Internet based applications.
• Familiarity with servlets, JSPs and XML.

Course Contents:

This section discusses the different types of application architectures and the differences between monolithic, client/server, and n-tier architectures. Following this is a discussion on the role of J2EE for creating n-tier web based applications. All of the J2EE components are briefly described except EJB and JMS, which are discussed in detail in the following sections.

Students are introduced to WebLogic Server, important property files and console screens that are required to administer WebLogic Server 5.1. Administrative utilities to administer WebLogic server are addressed.

RMI and the implementation details of RMI in Java will be discussed. During the lab session students will implement a sample RMI application. The discussion will continue on how EJB uses RMI for communication between a client and a server.

JNDI is one of the important components for developing enterprise-based applications. The JNDI implementation that will be used to bind and lookup objects is discussed in detail. Discussion continues on how to implement database connection pooling using WebLogic Server 5.1, so that JDBC drivers can access the connection pool instead of opening a new connection whenever a connection is needed.

This section describes the EJB server-container contract interfaces and implementation details. Concepts like distributed object architectures, component models and component transaction monitors are described followed by an explanation of how the EJB specification addresses all of the above technologies. The differences between CORBA and EJB will also be discussed.

In this class, students will develop a full-blown e-commerce application. This section explains the architecture that is used and what can be expected from this application. This gives the student a very good idea of what will be achieved in the following sections. By explaining the architecture at this early stage, students will be able to relate the discussions on different technologies in the following sections to this demo application. From this point onwards, all the lab exercises will focus only on this demo application.

Explanation of EJB server-container contract, interfaces, implementation details, and clients will be given. This will be a foundation for the lab exercises, which students will be doing in the following sections to complete the demo application. Discussion will be followed on the difference between Entity Beans and Session Beans. Lab exercise will include the task of finding out the appropriate bean to be used when designing application architecture.

This section analyzes the life cycle and implementation of an Entity EJB, which is a part of the specification for the demo application. The students’ task is to identify the beans that should be implemented as entity EJB in the demo application. Implementation will be a lab exercise.

Like the previous section, this section will analyze the life cycle and implementation of a Session EJB, which is a part of specification for the demo application. Implementation will be done during the time allocated for lab exercises.

Transactions are vital features of any multi-tier application. This section discusses the X/Open model, 2PC, and how to enable transactions in WebLogic Server 5.1. Students will 'transaction enable' the demo application in the lab exercise.

Students will implement servlet and JSP clients for the EJB, which was created in the previous sections and deploy it in the WebLogic server. Concentration will be on how to program EJB client using servlets and JSP for the demo application. This would complete the demo application and web enables the application.

This section discusses WebLogic performance tuning parameters, EJB tuning concepts, HTTP server configuration, Load Balancing using clustering, etc.