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Programming WebLogic RMI

# Introduction and Roadmap

This section describes the contents and organization of this guide—Programming WebLogic RMI.

- Document Scope and Audience
- Guide to this Document
- Related Documentation
- Samples and Tutorials
- New and Changed Features in This Release

# Document Scope and Audience

This document is written for application developers who want to build e-commerce applications using Remote Method Invocation (RMI) features. It is assumed that readers know Web technologies, object-oriented programming techniques, and the Java programming language. This document emphasizes the value-added features provided by WebLogic Server and key information about how to use WebLogic Server features when developing applications with RMI.

# Guide to this Document

This document describes the BEA WebLogic Server RMI implementation of the JavaSoftTM Remote Method Invocation (RMI) specification from Sun Microsystems. The BEA implementation is known as WebLogic RMI.

- This chapter, Introduction and Roadmap, introduces the organization of this guide.
- Understanding WebLogic RMI, is an overview of WebLogic RMI features and its architecture.
- WebLogic RMI Features and Guidelines, describes the features that you use to program RMI for WebLogic Server.
- Using the WebLogic RMI Compiler, provides information on the WebLogic RMI compiler.
- RMI Communication within WebLogic Server, provides information RMI communications between WebLogic Server and other Java programs, including clients and other WebLogic Servers. .
- How to Implement WebLogic RMI, provides a simple step by step example of how to implement WebLogic RMI.

# Related Documentation

For information on topics related to WebLogic RMI, see the following documents:

- Java(TM) Remote Method Invocation (RMI) is a link to basic Sun MicroSystems tutorials on Remote Method Invocation.
- Developing WebLogic Server Applications is a guide to developing WebLogic Server applications.
- Programming WebLogic JNDI is a guide using the WebLogic Java Naming and Directory Interface.
- Programming WebLogic RMI over IIOP is a guide to developing applications using RMI over Internet Interop-Orb-Protocol (IIOP).

# Samples and Tutorials

In addition to this document, BEA Systems provides a variety of code samples and tutorials for developers. The examples and tutorials illustrate WebLogic Server in action, and provide practical instructions on how to perform key development tasks.

BEA recommends that you run some or all of the RMI examples before developing your own applications.

## Avitek Medical Records Application (MedRec) and Tutorials

MedRec is an end-to-end sample J2EE application shipped with WebLogic Server that simulates an independent, centralized medical record management system. The MedRec application provides a framework for patients, doctors, and administrators to manage patient data using a variety of different clients.

MedRec demonstrates WebLogic Server and J2EE features, and highlights BEA-recommended best practices. MedRec is included in the WebLogic Server distribution, and can be accessed from the Start menu on Windows machines. For Linux and other platforms, you can start MedRec from the `WL_HOME\samples\domains\medrec` directory, where `WL_HOME` is the top-level installation directory for WebLogic Platform.

MedRec includes a service tier comprised primarily of Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) that work together to process requests from web applications, web services, and workflow applications, and future client applications. The application includes message-driven, stateless session, stateful session, and entity EJBs.

## Examples in the WebLogic Server Distribution

WebLogic Server 8.1 optionally installs API code examples in `WL_HOME\samples\server\examples\src\examples`, where `WL_HOME` is the top-level directory of your WebLogic Server installation. You can start the examples server, and obtain information about the samples and how to run them from the WebLogic Server 8.1 Start menu.

## Additional Examples Available for Download

Additional API examples for download at http://dev2dev.bea.com/code/certwls81.jsp. These examples are distributed as `.zip` files that you can unzip into an existing WebLogic Server samples directory structure. You build and run the downloadable examples in the same manner as you would an installed WebLogic Server example. See the download pages of individual examples for more information.

# New and Changed Features in This Release

The following sections provides information on new and changed features for release of WebLogic RMI:

- Compliance with the JavaTM 2 Platform Standard Edition 1.4 API Specification
- WebLogic Server 8.1 releases SP4 and higher allow you to specify a timeout for a synchronous remote call. This allows an RMI client making a remote call to return before the remote method that it invoked has returned from the server instance it called. This can be useful in legacy applications where a client wants to be able to return quickly if there is no response from the remote system. For more information, see Using the RMI Timeout.

For more release-specific information on new and changed features, see these sections in WebLogic Server 8.1 Release Notes:

- WebLogic Server 8.1 Features and Changes lists new, changed, and deprecate features.
- WebLogic Server 8.1 Known Issues lists known problems by service pack, for all WebLogic Server APIs.
- WebLogic Server Resolved Problems lists problems solved by service pack, for all for all WebLogic Server APIs, including JMS.