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Programming WebLogic Enterprise JavaBeans

# Introduction and Roadmap

This section describes the contents and organization of this guide—Programming WebLogic Enterprise Java Beans.

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

# Document Scope and Audience

This document is a resource for software developers who develop applications that include WebLogic Server Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). It also contains information that is useful for business analysts and system architects who are evaluating WebLogic Server or considering the use of WebLogic Server EJBs for a particular application.

The topics in this document are relevant during the design and development phases of a software project. The document also includes topics that are useful in solving application problems that are discovered during test and pre-production phases of a project.

This document does not address production phase administration, monitoring, or performance tuning. For links to WebLogic Server documentation and resources for these topics, see Related Documentation.

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with J2EE and EJB concepts. This document emphasizes the value-added features provided by WebLogic Server EJBs and key information about how to use WebLogic Server features and facilities to get an EJB application up and running.

# Guide to this Document

- This chapter, Introduction and Roadmap, introduces the organization of this guide.
- Understanding Enterprise JavaBeans, reviews the different bean types, their capabilities, and how they work with other application objects and WebLogic Server.
- Designing Enterprise Java Beans, discusses design options for WebLogic Server Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs), factors to consider during the design process, and recommended design patterns.
- Implementing Enterprise Java Beans, describes the EJB implementation process, and provide guidance for how to get an EJB up and running in WebLogic Server.
- Session EJBs, describes how session beans work within the EJB container, and provides design and development guidelines that are specific to session beans.
- Entity EJBs, describes how entity beans work within the EJB container, and provides design and development guidelines that are specific to entity beans.
- Message-Driven EJBs, describes how message-driven beans work within the EJB container, and provides design and development guidelines that are specific to message-driven beans.
- Deployment Guidelines for Enterprise Java Beans, discusses EJB-specific deployment issues and procedures.
- weblogic-ejb-jar.xml Deployment Descriptor Reference describes the EJB 2.0 deployment descriptor elements in `weblogic-ejb-jar.xml` file, the WebLogic Server-specific deployment descriptor.
- weblogic-cmp-jar.xml Deployment Descriptor Reference describes the EJB 2.0 elements in `weblogic-cmp-jar.xml` file, the WebLogic Server-specific deployment descriptor for container-managed persistence features.
- appc and ejbc Reference is a complete reference for the WebLogic Server `appc` and `ejbc` tools for compiling, validating and generating EJB code.
- EJBGen Reference is a reference for the WebLogic Server EJBGen EJB 2.0 code generator.
- EJB Query Language (EJB-QL) and WebLogic Server discusses issues pertinent to using EJB QL with WebLogic Server.
- Important Information for EJB 1.1 Users contains important design and implementation information specific to EJB 1.1.

# Related Documentation

This document contains EJB-specific design and development information.

For comprehensive guidelines for developing, deploying, and monitoring WebLogic Server applications, see the following documents:

- Developing WebLogic Server Applications is a guide to developing WebLogic Server applications.
- Deploying WebLogic Server Applications is the primary source of information about deploying WebLogic Server applications in development and production environments.
- WebLogic Server Performance and Tuning contains information on monitoring and improving the performance of WebLogic Server applications.

# Samples and Tutorials for the EJB Developer

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

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

## 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 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.

As companion documentation to the MedRec application, BEA provides tutorials that provide step-by-step procedures for key development tasks, including EJB-specific tasks, such as:

- Using EJBGen to Generate EJB deployment descriptors
- Exposing a stateless Session EJB as a web service
- Securing EJB resources using the Administration Console

## EJB 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 EJB 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. at http://dev2dev.bea.com/code/certwls81.jsp.

# New and Changed EJB Features in This Release

For information about new and changed features in WebLogic Server 8.1 see:

- Changes to weblogic-ejb-jar.xml in WebLogic Server 8.1
- Changes to weblogic-cmp-jar.xml in WebLogic Server 8.1
- These sections in WebLogic Server 8.1 Release Notes:

- WebLogic Server 8.1 Features and Changes lists new, changed, and deprecated features.
- WebLogic Server 8.1 Known Issues lists known problems by service pack, for all WebLogic Server APIs, including EJB.
- Resolved Problems for Service Pack 1
- Resolved Problems for Service Pack 2
- Resolved Problems for Service Pack 3