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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) and Internet Interop-Orb-Protocol (IIOP) 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, describes the features that you use to program RMI for WebLogic Server.
- Using the WebLogic RMI Compiler, provides information on the WebLogic RMI compiler.
- How to Implement WebLogic RMI, provides a simple step by step example of how to implement WebLogic RMI.
- Using RMI over IIOP, defines RMI over IIOP and provides general information about the WebLogic Server RMI-IIOP implementation.
- Configuring WebLogic Server for RMI-IIOP, describes concepts, issues, and procedures related to using WebLogic Server to support RMI-IIOP applications.
- Best Practices for Application Design, describes recommended design patterns when developing RMI and RMI over IIOP applications.
- CORBA Support for WebLogic Server 9.0, provides information on CORBA support for WebLogic Server 9.0.

# 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 Applications with WebLogic Server is a guide to developing WebLogic Server applications.
- Programming WebLogic JNDI is a guide using the WebLogic Java Naming and Directory Interface.
- Programming Stand-alone Clients is a guide to developing common stand alone clients that interoperate with WebLogic Server.
- CORBA Technology and the Java Platform provides an overview of CORBA and Java platform.
- Java IDL Technology contains information using standard IDL (Object Management Group Interface Definition Language) and IIOP.
- omg.org is the Object Management Group homepage
- CORBA Language Mapping Specifications
- Objects-by-Value Specification

# 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 9.0 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 9.0 Start menu.

## Additional Examples Available for Download

Additional API examples for download at http://dev2dev.bea.com/wlserver90/. 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 section provides information on new and changed features for release of WebLogic RMI:

- Reorganization of RMI, IIOP, and stand alone client information. RMI and IIOP documentation is now located this document— Programming WebLogic RMI. Information pertaining to developing common stand alone clients that interoperate with WebLogic Server has been moved to a new document, Programming Stand Alone Clients.
- Compliance with the JavaTM 2 Platform Specification, see Standards compliant in Features of WebLogic RMI.
- WebLogic Server allows 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.
- Support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), 128 bit addressing space.
- Previous versions of WebLogic Server included a proprietary API called the WebLogic RMI API. This API is very similar to `java.rmi`. Although the WebLogic RMI API is still accessible in this release of WebLogic Server, its functionality has been deprecated. Programmers should use `java.rmi` instead. See Best Practices for Application Design.
- Parameter-based routing allows you to control load balancing behavior at a lower level. Any clustered object can be assigned a CallRouter using the `weblogic.rmi.cluster.CallRouter` interface. See Parameter-Based Routing for Clustered Objects.
- WebLogic Server provides several load balancing algorithms, including Round Robin, Random, and Weight-based, for clustered RMI objects. See Load Balancing RMI Objects.
- WebLogic Server supports the Common Secure Interoperability Specification, Version 2 (CSIv2) that addresses Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) security for interoperable authentication, delegation, and privileges. See Configuring CSIv2 authentication.

For more release-specific information on new and changed features, see these sections in WebLogic Server 9.0 Release Notes:

- WebLogic Server 9.0 Features and Changes lists new, changed, and deprecate features.
- WebLogic Server 9.0 Known and Resolved Issues lists known problems by service pack, for all WebLogic Server APIs.

For more release-specific information about the hardware and software configurations supported by BEA for this release of WebLogic Server, see WebLogic Platform Supported Configurations.