2.5. Things to Come
With some understanding of the in's and out's of the J2EE platform, the remainder of this book shows how J2EE technologies have been used to solve specific customer problems in a wide variety of domains.
Chapter 3 describes how JCrew enhanced its traditional catalog sales operation by revamping its Web presence with a full-featured e-commerce site built using Art Technology Group's Dynamo Suite, which implements J2EE technologies. The new multitier architecture and added personalization features of jcrew.com have more than doubled annual revenues every year since its launch. While its previous architecture had inherent scalability problems that caused site crashes during peak usage times, the current J2EE-based infrastructure can support up to 8,000 concurrent users generating more than 85 dynamic page views per second.
Chapter 4 outlines how one of the country's largest mortgage companies, HomeSide Lending, produced an innovative end-to-end online lending service on the Internet. The company used the BEA WebLogic application server and Oracle database for its application, and provided XML integration with Fannie Mae's underwriting system. Homeside used both session and entity EJBs, object/relational mapping, and servlets and JSPs for the Web front end. All the other J2EE technologies (JNDI, JMS, and JDBC) were utilized as well. Homeside saw a substantial increase in sales after implementing this online system.
Chapter 5 explores the Borland Application Server and the AT&T Unisource CORE project. Highlighting an application successfully developed and deployed in four months, this chapter explores the benefits of J2EE both for delivering specific application functionality and for creating application frameworks that can easily be enhanced, extended, and modified. With the CORE project, AT&T Unisource was looking for ways to respond more quickly to changes in the marketplace for long-distance voice traffic routing. CORE uses EJB business logic, including container-managed persistence, as well as RMI-IIOP/CORBA compatibility to communicate with legacy systems, and JSP and Java Servlets technology to provide rapid prototyping and deployment of user-interface features. By using J2EE technology, AT&T Unisource was able to move from an isolated, department-specific application development process to an enterprise-wide approach that maximizes resources and reduces costs.
Chapter 6 shows how Codexa Corporation used Brokat's GemStone/J platform as the basis for Codexa Data Services, an Internet application that delivers and filters information for professionals in the financial services industry. The application uses JSPs, EJBs, XML, JTS, JNDI, and JDBC, along with other Java programming language APIs for authentication, security, and other services. GemStone's object-oriented database, multiple virtual machine architecture, multilevel failover, and load balancing provide fast access, reliability, and scalability. The Codexa application stores about 4 gigabytes of new data every day, with a quarter terabyte of existing data online.
Chapter 7 describes eTapestry.com, which delivers applications to assist in nonprofit fundraising. Like Codexa, eTapestry uses the GemStone/J application server, along with Sun Microsystem's Forte for Java integrated development environment. eTapestry's application uses Java Servlets, JSPs, JavaMail, JNDI, and Java secure sockets technology. As in most of the other chapters of this book, the application is architected with a thin client, a Web server layer, an application server layer, and a database layer. There are more than a million nonprofit organizations in the U.S. alone, with more than $600 billion in proceeds, so eTapestry's software addresses a huge market.
Chapter 8 describes the experience of Altura International using the HP BlueStone J2EE-based platform to implement online business-to-consumer (B2C) catalog shopping. Altura is responsible for the Web's first catalog shopping portal, CatalogCity.com, as well as many other sites. The Altura Merchant Operating System application currently uses Java Servlets, JDBC, and JavaMail, and Altura plans to add an EJB layer in the near future. Altura reports, “Going from our original environment to Java and J2EE was like being in hell and going to heaven!”
J2EE applications from two IBM customers, Bekins and Honeywell, are described in Chapter 9. The Honeywell application is used to track defects and corrective actions on a manufacturing floor. The client tier of this application is written in the Java programming language on Internet client machines that support a powerful user interface. The middle tier is written as EJB business logic components running on IBM's WebSphere application server. The EJB components invoke third-tier IMS/CICS applications on a mainframe via the MQSeries JMS implementation. The Bekins HomeDirectUSA application supports inventory and shipping for large items delivered business-to-consumer. Using an architecture similar to Honeywell, the company implemented EJB business logic components on top of third-tier legacy IMS applications on a mainframe. They used SQL Server for the warehouse database and DB2 for the inventory database, accessed via EJB JDBC calls to stored procedures. Former 3270 user interfaces were replaced with HTML generated by servlets. Both Honeywell and Bekins used Visual Age for Java for development, and despite their limited experience with the technology, were favorably impressed with their time to market and the performance of their J2EE applications.
Chapter 10 highlights International Data Post (IDP), a Copenhagen, Denmark-based postal technology solutions company. A pioneer in “hybrid mail,” IDP's ePOST application enables electronic delivery of letters from the sender to the post office, where they are processed and physically delivered. Using Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology, Sun Professional Services helped IDP architect and design a Web access channel for ePOST, called WEB ePOST.
They utilized J2EE-compliant iPlanet Application Server and iPlanet Web Server. WEB ePOST users save significantly on printing, administration, and postage costs, and traditional postal operators have a Web-based means to exploit new market opportunities. J2EE technology has given IDP a rapid application development environment that can easily be leveraged for future projects.
While the European physics research institute CERN may best be known as the original home of the World Wide Web, it is also the hub of the world's largest scientific collaboration with over 500 institutes and universities taking part in CERN's programs. Chapter 11 focuses on CERN's work with Oracle to provide an enterprise-wide Electronic Document Handling workflow system. Using J2EE and related technologies, CERN embarked upon migration of a system capable of handling everything from Web catalogs to purchase requests to import/export regulation compliance to vacation and overtime requests. The system is available globally 24 x 7, serving a base of 6,500 users. It tracks more than 16,000 standard inventory items, and connects to more than 20,000 suppliers. CERN's EDH uses a combination of technologies, including EJB components for business logic, Java Servlets for user interface presentation, Oracle9i Application Server Workflow engine for business process integration and SQLJ for data access. This chapter also describes CERN's hands on experiences with the Oracle8i database, Oracle Internet Developer Suite, Oracle9i Application Server and other products.
Finally, Chapter 12 takes a look at a system that helps the US Military Traffic Management Command, Freight Systems Office (FSO) to manage the shipping of small packages worldwide. Designed with support from Sun Professional Services, the Small Package Application is intended to reduce the per-package cost of shipping parts and supplies, and help the US military increase its field readiness by ensuring adequate resources wherever units are deployed. The Small Package Application provides the FSO with a reverse-auction site that enables shippers to openly bid for shipping orders. As a proof of concept for J2EE, the FSO found that the application design approach helped standardize the development process to increase productivity, and provided an application framework that could easily be enhanced and maintained. By providing a clear separation of development responsibilities, the JSP, Servlets, and EJB component models enabled the developers to focus specialized skills on various tasks.
For more on the J2EE platform, see http://java.sun.com/j2ee. For more on these J2EE case studies, see http://java.sun.com/j2ee/inpractice.