7.1. The Project

eTapestry.com was founded in August 1999 to deliver fundraising applications to the nonprofit sector using an Internet-based ASP (application service provider) model. The Indianapolis-based company chose Java technology because it provided an open, productive, and extensible application platform for developing an application to serve a rapidly evolving market segment.

The application uses a standard HTML front end, with Web pages generated by Java servlets and Java ServerPages (JSPs). The application, which first went live in spring 2000, makes extensive use of many J2EE architecture features, such as servlets and JSPs, the Java XML parser, and the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI).

The application illustrates that J2EE technology is useful, even if the deployment scheme does not yet use a fully distributed environment. Significantly, the J2EE architecture provides eTapestry the capability to redeploy the application as appropriate once traffic levels warrant, without rewriting the application itself.

To build the application, eTapestry.com used the Forte for Java, Internet Edition as the integrated development environment (IDE), and is deploying the application using the Gemstone/J application server. The application itself is currently hosted by Genuity.