130.

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Components

Jini is just one of a large number of distributed systems architectures, including industry-pervasive systems, such as CORBA and DCOM. It is distinguished by being based on Java and deriving many features purely from this Java basis. One of the later chapters in this book discusses bridging between Jini and CORBA, as an example of linking these different distributed architectures.

There are other Java frameworks from Sun that might appear to overlap Jini, such as Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). EJBs make it easier to build business logic servers, whereas Jini would be better used to distribute those services in a "network plug and play" manner.

You should be aware that Jini is only one competitor in a non-empty market. The success or failure of Jini will result partly from the politics of the market, but also (hopefully!) the technical capabilities of Jini, and this book will deal with some of the technical issues involved in using Jini.

In a running Jini system, there are three main players. There is a service, such as a printer, a toaster, a marriage agency, etc. There is a client which would like to make use of a service. Third, there is a lookup service (service locator), which acts as a broker/ trader /locator between services and clients . There is one additional component, and that is a network connecting all three of these. This network will generally be running TCP/IP. (The Jini specification is fairly independent of network protocol, but the only current implementation is on TCP/IP.) See Figure 1-1.

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Figure 1-1: Components of a Jini system

Code will be moved around between these three pieces, and this is done by marshalling the objects. This involves serializing the objects in such a way that they can be moved around the network, stored in this "freeze- dried " form, and later reconstituted by using instance data and included information about the class files. Movement around the network is done using Java's socket support to send and receive objects.

In addition, objects in one JVM (Java Virtual Machine) may need to invoke methods on an object in another JVM. Often this will be done using RMI (Remote Method Invocation), although the Jini specification does not require this and there are many other possibilities.

  


A Programmer[ap]s Guide to Jini Technology
A Programmer[ap]s Guide to Jini Technology
ISBN: 1893115801
EAN: N/A
Year: 2000
Pages: 189

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