Employing BEA s Unified, Simplified, and Extensible Formula for Application Infrastructure: WebLogic Platform 7.0

Employing BEA's Unified, Simplified, and Extensible Formula for Application Infrastructure: WebLogic Platform 7.0

WebLogic Platform 7.0 is a complete middle- tier application infrastructure solution that was developed in response to customers' demands for a single, unified middleware application infrastructure solution to enable the development, deployment, and management of a diverse array of business solutions and Web services, as illustrated in Figure 8.6.

Figure 8.6. The business solution diversity supported by BEA WebLogic Platform.

Hence, the primary objective of WebLogic Platform is to minimize the number of middleware products an organization needs to support, maintain, and integrate. To derive this next generation of middleware, BEA added the necessary infrastructure services and functionality organizations requested into a single software solution, through the extension of its core application server (WebLogic Server) into the areas of integration and portal frameworks.

BEA's motivating principles for taking this approach were to pioneer the first unified , simplified , and extensible application infrastructure platform for the middle tier. BEA's definitions for these principles are as follows :

• Unified ” An integrated application server, combined with development portal and integration frameworks, unifies the middle-tier application infrastructure solution by providing an integrated suite of software components that form the baseline functionality needed for building enterprise-class business solutions. This single platform also helps organizations lower application delivery costs, meet business needs, and leverage existing infrastructure assets.

• Simplified ” The platform simplifies IT operations by providing an integrated framework for developing, debugging, testing, deploying, and managing applications. This framework empowers developers of all skill levels, not just experts, enabling organizations to effectively leverage existing skill sets. Because WebLogic Platform employs fewer technologies with tighter integration and provides a common set of tools for maintenance and deployment, the total cost of ownership of business solutions is drastically reduced.

• Extensible ” WebLogic Platform extends the value of existing technology assets by providing tools that help integrate legacy applications across business domains. In addition, the platform itself is extensible through its support of open standards and development tools, enabling developers to build new functionality that leverages the entire application infrastructure platform.

As illustrated in Figure 8.7, BEA WebLogic Platform provides the following application infrastructure functionality through a single software code (SKU) offering:

Figure 8.7. The application infrastructure functionality provided by BEA WebLogic Platform 7.0.

• The Portal Layer ” A framework for presenting information to the user ”for example, Web-based user interfaces for content management, personalization, collaboration, and searches.

• The Application Server Layer ” The engine for executing business logic. It includes infrastructure for running reusable business components and tools for ensuring reliability, availability, and scalability.

• The Integration Layer ” A framework and tools for helping one application communicate with another. Different types of integration include synchronous (immediate) and asynchronous (message-based).

• The Security Framework ” A framework for providing access control, directory services, single sign-on, and encryption.

• The Operations, Administration, and Management Framework ” Tools that help lower the cost of operating applications. This framework includes tools for maintaining application components, connectivity, and users' profiles.

• Development and Deployment Tools and Methodology ” A framework for developing and customizing applications. It includes programming languages, development environments, modeling tools, and quality and configuration management. There can be different tools for different types of users, including systems programmers, and application programmers, as well as creative and business analysts.

As depicted in Figure 8.8, to deliver these critical infrastructure services with the Quality of Service (QoS) expected by organizations, BEA WebLogic Platform is composed of the following products:

Figure 8.8. The WebLogic Platform product suite.

• WebLogic Server ” The industry's most battle- tested and performanceoriented J2EE-compliant application server, which serves as the nucleus of WebLogic Platform. In addition to J2EE, WebLogic Server implements all the significant programming, integration, and networking standards necessary for building real-world business solutions. The following are some examples:

  • WebLogic Server implements the latest Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) and includes a built-in Apache Xerces parser and a custom highperformance XML parser specifically designed for small-to-medium XML documents. Also included is a Xalan XSL transformer, BEA XML editor, and enhanced XML Registry capabilities.

  • WebLogic Server supports the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) standard, which is the emerging standard for the exchange of information in a distributed environment. It is the communication protocol for defining the format of data for Web services that are delivered via HTTP.

  • The WebLogic Server has built-in support for WSDL and generates WSDL script automatically when a Web service is deployed on WebLogic Server.

    Note

    Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is the XML-based language used to describe a published Web service.

    
    

  • WebLogic Server includes an embedded UDDI registry and an API for searching and updating this or any other third-party UDDI registry.

    Note

    A Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) registry is a distributed, Web-based information directory listing Web services, similar to a phone book.

    
    

  • The distributed management infrastructure of WebLogic Server is based on the open and extensible JMX standard. Also, an SNMP agent is available for compatibility with SNMP-based, third-party management solutions.

  • WebLogic Server enables applications to incorporate best-of-breed security solutions into its pluggable security framework.

• WebLogic Portal ” A framework for creating user-driven Web-based applications through the support of portal foundation services, intelligent administration, integration services, interaction management, and personalization.

• WebLogic Integration ” A single, unified platform for executing complex business processes ”for example, Business Process Management (BPM), business-to-business integration (B2Bi), and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI).

• WebLogic Workshop ” The first Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that dramatically simplifies the development of Web services. WebLogic Workshop enables a broader category of application developers who do not necessarily have J2EE experience but need to rapidly and visually create business logic in the form of reliable Web services.