WebLogic Server's Competitive Edge BEA WebLogic Server is by far the leading J2EE application server and has been for many years . This is true not because it has always maintained compliance with the current J2EE standards, but because it provides a complete development and deployment environment for J2EE applications through other infrastructure services that J2EE enterprise applications demand and are not covered by the J2EE specification. WebLogic Server goes beyond J2EE by addressing and delivering the following application infrastructure requirements: -
Broad client support for browsers, wireless devices, and programmatic clients . -
High performance , which is facilitated by in-memory replication, clustering, caching, asynchronous JMS messaging, and multithreading capabilities. -
Scalability offered by load balancing, caching, pooling, and a distributed naming service (the Java Naming and Directory Interface, or JNDI). -
High availability with an unparalleled clustering capability, which encompasses failover and in-memory replication. -
A new self-health monitoring feature to monitor the health of WebLogic servers in a domain. Along with the WebLogic Node Manager process, the self-health service can be used to manage the availability of those servers deemed to be in a failed state. -
A new security framework encompassing all WebLogic products and including support for user - and group -level Access Control Lists (ACLs), realms, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), digital certificates, JAAS, and encryption. This flexible security framework enables you to easily plug in solutions from best-of-breed security vendors , such as Pentasafe, RSA, and Netegrity. Also, a built-in LDAP-based security data store is included to store and process all the necessary security credentials and other information the system administrator maintains. -
A new Transaction Recovery Service (TRS) , which attempts to recover failed transactions with a commit or rollback upon server startup. -
Portability across all major operating systems. -
Interoperability between different versions of WebLogic Server. -
Broad deployment options , which permit tight integration with the leading databases, operating systems, Web servers, messaging systems, transaction monitors (TMs), and other technologies. -
A new graphical tool, WebLogic Builder , which dramatically simplifies assembling, configuring, packaging, and deploying J2EE applications to WebLogic Server. The WebLogic Builder tool catalyzes the process of preparing and deploying applications to the WebLogic Server because it does the following: -
Eliminates the need to edit J2EE deployment descriptors by hand -
Validates configuration parameters -
Retrieves information on databases, JMS destinations, and other objects in WebLogic Server -
The EJBGenTool simplifies EJB development by eliminating the complexity of having to work with multiple Java source files. This simplification enables developers to focus on their business functionality and develop the actual EJB implementation class. All the accompanying files are generated by the tool and prepared for further configuration and deployment with WebLogic Builder. -
Simplified WebLogic domain and cluster creation and configuration with an easy-to-use graphical configuration wizard ” the WebLogic Domain Configuration tool . -
The capabilities to support both enterprise J2EE applications (EJBs) and Web applications (servlets, JSP, and static HTML). -
A fully integrated and Unified Message Bus (JMS), which is responsible for receiving and distributing messages throughout the WebLogic application infrastructure. -
Improved developer and administrator productivity through the following features: -
Tight integration with all leading J2EE development tools , such as Together ControlCenter, WebGain Studio, Visual Age for Java, and Borland's JBuilder -
A management infrastructure based on the JMX and SNMP standards for the efficient deployment, configuration, management, and monitoring of production applications, which includes integration with products such as HP-Openview and BMC Patrol -
A powerful application infrastructure ecosystem to support other technology solutions required in the real world, such as content management systems (for example, Interwoven, Documentum, and Vignette) and search engines (for example, Verity, Autonomy, and Inktomi). -
High-performance server-side Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for the Windows platform: WebLogic JRockit . In addition to directly leveraging J2EE services and components , users can also develop enterprise applications by using WebLogic Server's Web services framework, which is built on the J2EE infrastructure. WebLogic Server provides full support for the following Web service standards: -
Extensible Markup Language (XML 1.0) ” BEA WebLogic Server implements the latest Java API for XML Processing (JAXP), and includes a built-in Apache Xerces parser and a custom high-performance 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. -
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP 1.1) ” SOAP 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. -
Web Services Definition Language (WSDL 1.1) ” WSDL is the XML-based language used to describe a published Web service. WebLogic Server has built-in support for WSDL and generates a WSDL script automatically when a Web service is deployed. -
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI 1.0) ” A UDDI registry is a distributed Web-based information directory listing Web services. WebLogic Server includes an embedded UDDI registry and an API for searching and updating this or any other third-party UDDI registry. |
