Creating a Sample Workshop Application with WebLogic Platform

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The Wonderland Casino application has been built to use as an example throughout this book. The Wonderland Casino has all the issues and problems of most major enterprises and a variety of core functionality that needs to be made available to its user base as Web applications. Additionally various classes of users, both internal and external, require customized views of the casino, which are well suited to portal applications. The casino also requires a high degree of security as well as other services (both provided and consumed), all of which require workflow and Web services.

WebLogic Server

WebLogic Server is the application server and the foundation of WebLogic Platform. WebLogic Server can maintain both Web and EJB containers because it's an application server with Web server capabilities. J2EE services, such as JDBC, JNDI, Java Messaging Service (JMS), and Java Transaction API (JTA) are implemented to enable Web and EJB containers to connect to back-end resources, such as databases, messaging servers, and other resources. For the Wonderland Casino, WebLogic Server provides all the core servers, such as JNDI, JMS, JDBC, and EJB support.

The casino can be accessed by a variety of clients, such as browser-based Web clients, standalone Java clients, and even non-Java clients . A Web client would access the Web container on the server, a standalone Java application might access the EJB container, and a non-Java client can access a Web service implemented on the server. All the other parts of Platform are built using the J2EE standards with WebLogic Server as the foundation.

WebLogic Portal

Now take a look at how different audiences would access the Wonderland Casino application. Based on the logged in user, different information could be displayed. For example, customers might be allowed to view available lodging information, whereas sales personnel would be allowed to view the occupancy rate for a certain period.

WebLogic Portal is a set of J2EE application services providing a framework that spans the Web and EJB tiers of Web applications, specifically for the purpose of tailoring application functionality to users' needs. The Portal framework is a configurable platform that acts as a gateway for different applications and can provide personalized content and access content management systems (CMSs). WebLogic Portal fully supports content personalization based on user characteristics. Portal applications consist of several smaller windows known as portlets , which connect to back-end applications to display content to users. WebLogic Portal provides the framework for creating an overall application with support for a variety of audiences and for specifying what portions of the application apply to each audience.

WebLogic Integration

Various business areas in the Wonderland Casino have specific process requirements. For example, certain steps must always be taken when increasing a credit limit or handling cash transactions. WebLogic Integration contains a business process framework, often referred to as a workflow , targeted at designing and implementing complex business processes in a simple-to-use fashion. The workflow framework helps developers define how these different tasks are performed. When defining these tasks , you can configure one of two options: manually completing the task, which requires user intervention, or automatically completing it, which requires passing a message to the workflow.

In this Wonderland Casino J2EE application, you need to create some type of business process to manually or automatically update customer accounts based on their winnings at the gaming tables. WebLogic Workshop supports creating, managing, and debugging business processes, all within the GUI.

Workshop can be used to create business process applications with minimal code writing. A key feature of Workshop is that you can seamlessly integrate Portal and Integration applications via controls. For example, you might connect to a legacy application by using adapters developed with Integration and allow access by using Portal as a gateway.

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BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 Kick Start
BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 Kick Start: Simplifying Java Web Applications and J2EE
ISBN: 0672326221
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 138

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