Defining Client Access with Interfaces

The material in this section applies only to session beans and not to message-driven beans. Because they have a different programming model, message-driven beans do not have interfaces that define client access.

A client can access a session bean only through the methods defined in the bean's business interface. The business interface defines the client's view of a bean. All other aspects of the bean--method implementations and deployment settings--are hidden from the client.

Well-designed interfaces simplify the development and maintenance of Java EE applications. Not only do clean interfaces shield the clients from any complexities in the EJB tier, but they also allow the beans to change internally without affecting the clients. For example, if you change a session bean from a stateless to a stateful session bean, you won't have to alter the client code. But if you were to change the method definitions in the interfaces, then you might have to modify the client code as well. Therefore, it is important that you design the interfaces carefully to isolate your clients from possible changes in the beans.

When you design a Java EE application, one of the first decisions you make is the type of client access allowed by the enterprise beans: remote, local, or web service.

Remote Clients

It can run on a different machine and a different Java virtual machine (JVM) than the enterprise bean it accesses. (It is not required to run on a different JVM.)

It can be a web component, an application client, or another enterprise bean.

To a remote client, the location of the enterprise bean is transparent.

To create an enterprise bean that has remote access, you must annotate the business interface of the enterprise bean as a @Remote interface. The remote interface defines the business and lifecycle methods that are specific to the bean. For example, the remote interface of a bean named BankAccountBean might have business methods named deposit and credit. Figure 20-1 shows how the interface controls the client's view of an enterprise bean.

Local Clients

It must run in the same JVM as the enterprise bean it accesses.

It can be a web component or another enterprise bean.

To the local client, the location of the enterprise bean it accesses is not transparent.

To build an enterprise bean that allows local access, you must annotate the business interface of the enterprise bean as a @Local interface. The local interface defines the bean's business and lifecycle methods.

Deciding on Remote or Local Access

Tight or loose coupling of related beans: Tightly coupled beans depend on one another. For example, a completed sales order must email the customer a confirmation message upon completion of the order. If the SalesOrder stateful session bean, which contains the business logic of an ordering application, calls the CustomerContact stateless session bean to email the order confirmation to the customer, these session beans would be described as tightly coupled. Tightly coupled beans are good candidates for local access. Because they fit together as a logical unit, they typically call each other often and would benefit from the increased performance that is possible with local access.

Type of client: If an enterprise bean is accessed by application clients, then it should allow remote access. In a production environment, these clients almost always run on different machines than the Application Server. If an enterprise bean's clients are web components or other enterprise beans, then the type of access depends on how you want to distribute your components.

Component distribution: Java EE applications are scalable because their server-side components can be distributed across multiple machines. In a distributed application, for example, the web components may run on a different server than do the enterprise beans they access. In this distributed scenario, the enterprise beans should allow remote access.

Performance: Due to factors such as network latency, remote calls may be slower than local calls. On the other hand, if you distribute components among different servers, you may improve the application's overall performance. Both of these statements are generalizations; actual performance can vary in different operational environments. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind how your application design might affect performance.

If you aren't sure which type of access an enterprise bean should have, choose remote access. This decision gives you more flexibility. In the future you can distribute your components to accommodate the growing demands on your application.

Although it is uncommon, it is possible for an enterprise bean to allow both remote and local access. Such a bean would require the business interface to be annotated both @Remote and @Local.

Web Service Clients

A web service client can access a Java EE application in two ways. First, the client can access a web service created with JAX-WS. (For more information on JAX-WS, see Chapter 15, Building Web Services with JAX-WS, page 497.) Second, a web service client can invoke the business methods of a stateless session bean. Message beans cannot be accessed by web service clients.

Provided that it uses the correct protocols (SOAP, HTTP, WSDL), any web service client can access a stateless session bean, whether or not the client is written in the Java programming language. The client doesn't even "know" what technology implements the service--stateless session bean, JAX-WS, or some other technology. In addition, enterprise beans and web components can be clients of web services. This flexibility enables you to integrate Java EE applications with web services.

A web service client accesses a stateless session bean through the bean's web service endpoint implementation class. Only business methods annotated as a @WebMethod may be invoked by a web service client.

Method Parameters and Access

The type of access affects the parameters of the bean methods that are called by clients. The following topics apply not only to method parameters but also to method return values.

Isolation

The parameters of remote calls are more isolated than those of local calls. With remote calls, the client and bean operate on different copies of a parameter object. If the client changes the value of the object, the value of the copy in the bean does not change. This layer of isolation can help protect the bean if the client accidentally modifies the data.

In a local call, both the client and the bean can modify the same parameter object. In general, you should not rely on this side effect of local calls. Perhaps someday you will want to distribute your components, replacing the local calls with remote ones.

As with remote clients, web service clients operate on different copies of parameters than does the bean that implements the web service.

Granularity of Accessed Data

Because remote calls are likely to be slower than local calls, the parameters in remote methods should be relatively coarse-grained. A coarse-grained object contains more data than a fine-grained one, so fewer access calls are required. For the same reason, the parameters of the methods called by web service clients should also be coarse-grained.