Introduction

Welcome to BEA WebLogic Server 8.1 Unleashed. Developers from Gamma Enterprise Technologies have collaborated with a group of leading WebLogic consultants, developers, and authors to make this the most comprehensive developer's guide to WebLogic Server 8.1 available. Inside this book you'll find a wealth of useful information on developing and administering scalable and secure enterprise Java applications using WebLogic Server 8.1.

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is designed to be comprehensive with regard to BEA WebLogic Server. Even if you've never developed for WebLogic, you should be comfortable here. However, we assume that you have some previous Java and distributed application development experience. Although many J2EE technologies are explained in the context of WebLogic development, readers with no previous exposure to J2EE might benefit from a refresher, either online at http://java.sun.com/j2ee or from another book, such as Sams Teach Yourself J2EE in 21 Days.

Which Version of J2EE?

This book covers Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) version 1.3, which is supported by BEA WebLogic Server 8.1. J2EE 1.3 includes many technologies such as JavaServer Pages 1.2, Java Servlets 2.3, and Enterprise JavaBeans 2.0. Sun has just released J2EE version 1.4, and subsequent versions of WebLogic might support it.

How This Book Is Organized

Part I, “Getting Started with WebLogic Server,” introduces WebLogic Server and discusses the necessary skills, hardware and software configuration, and design methodologies required to build WebLogic applications.

To get the most from this book, you should have BEA WebLogic Server 8.1—part of BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1—ready to install. We've included a developer edition of WebLogic Platform 8.1 on this book's accompanying CD-ROM, and we cover WebLogic Server installation in Chapter 2.

Part II, “WebLogic Server Web Applications,” discusses the physical structure of J2EE Web applications and how to use WebLogic Builder to deploy them.

Part III, “Using J2EE Technologies in WebLogic Applications,” covers the core J2EE APIs that WebLogic leverages: Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), Java Transaction API (JTA), Java Transaction Service (JTS), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Java Message Service (JMS), and JavaMail.

Part IV, “Using Web Technologies in WebLogic Applications,” discusses JavaServer Pages (JSPs) and Java servlets for developing presentation layers. This section includes chapters on working with JSP tag libraries and building applications using the Apache Jakarta Struts framework.

Part V, “Using Enterprise JavaBeans in WebLogic Applications,” covers Session, Entity, and Message-Driven beans, including best practices and design patterns for each.

Part VI, “Working with WebLogic Server Applications,” discusses testing, debugging, and optimizing WebLogic applications, using tools such as JUnit, JProbe, and JMeter.

Part VII, “WebLogic Server Security,” first covers Web application security issues in general, and then discusses WebLogic's security implementation and the specific WebLogic features designed to ensure it.

Part VIII, “Integrating the Enterprise with WebLogic Applications,” brings in integration technologies and tools including XML, Web services, the J2EE Connector Architecture, SAP's Java Connector, jCOM, CORBA, and BEA Tuxedo. We provide techniques and ideas for connecting WebLogic applications in real-world enterprise systems for each of those technologies.

Finally, in Part IX, “Administering WebLogic Applications,” we discuss the WebLogic Administration Console, working with clusters, Java Management Extensions, and using the command-line interface commands for administration.

At the end of the book, appendices provide a reference for common tasks and insightful advice for migrating from previous versions of WebLogic. The last appendix details WebLogic development with WebLogic Workshop, improved in version 8.1 to enable developers to build J2EE applications on WebLogic Server.

Source Code and Updates

Source code for all the examples discussed in this book is included on this book's accompanying CD-ROM. You'll find detailed instructions for installing the CD-ROM and a list of the CD-ROM's other contents in the back of the book.

If we discover any errors in the book after publication, errata will be posted at this book's page at Sams' Web site. Please visit www.samspublishing.com, type this book's ISBN (0672324873) into the search window, press Enter, and you'll be taken to a page with links to errata and updates to the book.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following conventions are used in this book:

• Code lines, commands, statements, and any other code-related terms appear in a monospace typeface.

• When a line of code is too long to fit on one line of this book, it is broken at a convenient place and continued to the next line. The continuation is preceded by a special code continuation character ().