EJB Overview

Enterprise

The first part of the name tells us we are looking at a large and wide spread problem domain.

Java

The second part of the name relates to the language in which the components are written, or at least in which wrappers for them are written.

Making Sense of Java, by Hank Shiffman.

IBM Java

The IBM "Java Technology Zone".

Beans

The third part of the name represents the components as hardshelled little objects!

Enterprise Java

An Overview of Java 2 Enterprise Edition, by Jerry Smith.

Book: Enterprise Java

The J2EE Specifications, multiauthored

What is EJB?

Enterprise Java Beans Technology, by Anne Thomas of the Patricia Seybold group

Why is EJB?

"Business Benefits Analysis" white paper, by Zona Research, Inc.

Performance

Although our motivation initially seemed to stem from development issues, the entire technology would be going nowhere unless performance in real large scale deployments is appropriate.

We do need to realize that many typical EJB projects would not be possible as a single project at all without some technology of this sort, and would otherwise be a very complex and fault-prone interconnection of isolated pieces.

In other words, blame the technology for only part of the complexity: the problems it is trying to solve, or at least unify, are themselves complex.

services provided by the container

The whole architecture is based upon the fact that many services which would be very complex to program individually can be provided by the container itself, meaning that they need to be programmed only once, by the container-vendors (who typically have strong backgrounds in these areas), and in a fashion which allows a variety of implementations so that vendors can be chosen on the basis of performance, or reliability, or any other appropriate criterion.

EJB API

This is the beginning contract from the programmer point of view.

References to EJB materials

A nice link collection from the EJB SIG.