from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Enterprise JavaBeans
EJB
<specification, business, programming> (EJB) A {server}-side
{component architecture} for writing reusable {business logic}
and {portable} {enterprise} applications. EJB is the basis of
{Sun}'s {Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition} (J2EE).
Enterprise JavaBean components are written entirely in {Java}
and run on any EJB compliant server. They are {operating
system}, {platform}, and {middleware} independent, preventing
vendor {lock-in}.
EJB servers provide system-level services (the "plumbing")
such as {transactions}, security, {threading}, and
{persistence}.
The EJB architecture is inherently transactional,
{distributed}, {multi-tier}, {scalable}, secure, and {wire
protocol} neutral - any {protocol} can be used: {IIOP},
{JRMP}, {HTTP}, {DCOM} etc. EJB 1.1 requires {RMI} for
communication with components. EJB 2.0 is expected to require
support for RMI/IIOP.
EJB applications can serve assorted clients: {browsers}, Java,
{ActiveX}, {CORBA} etc. EJB can be used to wrap {legacy
systems}.
EJB 1.1 was released in December 1999. EJB 2.0 is in
development.
Sun claims broad industry adoption. 30 vendors are shipping
server products implementing EJB. Supporting vendors include
{IBM}, {Fujitsu}, {Sybase}, {Borland}, {Oracle}, and
{Symantec}.
An alternative is Microsoft's MTS ({Microsoft Transaction
Server}).
(http://java.sun.com/products/ejb/).
FAQ (http://java.sun.com/products/ejb/faq.html).
(2000-04-20)