Apache OpenEJB
Encyclopedia
OpenEJB is an open source
, embeddable and lightweight EJB Container System and EJB Server, released under the Apache 2.0 License. OpenEJB has been integrated with Java EE application servers such as Geronimo, and WebObjects
.
The first to integrate OpenEJB in this fashion was Apple's WebObjects
in late 2000, released in 2001. When the project moved to Source Forge in 2002 an Apache Tomcat
integration was created. Again rather than follow what most in the industry were doing and putting Tomcat into OpenEJB, the project decided to follow its vision and provide an integration that allowed Tomcat users to plug in OpenEJB to gain EJB support in the Tomcat platform. It was in this same vein of putting an EJB container into a Web server that the project developed the Collapsed EAR concept of putting EJBs inside the .war file.
As part of the work that OpenEJB did to prepare for the integration with Apple's WebObjects, a very large integration test suite was developed. The test suite was developed as a generic application since it would need to be run against both WebObjects
and other platforms that integrated OpenEJB. For simplicity in the build the test suite, based on JUnit
, was run with OpenEJB right inside the tests rather than as a separate process, which was easy to do as the container was designed to be plugged into other platforms and make as little assumptions about its environment as possible. It was from this work that the concept of combing an EJB application with plain unit tests and an embeddable EJB container was born. Originally referred to as a "local" EJB container and what lead the project to describe itself as being able to run in two modes: Local and Remote.
In August 2003 the project helped launch the Apache Geronimo application server. Originally a new version of OpenEJB was developed ground up based on Geronimo's GBean architecture and released as OpenEJB 2.0 which lived throughout the Geronimo 1.x cycle. In 2006 when EJB 3.0 was released which had a focus on simplicity, the project went back to its roots and revived the OpenEJB 1.0 codebase, ported select bits of the 2.0 codebase, and eventually brought it up to the EJB 3.0 spec level in what is now called OpenEJB 3.0.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
, embeddable and lightweight EJB Container System and EJB Server, released under the Apache 2.0 License. OpenEJB has been integrated with Java EE application servers such as Geronimo, and WebObjects
WebObjects
WebObjects was a Java web application server from Apple Inc., and a web application framework that ran on the server. It was available at no additional cost. Its hallmark features were its object-orientation, database connectivity, and prototyping tools...
.
History
OpenEJB was founded by Richard Monson-Haefel and David Blevins in December 1999. At the time there were new vendors moving in the enterprise java space seemingly every week. Rather than join the space as a competitor, the project was focused entirely on providing these new platforms with a way to quickly get EJB compliance via plugging OpenEJB into their application server.The first to integrate OpenEJB in this fashion was Apple's WebObjects
WebObjects
WebObjects was a Java web application server from Apple Inc., and a web application framework that ran on the server. It was available at no additional cost. Its hallmark features were its object-orientation, database connectivity, and prototyping tools...
in late 2000, released in 2001. When the project moved to Source Forge in 2002 an Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is an open source web server and servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation...
integration was created. Again rather than follow what most in the industry were doing and putting Tomcat into OpenEJB, the project decided to follow its vision and provide an integration that allowed Tomcat users to plug in OpenEJB to gain EJB support in the Tomcat platform. It was in this same vein of putting an EJB container into a Web server that the project developed the Collapsed EAR concept of putting EJBs inside the .war file.
As part of the work that OpenEJB did to prepare for the integration with Apple's WebObjects, a very large integration test suite was developed. The test suite was developed as a generic application since it would need to be run against both WebObjects
WebObjects
WebObjects was a Java web application server from Apple Inc., and a web application framework that ran on the server. It was available at no additional cost. Its hallmark features were its object-orientation, database connectivity, and prototyping tools...
and other platforms that integrated OpenEJB. For simplicity in the build the test suite, based on JUnit
JUnit
JUnit is a unit testing framework for the Java programming language. JUnit has been important in the development of test-driven development, and is one of a family of unit testing frameworks collectively known as xUnit that originated with SUnit....
, was run with OpenEJB right inside the tests rather than as a separate process, which was easy to do as the container was designed to be plugged into other platforms and make as little assumptions about its environment as possible. It was from this work that the concept of combing an EJB application with plain unit tests and an embeddable EJB container was born. Originally referred to as a "local" EJB container and what lead the project to describe itself as being able to run in two modes: Local and Remote.
In August 2003 the project helped launch the Apache Geronimo application server. Originally a new version of OpenEJB was developed ground up based on Geronimo's GBean architecture and released as OpenEJB 2.0 which lived throughout the Geronimo 1.x cycle. In 2006 when EJB 3.0 was released which had a focus on simplicity, the project went back to its roots and revived the OpenEJB 1.0 codebase, ported select bits of the 2.0 codebase, and eventually brought it up to the EJB 3.0 spec level in what is now called OpenEJB 3.0.
| Version | Release Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0.01 (initial release) | December 1999 | Born in Exolab |
| January 2002 | Moved to SourceForge.net SourceForge.net SourceForge is a web-based source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. The website runs a version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition, forked from the last open-source version available... |
|
| March 2004 | Moved to Codehaus | |
| September 29, 2006 | Moved into the Apache Incubator | |
| June 1, 2007 | Graduated as Apache OpenEJB |
Major features
- Supports EJB 3.0, 2.1, 2.0, 1.1 in all modes; embedded, standalone or otherwise.
- Partial EJB 3.1 support
- JAX-WSJAX-WSThe Java API for XML Web Services is a Java programming language API for creating web services. It is part of the Java EE platform from Sun Microsystems. Like the other Java EE APIs, JAX-WS uses annotations, introduced in Java SE 5, to simplify the development and deployment of web service clients...
support - JMS support
- J2EE connector support
- Can be dropped into Tomcat 5 or 6 adding various JavaEE 5 and EJB 3.0 features to a standard Tomcat install.
- CMP support is implemented over JPA allowing to freely mix CMP and JPAJava Persistence APIThe Java Persistence API, sometimes referred to as JPA, is a Java programming language framework managing relational data in applications using Java Platform, Standard Edition and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition....
usage. - Complete support for Glassfish descriptors allowing those users to embedded test their applications.
- Incredibly flexible JNDI name support allows you to specify formats at macro and micro levels and imitate the format of other vendors.
- Allows for easy testing and debugging in IDEs such as EclipseEclipse (software)Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment and an extensible plug-in system...
, IntelliJ IDEAIntelliJ IDEAIntelliJ IDEA is a commercial Java IDE by JetBrains. It is often simply referred to as "IDEA" or "IntelliJ."-History:The first version of IntelliJ IDEA was released in January 2001, and at the time was the only available Java IDE with advanced code navigation and code refactoring capabilities...
or NetBeansNetBeansNetBeans refers to both a platform framework for Java desktop applications, and an integrated development environment for developing with Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Groovy, C, C++, Scala, Clojure, and others...
with no plugins required. - Usable in ordinary JUnitJUnitJUnit is a unit testing framework for the Java programming language. JUnit has been important in the development of test-driven development, and is one of a family of unit testing frameworks collectively known as xUnit that originated with SUnit....
or other style test cases without complicated setup or external processes. - Validates applications entirely and reports all failures at once, with three selectable levels of detail, avoiding several hours worth of "fix, recompile, redeploy, fail, repeat" cycles.
- OSGiOSGiThe Open Services Gateway initiative framework is a module system and service platform for the Java programming language that implements a complete and dynamic component model, something that does not exist in standalone Java/VM environments...
support