Computer
Science Department
Courant
Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Course Title: Application Servers Course Number: g22.3033-011
Instructor: Jean-Claude Franchitti Session: 7
1. Ongoing Project Background
This homework follows the course on-going project approach described in the homework #1 specification. You should keep enriching your framework-based enterprise application design, and take advantage of the application server platforms used to implement/deploy your application. Your application should be developed in such a way as to be shielded as much as possible from the underlying software infrastructure. For that reason, it is a good idea to build your applications around a portable application framework. As portability issues arise, you will learn how to improve the design of your applications to make them more portable across application server platforms.
2. CORBA 3 Component-Based Computing Environments
CORBA 3 provides
specifications in the area of Java and Internet Integration, Quality of Service
Control and the CORBAcomponent architecture.
Integration features include support for objects by value, Java to IDL mapping,
interoperable naming service, and firewall capabilities. Quality
of service features include support for asynchronous messaging, and
policies to control the quality of service of invocations. Support was also
added for minimum, fault-tolerant, and real-time CORBA primarily intended for
embedded and card-format systems. The CORBAcomponent
package is a major milestone for CORBA as it provides for a container
environment that packages transactions, security, and persistence, and provides
interface and event resolution. As such the CORBAcomponent
architecture allows integration with Enterprise JavaBeans, and provides a
software distribution format that enables a CORBAcomponent
software marketplace.
In this homework, you will experiment with a CORBA 3 CCM platform in the context of the framework-based application developed as part of previous assignments on top of the CORBA and J2EE Component-Based Computing Environments. You may wish to extend the application you developed so far to motivate the need for migration to a CORBA 3 platform as a way to handle J2EE and CORBA component interoperability within a single container.
2.1. Software Infrastructure Provided:
1. CORBA and EJB MOO Frameworks
used in previous homework
2. Other development tools best
suited for CORBA 3 development environments
3. All the application software
needed for this homework is contained in archives posted on the course Web site
under demos. The distribution archives contains programs
for the various types of implementations mentioned in this homework.
Additional Sample Applications
1. No additional sample
applications are provided for this homework
3. Questions
1. Preparation phase:
2. Prepare a short report documenting
your refined framework-based enterprise application (using software engineering
standards), and explaining its motivation.
3. Prepare a short report
including functional diagrams and screenshots (as needed) to demonstrate your
understanding of the infrastructure software. Explain the infrastructure
software differences between the application you developed in previous
assignments and the one you are developing for this homework.
4. Develop and deploy your
framework-based enterprise application as follows on top of a
CORBA 3 infrastructures. You are welcome to either reuse services
provided by the sample application or complement them. Document the benefits
and deficiencies of the approach on which CORBA 3 component-based computing
environments are based and explain (as needed) how it limits your ability to
develop the various application components you have envisioned for your
enterprise application. Note that you do not need to provide a complete
implementation of your application in this homework. You should restrict
yourself to what you feel is feasible based on time and the level of support
provided by the infrastructure software. Your application should be tuned for
efficiency as allowed by the underlying infrastructure software, and you should
document your performance engineering approach. You should conclude your report
by suggesting, and implementing (as time allows) an improved Application Server
model.
5. Explain how you would refine the “analyzer” tool you started designing in previous assignments to capture information about the version of the applications deployed in previous assignments, and re-deploy them as XML-based web applications such as: (a) the “SpyWeb” applications provided as support material under demo programs on the course Web site, (b) applications based on the Cocoon 2 XSP framework, and (c) applications based on a CORBA 3 framework. Note that the target application should again maintain a strict separation between content, style, and logic. As for previous assignments, your analyzer should strive to extract and represent a generic model of your application using a suitable markup language. You should comment on the merit of your proposed approach as it relates to the one followed by Sygel’s “Wonder Machine” as illustrated in the weekly session slides for session 8. You should related this proposed approach to the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) being specified by the OMG as a general purpose alternative to vendor specific solutions such as Microsoft .NET and Sun ONE.
6. Extra Credit: Implement a
prototype of the analyzer tool described in question 5 (ongoing)
5. Deliverables
6. Grading
All assignments are graded on a maximum scale of 10 points. Your grade will be based equally on:
a. The overall quality of your
documentation.
b. The understanding and
appropriate use of application server related technologies.
c. Your ability to submit
working and well-commented code.
d. Extra credit may be granted
for solutions that are particularly creative.
Please
let the TA know as soon as possible about teaming arrangements. You will need
to stay with the same team for the duration of the course. You should only
submit one report/archive per team for each assignment. To balance things out,
the final grading in the course will take into account the fact that you are
working as a team instead of individually, so you should feel free to work
individually as well. Note that the final take home examination will require
individual work.