GUEST EDITORIAL
WRITTEN BY VINCE BONFANTI
J2EE Without EJBs?
id you use EJBs in your last J2EE project?
D Many Java programmers (and their man-
agers and CIOs) would consider this a
strange question. “How can it be a J2EE project if it
doesn’t include EJBs?” they might ask. The answer
is: Sun currently lists 11 J2EE component tech-
nologies of which EJB is but one; of equal impor-
tance are servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSP), and
JDBC. In fact, a recently released research report
by Gartner, Inc., reveals that most Java projects do
not use EJBs, but rely exclusively on servlets/JSP.
(While not specifically mentioned in the Gartner
report, I would guess that a high percentage of
those projects also use JDBC.)
How is it that EJBs have become synonymous
with J2EE in the minds of so many people? One
answer is the natural tendency of software ven-
dors to try to sell you the most expensive product.
Is a commissioned salesperson going to sell you
an inexpensive servlet/JSP solution if he or she
can convince you to buy an “enterprise” applica-
tion server (with EJB!) for 10 times as much? The
tendencies of human nature should make the
answer to that question fairly obvious.
Sun has contributed to the perception that
J2EE requires EJBs through the J2EE licensing pro-
gram and by not offering a separate certification
program for servlets/JSP. The only way for a ven-
dor to achieve Sun certification for a servlet/JSP
implementation is by be-
coming a J2EE licensee.
The costs of becoming a
J2EE licensee are struc-
tured toward the “enter-
prise” vendors and are
prohibitive for small-
er companies. Therefore,
you’ll find the role of J2EE
licensees dominated by
EJB server vendors. Con-
trast this with JDBC (a
J2EE technology), which
has a separate certifica-
tion program with a much
more reasonable cost
structure and a higher par-
ticipation rate by smaller
vendors.
Finally, we must not
overlook the role of Java
Vince Bonfanti is a cofounder and president of New Atlanta Communications.
The rational
alternative
programmers, developers, and engineers in form-
ing the equation that J2EE equals EJB. We (yes, I
put myself in this group) naturally want to work
with the latest, hottest, coolest, biggest, sexiest, Version 4.5
most important new technologies. We sometimes
overspecify and overdesign, and say things like,
Introductory Offer
“Sure, we don’t have a requirement for that now, $2995
but….” And we always have an eye on what will for Teamwork Server
look good on our résumés.
Why is this bad? Because it creates waste. In
the same study mentioned above, Gartner esti-
mates that over $1 billion has been wasted since
1998 on purchases of EJB servers for projects in
which EJB was not used at all. Instead, those proj-
All 9 UML diagrams
Additional Features:
ects were based entirely on servlets/JSP. Gartner
• Performs Java, C++ or CORBA IDL
projects that if this continues, another $2 billion
code round-trip engineering (code
will be wasted from 2001 through 2003. generation and reverse engineering);
Interestingly, their numbers include only the cost recognizes JavaDoc comments. This
of the application server purchase; they don’t feature allows you to write code, reverse
include the wasted engineering man-hours due to engineer, make changes to the model
the added complexity of working with an “enter- and re-generate the code without losing
any implementation specific information.
prise” application server, despite the fact that only
limited use is made of the full functionality of • Supports UML 1.3 notation.
these servers. • Saves diagrams as bitmap PNG/JPG and
What does this mean to you and what should you scalable WMF/SVG/EPS/DXF formats.
do? Wasting $1 billion in the go-go dot-com and • Provides XML interoperability — native
high-flying stock market era may not have been such model files are stored in XMI format.
a terrible thing. But • Integrated with Forte for Java (FFJ) IDE
wasting another $2 versions 1.0 and 2.0.
billion in the cur- Standard Edition: . . . . . . . . $249
rent economic
Professional Edition: . . . . $499
climate is fool-
ishness. Make
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there are many more projects
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AUTHOR BIO contacts@magicdraw.com
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He has been a member of the Servlet and JSP Expert Groups since 1997.
NOVEMBER 2001 7