jBroker Web 2.0

README

Contents

Introduction

jBroker® Web is a toolkit for developing Web Service client and server applications. The SDK contains compilers and tools for building Web Services, and a runtime for executing and testing Web Services. jBroker Web is a 100% pure Java implementation, which supports standards such as SOAP, WSDL and JAXRPC. jBroker Web brings the familiar programming model of Java RMI to the Web Services world.

The jBroker Web compilers provide support for both application programmers who are developing client programs that need to access existing Web Services, as well as application programmers who are developing server programs that implement those Web Services. The compilers generate stubs and skeletons as an abstraction over the underlying protocols, which means that developers are not exposed to the mechanisms of the transport layer.

In additional to standards-based mapping between basic Java and XML data types, jBroker Web also supports an XML schema compiler, which generates Java classes for commonly encountered schema types. Data binding not only provides a familar programming model, it also shields application developers from the details of how Java types are represented as XML on the wire.

The jBroker Web tools include a light-weight Web Server for deploying standard WAR files that contain Web Services, and a TCP tunnel for debugging the SOAP messages exchanged between client and server applications. A tool for converting a regular Java class to RMI is also provided. For more information about jBroker Web, please refer to the documentation section, or the jBroker Web datasheet.

What's New

jBroker Web 2.0 is a major new release, which primary goal is to support the Java API for XML-Based RPC (JAXRPC). JAX-RPC introduces further standardization for invoking Web Services using the Java programming language but does not compromise the fundamental RMI approach used in previous versions of jBroker Web. Please refer to the migration notes for details on upgrading.

The other major feature of jBroker Web 2.0 is an XML Schema to Java compiler, which automatically translates common XML schema types into JavaBeans with accompanying serializers and de-serializers. For the vast majority of XML schema, jBroker Web developers will not have to write custom marshalers. As an example, the schema compiler supports the entire UDDI schema.

jBroker Web 2.0 has full support for both literal and encoded SOAP messages, which can be exchanged either using document or RPC style. jBroker Web has passed all the tests at SOAPBuilders Interoperability Lab and can for instance be used both for developing client applications that consume .NET services, and to create Web Service implementations that can be accessed from .NET clients.

For a detailed description of migration issues please look here.

System Requirements

jBroker Web requires Java 2 and an XML parser such as Xerces. Also, clients may optionally require JNDI if they prefer to look up references to (remote) Web Services via JNDI. Although jBroker Web comes with a simple Web Server, server side development and deployment typically requires a servlet container, such as SilverStream eXtend Application Server or Tomcat.

This release has been tested on Windows NT/2000, Solaris Sparc 2.6+, and Linux Red Hat. JDK 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 (Java 2 Standard Edition) are supported.

Installation

jBroker Web is installed as follows:

  1. On Windows platforms, simply launch the jbrokerWeb20.exe executable. On other platforms, run the jBroker Web installer where jbrokerWeb20.jar is located: 
       java -jar jbrokerWeb20.jar
    The Setup Welcome screen appears. Click "Next" to view the README information.

  2. The README contains important information. Please take the time to read these notes carefully before continuing. When you have finished reading the notes, continue the installation by clicking the "Next" button.

  3. The Installation program displays the SilverStream license agreement. To install jBroker Web, you must accept all terms of this agreement. Check the "Accept all terms of the license" checkbox and click "Next" to continue.

  4. Choose or specify a destination directory (or accept the default) and select "Next" to continue.

  5. Review the installation summary. Client "Next" when you're ready to install. The installation program notifies you when the installation is complete.

  6. Choose "Finish" to exit the Installation program.

Once installation is complete, please make sure that you satisfy the above System Requirements, and that the following resources are available to the Java 2 runtime:

Put jbroker-web.jar, xerces.jar, jaxrpc-api.jar, saaj-api.jar, and servlet.jar in your CLASSPATH, and bin\win32, bin/solaris, or bin/linux-rh on your PATH. If you're running on JDK 1.2, also include jndi.jar in your CLASSPATH. You can use the env.bat, env.sh, or env.csh script in the examples directory for setting up your environment.

Documentation

The following documentation is included with this release of jBroker Web:

Sample Programs

jBroker Web comes with a number of pre-built examples. These examples show how to use most of the features of the jBroker Web product. The jBroker Web tutorial contains a description of each example. The Java source for the examples can be found in the examples directory.

Limitations in this Release

The following features are not implemented in this release of jBroker Web:

Bug Reports and Feedback

Please use jbroker-feedback@silverstream.com for feedback, comments, and any bug reports.

Resources on the Internet

There are many Web Services resources available on the Internet:

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