Sun Microsystems Inc

Chapter 5 Client View of a Session Bean

This chapter describes the client view of a session bean. The session bean itself implements the business logic. The bean’s container provides functionality for remote access, security, concurrency, transactions, and so forth.

While classes implemented by the container provide the client view of the session bean, the container itself is transparent to the client.

5.1 Overview

For a client, a session object is a non-persistent object that implements some business logic running on the server. One way to think of a session object is as a logical extension of the client program that runs on the server. A session object is not shared among multiple clients.

A client accesses a session object through the session bean’s remote interface. The Java object that implements this remote interface is called a session EJBObject. A session EJBObject is a remote Java object accessible from a client through the standard Java™ APIs for remote object invocation [3].

From its creation until destruction, a session object lives in a container. Transparently to the client, the container provides security, concurrency, transactions, swapping to secondary storage, and other services for the session object.