Chapter 2. Introduction

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5 is an open-source JEE-based middleware solution. It is built on top of the consolidated JBoss Application Server 5 called JBoss Enterprise Application Server, which introduces the new JBoss Microcontainer.
The JBoss Microcontainer is a lightweight container that supports direct deployment, configuration, and lifecycle of plain old Java objects (POJOs). It replaces the JBoss JMX Microkernel used in the 4.x JBoss Enterprise Application Platforms.
JBoss Enterprise Application Platform also includes the following supported components:
  • JBoss HTTP Connector for load balancing
  • PicketLink framework for identity management
  • RESTEasy framework for RESTful web services
  • Seam framework for development
The JBoss Microcontainer integrates with the JBoss Aspect Oriented Programming framework (JBoss AOP, refer to Chapter 12, JBoss AOP). Support for JMX in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5 remains strong and MBean services written against the old Microkernel are expected to work.

2.1. Integrated Projects

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5 integrates the following standalone JBoss projects:
JBoss EJB
JBoss EJB3 provides the implementation of the Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) specification. EJB 3.0 is a deep overhaul and simplification of the EJB specification.
JBoss Transactions
JBoss Transactions is the default transaction manager compliant with JTA, JTS and Web Services standards.
JBoss Web
JBoss Web is the Web container component based on Apache Tomcat that includes the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) and Tomcat native technologies.
JBoss Messaging (JMS)
JBoss Messaging is the default messaging provider. It is also the backbone of the JBoss enterprise service bus (ESB) infrastructure. JBoss Messaging substitutes JBossMQ, which is the default JMS provider for JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 4.2.
JBoss Cache
JBoss Cache provides two types of transactional cache: a traditional tree-structured node-based cache; and a PojoCache, an in-memory, transactional, and replicated cache system that allows users to operate on simple POJOs transparently without active user management of either replication or persistency aspects.

Important

JBoss Cache is deprecated and substituted by Infinispan in the next major JBoss Enterprise Application Platform release.
JBossWS 3.x
JBossWS 3.x is the web service stack that provides Java EE compatible web services.