Product Description

Discover how to build applications that run on both the Microsoft .NET Framework and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)—and extend your customer reach and system shelf life. Whether your background is in .NET or J2EE, you’ll learn to implement many of the interoperability technologies available today, including Microsoft, Sun, and third-party compatibility tools. Interoperability expert Simon Guest takes a balanced look at the pros and cons of each cross-platform technology presented, including best practices, workarounds, and examples of interoperability solutions in action. You also get interoperability software on CD—plus a wealth of code you can use in your own solutions. Discover how to: •Use .NET Remoting to enable interplatform connectivity •Write interoperable Web service solutions that show interoperability in a production environment, handle exceptions, and use UDDI •Employ Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to create a shared database between .NET and J2EE •Enable cross-platform asynchronous calling with Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) and WebSphere MQ from IBM •Implement a bridge between .NET and J2EE queues using Microsoft Host Information Server and Microsoft BizTalk Server •Deliver a consistent user interface across platforms through shared session state and shared authentication •Build complex interoperability solutions using Web services specifications for security, binary data exchange, and routing Get code samples and software on CD CD features: •The Mind Electric (TME) GLUE Web Services •Ja.NET bridging software from Intrinsyc •Sample interoperability code from Microsoft 

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #984282 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

From the Author
One of the reasons I wrote the book was to show the reality of interoperability today between .NET and J2EE. Sure, the direction of Web services and XML is promoting a future of transparent interoperability between the two, but the reality of plugging together the two platforms today can be somewhat different. In addition I also wanted to cover and expose some interoperability techniques where Web services don't have a natural fit today - such as communication using .NET Remoting, a shared database, using message queues and other approaches.

So, the book itself is divided into four parts:

Part 1 looks at some of the fundamentals of interoperability - this includes many of the customer requirements for interoperability today, outlines some of the challenges and concentrates on the principles of sharing data between the two. At the end of Part 1 I look at XML's role in achieving interoperability and cover the pros and cons of parsing vs. serialization between the .NET Framework and J2SE.

Part 2 covers what I call point to point interoperability - that is where you have a component in .NET (for example an ASP.NET page) that needs to call a component in J2EE (e.g. an EJB) in a synchronous, request-response type call. Typically, these types of scenarios are used where you are integrating new presentation or business tier logic into an existing application. Part 2 looks at two approaches that can be taken to connect the two using both .NET Remoting and Web Services. The chapters weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as covering production worthy approaches as opposed to just showing a ' hello world' sample.

Part 3 covers the area of asynchronous interoperability - this part shows some of the approaches and techniques that can be used to perform asynchronous interoperability between the two platforms. This includes setting up a shared database (and more importantly some of the DAO patterns and recommendations for doing this), using MSMQ to bridge the two, using IBM' s WebSphere MQ (formerly MQ Series) to connect the two together, using BizTalk Server 2004 and Microsoft' s Host Integration Server 2000. I personally feel that the WebSphere MQ chapter was important to include - and hopefully promotes the neutral approach that I tried to take despite this being a book from Microsoft Press. The entire chapter covers setting up WebSphere MQ on a J2EE application server (I selected JBoss 3.0.7 for the book to avoid an affliation with any particular J2EE application server vendor and so that reader can try the samples without the need for a commercial application server), creating some MDBs (Message Driven Beans) that in turn are responsible for invoking .NET components upon incoming messages to the queue. It was an interesting chapter to write, and an approach that I know a number of organizations are using today.

Part 4 concludes the book with advanced interoperability - which starts with a chapter on presentation tier interoperability. This one demonstrates the advantages of sharing both session state and authentication information in a dual JSP and ASP.NET environment. The driver behind this was to appeal to readers who have a large investment in JSP and want to integrate ASP.NET pages - but do this a few pages at a time (as rewriting a complete web site can be pretty expensive). Obviously, one of the issues here is that although you can present ASP.NET pages and controls within a JSP environment, the sharing of session data and authentication becomes a little more complicated. Also in Chapter 4 I cover some of the emerging standards in the new Web services space - namely WS-Security, WS-Routing and WS-Attachments. For each of these we have a chapter that not only covers the specification, but also shows real samples of these working today.
The book also ships with a CD that contains samples for *each* technical chapter in the book. I know that many people (just as I do) learn most from trying out sample code instead of reading through tomes of documentation, so I felt this was especially important to include. The CD also contains versions of the GLUE Web services toolkit from The Mind Electric (now webMethods) and Ja.NET from Intrinsyc - both to make sure that you can get the samples up and running with the minimum of effort.
So, that' s the run-down and I hope this has answered some of the questions that I've been receiving. I look forward to hearing more comments and feedback about the book.

Thanks, Simon.

About the Author
Simon is a Program Manager in the .NET Enterprise Architecture Team in Redmond, and specializes in the area of Enterprise Interoperability and Integration. This includes interoperability with J2EE applications, enterprise messaging, Web services interoperability and end-to-end integration with desktop and smart client products.

In his tenure at Microsoft, Simon has worked on a wide variety of projects including customer engagements with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Siemens Medical,

JD Edwards and Citigroup. Simon has also presented at numerous Strategic Architect Forums (SAFs), Partner Architect Summit, Envision, MGB and TechEd.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 2001, Simon worked for an Application Service Provider (ASP) in California and a leading Systems Integrator (SI) in London, consulting for the financial, telecom and retail verticals. Previously, Simon has also worked for a top-five Law Firm in London, and as a systems analyst in semiconductor manufacturing.

Simon holds a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Software Engineering from Plymouth College, and a Masters degree in IT Security from the University of Westminster (London).

A frequent contributor to MSDN, Simon also enjoys writing and is the author of 'Microsoft .NET and J2EE Interoperability Toolkit' by Microsoft Press (September 2003).

Customer Reviews

Out of date book
I bought this book a few months ago to assist me with my project, sadly there arent many books on the market at the moment so I decided to purchase this one.

Many of the web addresses are out of date in this book, it is well written, the code should be explained a bit better inside and it comes with sample code on a cd. Technically this shouldnt have been too difficult to work however the problems i have encountered arent addressed on the authos website. A personal opinion is if theres a newer book out buy that instead