Enterprise RComponents Demo

Click Here To Access The REFLEX Enterprise RComponent Demo

Introduction To Enterprise RComponents

The RComponent Re-configurable Enterprise Model (PDF)

A short description of the REFLEX RComponent reconfigurable enterprise model and its objectives is available from the above document link (PDF). The diagram outlines our architectural mapping of RComponents onto EJBs (Enterprise JavaBeans) (Click on the image for more detail). As can be seen RComponents sit as a bridge between entity and session beans where session beans delegate to RComponents to provide logic processing, and RComponents delegate to entity beans for data access.

We have mapped RComponents onto Enterprise JavaBeans, via EJB to RComponent delegation available in the RComponent API (See the REFLEX.ejb package). For example, the business logic tier in the diagram shown below, which represents the architecture of the demo, is wrapped as an enterprise session bean with entity beans providing data for the RComponent to process. The application accesses information provided from the back-end data tier via the entity bean and session bean which itself delegates to the dynamically configurable RComponent, providing an IIOP façade for clients (see diagram below). In this manner we are able to introduce configurability to enterprise Java. The demo further illustrates these points.

The main advantages of mapping an RComponent onto an EJB is that we can then leverage the use of the EJB container's services, therefore aiding application security, transaction support, and connection pooling for the RComponent residing in the middle-tier.

Enterprise RComponents Client Control

To ease the building of REFLEX Enterprise RComponent clients a custom component in the form of a JavaBean and ActiveX control (TLB) is provided. This allows users of the control the ability to easily incorporate reconfigurable N-tier functionality within their chosen application interface. Tools supporting JavaBeans, or ActiveX (such as Visual Basic, or Visual C++) can include the Enterprise RComponent Client Control allowing their application to access the RComponent via CORBA/IIOP. The control therefore allows for the power of the RComponent API to be available to application authors via drag & drop of the REFLEX control onto their developer studio application project.

For further information see the Enterprise RComponents Client Control page.