Exposing local entity beans to web tier?

Question

Hello all,
I have a question concerning basic design issues with EJB and the JSP presentation
layer. Currently, I have designed a system using all local component interfaces
of EJB 2.0. I currently have the following architecture in place:
EJB --> Servlets (WebWork Actions) --> JSP
I'm utilizing the session facade design pattern where the business logic in encapsulated
in session beans, which internally access the entity beans, etc. However, I am
doing something of the following:
sessionBean.getUserAccounts() which returns a Collection of actual UserAcountLocal's.
I then am passing this collection off to the JSP just to cycle through each entity
bean and display the data via its getXXX() methods. No modifications to the entity
beans are being done directly in the Actions/JSPs, rather they are modified through
methods of the session beans. Now I know that there is the concept of DTO (Data
transfer objects), which send the data from the particular entity bean to a regular
java bean for presentation. I know that DTO's increase performance if one is using
remote interfaces, because there is less network traffic that occurs via that
transport method. However, I know that WebLogic performs excellent caching of
entity beans, so that multiple invocations of get() methods on entity beans will
not make a trip to the database each and every time the get() method is called.
So, my question is: Is it "safe" to continue with the current way I am designing/coding
the system? I just find it a bit tedious to create value objects for each and
every entity bean, if I know that I will not be calling setXXX() methods from
within the presentation layer. Also, with EJB 2.0 and the introduction of local
component interfaces, it seems that issues regarding limiting the amount of network
traffic don't seem to be so relevant. Any suggestions/tips are appreciated. :-)
Best regards,
Ryan LeCompte
[email protected]
http://www.louisiana.edu/~rml7669

Answer 1

use dtos
the main reason is that if you call a getXXX() method on a local or remote
interface from your servlet then that bean is retrieved again (as the
servlet is outside the transaction involved in the initial retrieval)
For example if you retrieve 100 users and want to display them in a html
table with the user id, first name and lastname then there end up being more
than 300 SQL statements executed (this is unless your ejbs are readonly)
If you have a tool (like sql server profiler) that traces sql statements i
recommend you use it to see the staggering amount of sql statements that are
being executed by your current code - then DTOs will look much more
appealing (it worked for me) :).
I would also recommend using dtos when performing updates. Basically work
towards your servlets never directly accessing anything entity bean related.
Some people extend this further and have the DTO as the single argument in
the create method of an entity bean - I havent done this yet myself but it
looks like a good idea to me.
"Ryan LeCompte" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
Hello all,
I have a question concerning basic design issues with EJB and the JSPpresentation
layer. Currently, I have designed a system using all local componentinterfaces
of EJB 2.0. I currently have the following architecture in place:
EJB --> Servlets (WebWork Actions) --> JSP
I'm utilizing the session facade design pattern where the business logicin encapsulated
in session beans, which internally access the entity beans, etc. However,I am
doing something of the following:
sessionBean.getUserAccounts() which returns a Collection of actualUserAcountLocal's.
I then am passing this collection off to the JSP just to cycle througheach entity
bean and display the data via its getXXX() methods. No modifications tothe entity
beans are being done directly in the Actions/JSPs, rather they aremodified through
methods of the session beans. Now I know that there is the concept of DTO(Data
transfer objects), which send the data from the particular entity bean toa regular
java bean for presentation. I know that DTO's increase performance if oneis using
remote interfaces, because there is less network traffic that occurs viathat
transport method. However, I know that WebLogic performs excellent cachingof
entity beans, so that multiple invocations of get() methods on entitybeans will
not make a trip to the database each and every time the get() method iscalled.
So, my question is: Is it "safe" to continue with the current way I amdesigning/coding
the system? I just find it a bit tedious to create value objects for eachand
every entity bean, if I know that I will not be calling setXXX() methodsfrom
within the presentation layer. Also, with EJB 2.0 and the introduction oflocal
component interfaces, it seems that issues regarding limiting the amountof network
traffic don't seem to be so relevant. Any suggestions/tips areappreciated. :-)
>
Best regards,
Ryan LeCompte
[email protected]
http://www.louisiana.edu/~rml7669