Truly, the relational data model is a wonderful innovation, and it would be an absolute disaster to replace it with flawed persistence technologies like XMLDBs or OODBMS. ... Relational technology essentially completely replaced network or hierarchical database technology, and there were excellent reasons why that happened. We should most certainly not be reviving either of those discredited approaches by slapping on the latest buzzwords (OO, XML, etc) as window dressing. – Gavin King, Interview with Gavin King, August, 2009

  1. Read Your First Cup: An Introduction to the Java EE Platform — Focus on Chapter 2, “Understanding Java Platform, Enterprise Edition”

    1. Explain the tiers discussed in the article. On which does J2EE focus? On which to the Oracle database focus?

    2. Explain the nature of a J2EE container. What sort of containers are there?

  2. Read The Java EE Tutorial — This tutorial provides extensive material on J2EE; focus on the sections listed here.

    1. Sections 1.7–1.8, “Java EE 7 APIs” — Explain the purpose of these technologies (only): JPA, JTA, JAX-RS*, JDBC, JAXB.

    2. Section 5, “Packaging Applications” — Compare and contrast JARs, WARs & EARs.

  3. Review these tutorials, on which the lab is based: Developing a Java EE Application & Creating and Running Your First RESTful Web Service.

    1. Identify the IDE we’ll use for J2EE development.

    2. Identify the roles of the following technologies in the J2EE application: J2SE’s JDK; GlassFish.

    3. Explain the nature of a RESTful webservice.*

* cf. the material on RESTful web services CS 262 Guide 9