Well, I agree that it would be nice if you could get access to servers
outside of Orion using the "client" approach, I don't think it necessarily
defined in the J2EE platform specs. I took a look around the J2EE 1.3
specification, and the section J2EE.2.8 "Flexibility of Product
Requirements" states:
"This specification doesn't require that J2EE product be implemented by a
single program, a single server, or even a single machine. In general, this
specification doesn't describe the partionining of services or functions
between machines, servers, or processes. As long as the requirements in
this specification are met, J2EE Product Providers can partition the
functionality however they see fit. A J2EE product must be able to deploy
application components that execute with the semantics described by this
specification."
In section J2EE.2.11.3 "Network Protocols" it says that "This specification
defines the mapping of application components to industry-standard network
protocols. The mapping allows client access to the application components
that have not installed J2EE product technology".
Finally, in J2EE.8.2.1 "Application Assembly" subpart 3ii says "Dependencies
that are not linked to internal components must be handled by the Deployer
as external dependencies that must be met by resources previously installed
on the platform. External resources must be linked to the resources on the
platform during deployment."
>From everything I have read, it seems that Orion isn't violating any
specification rules, since they are allowed to partition functionality as
they see fit. Orion does allows multiple servers to intercommunicate, but
it is the responsibility of the application deployer to specify those links
(and it is specific to Orion). Since the web container is bundled as part
of the J2EE Server, I don't think the specification requires that it has
access to anything outside that specific server environment.
I would like to hear the thoughts of others about this, and any experiences
they might have had with access with remote containers/servers.
-jason
