Method and apparatus for implementing container managed batch jobs in an enterprise java bean environment

Abstract

An improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for creating and running batch jobs in an object oriented environment, such as a J2EE environment. A request to execute a batch job is received. A deployment descriptor file is processed to identify a batch bean to be invoked. This batch job session bean processes the request, parses deployment descriptor file that comprises definitions of relationships between other helper classes, entity and session beans. The identified batch bean is invoked to execute the batch job step in the order described in the deployment descriptor applying checkpoints at intervals specified in the descriptor.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present invention is related to the following applications entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING CONTAINER MANAGED USES, OWNERSHIPS, AND REFERENCES IN AN ENTERPRISE JAVABEAN ENVIRONMENT, Ser. No. ______ attorney docket no. AUS920040979US1 filed on ______; SYSTEM AND METHOD TO IMPLEMENT CONTAINER MANAGED STREAMS IN J2EE ENVIRONMENTS, Ser. No. ______ attorney docket no. AUS920040980US1 filed on ______. All of the above related applications are assigned to the same assignee, and incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Technical Field [0003] The present invention relates to an improved data processing system. In particular, the present invention relates to implementing enterprise JavaBeans™ development environment in a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to implementing container managed uses, ownerships, reference only, batch processing, and sequential s...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While relationships between entity beans are maintained, there is no existing mechanism that represents ‘uses’ relationship between an entity bean and a session bean.

This manual operation of session bean lookup can be error prone, time-consuming, and inconsistent with the manner in which other container managed relationships are handled.

The disadvantage of this approach is that the owned entity is only usable in the limited context of the ownership relationship that exists at the moment.

This manual process is costly, since the non-key essential state of the entity (the CMP fields) is typically needed to instantiate the EJB in memory.

In addition, this manual process is redundant because the container already has access to the key values when the list is built.

Furthermore, in current J2EE application servers, there is no existing mechanism that supports efficient batch computations.

However, the non J2EE solutions do not allow reuse of online J2EE application logic, such as transferring funds from one account to another.

Requiring manual coding of this restart logic is likewise tedious and error prone.

Furthermore, for batch processing in a J2EE environment, there is no existing mechanism that provides a generic definition for batch processing, including job steps and other configuration information for a batch job.

Currently, developers have to customize each batch job step separately, which requires significant development effort.

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