Architecture of Component-based Information Systems over the J2EE Platform

Abstract

Component-based development can be addressed from two different fronts, or more precisely, from two different levels. One of them regards the technology used for system implementation, and the other is a previous and more abstract level, where the focus is set to the logical structure of the solution and where technological issues are not considered. Model Driven Architecture promotes such separation by distinguishing platform independent models from platform specific models. In alignment with this approach, this article proposes a mapping from the tiered and platform independent architecture for information systems resulting from the application of a widely known methodological approach, to the available constructs in the J2EE platform. This mapping allows the definition of transformations between platform independent models, resulting from the referred methodology where it is possible to abstractly reason about the solution, and platform specific models which are aligned with technological constructs and are directly implemented.