> On Oct 1, 2015, at 2:00 PM, Linda DeMichiel <linda.demichiel_at_oracle.com> wrote:
-snip-
>
> We believe it is time to deemphasize CORBA support and make it
> optional in the platform. The first step here would be to make it
> Proposed Optional in Java EE 8. CORBA support is a required component
> of Java SE 8, which would not change. The additional requirements
> related to CORBA in Java EE 8, such as the use of RMI-IIOP with EJB,
> would be made Proposed Optional.
>
> Since the EJB 2.x remote interfaces (EJBHome and EJBObject interfaces)
> require the use of RMI-IIOP, we propose that support for the EJB 2.x
> client view (EJBHome, EJBObject, EJBLocalHome, EJBLocalObject) be made
> Proposed Optional as well, since it was superseded by the simplications
> of EJB 3.0 that were made as part of Java EE 5. Note that support for
> remote EJBs is still required, since the remote interfaces defined by
> EJB 3.0 are not required to use CORBA. In addition, EJBs can be used
> to provide both REST and SOAP-based web services for remote access.
>
> Please let us know whether you support this proposed change or not.
The concern we have with removing this requirement is that there is really no equivalent alternative that achieves the same level of remote EJB interop between application servers. With RMI-IIOP, you get transaction propagation (via JTS), a wire optimized format, and it’s minimally invasive. With JAX-RS and JAX-WS you essentially have to architect your application around the technology, and are limited in what you can do since these approaches encourage a high level of decoupling. In some cases this is exactly how it should be done, but in others all you care about is that you can take a remote EJB client and point it somewhere.
We would really like to see a spec defined wire protocol that full profile platforms must support (in addition to their native protocols) that could serve as a substitute before dropping IIOP support as a requirement.
--
Jason T. Greene
WildFly Lead / JBoss EAP Platform Architect
JBoss, a division of Red Hat