Please direct your comments on this JSR to: jsr-comments@sun.com. Don't forget to identify the JSR you are commenting on somewhere in the subject of your e-mail (this is JSR-000026).

Section 1. Identification

This JSR is submitted jointly by Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun) and Inline Software Corporation (Inline).

Contact information:

Jack Greenfield
Inline Software Corporation
751 Miller Drive, SE
Suite E-3
Leesburg, VA 20175
Phone: +1 703 737 6121
Email: jack@inline-software.com

Other participants who endorse this JSR:

Mark Hapner,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
901 San Antonio Road, MS UCUP02-201
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone:  +1 408 343 1609
Email: mark.hapner@eng.sun.com

Grady Booch
Rational Software Corporation
2171 S. Parfet Court
Lakewood, CO 80227
Phone: +1 303 986 2405
Email: egb@rational.com

Donald Ferguson, Ph.D.
International Business Machines Corp.
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
Phone: +1 914 766 1154
Email: dff@us.ibm.com

The expert group will include experts from:

• enterprise tool and framework vendors
• enterprise information system vendors
• application server and container vendors
• application developers

Interest in a UML profile for EJB has been widely expressed within the Java community.

Section 2: Request

This JSR is for a mapping between the Unified Modeling Language^TM (UML) and Enterprise JavaBeans™ (EJB) expressed as a UML profile, a format defined by the OMG Object Analysis and Design Task Force (OA&DTF).

2.1  Description of the UML Profile for EJB

UML is a formal language for describing software requirements, design and implementation. It is widely used in the development of enterprise applications suitable for implementation with EJB.

The UML profile for EJB defines a set of extensions to UML that can be used to model software implemented with EJB in UML. These extensions will let enterprise tool and framework vendors provide EJB modeling capabilities using UML, as well as forward and reverse engineering between UML models and EJB implementations.

In addition, the specification defines a mechanism for using UML models stored in an EJB-JAR to describe the contents of the EJB-JAR. This will let enterprise tool and framework vendors use UML models stored in EJB-JARs for automation and reflection.

2.2 Target platform

The profile is based on the EJB 1.1 specification, as defined by Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun), and on UML version 1.3, as defined by the Object Management Group (OMG).

2.3 Need of the Java community addressed by the proposed specification

In order to describe software implemented with EJB, UML models must represent EJBs, capturing their structure and semantics. Since UML predates the EJB architecture, it does not contain model elements that express the structure and semantics of EJBs. UML was designed to be extensible, however, and provides standard extension mechanisms for defining new model elements. These mechanisms can be used to define new model elements to represent EJBs.

Unless the extensions are standardized, tools and frameworks from different vendors will not interoperate. Some vendors will use non-standard proprietary mappings between UML and EJB, some will use non-standard proprietary meta-models rather than UML, and others will not support modeling or model based reflection and automation for EJB.

In addition, enterprise tool and framework vendors need to associate UML models describing EJBs with the EJB implementations in an EJB-JAR in order to use the models for automation and reflection. Without a standard way to perform this association, tools and frameworks will not be able to use the UML models in EJB-JARs from different vendors.

2.4  Why this need is not met by existing specifications

Currently, no existing Java™ platform specification addresses the problem of providing a standard mapping between UML and EJB.

2.5 Specification to be developed and how it addresses the need

This specification defines a set of standard UML extensions defining new model elements to represent EJBs. This definition is expressed by the following items:

• UML profile for EJB.

Describes the relationship of logical and physical EJB constructs to UML model elements using the standard UML extension mechanisms.

Describes the relationship between the EJB deployment descriptor and UML model elements using the standard UML extension mechanisms.

Describes the forward engineering transformation from UML model elements using the standard UML extension mechanisms to EJB implementation artifacts.

Describes the reverse engineering transformation from EJB implementation artifacts to UML model elements using the standard UML extension mechanisms.

In addition, this specification defines a mechanism for associating UML models stored in an EJB-JAR with the implementations of the EJBs they describe. This definition is expressed by the following items:

• UML descriptor for EJB.

Defines an XML DTD for a file placed within the EJB-JAR that identifies UML models stored in the same EJB-JAR and their relationship to EJBs in the EJB-JAR.

2.6  Description of the underlying  technologies

The profile can be used in a wide variety of implementations, including modeling tools, model based development environments, database mappings, and business component frameworks. This specification does not prescribe an implementation.

The profile will support the Extensible Meta-Data Interchange Format (XMI) defined by the OMG Stream Based Model Interchange Format (SMIF) specification. XMI is a widely used meta-data representation based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML).

2.7  Proposed package name for API Specification

There is no API associated with this JSR.

2.8 Dependencies on specific operating systems, CPUs, or I/O devices

None.

2.9 Security implications

The profile defines the representation of EJB security roles in UML as a semantic grouping of a set of methods, as required by the security architecture defined by the EJB 1.1 specification.

2.10  Internationalization implications

None.

2.11 Localization implications

None.

2.12 Risk assessment

No risks to any existing Java platform APIs, RIs or CTSs arising from this JSR have been identified.

Should a JSR be promulgated in the future to standardize the mapping between UML and Java in more general sense, that document will be constrained by the relationship between UML and Java defined by this specification.

2.13 Existing specifications that might be rendered obsolete or deprecated by this work

None.

2.14 Existing specifications that might need revisions as a result of this work

None.

Section 3: Contributions

List of relevant existing documents:

• Enterprise JavaBeans specification - http://java.sun.com/products/ejb/index.html
• Unified Modeling Language specification - http://www.omg.org