How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, "Introduction," describes Web services and explains the support provided by the J2EE 1.4 platform for Web services.
• Chapter 2, "Standards and Technologies," enumerates and describes in detail the Web services-specific component, service, and communication technologies supported by the J2EE 1.4 platform.
• Chapter 3, "Service Endpoint Design," describes how best to design and implement a Web service endpoint.
• Chapter 4, "XML Processing," addresses in detail the issues for designing and developing XML-based applications and handling XML documents. In particular, it focuses on those issues that are of most concern to Web service endpoints and clients.
• Chapter 5, "Client Design," describes the different communication modes that J2EE and non-J2EE clients alike use to access Web services. It includes guidelines and techniques for writing efficient Web service client applications.
• Chapter 6, "Enterprise Application Integration," describes the capabilities provided by the J2EE platform for using Web services to integrate applications and data, and shows how to best use these capabilities in an enterprise application.
• Chapter 7, "Security," describes the J2EE security model and how it applies to Web service endpoints and clients.
• Chapter 8, "Application Architecture and Design," pulls the topics in the preceding chapters together into a coherent programming model that illustrates how best to design and develop Web service endpoints and clients.
• "Glossary" is a list of words and phrases found in this book and their definitions.