Suppose you’re working on an event-driven J2EE / Java EE application that requires you to implement a response in one system to an event in another system. If you work in a project team with flexible deadlines and unlimited funding, you can use the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) publish-subscribe model to build a standards-based, highly scalable solution. But most developers aren’t so lucky.
For the typical Java development team with limited time and resources, Scott Nelson has written the Java Boutique article SOA Shortcut: 6 Steps for Rapidly Implementing a JMX Timer MBean. He presents a step-by-step process for quickly building a SOA shortcut: a JMX timer MBean solution that meets the event-driven project requirement. He writes:
You should do the best you can with the resources you have. While you won’t solve the funding, staffing or stress issues today, you can come up with a scalable, loosely-coupled solution that you can deliver on time and sacrifice only the SOA repository.
You can think of the JMX timer MBean solution as a SOA shortcut that still maintains scalability and reliability.
