Formal Modeling of the Enterprise JavaBeansTM Component Integration Framework

An emerging trend in the engineering of complex systems is the use of component integration frameworks. Such a framework prescribes an architectural design that permits exible composition of thirdparty components into applications. A good example is Sun Microsystems' Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) framework, which supports objectoriented, distributed, enterprise-level applications, such as account management systems. One problem with frameworks like EJB is that they are documented informally, making it di cult to understand precisely what is provided by the framework, and what is required to use it. We believe formal speci cation can help, and in this paper show how a formal architectural description language can be used to describe and provide insight into such frameworks. This material is based upon research sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory under Contract No. F30602-00-2-0616. Any opinions, ndings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarilly re ect the views of DARPA or the United States Air Force.