About This Document

This Sun™ ONE Application Framework Overview, introduces the Sun ONE Application Framework and discusses what it is, how it works, and what sets it apart from other Web application frameworks.

This preface addresses the following topics:

• Who Should Use This Guide
• Using the Documentation
• How This Guide Is Organized
• Related Information
• Documentation Conventions
• Product Support

Who Should Use This Guide

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The intended audience for this guide is the developer who is at least somewhat familiar with building Web applications using existing J2EE Web Technologies (servlets and JSPs), but new to building Web applications with the Application Framework.

This guide assumes you are familiar with software development processes, including debugging and source code control.

Using the Documentation

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The Sun ONE Application Framework manuals are available as online files in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) formats, at:

http://docs.sun.com/

The following Sun ONE Application Framework Documentation Roadmap table lists concepts described in the Sun ONE Application Framework documentation. The left column lists the concepts, and the right column lists the corresponding documents.

For information about	See the following
Late-breaking information about the Sun ONE Application Framework software and documentation	Release Notes
An introduction to the Sun ONE Application Framework Web application and discussion of developmental issues of a J2EE Web application	Sun ONE Application Framework Overview
An introduction to the user of the Sun ONE Application Framework and the Forte tool plugin, with a description of the mechanics and techniques used to build, deploy and test a Web application using this powerful tool	Sun ONE Application Framework Getting Started
A description of the environment and steps required to install the Sun ONE Application Framework within the Sun ONE Studio	Sun ONE Framework Installation Guide
Wizard-based concepts and components	Sun ONE Application Framework Online Help (installed with the product)

How This Guide Is Organized

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This guide contains the following documentation components:

• Sun ONE Application Framework Overview
• Sun ONE Application Framework Design and Architecture FAQ

Related Information

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In addition to the information in the Sun ONE Application Framework documentation collection listed in Using the Documentation, the following resources may be helpful:

• J2EE Specifications

http://java.sun.com/products/

• Enterprise JavaBeans Specification, Version 2.0

http://java.sun.com/products/ejb/docs.html#specs

• General EJB product information:

http://java.sun.com/products/ejb

• Java Software tutorials:

http://java.sun.com/j2ee/docs.html

• Enterprise JavaBeans, by Richard Monson-Haefel, O'Reilly Publishing,
  ISBN 0-596-00226-2

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/entjbeans3/

• Enterprise JavaBeans Design Patterns, ISBN 0-471-20831-0
• Core J2EE Patterns, ISBN 0-13-064884-1

Documentation Conventions

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This section describes the types of conventions used throughout this guide:

• General Conventions
• Conventions Referring to Directories

General Conventions

The following general conventions are used in this guide:

• File and directory paths are given in UNIX^® format (with forward slashes separating directory names). For Windows versions, the directory paths are the same, except that backslashes are used to separate directories.
• URLs are given in the format:

http://server.domain/path/file.html

In these URLs, server is the server name where applications are run; domain is your Internet domain name; path is the server's directory structure; and file is an individual filename. Italic items in URLs are placeholders.

• Font conventions include:

• The monospace font is used for sample code and code listings, API and language elements (such as function names and class names), file names, pathnames, directory names, and HTML tags.
• Italic type is used for code variables, book titles, emphasis, variables and placeholders, and words used in the literal sense.
• Bold type is used as either a paragraph lead-in or to indicate words used in the literal sense.
• Installation root directories for most platforms are indicated by install_dir in this document. Exceptions are noted in

By default, the location of install_dir on most platforms is:

• Solaris 8 non-package-based Evaluation installations:

user's home directory/sun/appserver7

• Solaris unbundled, non-evaluation installations:

/opt/SUNWappserver7

• Windows, all installations:

C:\Sun\AppServer7

For the platforms listed above, default_config_dir and install_config_dir are identical to install_dir. See Conventions Referring to Directories for exceptions and additional information.

• Instance root directories are indicated by instance_dir in this document, which is an abbreviation for the following:

default_config_dir/domains/domain/instance

• UNIX-specific descriptions throughout this manual apply to the Linux operating system as well, except where Linux is specifically mentioned.

Conventions Referring to Directories

By default, when using the Solaris 8 and 9 package-based installation and the Solaris 9 bundled installation, the application server files are spread across several root directories. These directories are described in this section.

• For Solaris 9, 12/02, bundled installations, this guide uses the following document conventions to correspond to the various default installation directories provided:

• install_dir refers to /usr/appserver/, which contains the static portion of the installation image. All utilities, executables, and libraries that make up the application server reside in this location.
• default_config_dir refers to /var/appserver/domains, which is the default location for any domains that are created.
• install_config_dir refers to /etc/appserver/config, which contains installation-wide configuration information such as licenses and the master list of administrative domains configured for this installation.
• For Solaris 8 and 9 package-based, non-evaluation, unbundled installations, this guide uses the following document conventions to correspond to the various default installation directories provided:

• install_dir refers to /opt/SUNWappserver7, which contains the static portion of the installation image. All utilities, executables, and libraries that make up the application server reside in this location.
• default_config_dir refers to /var/opt/SUNWappserver7/domainswhich is the default location for any domains that are created.
• install_config_dir refers to /etc/opt/SUNWappserver7/config, which contains installation-wide configuration information such as licenses and the master list of administrative domains configured for this installation.

Product Support

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If you have problems with your system, contact customer support using one of the following mechanisms:

• The online support web site at:

http://www.sun.com/supportraining/

• The telephone dispatch number associated with your maintenance contract

Please have the following information available prior to contacting support. This helps to ensure that our support staff can best assist you in resolving problems:

• Description of the problem, including the situation where the problem occurs and its impact on your operation
• Machine type, operating system version, and product version, including any patches and other software that might be affecting the problem
• Detailed steps on the methods you have used to reproduce the problem
• Any error logs or core dumps