Java was conceived as a client-side application environment but it is fast becoming clear that developers (or at least their bosses) are less interested in developing Java on the desktop than they are in the application of its cross-platform capability to more lucrative back-end and server-side environments including legacy data integration. After all it is the internet, ERP and e- commerce markets which are driving big buck, high-margin server sales.
It is presumably these considerations which have lead to the inclusion of Entity Beans in a new 1.1 cut of the specification for Enterprise Java Beans. Entity Beans which are used by developers to write server-side and e-commerce Java applications. Entity Beans which represent and store real-life business entities such as a bank account or online shopping trolley account. The functionality said to be crucial to the development of enterprise e-commerce applications because it provides a higher degree of abstraction, said to ease the development of distributed applications.
Sun and 19 other companies wrote the original EJB spec, though IBM and Oracle have made most contribution. The process for creating EJB in the first place had been fraught enough that Entity Beans had been pushed out to a berth in the 2.0 spec. The EJB companies appear to have come to their collective senses. á
