Question

I am working on a desktop Java application that is supposed to connect to an Oracle database via a proxy which can be a Servlet or an EJB or something else that you can suggest.

My question is that what architecture should be used?

1. Simple Servlets as proxy between client and database, that connects to the database and sends results back to the client.

2. An enterprise application with EJBs and remote interfaces to access the database

3. Any other options that I haven’t thought of.

Thanks

Answer 1

Depending on how scalable you want the solution to be, you can make a choice.

1. EJB (3) can make a good choice but then you need a full blown app server.

2. You can connect directly using jdbc but that will expose url of db (expose as in every client desktop app will make a connection to the DB. you can not pool, and lose lot of flexibilities). I would not recommend going this path unless your app is really a simple one.

3. You can create a servlet to act as proxy but its tedious and not as scalable. You will have to write lot of code at both ends

4. What i would recommend is creating a REST based service that performs desired operations on the DB and consume this in your desktop app.