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<document>
  <properties>
    <title>About the OpenEJB Tomcat Integration</title>
  </properties>
  <body>

<section title="Plug-in, not a bundle" ref-id="intro">
  <p>
Typically ejb servers have embedded Tomcat into their platforms,
requiring you to switch platforms and use the Tomcat version they ship.
We've taken the opposite approach and have created an integration that
embeds OpenEJB into your existing Tomcat setup.  This gives you several 
 advantages.
  </p>
</section>

<section title="Advantages for you" ref-id="advantage">
<ul>
<li>You can keep your working Tomcat installation.</li>
<li>No need to port webapps over to a platform where Tomcat has been embedded.</li>
<li>You can use whatever version of Tomcat you want.</li>
<li>Upgrade to different Tomcat versions whenever you feel like it.</li>
<li>No need to convince anyone to switch platforms to use EJB.</li>
<li>No change to your Tomcat install.</li>
<li>You can plug-in OpenEJB and unplug it without modifying your Tomcat configs.</li>
</ul>
</section>

<section title="On the technical side" ref-id="tech">
  <p>
The integration consists of a servlet in this webapp that is configured 
to load on startup.  When loaded, it locates the OpenEJB installation
via the openejb.home init-param you set in the web.xml file. Once it finds
the OpenEJB installation, it walks up the classloader tree to the Tomcat 
common classloader and loads OpenEJB and your EJBs into the VM.
After all the classes are loaded, OpenEJB is automatically started in Tomcat's VM.
</p>
<p>
When the entire process completes, you will magically have access to all
you EJB class definitions from your webapp.  No need to put them in the WEB-INF directories
at all!.  All your servlets and JSPs will have fast, network-free access to all the EJBs in OpenEJB.
</p>
</section>
<section title="The process of embedding" ref-id="embedding">
  <p>
This is just one of the ways OpenEJB can be embedded.  OpenEJB can be embedded into any VM!  
<A HREF="http://openejb.sourceforge.net/embedded.html">Read here for more details.</A>
</p>
</section>
  </body>
</document>


 


