Java Testing and Design - 2. Preface

Now that you have finished learning the basics of programming, testing,and application software development, you are ready for the next step. Web infrastructure (routed networks using open protocols in a grid of inexpensive
equipment) is everywhere. And yet, until this book, there was no guide to show how your choices in design, coding, and testing impact the scalability, performance, and functionality of your Web-enabled applications.

This book will show you a fast and efficient method to go from basic Java knowledge to building production-worthy, scalable, and high-performing Web-enabled applications. I wrote this book for software developers, QA technicians, and IT managersworking in large corporate IT groups, software development companies, and service providers. It expands on other software development books by going from architectural discussions to showing actual working code that you can use in your own environment. The case studies show real-world practical techniques to make software projects reliable, scalable, and secure.

This book prepares software developers for a laundry list of new APIs, protocols, and tools being packed into the next generation of J2EE, .NET, and open-source systems. While these new software libraries, tools, and techniques
are a big move forward for all of us, they push software developers, QA technicians, and IT managers to learn even more technology to turn out complex, highly functional, and interoperable software applications.

This book then gears you up to adopt the next generation of Web protocols, including Web Service Interoperability (WS-I,) Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML,) and Liberty Alliance. Tools from technology vendors (for example, BEA WebLogic Server, IBM WebSphere, Sun Java System (formerly Sun One), and Microsoft .NET) are on the move. All this innovation gives pause to a software developer, QA technician, and IT manager. In these environments, each choice of tool, protocol, platform, and technique you make impacts system scalability and reliability.

I wrote this book from my experiences as the “go-to” guy for enterprises that need to test and solve problems in complex interoperating information systems, especially Web Services. This book contains a treasure of knowledge, tips, and techniques and is applied with a solid methodology from the more than 50,000 software developers, QA technicians, and IT managers that participate in my TestMaker open-source project. Details are found at http:// www.PushToTest.com, the Web-based community meeting place where ideas on software design, testing, and automation are exchanged every day.

In this book, I describe the architectural choices to build Web-enabled applications in Java and show how each choice impacts scalability and reliability.I show how to test and optimize these systems in your own environment. I describe the need for intelligent test agents in Web-enabled environments, describe a test agent framework with a tutorial on the latest Web-based test techniques, and present TestMaker, my free open-source framework for building intelligent test agents to check Java-based Web software for performance, scalability, and reliability. I present case studies and immediately useful code of how Elsevier Science, 2Wire, Sun Microsystems, and BEA successfully use intelligent test agent technology to build scalable Java applications and ensure confidence in their Web-enabled Java projects.

Inside you will find in-depth discussions of a powerful, proven Web-enabled Java architecture, construction techniques, immediately useful code, and intelligent test agents to check Web-enabled applications for scalability, functionality, and reliability.

• Java and J2EE-based dynamic database-driven Web-enabled architecture
•  Integrated applications using SOAP, XML-RPC, .NET, HTTP, HTTPS
•  protocols J2EE and .NET Interoperability problems solved
• Performance Kits for developers in BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, SunONE
• eCommerce site architecture and optimization
• Secure Internet services using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), HTTPS, SSL
• Building with the next-generation security technologies: WS-I, SAML, Liberty
• Avoiding and solving concurrency problems
• Architecture, code, and test agents for J2EE, Java Web Services, P2P, .NET
• Easy-to-understand test scripts using Python/Jython and Java
• Extended architectures include email protocols (IMAP, SMTP, POP3) applications

The PushToTest Web site supports this book with an active community of users. The Web site contains all of the book's source code and applications, ready to be expanded and customized to meet your needs to build reliable and scalable Web-enabled applications in Java.

I hope this helps.

—Frank Cohen