Java RMI

Chapter 7.  Designing the Remote Interface

In the previous chapter, we discussed the architecture of the bank example in detail and concluded that implementing many small Account servers seems like a good design decision. In this chapter, we’ll tackle the design of Account’s remote interface. As part of this, we will also discuss the issues involved in building data objects, objects designed to be passed by value over the wire. By the end of this chapter, you will have a list of basic design criteria that will help you design your own remote interfaces.

Important Questions When Designing Remote Interfaces

Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written, and another for which it wasn’t.

—Alan Perlis

Now that we’ve decided to have many little Account servers, the next step is to design the Account server interface. Just as the choice of server architectures was substantially influenced by the problems that arise in the design of distributed applications, the design of the server interface is also affected by both network latency and the possibility of partial failure.

But interfaces also need to be designed with the application’s (or at least the server’s) lifecycle in mind. As the quote at the beginning of this section suggests, the simple truth is that nobody ever really knows how an application, or even a server, will be used once it is deployed. Over time, how an application is used and what functionality it needs to support will change. A needlessly ...