Enterprise JavaBeans™ Component Architecture: Designing and Coding Enterprise Applications

5.3. Value List Iterator Pattern

The client programs in the previous chapter read in all the recordings from the Music Collection database by invoking the getMusicList() method in the Music EJB. These clients use Swing components and HTML Option tags to display the recording list on the user's display screen. This works just fine if we have a short list, say something under 25 items. What happens if our database contains 100 items, 1,000 items, or even 10,000 items?

For a client application to effectively deal with a list that big presents logistic problems. No user wants to page through a 1,000-item list. In fact, a user machine with a browser and a large list may not be able to run the application at all, due to limited resources and memory ...