Overview of the programming interface of the J2EE Connector Architecture

The purpose of the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) is to connect Enterprise Information Systems (EISs), such as CICS®, into the J2EE platform. The JCA offers a number of qualities of service which can be provided by a J2EE application server. These qualities of service include security credential management, connection pooling and transaction management.

These qualities of service are provided by means of system level contracts between a resource adapter provided by the CICS Transaction Gateway, and the J2EE application server. There is no need for any extra program code to be provided by the user. Thus the programmer is free to concentrate on writing the business code and need not be concerned with providing quality of service.

The JCA defines a programming interface called the Common Client Interface (CCI). This interface can be used, with minor changes, to communicate with any EIS. The CICS Transaction Gateway provides resource adapters which implement the CCI for interactions with CICS.