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Java Tools Using XML EJB CORBA Servlets and SOAP
1st Edition Andreas Eberhart Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Andreas Eberhart, Stefan Fischer
ISBN(s): 9780471486664, 0471486663
Edition: 1st
File Details: PDF, 3.99 MB
Year: 2002
Language: english
TE
AM
FL
Y
Java Tools TM
Java Tools
TM

Using XML, EJB, TM

CORBA, Servlets and SOAP

TM

Andreas Eberhart
Stefan Fischer

JOHN WILEY & SONS, LTD

First published as Java-Bausteine für E-Commerce-Anwendugen: Verteilte Anwendugen mit Servlets, CORBA
und XML. Copyright © 2000 Carl hanser Verlag, Munich/FRG. All rights reserved.
Authorized translation from the original German language edition published by Carl Hanser Verlag,
Munich/FRG.

English language edition copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Baffins Lane, Chichester,
West Sussex, PO19 1UD, England

National 01243 779777

Interntional (+44) 1243 779777

e-mail (for orders and customer service enquiries): cs-books@wiley.co.uk

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All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, including uploading, downloading, printing, recording or otherwise, except as permitted
under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of a licence issued by the
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eberhart, Andreas
Java tools : using XML, EJB, CORBA, Servlets and SOAP / Andreas Eberhart, Stefan Fischer.
p.cm.
ISBN 0-471-48666-3 (alk. paper)
1. Java (Computer program language) 2. Electronic data processing--Distributed processing.
I. Fischer, Stefan. II. Title.

QA76.73.J38 E24 2002

005.13'3--dc21 2001058127

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This title is also available in print as ISBN 0 471 48666 3

Typeset by Cybertechnics Ltd, Sheffield
 CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Structure of the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Section I

Chapter 2 Distributed applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 A short history of information technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.2 Principles and characteristics of distributed systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1 Definition of a distributed system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.2 Important characteristics of distributed systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.3 Communication models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.4 Advantages and disadvantages of distributed systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.1 The development of the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.2 Technical principles of the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.3 Internet applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.4 The World Wide Web. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.5 Basic constituents of Web applications: client and server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.6 Construction of Web applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 The architecture and characteristics of Internet and Web applications. . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.1 N-tier architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.2 Thin clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.4.3 Security aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.4.4 Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.5 The sample application of the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 3 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3.1 Basics of HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3.2 Language elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.1 Structure of an HTML document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.2 Text paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.3 Text formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.4 Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
vi

3.2.5 HTML links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3.2.6 Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.7 Tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.8 Applets and strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.2.9 Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.3 HTML tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 4 Java as a programming language for distributed applications . . . . . . . . 53

4.1 Development of Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

4.2 Object-oriented programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.1 Abstraction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.2 Information hiding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.3 Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.4 Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.5 Polymorphism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.3 The most important language elements of Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.3.1 Classes, methods, and variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.3.2 Sequences, loops, and conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3.3 Object instances and references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3.4 Input and Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.3.5 Interfaces, abstraction, and inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3.6 Information hiding: public and private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.3.7 Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.8 Concurrency using threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4 Creation and execution of Java programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.5 Java development environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.5.1 Sun Microsystems Java Development Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.5.2 Netbeans of Forté for Java Community Edition (Sun) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.5.3 Further IDEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Chapter 5 JDBC – database access with Java. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

5.1 Features of database servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

5.2 The relational data model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3 The SQL query language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.4 Database access via JDBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.4.1 Configuring the ODBC connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.4.2 The Connection, PreparedStatement, and
ResultSet objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.4.3 Inserting, deleting, and modifying values in the database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
 vii

Section II

Chapter 6 Principles of the servlet technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

6.1 The development and task of servlet technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

6.2 The architecture of distributed applications with servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.3 Servlet support in Web servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.3.1 Servlet engined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.3.2 The execution of a servlet in a call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.4 Generic servlet objects in Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.4.1 The servlet library in Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.4.2 The life cycle of servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.4.3 Request objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.4.4 Answer objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.5 Special servlets for Web applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.5.1 HTTP servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.5.2 HTTP query objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.5.3 HTTP answer objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.6 Long-term connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.6.1 Cookies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.6.2 Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 7 Tool support for servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

7.1 Java Servlet Development Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

7.1.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.1.2 Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.2 Tomcat servlet engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.3 Apache Web server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.4 Servlet development with Forté for Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.5 Java Server Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.5.1 JSP between servlets and HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.5.2 JSP language construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7.5.3 Servlets or JSP? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.5.4 Tool support for Java Server Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Chapter 8 A sample application with servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

8.1 The central database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

8.1.1 The Books Online database schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
8.1.2 Choice of database software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.1.3 Creating the tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.2 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8.3 Web design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
viii

8.4 Interaction with the user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

8.4.1 Homepage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
8.4.2 Registering and creating a new account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
8.4.3 Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.4.4 Shopping basket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.4.5 Checkout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.5 The first servlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.5.1 The definition of classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.5.2 The doGet() method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.5.3 Creating and starting the database query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.5.4 Dealing with errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
8.5.5 An initial test run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.6 Encapsulated functionality in the book class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
8.7 Managing the client session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8.7.1 Creating and deleting sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.7.2 The session interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.7.3 Avoiding cookies with URL rewriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.8 The shopping basket class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.9 Managing the shopping basket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.10 Client management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8.10.1 The client class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8.10.2 The login procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
8.10.3 Dealing with new registrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.11 Completing the purchase transaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.12 Navigation structure output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
8.13 Management of database connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.13.1 Storing connections intermediately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.13.2 Connection pooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.13.3 Switching the pool off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8.13.4 PreparedStatements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8.13.5 The base class of the database servlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Section III

Chapter 9 Basic principles of CORBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

9.1 Distributed object systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

9.2 CORBA - a standard for distributed object systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
9.3 Architecture of CORBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
9.3.1 The Object Request Broker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9.3.2 Application objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.3.3 CORBA services and facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.4 Communication between objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
 ix

9.4.1 Interface Definition Language (IDL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

9.4.2 IDL compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9.4.3 IDL stubs and skeletons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
9.4.4 Dynamic interfaces and repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
9.5 General procedure for the development of CORBA applications . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9.6 Advantages of using CORBA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
9.7 From architecture to product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Chapter 10 Java tools for CORBA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

10.1 The IDL compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

10.2 Anatomy of stubs and skeletons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10.2.1 The java interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10.2.2 The server base classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Y
10.2.3 The helper class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
10.2.4 The client stub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

FL
10.2.5 The Holder class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
10.3 Object Request Broker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
10.4 Name servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
AM
10.5 Test run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
10.6 A tip for working with the JDK ORB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
10.7 Forté for java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
TE

Chapter 11 The sample application in CORBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

11.1 Overview of the architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

11.2 Transaction process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
11.2.1 Fixed number of application servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
11.2.2 A server for each client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
11.2.3 A pool of server objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
11.3 The IDL interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
11.4 The credit card client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11.4.1 Multithreading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11.4.2 Initialization of the CORBA communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
11.4.3 Payment handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
11.4.4 Distributed transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
11.5 The credit card server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
11.5.1 Initialization and error treatment on the server side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
11.5.2 The Dispatcher class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.5.3 The payment class: session management in CORBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
11.6 Why a CORBA search interface? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
11.7 Transmission of book information with CORBA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
11.7.1 Search interface IDL: structs, arrays, and output parameters . . . . . . . . . 230
11.7.2 The implementation of the CORBA search engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
11.7.3 The implementation of the CORBA search engine client . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Team-Fly®
x

Section IV

Chapter 12 The basics of Enterprise Java Beans (EJB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

12.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

12.2 Properties of EJBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
12.3 Types of EJBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
12.3.1 Session beans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
12.3.2 Entity beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
12.4 Development of EJB applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
12.4.1 Development procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
12.4.2 Development roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Chapter 13 Tools for Enterprise Java Beans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

13.1 The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

13.2 J2EE specification for Enterprise Beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
13.2.1 The Enterprise Bean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
13.2.2 Remote interface and EJB object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
13.2.3 Home interface and home object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
13.2.4 Administration information: deployment descriptor and bean-specific
properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
13.2.5 The EJB Jar file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
13.3 Special features of session beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
13.3.1 The interface for session beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
13.3.2 Stateless and stateful beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
13.3.3 Writing our own session bean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
13.3.4 JNDI as name server for EJB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
13.4 Special features of entity beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
13.4.1 The interface for entity beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
13.4.2 A short example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
13.5 Tools of the J2EE reference implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Chapter 14 EJB example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

14.1 Development of a shopping cart EJB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

14.1.1 Structure of the bookshop application with EJBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
14.1.2 Example 1: the book EJB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
14.1.3 Example 2: the cart content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
14.1.4 Example 3: the virtual shopping cart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
14.2 Modification of servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
14.2.1 New structure of servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
14.2.2 Some code examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
14.3 Installation and use of EJBs and servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
 xi

14.3.1 Compiling the EJBs and servlets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

14.3.2 Creating JAR files for the EJBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
14.3.3 Creating WAR files for the HTML files and servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
14.3.4 Installing the complete application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
14.3.5 Using the application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Section V

Chapter 15 XML – the new ASCII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

15.1 The development of XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

15.2 XML and related technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
15.2.1 XML and databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
15.2.2 XML as a communication format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
15.2.3 XML as a document format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
15.2.4 XML and HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
15.3 Design goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
15.4 What XML can and can not do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
15.5 EDI and e-commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
15.6 XML documents and Document Type Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
15.6.1 An example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
15.6.2 Internal, external, and mixed DTDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
15.6.3 Well-formed documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
15.6.4 Valid documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
15.6.5 Invalid documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
15.7 Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
15.7.1 Root element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
15.7.2 Definition of the parent–child relationships between elements. . . . . . . . 294
15.7.3 Leaf elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
15.7.4 Unlimited elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
15.8 Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
15.8.1 Character data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
15.8.2 NMTOKEN and NMTOKENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
15.8.3 IDs and ID references. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
15.8.4 Enumerated attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
15.9 Attribute default values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
15.9.1 Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
15.9.2 Implied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
15.9.3 Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
15.9.4 Fixed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
15.10 When attributes, when elements? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
15.11 Is all this regimentation really necessary? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
xii

15.12 Entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

15.12.1 Internal entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
15.12.2 Special characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
15.12.3 Modular documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
15.12.4 Modular DTDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
15.12.5 Embedding of binary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
15.12.6 Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
15.13 XML schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
15.13.1 Why not DTDs?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
15.13.2 Combination of documents with a schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
15.13.3 Primitive data types (simple types) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
15.13.4 Defining custom types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
15.13.5 Extension of existing types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
15.13.6 XML schema and namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
15.14 Xpath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
15.15 eXtensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
15.15.1 XHTML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.15.2 Wireless Markup Language (WML) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
15.16 Presentation with stylesheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.16.1 Cascading Stylesheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.16.2 Formatting with XSL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.17 Other XML technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.17.1 Xlink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.17.2 Xpointer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
15.17.3 SOAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.17.4 UDDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Chapter 16 Tool support for XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

16.1 Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

16.2 Parsers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
16.2.1 DOM-based parsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
16.2.2 SAX-based parser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
16.3 Validators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
16.4 Creation and serialization of documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
16.5 XSLT processors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
16.6 XSQL: dynamic Web pages with SQL and XSL only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
16.7 XML support in Forté for Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
16.8 Apache SOAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
16.9 Other tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
 xiii

Chapter 17 The sample application with XML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

17.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

17.1.1 The book offer DTD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
17.1.2 The role of the DTD in the example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
17.2 The XML search interface of Books Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
17.3 The XML agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
17.3.1 An XML directory service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
17.3.2 Useful classes for developing the agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
17.3.3 Wrapper classes for DOM trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
17.3.4 The program code of the agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
17.3.5 A price comparison on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Chapter 18 Business-to-business applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

18.1 Interfaces and data structures of the marketplace applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

18.2 The marketplace client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
18.3 The marketplace server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
18.4 Deployment of the marketplace services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
18.5 Starting the client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
18.6 B2B standards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Section VI

Chapter 19 - Related solutions – differences and similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

19.1 Creating dynamic Web pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

19.1.1 Common Gateway Interface (CGI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
19.1.2 Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) . . . . . . . . . 389
19.1.3 Active Server Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
19.1.4 ASP.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
19.1.5 Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
19.1.6 Client-side scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
19.2 Remote procedure calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
19.2.1 RPC with sockets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
19.2.2 Remote Method Invocation (RMI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
19.2.3 Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
19.2.4 MTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
19.3 Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
19.3.1 Dynamic SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
xiv

19.3.2 Embedded SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

19.3.3 Stored procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
19.3.4 JDBC 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
19.3.5 ActiveX Data Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Chapter 20 Technology interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

20.1 HTML on HTTP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

20.2 XML and XSL on HTTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
20.3 Solutions without logic on the Web server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
20.4 XPath-based solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
20.5 Remote procedure calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
20.6 Scalable design of Web applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Appendices

Appendix A JDBC reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

A.1 The JDBC interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

A.2 Transaction support in database products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
A.3 Error messages of different database products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
A.4 Mapping SQL data types to Java types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Appendix B Servlet objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

B.1 The interface servlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

B.2 The abstract class GenericServlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
B.3 The interface ServletRequest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
B.4 The interface ServletResponse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
B.5 The class HttpServlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
B.6 The interface HttpServletRequest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
B.7 The interface HttpServletResponse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
B.8 The interface HttpSession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
B.9 The class Cookie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
B.10 The interface ServletConfig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
B.11 The interface ServletContext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Appendix C Java Server Pages (JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

C.1 Implicitly defined Java objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

 xv

Appendix D Interface Description Language (IDL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

D.1 The most important components in IDL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

D.2 Description of the IDL data types in Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Appendix E Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

E.1 Inheritance tree of the DOM interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

E.2 Description of the DOM data types in Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
E.3 Constants for the identification of the node type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
E.4 The Node interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
E.5 Names and values of different DOM objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
E.6 The NamedNodeMap interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
E.7 The document interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
E.8 The CharacterData interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Appendix F XPath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

F.1 Detailed XPath syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

F.2 Abbreviated XPath syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Appendix G Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

G.1 Distributed systems and applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

G.2 HTML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
G.3 Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
G.4 Servlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
G.5 CORBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
G.6 EJB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
G.7 XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Appendix H How to use the Web site for this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

H.1 Automated demos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

H.2 Installing the sample program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
 Chapter 1
1Introduction

1.1 Motivation

Distributed applications are programs which run on several computers connected to a

computer network and which together perform a specific task. An example of such an
application would be a flight booking system. Such a system consists of different
components, e.g. one or several databases in which all available flights and reservations
are filed, a management system, and tens of thousands of user programs which enable
interactive enquiries on places available, and their direct booking through a graphic or
text-oriented interface.
In such a scenario, each subprogram has its individual components which contribute to the
total functionality of the system. Communication occasionally has to take place between
individual subprograms in order to inform the partner program about the intermediate
results, user input or simple status modifications. It is this communication element that
makes the development of distributed applications a complex matter.
This book deals with the design and implementation of distributed applications.
Obviously, distributed applications, just like simple local applications, have to be
programmed. This is precisely the topic of this book. In addition to actual program logic,
i.e. the part of the program which solves application problems, communication code has to
be implemented between subprograms in distributed systems.
Distributed applications have been a topic of information technology since the 1970s, i.e.
since the advent of high speed networks and the exchange of large amounts of data
between computers. It was initially very difficult and less convenient to program such
applications and make them work properly. The programmers had to know exactly the
kind of networks, computer hardware or operating system with which they were dealing,
in order to be able to use the functions of the communication libraries.
However, increasingly more powerful and user-friendly programming techniques and
paradigms were developed, which today enable the communication part of distributed
applications to be created entirely automatically.
2 1 Introduction

Network applications aroused increasing interest among the general public and a further
impetus was provided with the explosive development of the Internet and the World Wide
Web. Nowadays, with the “network of networks,” a global communication medium is
available used by an increasing number of businesses and authorities, but also by more and
more private individuals. In addition, organizations develop their own applications, tailor
made for their special needs, such as the flight booking systems discussed previously,
hotel reservation systems or bank applications.
Two technologies currently play a very important role in the creation of such programs on
the Internet. On the one hand, these are applications which enable the user to access the
World Wide Web, and which the reader has already experienced in some way or other. A
typical property of such systems is the fact that a standardized Web browser works as a
user interface. The actual communication technique has also developed rapidly in this field
during recent years. Initially, it was possible to create static Web pages using HTML, but
soon afterwards, it became possible to create dynamic pages, using CGI programs at first,
and then Java applets. Applets are small programs written in the Java programming
language. They are placed on a Web page and executed by the browser after the page has
loaded. Servlets represent a further development and a fusion of these two techniques.
Servlets are Java programs which are not executed by the browser, but by the Web server.
Servlets build a powerful and simple tool for creating distributed applications, and are one
of the main topics of this book. If servlets are combined with an extension of the HTML
page description language, the eXtensible Markup Language, XML, some extremely
advanced applications can be built. The book will focus on this topic in one of its main
sections.
On the other hand, a programming method described as object-oriented programming has
become increasingly important. Its basic idea is modeling a program as a collection of
objects, which respectively represent the image of actual objects of the application. In
order to fulfill the task of the application, these objects communicate with each other, i.e.
an object sends messages to other objects to activate particular functions in this object or
send new information to it. Object-oriented programming is also described as data-
oriented, while procedural programming languages are regarded as process-oriented.
Object-oriented programming can also be applied to distributed environments. The result
of this transfer is distributed object computing. In such programs, application objects can
be placed on different computers. Communication between application objects has to be
mapped on a communication connection over the network. On the other hand, as you can
imagine, explicit programming of this communication can become extremely complex.
Today, however, programming environments are available which completely hide the
communication from programmers, allowing them to concentrate on the application logic.
The most prominent representative of this kind of distributed object environments is the
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). CORBA is not an architecture
developed by a particular firm, but is standardized by an independent organization. Using
CORBA, all sorts of distributed applications can be created on the Internet, from simple
Web applications using applets to database access in an enterprise network, to embedding
non-Internet applications on the Internet, so-called legacy software. CORBA is therefore
addressed in another main section of this book.
1.2 Structure of the book 3

After some experience with available techniques, there has been some criticism of these
approaches or their combinations. For instance, CORBA was considered too complex; in
many systems the extensive functionality and very generalized approaches were not
necessary. The cost of using CORBA for these applications was found to be too high.
Furthermore, the Servlet solution which, as we will see later, was the combination of
application development logic with the production of HTML pages, was considered too
unsafe, and sometimes too complex. A new approach, suitable for solving these problems,
was consequently developed. This is Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), which will be
introduced in this book.
In order to explain clearly to the practitioner the use of these four technologies, we will
illustrate all the procedures with an example from electronic commerce. We will develop
an Internet bookshop step by step, and it will become gradually easier to understand how
the techniques of servlets, CORBA, Enterprise Java Beans and XML can be used properly
and can complement one another. In case of contention, we will not take sides in reaching

Y
a solution, but will try to show which techniques are available for each particular situation.

FL
1.2 Structure of the book
AM
The book is subdivided into several sections. After this introduction, the first section
(Chapters 2 to 5) deals with the most important principles for understanding the following
TE

sections. Chapter 2 initially offers an introduction to the general idea and operation of
distributed systems and applications. We will focus in particular on the Internet and Web
applications, introducing such things as Web servers and Web browsers. At the end of the
chapter, we will describe the sample application which will accompany the reader
throughout the book.
In Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and the Java programming language, Chapters 3
and 4 introduce two basic techniques used in the creation of Internet-based distributed
applications. Chapter 3, dealing with HTML, shows the most important and basic means
required to write Web pages, i.e. those files shown by a browser (at least in most cases),
when the user enters and sends a Web address or clicks on a link.
Java, the topic of Chapter 4, is described as the Internet programming language, as it was
first used for the development of applets. However, Java is a fully functional language and
is used in many organizations as a standard programming language. The chapter argues in
favor of using object-oriented languages by explaining their basic principles, and then
shows how these features are realized in Java. We do not aim to provide an in-depth
introduction to Java, but the material presented should be sufficient to enable a fairly
experienced programmer, who has previously dealt with languages such as Pascal, C or
C++, to understand the examples introduced in this book.

Team-Fly®
4 1 Introduction

Chapter 5 addresses database access on the Internet. Databases are an important technique
for all distributed applications in which data processing and storage play a role. A basic
understanding of this technique is therefore not only helpful for this book, in which
databases are required to develop the central example, but is necessary in any case for the
developer of distributed applications. The chapter concentrates less on the actual
configuration and administration of databases, and more on access of stored data. Two
central aspects here are the standardized and well-known query language SQL, and
embedding SQL queries in Java using JDBC. The latter will also establish the bridge
between the central technologies, servlets and CORBA, and the databases.
After the introduction of the basic principles, the second section of the book addresses the
servlet technique (Chapters 6 to 8). Chapter 6 analyzes the ideas behind servlet technology
as well as its operation. Chapter 7 then tackles the practical part. Different development
tools are represented here, with which servlet applications easily can be created. Chapter 8
will conclude the servlet section. We will implement the first part of the sample
application using servlets, developing a Web-based user interface, as well as the
corresponding servlets for a database connection. At the end of the chapter, a fully
functional Internet bookshop will have been implemented, in which books can be
searched, placed in a virtual shopping basket and finally ordered by the user.
As previously mentioned, not all distributed applications are Web based. The CORBA
architecture therefore enables a more general approach for the development or integration
of distributed applications. CORBA can display its strength in particular in the integration
of existing software into Internet environments. This certainly plays an important role in
practice in most information systems. CORBA is therefore the topic of Chapters 9 to 11 in
the third section of the book. After a general introduction to distributed object-oriented
programming, a detailed introduction to the architecture of the Common Object Request
Broker, and a representation of the approach in creating CORBA-based applications in
Chapter 9, Chapter 10 focuses on the tool support for the development of such
applications. Tools for the Java programming language are prominent here. In Chapter 11
we will extend the existing bookshop application to explain the operation of CORBA,
adding a possibility for credit card payment.
In the fourth section (Chapters 12 to14) we will consider the Enterprise Java Beans
technique. To begin with, we will show in Chapter 12, using examples, the criticisms that
can be applied to the use of servlets or CORBA. This leads us directly to the EJB design
criteria, which will be described at the end of the same chapter. Its central section
represents the EJB technique in detail. In Chapter 13 we will consider the tool support
available for EJB. In particular, we will analyze the reference implementation Java 2
Enterprise Edition (J2EE) from Sun. To conclude this section, Chapter 14 sets EJB in the
context of our bookshop application and shows how the Servlet approach developed in
Chapter 8 can be improved by means of EJB.
Using servlets and CORBA or EJB in this context, we already have created a powerful
application. However, the options which are now available for users can be considerably
increased, using XML in place of the HTML page description language. The fifth section
(Chapters 15 to 18) deals with this topic. After an introduction to the basic principles of
1.2 Structure of the book 5

XML with a motivation for their application in Chapter 15, Chapter 16 introduces a series
of tools which facilitate the use of XML. In Chapter 17 we will extend the sample
application further using these tools. In this way, customers can draw price comparisons
between individual bookshops without having to browse all Web pages. It immediately
becomes clear how suitable XML is for this kind of task. In a later chapter we will
demonstrate how useful it is to create another class of e-commerce applications. Up until
now, we have fundamentally dealt with the applications for final consumers, the B2C
applications (Business-to-Consumer). However, nowadays B2B applications (Business-to-
Business) play at least an equally important role: they enable business partners to
communicate with each other and to exchange goods and services. Many virtual
marketplaces have been developed on the Internet, e.g. for steel or for chemical
components. In this last chapter we will show, from section five onwards, how the
techniques previously introduced can be used to create such a marketplace.
To conclude, the last part of the book summarizes the results of the three previous
sections. First, in Chapter 19, the differences between the techniques introduced are
explained. We will also include other approaches, such as RMI, COM+, CGI and Active
Server Pages. Finally, Chapter 20 generalizes the example of Internet bookshops, showing
which technique is best used in each kind of application.
The book ends with a series of appendices. They have to be seen as a reference to the most
important themes presented in the book, and they allow programmers to create their own
distributed applications. For obvious reasons, these appendices will not be able to provide
a complete reference, so consulting additional sources will become necessary from time to
time. The start-points are contained in a separate appendix which gives many literature
references.
In addition to the book you can find also a Web page which, as well as up-to-date
information and links to relevant and relating themes, also contains the files with complete
source code of examples introduced here. Appendix H provides a brief introduction to the
use of the Web page.
 Chapter 2
2Distributed applications

The aim of this chapter is to familiarize ourselves with the concept of distributed
applications. We will first give a brief summary of how information technology has
developed towards distributed applications over the past few decades. We will describe in
detail the basic characteristics and design principles, as well as the advantages and
disadvantages of the use of distributed systems. We will then be able to address such
applications in their most popular current form, namely applications on the Internet or
World Wide Web. Several examples will be used here to put theories acquired earlier into
practice. The chapter ends with an introduction to the sample application developed in this
book, an Internet bookshop.

2.1 A short history of information technology

Distributed applications are currently the latest development of information technology,

which began about 50 years ago and is still developing. The first computers available in
the 1940s and 50s were reserved for special applications, like military tasks such as the
encryption and decoding of messages.
The 1960s witnessed the advent of batch processing, in which several users could pass
their tasks to the computer operator. Once processed, the results were returned to the client
by the operator. As there was no interactivity at that time, computers were used for
numerical applications, in other words for solving problems that required little user input
but resulted in a high computation effort.
With the advent of mainframes, with which several of our readers will no doubt be
familiar, interactive applications came into play. Several users could finally use one
computer simultaneously in time-sharing mode. Tasks were no longer completed in
sequence as in batch processing, but part of the job would be processed, and the computer
would then switch to the next job in the queue. It started to make sense to process
especially data-intensive processes such as business applications. At the time, companies
such as IBM were in their heyday.
8 2 Distributed applications

The next trend, beginning with the introduction of the PC in 1980, was the shift in
computing power from the central mainframe to the desktops. Computer performance,
undreamt of previously, was now available to employees directly at their workstation.
Every user could install his or her own applications on the computer, and create – in
principle – an optimally configured work environment. So began the age of standardized
office packages, which enabled office automation to be driven forward considerably.
Companies such as Microsoft and Intel made huge profits.
Since the 1990s, the trend has shifted increasingly from distributed information processing
to enterprise computing. Previously autonomously operating workstations were integrated
together with central file, database, and application servers, resulting in huge decentralized
clusters, which were used to handle tasks of a more complicated nature. The defining
sentence characterizing this phase and coined by Sun Microsystems reads “The network is
the computer.”
What led to this (ever increasing) greater importance of distributed applications? There are
several reasons:

„ The cost of chip manufacturing dropped sharply, enabling cheap mass production of
computers.
„ At the same time, network technologies were developed with higher bandwidths – a
necessity for the quick transfer of large amounts of data between several computers.
„ Response times became increasingly longer due to heavier use of large mainframe
computers, resulting in excessive waiting times. A company would think twice before
purchasing a more powerful computer due to the high cost.
„ The availability of a comparable distributed work environment quickly gave rise to
the desire for new applications which were not possible in a central environment.
This development led from the first e-mail applications via the World Wide Web to
common use of information by people in completely different places. Groupware,
tele-cooperation systems and virtual communities are the current keywords here.

The following section gives detailed information on the construction and properties, as
well as the advantages and disadvantages, of distributed systems and applications.

2.2 Principles and characteristics of distributed systems

2.2.1 Definition of a distributed system

What actually constitutes a distributed system or a distributed application? The basic task
of such a system is to solve a particular problem. As the system is described as
“distributed,” the problem solving obviously does not occur in a central place, but through
the cooperation of several components. Countless definitions have been drawn up over
time, most of which are fairly to the point. However, there are several central components
that a distributed system definitely must contain:
2.2 Principles and characteristics of distributed systems 9

„ a set of autonomous computers;

„ a communication network, connecting these computers
„ software integrating these components with a communications system.

The first point is quite clear. Computers are used in information technology so that
problem solving occurs in a distributed system using computers. As this solution should
not be produced centrally, other computers have to be involved. So why the demand for
“autonomous” computers? This point reflects the necessary differentiation with respect to
a central computer, to which several terminals are connected. These terminals are unable
to solve any tasks independently as they have no computing ability; they can only display
data sent by the central computer on the screen, or send user input to the computer.
However, a configuration that would meet this definition of “a set of autonomous
computers” would be a collection of PCs.
A communications network is the second important component. No communication can
occur without some type of connection between computers. A problem cannot be mutually
solved without communication. Partial tasks which have to be solved cannot be distributed
to the individual components, and nor can partial solutions be sent to a coordination
component later.
The task of the software, finally, is the virtual integration of all computers into one
computing device which solves the problem posed. On the one hand, it takes over the
coordination of the different partial components, and on the other hand ensures that the
system looks like a real unit to a user. This so-called distribution transparency is an
important characteristic of distributed systems. It will be discussed again in detail in the
following section.
Figure 2.1 shows the cooperation of the three components graphically.
10 2 Distributed applications

Figure 2.1: The components of a distributed system.

In short, a distributed system could be described as a collection of autonomous computers,

connected together via a communication network, running software which coordinates
individual partial components.
A distributed application is therefore an application A, the functionality of which is
subdivided into a set of cooperating subcomponents A1, .., An, with n elements of IN and n
> 1. The partial components Ai are autonomous processing units which (can) run on
different computers. They exchange information over the network, controlled by the
coordination software. Coordination and application software are often physically
integrated.
There are three levels in a distributed system, as shown in Fig. 2.2.

Level 3 Distributed application

Level 2 Coordination software

Level 1 Distributed computer system

Figure 2.2: The levels of a distributed system.

The application on level 3 will ideally ‘know’ nothing of the distribution of the system, as
it uses the services of level 2, the administration software which takes over the
coordination of all the components and hides this complexity from the application. In turn,
2.2 Principles and characteristics of distributed systems 11

level 2 itself uses the available distributed computing environment consisting of several
computers and the network.
There also are, by the way, several interesting and amusing definitions. One of the most
well known was put forward by Leslie Lamport, who defined a distributed system as a
system “in which my work is affected by the failure of components, of which I knew
nothing previously.”

2.2.2 Important characteristics of distributed systems

We will now look at several other important characteristics of distributed systems based on
this very simple definition. All these properties refer to the concept of transparency. In
information technology, transparency literally means that something is transparent, or
invisible. In distributed systems, certain things should be invisible to the users. The
complexity of the system should remain hidden from them, as they would not wish to
concern themselves with solving other implementation questions. Rather they would
prefer to solve an application problem. The way in which the solution is finally achieved is
relatively irrelevant to these users. For this reason, the following transparency properties
play a large role in achieving this characteristic of a distributed system:

„ Location transparency
Users need not necessarily know where exactly within the system a resource is
located which they wish to use. Resources are typically identified by name, which
has no bearing on their location.
„ Access transparency
The way in which a resource is accessed is uniform for all resources. For example, in
a distributed database system consisting of several databases of different technologies
(relational and object-oriented databases), there should also be a common user
interface such as the SQL query language.
„ Replication transparency
The fact that there may be several copies of a resource is not disclosed to the users.
The latter do not know whether they are accessing the original or the copy. Altering
the status of a resource also has to occur transparently.
„ Error transparency
Users will not necessarily be informed of all errors occurring in the system. Some
errors may be irrelevant, and others may well be masked, as in the case of replication.
„ Concurrency transparency
Distributed systems are usually used by several users simultaneously. It often
happens that two or more users access the same resource at the same time, such as a
database table, printer, or file. Concurrency transparency ensures that simultaneous
access is feasible without any mutual interference or incorrect results.
„ Migration transparency
Using this form of transparency, resources can be moved over the network without
the user noticing. A typical example is today’s mobile telephone network in which
12 2 Distributed applications

the device can be moved around freely, without any loss of communication when
leaving the vicinity of a sender station.
„ Process transparency
It is irrelevant on which computer a certain task (process) is executed, provided it is
guaranteed that the results are the same. This form of transparency is an important
prerequisite for the successful implementation of a balanced workload between
computers (see below also).
„ Performance transparency
When increasing the system load, a dynamic reconfiguration may well be required.
This measure for performance optimization should of course go unnoticed by other
users.
„ Scaling transparency
If a system is to be expanded so as to incorporate more computers or applications,
this should be feasible without modifying the system structure or application
algorithms.
„ Language transparency
The programming language in which the individual partial components of the
distributed system or application were created must not play any role in the
ensemble. This is a relatively new requirement, only supported by more recent
systems.

An important aim of distributed systems or applications is to fulfill as many of these

transparency characteristics as possible, so as to make the system as uncomplicated and
smooth-running as possible.

2.2.3 Communication models

Communication between the individual components of a distributed system can occur in

two basic ways: using either shared memory or message passing.
The former is an indirect form of communication, as both partners exchanging
information do not communicate directly with each other, but via a third component: the
shared memory. This may be an area of the main memory. The term common variables is
also used in this case. Another variant is the use of a common file system. The sender then
writes the information in a file, the name of which also is known to the receiver. As soon as
the data is placed in the file, the receiver can read it.
On the other hand, message passing is based on the direct communication of information
between the sender and the receiver by means of the communication medium. Two
functions are generally available for the execution of message exchange, usually labeled
send and receive. They are defined as follows:
2.2 Principles and characteristics of distributed systems 13

„ send(r: receiver, m: message)

This function sends the message to the receiver r.
„ receive(s:sender, b: buffer)
This function waits for a message from sender s and writes it in buffer b (part of the
memory made available for the application process).

The basic form of exchange of a single message can be combined with more complex
models. One of the most important models of this type is the client–server model. In this
case, the communication partners adopt the role of either a client or a server. A server is
assigned to administer access to a certain resource, while a client wishes to use the
resource.
A line of communication in the client–server model consists of two messages, as shown in
Fig 2.3.

Y
FL
Client Server
AM
Message 1: Access to resource
TE

Processing

Message 2: Result of access

Figure 2.3: Message exchange in the client–server model.

The first message goes from the client to the server, in which the client requests access to a
certain resource. In a database application, this could be an SQL query accessing a
particular database table, for example. On receipt of the message, the server edits the
request (if not busy with other queries). As soon as a result is determined, it is sent to the
client in the form of a second message.
The client–server model is the most popular communication model, and plays a prominent
role on the Internet.

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14 2 Distributed applications

2.2.4 Advantages and disadvantages of distributed systems

Compared to other technologies, distributed systems have a series of advantages, yet are
not entirely devoid of problems. The technology is compared below with the two previous
approaches, i.e. mainframes and standalone workstations.
Compared to mainframes, distributed systems offer the following advantages:

„ They are essentially more economical, as comparable computing power is available

at a much lower price.
„ As previously mentioned, response times are typically much shorter.
„ Distributed systems often are a better model of reality than a centralized computer.
Such an example here would be the information infrastructure of a multinational
company, to which a mainframe would not adjust, or robots on a production line
assembling a product, or simply people working with each other, who need not
necessarily be located in the same room or building.
„ Distributed systems essentially can be made more reliable than a central system.
There are two aspects to consider here: on the one hand, the availability of individual
components can be increased by means of replication; if the working component
fails, it can always be replaced by the replica. On the other hand, the failure of a non-
replicated component does usually not lead to a total system failure, as the other parts
can continue working independently. This is not the case with mainframes.
„ Finally, distributed systems easily can be extended and adapted to increasing
requirements. Distributed systems can be extended on almost any scale, whereas a
mainframe is subject to strict constraints as far as memory and processor extension is
concerned.

A comparison of distributed systems with conventional PC technology produces the

following:

„ Generally speaking, communication between computers can only occur using a

connection. Applications such as e-mail, network news, or even video conference
systems are only possible using these means.
„ The networking of PCs allows a common use of both resources and data (such as the
aforementioned flight booking system), hardware such as printers and hard drives, as
well as software such as applications installed on an application server.
„ Computer capacities in particular are used more efficiently. Imagine a situation where
a user is running two compute-intensive applications, while another user is currently
not working at his terminal. As a way of evening things out, in a distributed system
one of the two applications can be transferred to the “quieter” computer and executed
there. This process would not disturb the user in any way, as this produces a more
rapid result. Another aspect of this idea is the more simple use of special-purpose
computers from an individual workstation.
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 15

„ Finally, system maintenance is simplified considerably, as it can be carried out for

each individual PC using the network. In isolated cases a system administrator would
have to treat each individual computer separately and carry out the work required.

The most important problems which arise with distributed systems are the following:

„ The entire system is extremely dependent on transmission performance and the

reliability of the underlying communication network. If the network is constantly
overloaded, then the aforementioned advantages are soon canceled out, as in relation
to response times.
„ Distribution and communication always are an increased security risk in many ways.
For example, as soon as two computers have to communicate with each other, this
communication can be listened to, or its messages can even be modified. Another
point is decentralized control, produced through distribution. The individual
components are now typically controlled directly by their users, meaning that the
machines are no longer part of a locked computing center, controlled by one or more
system administrators. Users of the distributed system can often modify it, for
instance by installing new software, by which viruses can be smuggled in to the
computer.
„ Finally, software both for applications and for the coordination of application
components essentially is more complex and so more likely to produce programming
errors. It is not easy to write the correct software for the management of distributed
systems.

2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web

Distributed systems on the Internet or World Wide Web are the central theme of this book.
There are several reasons for this: The Internet is quickly becoming the global medium of
communication. Nowadays it is quite simple to connect to the Internet using a computer. It
often suffices to insert the CD-ROM of an Internet service provider (ISP), wait for the
program to start, and type in the desired name for an e-mail address. The installation then
runs automatically, and familiar services such as e-mail and the Web soon can be used.
This section provides a short introduction to the technology of the Internet and the World
Wide Web. This knowledge is essential for later development of distributed applications
on the basis of the Internet.

2.3.1 The development of the Internet

The Internet, nowadays a huge worldwide communication network, began as a collection

of four computers, or hosts, connected to each other. At the time, in 1969, the US Ministry
of Defense invited several Californian universities and research facilities to develop a new
16 2 Distributed applications

network which was less prone to the failure of network components such as lines and
switches than ordinary networks (such as the telephone network). One reason for this task
was the fear that, in case of a Soviet attack on the communication network, there would
suddenly no longer be a connection between the command center and the individual units,
and blind action would have to be taken.
The solution developed by the participating universities was the packet switching
technique. Packet switching means that the information to be transferred is broken down
into many small packages. Each packet is individually sent to the receiver, and under
certain circumstances can take a completely different route from both its predecessor and
successor. The packet intentionally may look for an alternative route if a certain section of
the network suddenly fails during transmission.
A larger network soon developed from this small yet successful experiment. Until the end
of the 1980s, it was used exclusively for military purposes and by universities. It was only
with the development of the World Wide Web, a new Internet application, that the need for
the commercial success of the network of today was created, as the previous text-based
and cryptic user interface for Internet applications such as e-mail or file transfer was
replaced by a graphic interface, controlled entirely with a mouse. Companies quickly
recognized the opportunities behind the new medium, and developed Web programs and
protocols to become ever more powerful tools. Today the Internet is a multimedia
communication medium, in which the still extremely popular e-mail is used, as well as
films being transferred and even telephone calls being made. The Internet is currently
becoming a huge marketplace for every type of product and service imaginable. The latest
figures (January 2001) show that 110 million computers are currently connected to the
Internet, on many of which several users often work at once. Figure 2.4 shows the rapid
development of the net in the 1990s.
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 17

Figure 2.4: Internet growth since 1991 (number of connected computers).

Source: Internet Software Consortium (www.isc.org)

2.3.2 Technical principles of the Internet

Communication systems such as the Internet are best described using layered models
because of their complexity. Every layer within the model has a certain task, and all layers
together produce a particular communication service for the user. The layers are arranged
in hierarchical form. It is said that layers lower down the hierarchy produce a service used
by the higher layers. The uppermost layer finally combines all lower services and
constitutes the interface for applications.
In the case of the Internet, the so-called Internet reference model is used, as can be seen in
Figure 2.5. The model consists of four layers:

„ The Link Layer describes the possible subnetworks of the Internet and their medium
access protocols. These are, for example, Ethernets, token rings, FDDI, or ISDN
networks. To its upper layer, the link layer offers communication between two
computers in the same subnetwork as a service.
„ The Network Layer unites all subnetworks to become the Internet. The service
offered involves making communication possible between any two computers on the
Internet. The network layer accesses the services of the Link Layer, in that a
connection between two computers in different networks is put together from many
small connections in the same network.
18 2 Distributed applications

„ The Transport Layer oversees the connection of two (or more) processes between
computers communicating with each other via the Network Layer.
„ Finally, the Application Layer makes application-specific services available for inter-
process communication. These many standardized services include e-mail, file
transfer and the World Wide Web.

Figure 2.5: TCP/IP protocol suite.

Within the layers, protocols are used for the production of a service. Protocols are
instances which can be implemented either in hardware or software, and communicate
with their partner instances in the same levels, but on other computers. It is only this
cooperation which enables the service to be produced for the next level up.
The TCP/IP Protocol constitutes the core of Internet communication technology in the
transport and network layers. Every computer on the Internet always has an
implementation of both protocols, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet
Protocol). The task of IP is to transfer data from one Internet computer (the sender) to
another (the receiver). On this basis, TCP then organizes the communication between two
processes on these computers.
Figure 2.5 shows another protocol, UDP (User Datagram Protocol), alongside TCP on the
transport layer. UDP and TCP are used for different tasks because of their respective
properties. TCP is a connection-oriented protocol and therefore is able to ensure a reliable
transfer. When using TCP, the sender can rest assured that the data sent will be received in
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 19

its original sequence. Should data go missing, the sender is always notified. TCP therefore
is suitable for applications where all data has to be transferred entirely correctly and in
full, such as e-mail or file transfer. On the other hand, UDP is connection-less and has no
control over whether data is transferred in its original sequence, or at all. UDP is therefore
used for very short connections, or if reliability is not of paramount importance. Such an
example would be a video conference system. Not every individual pixel transferred has to
be displayed correctly for a video representation of adequate quality.
The most important protocols of the application layer on the Internet are also shown in
Fig. 2.5:

„ Telnet makes a terminal emulation available on a remote computer. The protocol

enables logins to other computers using the network.
„ HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) is the underlying protocol of the World Wide
Web. It is responsible for the transfer of hypertext documents.
„ SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used for the transfer of e-mail
messages.
„ FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is able to manage filestores on a server, and enables
clients to access files.
„ SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is used for network management on
the Internet.
„ DNS (Domain Name Service) is responsible for the mapping of symbolic names such
as www.bbc.co.uk to IP addresses such as 192.168.0.1. DNS is the name service for
the Internet. We will get to know another name service for CORBA in Chapter 9.
„ NFS (Network File System) makes the basic functionality for a distributed file
system available.

The advantage of distributed Internet applications for users is that they have practically
nothing to do with all these complicated-sounding protocols. These protocols are hidden
using the actual application programs. The next section addresses some of the most
popular Internet applications.

2.3.3 Internet applications

The huge popularity of the Internet is not due to such details which, although interesting,
are extremely technical; it acquired such popularity because of the many applications
which are either useful or entertaining (or both). Here we can differentiate between
standardized applications, which typically use one of the aforementioned protocols of the
application layer, and those developed individually, which either build directly on the
transport layer, or use a standardized protocol such as HTTP as a form of higher-order
transport protocol, on top of which, however, they still place a protocol of their own.
20 2 Distributed applications

Figure 2.6: The currently most popular Internet applications (allowing for multiple mentions).

The leading Internet communication model is the client–server model as introduced

previously. An Internet server usually administers certain resources which an Internet
client wishes to access. Access occurs through an exchange of messages, in that the client
first sends a query which then is answered by the server. For example: with file transfer, a
server manages a large amount of files. If a client now sends a request for a certain file to
the server, then, provided the file is available and the user has corresponding access rights,
the file is sent to the client in response.
The most important applications nowadays include e-mail, the World Wide Web, and file
transfer. However, multimedia data transfer is becoming increasingly popular. This
includes video conference systems, for example, and also Internet telephony. Figure 2.6
shows the results of a recent survey of businesses who were asked which Internet
applications they used.
A brief outline of the most important of these applications is given below:
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 21

Figure 2.7: The Microsoft Outlook interface.

„ E-mail
Electronic mail is the oldest application on the Internet, and still the most popular
today. In the 1970s, no one other than scientists at universities had an e-mail address,
whereas an e-mail facility nowadays comes as standard. The first e-mail applications,
still popular in the UNIX environment today, were not exactly user-friendly, and
could only be used with cryptic and cumbersome keyboard commands. On the other
hand, the windows-based applications available today are much easier to use, such as
Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Messenger. Figure 2.7 shows the windows-based
interface of Outlook. Further functions also often are included in current e-mail
clients, such as a calendar, address book or task manager.
„ World Wide Web
Due to its importance to the content of this book and the support of specialized
distributed applications, the World Wide Web is discussed in detail in sections 2.3.4
and 2.3.5.
„ File transfer
The transfer of files between computers is an important means for exchanging all
types of electronic data. The FTP programs used, so called because of the file transfer
protocol used, were initially used for small text files or PostScript documents, with
which scientists exchanged their findings. Today the focus has shifted toward the
transfer of large program packages, since software manufacturers have switched to
selling their products over the Internet. Due to development in the e-mail sector, FTP
22 2 Distributed applications

clients have gradually become easier to use. Figure 2.8, 2.9 shows the standard UNIX
FTP client, operated using ASCII entries. By contrast, the operation of the WS-FTP-
Light client as shown in Fig. 2.9 is essentially more advanced.

Figure 2.8: A simple FTP client in UNIX.

„ Video Conference Systems

One of the new trends in Internet-supported applications is the transfer of audio and
video data streams. As many PCs today are equipped with cameras, microphones,
loudspeakers and powerful graphics cards, the actual recording and representation no
longer pose a problem. However, the transfer of large amounts of data over the
network is fairly tricky. Different companies or research facilities have come up with
the most diverse solutions in order to minimize the amount of data or transfer in a
more effective way. The Real Products company was a forerunner, the same
company which undertook pioneering work with the RealPlayer. Many current audio
and video transfers use this technology. Video conference systems enable different
partners from all over the world to meet virtually, and both talk and exchange images
with each other. Video transfers are usually of unsatisfactory quality, but as the
Internet is constantly expanding, it is only a matter of time until Internet videos will
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 23

be no different from television pictures. This form of communication will therefore

gradually be accepted more widely.

Y
FL
Figure 2.9: The WS-FTP-Light client.

Apart from these familiar and standardized applications, there often is the need in
AM
organizations for special, made-to-measure distributed applications for solving quite
specific problems appearing in the organization. At the same time, development is
constantly leaning toward offering the user a uniform and familiar interface. At this point
TE

the World Wide Web and the Web browsers used today move into the foreground. To put it
simply, the idea is to give the user the results of the execution of distributed applications in
the form of Web pages. As the Web service plays a decisive role, this will be explained in
detail in the following sections.

2.3.4 The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web or WWW is one of the more recent Internet developments, which
has contributed most to the rapid increase of the Internet to a mass communication
medium.
The WWW was developed in 1989 by a physicist named Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in
Geneva. The idea was to create a hypertext system, using which nuclear physicists could
mutually inform each other of their research results efficiently. In contrast to a linear text,
a hypertext system gives the option of jumping from one selected position to another
within a document, or even of switching to a completely different document. It is therefore
very easy to refer readers to further information, without actually forcing them to read all
the information, in which they may not be interested or with which they may already be
familiar.
The initially small system, already established by the definition of the HTTP protocol on
the Internet, soon gave rise to a worldwide networked information system. Today the

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24 2 Distributed applications

WWW consists of many million documents (Web pages), and very few organizations want
to be without Internet access, or “Web access,” for marketing reasons.
Much work has been done in the field of layout of Web pages over the course of the past
ten years. The first documents were purely text-based, but soon possibilities were created
to embed graphics in Web pages, but more importantly to transfer and represent these
graphics. Pioneering work was made in this respect using the “Mosaic” program, the first
graphical Web browser. Web browsers are programs with which Web pages are displayed
to users. They therefore act as clients on the Web. Mosaic was developed by Marc
Andreesen, among others. On the basis of this development he later formed the Netscape
company, one of the large browser providers. In the meantime, the representation
possibilities for pages became ever more refined, and today there is almost nothing that
cannot be achieved by a graphic designer on a Web page. In fact, Web access is regarded
by many companies as so important that a large proportion of their advertising budget is
invested in it.
In order to access the Web, several software components and tools are required, which will
now be addressed in more detail.

2.3.5 Basic constituents of Web applications: client and server

In order to access the Web, first a Web server is required. The server administers the entire
data material intended for publication on the Web. Part of the hard drive should be set
aside to function as the file repository for the Web server. A directory tree then can be
constructed according to the needs of the provider.
Other tasks include replying to client access, by delivering the desired documents
according to the entitlement of the client. These access rights can be configured
individually by directory in most Web servers, so parts of the service are open to all users,
while others are only accessible to individuals or certain groups.
Web servers usually record all Web files accessed, so different analyses can be made using
the log files created, from the simplest of tasks such as how many hits have been made in a
certain time, or an analysis of the geographical distribution of users, right through to
monitoring attempts at unauthorized access.
Finally, Web servers might start other programs, with which additional information can be
obtained or generated. It is this capability that forms the basis of all distributed
applications on the WWW. This will be discussed in far more detail later in the book.
There are a great number of Web server products. By far the most popular server is the
Apache server. It is freely available and has a substantial share of the market worldwide. It
resulted from the early NCSA server, and is characterized by a number of patches, or
improvements made over time – hence also the Indian-looking name: A PATCHY server.
Correspondingly, Web clients are the programs with which users can access a Web
provider. Web clients are generally known as Web browsers. Browsers usually provide
users with the following functions:
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 25

„ The user can enter the address of a document, the so-called URL (Uniform Resource
Locator), using the keyboard. The browser then looks for the server on which the
document is placed, to which it sends a document request.
„ As soon as the document (or at least the first parts of it) has arrived, the browser
displays it in the main window.
„ The user can now click on Hyperlinks in the document using the mouse. These are
references to other documents in the Web. In principle, every hyperlink represents
another URL. After a click the browser then repeats the above process and loads the
document requested.
„ Almost all browsers have a number of storage functions for previously called
documents or URLs, as, in all probability, users will wish to reload a document they
have already seen. These functions include the list of Favorites or Bookmarks, in
which users can of course enter URLs they wish to retrieve quickly. The History
function works in a similar way. Here the browser keeps a log, in which all URLs
accessed by the user are listed according to date, so that URLs not stored in the
Bookmark list can also be accessed quickly.
26 2 Distributed applications

Figure 2.10: The Carl Hanser Publishing Web site with Netscape.

„ The user will almost always be provided with an e-mail client, as e-mail is usually
provided with Web access, in order to request further information or order something,
for example.
„ Finally, a number of other useful functions also are included, such as printing a Web
page, an integrated page editor, with which Web pages can be adapted for one’s
individual needs, and built-in search functions which can find search strings on a
page, or anywhere on the Web.
2.3 Applications on the Internet and the World Wide Web 27

Figure 2.11: The Blackwells Web site with Internet Explorer.

The browser market is dominated by two products, Microsoft Internet Explorer and
Netscape Navigator. Their user interfaces are shown in Figs 2.10, 2.11 using the
Blackwells homepage as an example.
Initially, it is quite striking how similar appearance these two browsers are. This should
actually be the case, even if both browser manufacturers, in constantly competing for a
share of the market, are trying to introduce new, and more importantly, original formatting
options not yet implemented by the other’s product. If a provider uses these options, a
page is no longer compatible with the respective product of the competitor.
Also the other functions, accessible using both the menu bar and the icon interface, look
very similar. Overall, Navigator is the more powerful package, as it offers a number of
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
Soames, moving to execute Lanyard's instructions, had opened the
door to find it blocked by a long, loose-jointed body. Now, hands in
pockets, hat well back on his head, chewing the unlighted cigar of his
custom, the detective Crane, lounged in, with ironic glances
reviewing the several countenances so variously coloured with
emotion, until he perceived the presence of Mrs. McFee. Then he was
quick to uncover his head and disembarrass his teeth.
"Your servant, ma'm. Hope you'll excuse the informality, but we found
your front door standing wide open and figured maybe something
might be going wrong. H'are you, Lanyard? Business as usual, I see."
A nod and wrinkling grin designated the pistol. "I'll tell anybody that
don't know, you're the little guy that stages the quick come-backs."
Over his shoulder, Crane called: "Come on in, Hoffmeyer; looks like
we'd found us a regular job."
A brisk policeman in uniform moved in from the hallway. And sensible
of sharp relief, Lanyard put down the pistol. "My friend!" he told
Crane: "never in your life were you more welcome."
"That's easy to believe; going on the looks of things we've happened
along at one of these psychological moments, all right. No thanks to
me, of course, Lanyard: I just naturally hiked right up here as soon
as I got your 'phone message."
"You telephoned for Mr. Crane?" Folly demanded, eyeing Lanyard
intently.
"He sure did," Crane affirmed.
"At what time?"
"Half an hour or so ago—wasn't it, Lanyard?"
"Approximately. But I can fix the hour precisely: Mrs. McFee will
undoubtedly remember when Mallison was called from the table to
answer the telephone." Folly nodded, her eyes growing rounder.
Lanyard laughed, with a wave of a debonnaire hand introduced the
other woman. "You see here the lady who was then, according to
Mallison, Mrs. Stuyvesant Ashe. Now she accuses herself of being his
wife. One or both of them would seem to be mistaken. No matter:
after listening in on their conversation, I felt warranted in calling up
Mr. Crane without waiting to secure your approval."
"You called him up from here?"
"But what would you?" With a specious show of naïveté Lanyard
chose to misconstrue that almost purely rhetorical query of
astonishment. "Admit that I had hardly time to run out and hunt up a
sound-proof booth, madame, admit that I had no choice other than
to remain here if I were to keep faith with you—and more especially
when the telephone had just told me enough to prove that this fine
gentleman intended blackmail, whether or not we were justified in
crediting him with a graver offence against your hospitality."
The earnest eyes that held Folly's saw them confused by these
cunningly sown hints and implications. And not until she had heard
him out with a comprehending nod for all comment, and the lips that
had been parted in breathless interest closed without uttering a word
to refute his impudent assertion of an understanding which made
Folly a party to his presence in the house, did Lanyard again find it
easy to breathe. But that nod, coupled with her silence, testified to
appreciation of the fact that in tacit confirmation of his claim lay the
one sure way to save her good repute, that to gainsay him would be
to lend colour to the calumny implicit in the intrusion of Mallison's
"wife" and her accomplices.
If Folly wanted proof of this, she had it in another breath, when the
seedy conspirator instituted a counter-offensive.
"Just a minute, gentlemen!" he insisted, pushing in his sallow, excited
face between Lanyard and Crane. "You go too fast. We deny all these
ridiculous allegations, but particularly we deny that my client is here
in any sort of collusion with her husband. That malicious innuendo
we flatly contradict and brand a lie out of whole cloth!"
"'We'?" Crane echoed, inquisitive but otherwise indifferently
impressed. "Your 'client'?"
"I am counsel for Mrs. Mallison—"
"You don't say? Bet anything she deserves you, too." Crane showed
Lanyard arched brows of dubiety. "Shyster?"
"Calls himself Howlin," Lanyard assented impatiently. "If you like he'll
show you a card almost as shady as the business which engages his
talents tonight."
"I can afford to ignore slurs upon my professional standing which
come from such a source," Howlin loftily retorted. "But my business
tonight being the legitimate one of looking after the interests of a
client, I can hardly be expected to stand by and enter no objection
when I hear her slandered."
"I'll say you can't," Crane cruelly agreed, looking the lady up and
down with a glance so discerning that it caused a dull flush to burn
beneath her complexion.
But now again Howlin considered the source and concluded he could
afford to ignore constructive sarcasm.
"Mr. Regan here," he said, introducing the man who had styled
himself a "city detective"—"has under my direction been shadowing
my client's husband for several weeks. His reports show there's a
questionable degree of intimacy between Mallison and Mrs. McFee.
When, therefore, Mallison was seen tonight letting himself into this
house, using his own latch-key, we had every excuse for assuming
that an unexpected visit would produce certain results. Now,
however, since we would seem to have been misled, we can only
offer Mrs. McFee the assurance that my client stands ready to give
her every satisfaction the law may hold her entitled to. I think that's
all . . ."
He turned confidently toward the door. "Now, Mrs. Mallison, if you're
ready . . . Come, Regan."
"What's your hurry?" Crane genially wanted to know, but quickly
enough to anticipate the storm of words promised by Folly's violent
start. "You admit your liability for unlawful trespass, I take it?"
"If Mrs. McFee thinks she can induce any court in the land to call it
that," Howlin stipulated.
"Outside of that, however, you've got nothing to fear?"
Mr. Howlin achieved a shrug which utterly abolished a suggestion so
absurd.
"Then be good sports—why don't you?—and stick around a while.
Maybe you might be able to help us out in dealing with Mr. Mallison.
Going on all you tell me, Mrs. Mallison don't owe him any good will; I
judge she ought to be happy to see him come up with. How about it,
ma'm?"
The person appealed to in a touching twitter looked to Howlin for
guidance, and got from him a subtle sign which she may have
misinterpreted; not without excuse, seeing that the situation was one
of the extremest delicacy for all of them, and that the sacrifice of one
to the salvation of the majority is a time-honoured expedient with her
kind.
"Ask me anything you want," she volunteered, waggling an indignant
head and giving Mallison a poisonous look . . . "after the way he's
treated me, the low cur!"
"That's handsome of you, ma'm." Crane beamed benignantly upon
the lady, and with little less warmth upon the unhappy dancing man.
"I won't forget it, either. But first I'd like to ask Mr. Lanyard here a
few questions, to sort of clear the ground."
"I object!" Mallison stuttered in dismay. "I refuse to submit to these
star-chamber proceedings—"
"Do you, now?" Crane commented with much interest. "Well, if you
ask me, 'star-chamber proceedings' is a mighty hifalutin' name for
what's going to happen to you right here and now, my lad; it's going
to be a whole lot more like the third degree, if you know what I
mean."
Mallison knew only too well; fear lent those ingratiating eyes, usually
so gentle beneath their long and silky lashes, the wickedness of a
cornered rat's. "I protest!" he snarled—"I deny your right—"
"You better hush. Hoffmeyer here don't like your looks nohow, he'll
admire to improve 'em if you don't quit speaking out of your turn."
Mallison got a black grin from the patrolman and subsided at
discretion, while Crane cocked a meaning eye at Lanyard.
"Now, Mr. Lanyard, if you'll just tell us what you know about how this
man Mallison comes to be here . . ."
"Gladly." Lanyard had his story pat, it fell from a glib tongue. "I
presume everybody present knows Mrs. McFee's emeralds were
stolen last night from the safe in that secretary over there, under
circumstances which caused a certain person to be suspected—"
"Why so modest?" Mallison interrupted vindictively. "Why so mealy-
mouthed? 'Suspected' is hardly the word."
"I am desolated to disappoint monsieur; unhappily or not, as you
may care to take it, Mr. Crane was able to establish my innocence this
morning."
"Like hell he was!"
"Just one more nasty crack out of you, Mallison," Crane advised, "and
I'll let Hoffmeyer do your wife a swell favour."
"Strangely enough," Lanyard serenely pursued: "Mrs. McFee and I,
thinking the case over independently, arrived at the same conclusion:
that Mallison probably knew as much as anybody about the theft.
Mrs. McFee accordingly laid a trap: invited him to a little dinner-party
this evening, in the course of which she let it become known that the
thief had overlooked a valuable lot of jewellery which she meant to
leave unprotected tonight other than by the safe which had once
already been attacked with success. This made a second visit
probable, if there were grounds for our suspicions. . . . I on my part
arranged to occupy that clothes-press which you see with its door
open; by leaving the door just off the latch, it was easy to keep direct
watch over the safe. Toward the end of dinner Mallison received the
telephone call which has been mentioned, and used it as a pretext for
leaving before the other guests. He said good night to Mrs. McFee at
the front door, but as soon as she returned to the dining-room let
himself back into the house and stole upstairs. He was hiding behind
the screen in the corner when Mrs. McFee came up, but when she
had put her remaining jewels in the safe and turned to go to her
bedchamber, he blundered—made his presence known in a way she
couldn't overlook. Then he tried to overpower her, to prevent her
giving the alarm. I was obliged to interfere and had just succeeded in
discouraging him when these people broke in . . ."
"Straight enough story, far as it goes," Crane approved.
But Mallison dissented wildly: "A pack of lies from beginning to end!"
he termed it. To which Lanyard replied, with nonchalance quite
unfeigned, that if they doubted his word they might ask Mrs. McFee.
Neither was his confidence misplaced: quietly the young woman
affirmed the substantial truthfulness of the tissue of
misrepresentation which he had woven so brazenly under her very
eyes and for her benefit as much as for his own.
"But one thing I want settled at once," she declared: "These people
say Mallison used a latch-key. I say he didn't—unless he has one he
stole. If they're right, I want that key. If they're wrong, I want that
proved for my own sake."
"Reasonable enough," Crane agreed. "How about it, Mallison? got a
little key to give up?" The dancing man shook his head, mumbling a
negative. "You can save yourself a heap of trouble by forking it over,
you know."
"I tell you I haven't got any key!" Mallison insisted with what seemed
extravagant passion, while Lanyard eyed him in deepening perplexity:
some secret fear, inexplicable, unwarranted by known circumstances,
seemed to be at work in the man, desperation was glimpsing in his
hunted eyes. "Mrs. McFee knows I haven't—I won't be sacrificed to
save her—"
"How's that?"
"Mrs. McFee," Mallison defiantly affirmed, "knows damn' well I
haven't got a key and never had one, she knows damn' well she left
the door fixed for me, so that I could reopen it by simply turning the
knob from the outside—"
"Oh!" Folly gasped, infuriated—"what a contemptible lie! Search him,
Mr. Crane—I demand that this beast be searched and proved a liar.
He must have had a key, he couldn't possibly have got in any other
way."
Even while she was speaking events got in motion, not consecutively
but all at once: Mallison, stung to frenzy by his fears, whirled on a
heel and made a mad dash for the passage leading to the
bedchamber. A sinewy hand at the end of one of Crane's long arms
shot out, with surprising readiness, to clamp upon his shoulder and
drag him back. He turned and fought wildly. The policeman,
Hoffmeyer, cheerfully waded in to lend Crane needed assistance. Mrs.
Mallison and Messrs. Howlin and Regan thought to profit by the
general preoccupation, but were painfully surprised to discover that
Lanyard, an instant since a dozen feet away, was now planted firmly
in front of the hall door and smiling a bright, bland smile over the
sinister grin of Mallison's pistol.
They stopped. Simultaneously Mallison found himself helpless in an
embrace which Hoffmeyer had fastened round him from behind.
"Cut it out, now!" the patrolman growled. "You kick my shins again,
and I'll shake every tooth out of your fool head!"
Panting and twitching like a whipped animal, Mallison gave in, and
with eyes of blank hopelessness followed the work of Crane's clever
hands as they turned out the contents of his pockets, one by one,
and neatly arranged their plunder on the top of the occasional table;
bringing to light, in addition to everyman's horde of minor personal
effects, a flat leather case which fitted neatly a lining pocket in
Mallison's dress waistcoat and which held a light jointed jimmy of the
toughest procurable steel with an assortment of skeleton keys
designed to make the most modern of door-locks tamely yield up its
secret.
Mallison's countenance gave open confession of abandonment to
despair when this damning find was made; yet Crane was not half-
finished with him. The next plunge of his fingers fished a tissue-paper
packet from a lower waistcoat pocket, which, being unfolded,
disclosed the purloined emeralds of Folly McFee.
Crane clucked in astonishment, Folly gave an incredulous squeal of
joy, Lanyard a graphic start and stare. The others present reacted
variously, each according to his idiosyncrasy. Only Mallison made
neither sound nor stir. But the eyes he turned toward Lanyard were a
murderer's . . .
 XI
"Pretty!" The chuckle with which Crane let that priceless hoard
cascade, clashing, a stream of baleful green fire, into the cupped,
eager hands of its owner, ended the hush which had spellbound the
assorted actors. "Me," he pursued in high contentment, "I'm
convinced! Now if you'll slip your wrist-warmers on our little friend
here, the dancing yegg, we'll blow, Hoffmeyer . . . But le's see: I
guess Mrs. McFee would just as leave not treat the neighbours to the
sight of a patrol wagon boiling up to her front door at this time of
night to cart this gay bunch away—it might look sort of funny. So, if
it's all right with you, ma'm, I'll just get your butler to breeze out and
rustle a brace of taxis. And then, folks"—his tolerant regard embraced
Mallison, his soi-distant wife, her counsel, and the disgusted
collaborator of this last—"we'll all go riding round to the House with
the Green Lamps in East Fifty-first."
Neither did argument, expostulation, abuse, and threats more or less
unveiled budge him from adherence to this programme, to which one
prisoner alone entered no objection: in disgrace with Fortune,
Mallison demonstrated at least the wit of silence. Nothing he said was
ever to be used against him at his trial, for he said nothing. What,
indeed (he must have reasoned) was the use? What possible profit to
him could accrue through his protesting that the case against him
was a "frame-up," that Lanyard must wickedly have made him an
involuntary receiver of stolen goods at some time during their
struggle? The other contents of his pockets provided evidence too
ruinous as to his character and secret shop to give such a claim a
ghost of a show of winning evidence.
So Mallison submitted without any murmur; but the attention with
which he enveloped Lanyard to the last left that one in no doubt as to
his mind; and one less self-reliant might well have trembled to think
that next morning at latest would see the man free, "out on bail,"
with every facility at his command to further plans for vengeance—
else one had either overrated the power and prestige of Morphew or
wronged that one in crediting him to Mallison in the rôle of patron.
The beck of Folly's head was brusque in deference to which Lanyard
found himself finally closeted with her alone in her study, the temper
in which she shut the door was openly one of direct impatience, his
most disarming smile was wasted on the face she showed him, with
its lips taut, brows level, and eyes uncompromising. To the "Well?"
with which she chose to prompt him in a voice too cool for comfort,
Lanyard returned a deprecating shrug.
"Well enough thus far, if you like; but this is far from the end. . . . I
wonder, is it waste of time to beg a service of you, madame?"
The even brows contracted, his impudence earned the blank demur:
"I don't know whether I ought!"
"After all," he submitted, "madame again has her emeralds . . ."
"And you to thank—I know. But still—!"
"And she retains that intangible something which is worth nothing till
it is lost, I refer to her—as we absurdly say—good name."
"Haven't I proved my appreciation by letting you lie like a . . ."
Folly faltered, at loss for a figure, and Lanyard gravely suggested:
"Like—I trust very truly—a gentleman."
"Well!" The efforts failed that she had been making to re-establish
that poise of impartiality which he had already shaken, she twinkled
outright. "And I loved you for it and lied like a baggage in your
support. Still, I think you owe me something more . . ."
"The explanation which I am as ready to make as you are to hear it,
but a strange story—"
"I can imagine."
"Forgive me if I doubt that . . . A story so strange it will hardly seem
credible without the testimony of one little likely to be suspected of
bias in my favour, I mean Monsieur Morphew—"
"Morphew!"
Lanyard pretended not to know he had managed to stagger her a
second time: "If you would be so gracious as to telephone the good
man—one assumes you know his number—"
"But Morphy's never at home in the evening."
"Nevertheless I venture to prophesy he will be found at home this
evening, and not far from the telephone, either—providing you call
him without too much delay."
"Morphew?" Folly re-echoed as if she mistrusted her ears.
"You are such great friends, he won't think it strange if you turn to
him for friendly offices in your distress—"
"But I'm not in any distress."
"Precisely there is the favour I would beg of you, madame; to make
believe you are, to tell Monsieur Morphew that something so
disturbing has just happened, you can not rest without his advice. If
you will do that, I think you will find him more than willing to oblige
you, to wait on you here with all possible expedition."
"But what on earth—!"
"That I will make clear when you have telephoned. If you put it off
until the Mallison lot is permitted to call in counsel and arrange for
bondsmen, you won't catch Monsieur Morphew at home."
Lanyard endured gracefully the probe of mistrustful eyes, only a
whimsical twitch of lips reminded Folly at length of his exemplary
patience; whereupon she did a good descriptive bit with pretty
shoulders and plumped herself down at the telephone.
Committing to memory the number she gave the Central operator,
Lanyard saw the woman start when the voice that responded bore
out his prediction that Morphew would be found anomalously at
home, this night of all nights. But the ability of an excellent amateur
actress which Folly had once before proved to Lanyard's delight this
time again stood her in good stead, he was fain to admit he himself
might have been taken in by the ring of sincerity in her tremulous
accents.
"Is that you, really, Morphy? Oh, I'm so glad! . . . Something terrible
has happened, Morphy. Please don't ask questions now, I don't want
to talk about it over the wire; but if you can possibly spare a minute,
come around and give me your advice. You're the wisest man I know,
and I'm in a peck of trouble, half out of my mind with worry . . . How
perfectly sweet of you! Yes: as soon as you can, I'll be waiting so
anxiously . . ."
Without rising, Folly swung round and mutely challenged Lanyard to
make good his promise. But he merely bowed the bow that signifies
"Thank you very much."
"Morphy says he'll come this minute."
"Figure to yourself, madame, one can with difficulty constrain oneself
to wait."
"That's no fair." Folly got up with a flounce. "You're not telling me
anything."
"There is so little time—and one feels sure madame will need all of it
if she means to remedy what one may, without intending an
impertinence, be permitted to term the quite too delightful
unconventionality of her attire."
Not in the least displeased, Folly demanded: "Are you complaining
—?"
"I am seeking delicately to suggest it would be a pity to give
Monsieur Morphew any excuse for jumping at a conclusion which,
however flattering to my unworthy self, might prove difficult to
correct, not to say painful . . ."
"Painful?"
"To him."
"But you aren't a bit fair, you know, to keep on making me like you
when you know very well you haven't been playing the game."
"Madame wrongs me: one can play only such cards as chance deals
to one's hand."
"O dear!" Folly sighed. "I'm afraid I'm too impressionable, or I'd
never trust you at all, with appearances so black for you."
"Innocence," he modestly opined, "is so shining a garment, black
appearances can only lend it an enhancing background." She
wavered between a smile and a frown. "But you have trusted me so
far"—judging the moment ripe, Lanyard passed from trifling to
earnest entreaty—"surely you can afford to trust me still farther. I
want you out of the way when Soames shows Morphew in—let him
say you will be down directly, nothing more—I want Morphew to
meet me alone and without any warning. On the other hand, I wish
you to hear every word that passes; so all that seems mysterious
now will be made clear. While Morphew is busy trying to dissemble
his joy at meeting me so unexpectedly, you will be able to come
downstairs without making too much noise—"
"You aren't suggesting that I eavesdrop—!"
"Why not? I did as much for you an hour ago—and very much to
your advantage, you'll agree. Take my word for it, in this instance you
will have even more excuse . . ."
"Heaven knows how you always manage to get round me, but you
do." Folly went to the door, but there paused, looking back over her
shoulder with provocative eyes, pretty to death as she stood with
head perked pertly, her dainty body less hidden than set off by its
frothy déshabillé. "And it's well for me, I'm afraid," she confided, "if
its true, as Liane says, you're madly in love with another woman!"
She vanished, was heard briefly conferring with the butler in the
entrance hall, then scampering up the stairs.
"And well for me!" Lanyard admitted then, with a wry grimace of self-
knowledge; and forthwith closed his mind to the troubling concept of
Folly as a woman too kindly inclined, a thought it wouldn't do to dally
with for weightier reasons than that it was the truth Liane had
babbled.
Against this impending interview of precarious issue he had to make
all his dispositions, mental and environmental, in minutes of grace he
had no means of knowing how few. Everything depended on how
soon Morphew might leave his quarters in response to Folly's call, on
whether or not he would learn before leaving of the reverse which
had waited on the Mallison coup. Lanyard asked no longer odds than
to have Morphew arrive uninformed and unsuspicious; if he didn't,
Lanyard would need to mind his eye, likewise his step, if he meant to
go on living . . .
Swift review of four walls and all they enclosed made careful note of
the heavier articles of furniture and their arrangement in respect of
one another and even more particularly of the four exits: the door to
the entrance hall, the draped opening that communicated with the
drawing-room, the two French windows that gave on the roof of the
extension.
Wall-sconces with shields of painted parchment bathed the study in a
glareless glow; these darkened, a shaded table lamp was left for all
illumination. And this in its turn having been extinguished, it was
feasible to reconnoitre at the windows without risking detection by
any spy who might be stationed in the vacant land back of the house.
But when Lanyard had gently parted the draperies and put his nose
to a pane, his vision spent itself fruitlessly on the welter of blacks,
from dense to dusky, that blotted out the kitchen-yard within its
wooden walls and the open foundation pit beyond. Footfarers on the
sidewalks to the north were well-defined by the bleak shine of a
street light on the Lexington avenue corner; but if any living thing
lurked in the waste between it was lost to the cunning of Lanyard's
eyes.
Notwithstanding, he watched on, to make sure the avenues of escape
were not stealthily picketed in advance of Morphew's call, till the
house-bell dictated retreat from the window to relight the table lamp
and take the place and pose which Lanyard most fancied, in an easy
chair screened from the hall by the door that opened inward.
The professional soft-shoes of the butler padded from pantry to front
door, bolts thumped, the latch rattled, Morphew was heard to salute
Soames with gruff condescension, the colourless voice of the servant
responded: and having surrendered his hat and coat, the Sultan of
Loot paraded into the study with a strut (or the observation of his
audience erred) coloured by a lively sense of gratification in unction
yet to come. With Folly netted in his toils—no mistake about it,
Morphew in this moment was on the best of terms with the business
of life in a richly rewarding world. And viewing the man revealed in
this humour, Lanyard ceased to entertain a doubt as to the best
course to take with him.
Near the table whose lamp painted with stagey shadows his pale and
crudely modelled features, Morphew halted. He cleared his throat
importantly, consulted his watch, pricked an ear impatient for Folly's
footfalls on the stairs, frowned ever so slightly over failure to hear
them and, tickled by some furtive thought, flashed his rare, unholy
smile. Then becoming cognizant of Lanyard sitting quietly in his
corner, watchfully waiting, the man all at once grew taut in body and
limb, like a dog confronted by some sudden shape of danger, and
wiped his countenance clean of every treacherous trace of legibility.
This much, and the swift veer of his eyes toward the doorway, alone
confessed the facer to his expectations. The blinkless gaze that
steadied to Lanyard's told nothing. Neither did it put any question.
Pending the first move, which he was plainly resolved Lanyard must
make, Morphew constrained himself to a set of dull, impassive
patience.
An attitude Lanyard was nothing loath to humour. If the enemy
preferred to resign the initiative, he didn't mind. If it came to that, he
had meant all along, if it should appear, as now it did, that Morphew
hadn't as yet heard what had happened in the last hour, to force the
fighting. He got up and performed his courtliest bow.
"Good evening, monsieur. It was gracious of you to come round so
promptly. Won't you be seated."
Morphew ignored the gesture that singled out a chair for him, but
after a measured instant observed rather than asked: "You were
expecting me . . ."
"It was even I who advised Mrs. McFee to call monsieur into
consultation."
The full, hard lips grudgingly released the monosyllable: "Why?"
"It recommended itself as the simplest way to seduce you into a
conversation which I meant to have before morning whether you
wanted it or not; furthermore, for me, by far the safest. Figure to
yourself how much more secure I feel in my skin, meeting you here,
the last place where you would have thought to find me . . ."
Morphew shifted slightly toward the door, a movement of impulse
which he seemed to repent when he found Lanyard in the way. "I
came here to have a talk with Mrs. McFee," he heavily stated, "at her
invitation . . ."
"I have begged her to grant me the favour of a few minutes alone
with you."
"I've nothing to say to you . . ."
"That places one of us at a deplorable disadvantage; for I have much
to say to you, monsieur, and mean to say it."
"Suppose I don't care to listen . . ."
"It desolates me to feel obliged to inform you that, entirely by chance
and contrary to my preference and habit, I happen to be armed."
"Seems to me I've heard"—a slow sneer darkened the face of
uncouth ugliness—"it used to be your boast, 'The Lone Wolf never
kills'."
"Monsieur says truly 'it used to be' . . . He will, moreover, wisely
remind himself that the Lone Wolf is no more, his code, such as it
was, is no sure guide to what Michael Lanyard may do when he fights
for the right to live his own life in his own way."
Another instant their glances clashed, then Morphew's fell, he turned
sullenly back to the table, fumbling, to cover nervousness out of
character, for his cigar-case. "Well: what do you want?"
Lanyard pushed the hall door to before replying.
"First, to give myself the felicity of telling you the great news."
Eyes beneath leaden lids shifted back to Lanyard's face, a gross hand
grossly crusted with diamonds brought to light a case of gold studded
with diamonds, but delayed to open it.
"Come, Monsieur Morphew! confess you are wondering what has
become of that zealous disciple of yours, Monsieur Mallison."
"What about Mallison?"
But Morphew had found it necessary to moisten his lips before he
could speak.
"He is, at the present moment, one has good reason to believe,
wildly telephoning about Town to get in touch with you and pray for a
bondsman to bail him out, when he is arraigned tomorrow morning
for stealing Mrs. McFee's emeralds."
The pupils of the little, flesh-embedded eyes contracted, Morphew
licked his lips again. "How's that?"
"Your protégé, monsieur, so neatly styled the dancing yegg, was
caught hiding in the boudoir upstairs, some fifteen or twenty minutes
ago, and arrested."
Morphew gave himself time to assimilate this ill-omened information,
bending over the gaudy trinket in his hands and making meticulous
choice of a cigar. He gnawed off its end, broadcasted the waste, put
the case away, struck a match, and through a screen of smoke and
flame looked back to Lanyard.
"How'd you manage that?"
"But surely one who couldn't—so simple a matter!—is not one to
have been honoured with the handsome offer you made me last
night."
"I've put you a question," Morphew testily prompted; "I want to know
how you managed to put it over on Mally. Afraid to answer?"
"All in good time. For the present, I have the whim to point out what
dismal stupidity you have displayed in this affair, to the end that you
may spare yourself further discomfiture by foregoing any injudicious
schemes of vengeance which may be brewing behind that broad,
impassive brow."
"You swing a mean tongue in English," Morphew observed—"for a
foreigner." He cast about for a chair sturdy enough to sustain the
bulk of him, and with an air of resignation, his first voluntary
confession of feeling, sat down. "Go on, get it all off your chest; I
don't mind listening."
"Monsieur is too amiable. One can only prove one's appreciation by
endeavouring to be brief . . ."
"Take your time. I got plenty."
"Regard, then, my good Morphew, that last night, in this room, I was
drugged."
"Hootch?" Morphew sagely queried, and receiving a nod commented:
"There's a lot of wicked stuff being served nowadays."
"Four drinks were mixed for us last night, Morphew, by your man
Pagan. The other three were consumed without ill effects. Thirty
minutes after drinking mine, I became unconscious of my actions."
"Never knew a Frenchman yet could hold his liquor like a gentleman."
"No doubt monsieur knows best how a gentleman drinks . . . At the
same time, Pagan did his best, by means of hints thinly veiled, to
prepare Mrs. McFee to credit me with the robbery which was even
then planned in detail."
"Is this a confession you're making?"
"Planned by you, monsieur, and brilliantly executed by your
henchman, the dancing yegg."
"If you didn't know what you were doing last night, like you claim,
how d'you know you didn't pull the job off yourself?"
"One was waiting for that question, one knew it was sure to come
after the preparation Pagan had made for it."
"I notice you don't seem in any sweat to answer it."
"It has been answered for me. With her complaint of the theft, Mrs.
McFee communicated to the police the suspicions Pagan had been at
such pains to sow in her mind; with the result that my rooms were
visited early today and, like me, searched while I slept."
Morphew took the cigar from between his teeth and with an air of
anxiety inspected its half-inch or more of ash. "And nothing found,"
he incuriously inferred.
"Nothing."
"Can't remember what you did with the stuff, either, I suppose?" The
cigar went back to its appointed berth. "Too bad. You must've been
stewed as a boiled owl, all right."
"Patience. Tonight, when Mrs. McFee called in the police to arrest
Mallison for having sneaked back like the thief he is, after leaving this
house in the character of a guest and friend, he was searched and
found to possess"—Lanyard made provokingly deliberate pause—"a
pocket kit of burglar's tools."
"Sounds fishy." Nevertheless, more business with the cigar told of
strain to keep up appearances under unrelenting study. "That all your
news?"
"But by no means all. Further search proved that Mallison had been
guilty of the amazing indiscretion of bringing the emeralds, concealed
upon his person, back into the house from which he had stolen
them."
Untouched by Morphew's hand the cigar between his teeth dropped
its ash. "How do you mean?" he mumbled, watching his fat
bedizened fingers brush gray flakes from the lapel of his dinner
jacket. "The emeralds couldn't have been found on Mally unless"—the
colourless eyes lifted to Lanyard's face—"unless you put them there!"
"My gifts are small, I am hardly so clever as monsieur flatters me by
supposing."
"By God!" Morphew heaved out of his chair in a cold rage of
conviction—"you planted the stuff on the boy!"
"But," Lanyard pointed out, his suavity unruffled—"if you are so
positive the emeralds were in my possession before they were found
on Mallison, the admission is implicit that you had compromising
knowledge of the robbery. Else how can you be so sure?"
"I'm satisfied you stole 'em," Morphew growled—"I'm satisfied you
planted 'em on Mally for fear they'd be found on you."
"But why?" Lanyard argued as one perplexed but reasonable. "Have
you never been mistaken in reading the hearts of those whom you
employ? Remember what you must have known about Mallison
before you reckoned him skillful and unscrupulous enough to be of
use to you. Was it altogether wise, do you think, to trust such a one
to resist the temptation to keep for himself the plunder you had set
him to steal and bestow on me for my undoing? Was it wise to forget
the least miscarriage of the scheme would leave you unable to prove
your tool had been false to your trust? Was it wise to believe Mallison
too dense to think of that for himself? How can you be sure he didn't
put the jewels into his own pocket instead of into mine?"
"See here—!" Morphew stammered, equanimity at last shattered
beyond dissembling.
"Ah! but there I have you," Lanyard chuckled. "There I touched the
heel of Achilles—eh, monsieur?—your vulnerable spot! The truth is,
you dare trust nobody; you don't know that Mallison didn't play you
false, any more than you know now he won't, when the pinch comes,
turn State's evidence and betray you to save himself."
"Get out of my way!" Morphew bit through his cigar and cast it from
him with a violent hand. "I've had enough of this, I've stood for
about all of your damned nonsense—"
"By all means, monsieur"—Lanyard politely stood clear of the door
—"hasten to the police station and put the fear of God into the heart
of this poor thing whom you were ass enough to trust. You haven't a
minute to lose if you hope to succeed in stopping the mouths of
those four whom the police are even now, doubtless, putting through
the third degree—"
"Four?" Morphew checked short in ponderous dismay, his heavy head
low between his shoulders and swaying like that of a tormented
animal. "Four!"
"Bless my soul! did I forget to tell you? How unpardonably stupid of
me. The lady so lost to shame that she openly accuses herself of
being Mrs. Mallison, the enterprising Mr. Howlin, and his associate Mr.
Regan—all stepped with Mallison into the trap you'd set for Mrs.
McFee, for purposes of blackmail, and sprung it on themselves. If you
doubt my word, you'll find them all at the East Fifty-first Street Police
Station."
"If that's true," Morphew rumbled, barely articulate—"if I owe that to
you, Lanyard—"
"It is—you do."
"You'll settle with me, you crook—if you hide at the ends of the earth,
I'll find you and break you—"
"Ah! thanks, my good Morphew, many thanks!" Lanyard laughed in
high delight. "How generously you play into my hands. You confess
you employed Pagan to drug me and Mallison to commit a burglary in
an attempt to fasten the crime on me—you own your complicity in an
even fouler job of blackmail 'framed,' as you would say, for Mrs.
McFee—and now you add the cap-stone!"
Lanyard checked, then called: "Are you there, Mrs. McFee?"
The portieres parted that closed the doorway to the drawing-room,
Folly entered and halted, her slight figure now decorously clothed but
drawn up to the full of its inches and from the crown of the dainty
head to the tips of silken slippers tense with contempt from whose
fire, ablaze in her eyes, Morphew had the grace to flinch.
"And now, before this witness," Lanyard pursued, "you add a threat
against my life. It's more than I hoped for, Morphew, all I need to
insure me a sound night's sleep. If I don't wake up from it unharmed,
Mrs. McFee will know what to do. Must you go? Soames, no doubt, is
waiting to show you out. But if you'd rather I gave you a lift with my
foot—"
Morphew gave an incoherent bellow, lunged blindly to the door,
threw it open and himself through to the hall. The very floor of the
house quaked with the pounding of his feet as he stampeded for
open air. The street door banged like thunder while Lanyard stood
laughing into Folly's eyes.
 XII
But Lanyard was one who had learned how to laugh without losing
sight of graver matters; the surface of his mood alone chimed with
Folly's delight in the confusion he had meted out to Morphew, his
thoughts were all a-ferment with perception of the worth of every
instant lost to his first duty, which was straightway to put himself
beyond the range of Morphew's exacerbated spite.
Yet he was hardly so engrossed with the more serious as to be blind
to his closer peril, the glow that warmed Folly's countenance for him
beneath the bright ripples of her glee; and in its unmistakable
kindness read but one more reason why he must let nothing stand in
the way of his prompt going.
The thought took him quickly to the table; he was lifting a hand to
the switch of the lamp when Folly caught his arm, her two hands
staying him with a gesture as gentle and importunate as the clasp of
tendrils.
"You're wonderful!" she declared in a breath, looking up with eyes
from which mirth had been swift to ebb—"marvellous, the way you
managed him, twisted him round your little finger, made him own up
to everything! And I'd always considered Morphy a sort of superman,
so wise and calm and strong."
"Never reproach yourself with that," Lanyard replied with a twinkle. "I
too was taken in, till he made it worth my while to call his bluff. But
we mustn't forget all men are much alike: only so long as he fails to
find a way to call mine will Morphew respect me. My one hope is to
keep him at a distance—how do you say, over here?—to keep him
guessing."
But the young woman wasn't so cheaply to be cheated out of her
new-found luxury of hero-worship, the bright head dissented
vigorously. "Why, Morphy hasn't a chance! you're equal to a dozen of
him any day—and as many more Mallisons and Peter Pagans thrown
in for good measure. Don't I know? Haven't you proved it here
tonight?"
"The night is still young," Lanyard gravely reminded her. "It may tell
another tale, if Morphew's crew can contrive to lay hands on me
before morning."
"After he'd threatened you in front of me? Nonsense: he simply
wouldn't dare—just as you told him."
"My bluff. Not that I mean to give him any opportunity to prove it
such. But I shall need to move quickly, none the less . . ."
The hint he gave of a desire to be free of her hands got little
encouragement, indeed their hold tightened while she mocked his
professions with looks of disturbing admiration and derisive lips:
"You're not afraid!"
"But I assure you I am profoundly afraid. I don't say Morphew would
be flattered, but I fancy he'd feel far less a fool if he knew how
thoroughly I am afraid of him. For we may be sure of one thing: in
the event of my becoming an early victim of some curious accident,
Morphew's hand will never show. He's not the thundering scoundrel I
thought him, but he's far too clever notwithstanding to order a
misfortune for me that could possibly be traced to his management.
So you see—with permission—I really must be going."
"But where, to be safe—?"
Lanyard's expression took on another shade of patience. "Time
enough to think about that after I've called at my rooms to collect
some belongings."
"But"—Folly held fast to his arm, with a little frown of solicitude to
excuse her persistence—"if you feel so sure Morphew means mischief
—"
"Do you need more proof than you've had tonight?"
"Then surely he'll have set somebody to watch the house already—"
"The front of it, yes. Precisely why I'm anxious to get away before he
can set spies to guard the rear. If you have no objection, I shall leave
by these windows after putting out the lamp."
"But why?" Folly adorably pouted. "You're safe enough here."
"Madame will forgive if I make so bold as to question that." She let
fall her lovely lashes to deny Lanyard's meaning smile, but still held
on. "And every minute I linger makes the danger outside more real."
"Then . . . don't leave at all . . ."
"Madame is generous to a fault. She forgets the world is never broad-
minded. There are the servants to be considered, the neighbours—"
"A lot I care what people think, it's you I'm thinking of!"
Suffused with facile sentiment, the face at Lanyard's shoulder was
that of an exquisite and ingenuous child, vibrant with glad recognition
of a world whose wonder and beauty had till that moment been all
unsuspected. And the worst of it was, she knew it . . . No: the real
worst of it was that it wasn't art, it wasn't put on, she wasn't
coquetting, actually she was stirred to the depths of her being and
meant with all of her every lovely nuance of her looks. Even Lanyard
knew an instant when nothing in life seemed more desirous than
those lambent eyes and the yielding mouth whose lips trembled with
her hastened breathing. . . .
But an instant only; in another he got himself in hand again and
steeled his heart to cruel kindness. It went against nature to hurt
her; but the hurt would not bite deep, its tonic pang would leave no
scar. Not for the first time did life now give him proof of the readiness
of a nature emotionally shallow and impressionable to succumb to
the glamour of his ill-fame as a romantic rogue.
"Madame," said he with genuine reluctance, "would be so much wiser
to think first of herself always."
She argued with a rebellious face: "But I can't help it—can I?—if it's
you I must think of first."
"Nor can I help it," he gently said, "if I must always think first of
another."
Folly caught her breath with a sharp little hiss, released Lanyard's
arm and stood away, colouring but—strangely enough—not in anger.
"Oh!" she cried; and added with a half-smile of whimsical self-
reproach—"I'd forgotten. So it's true, what Liane told me." She
accepted a slow inclination of Lanyard's head, gave a small wistful
sigh. "I suppose she must be very beautiful. . . . Won't you tell me
what she is like?"
"Some day, perhaps," Lanyard vaguely agreed . . . "If you let me live
to see another."
"I!"
"There's practically no danger if I may be permitted to say good night
without more delay."
"I presume you must . . ." Folly wagged her head, with a smile that
broke in ruefulness but radiated in unaffected amusement at her own
expense. "What a silly you must think me, a sentimental little ninny!
No: don't deny it, because you're quite right. So that's that—and
what must be, must. Many thanks for my emeralds, Monsieur the
Lone Wolf, and"—she dropped him a mischievous courtesy—"more
for my lesson. And so—good bye!"
He waited with intention till, in a gesture of charming petulance, a
hand fluttered into his.
"Good night, my dear," Folly tenderly murmured as he bent his lips to
her hand—"good bye!"
Straightening up, Lanyard turned off the light.
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