Introduction

WebLogic Server is one of the leading J2EE application servers on the market today. It is a robust, mature, scalable implementation of the J2EE specification. It also lies at the heart of the WebLogic Platform, a unified, extensible platform for developing and deploying enterprise solutions such as enterprise information portals and systems integration solutions. This chapter provides an overview of WebLogic Server, and offers a perspective of its place within the WebLogic Platform. You'll also get a flavor of the various J2EE and enterprise features of WebLogic that you'll encounter in this book.

As you shall see, WebLogic offers much more than a full-fledged implementation of the J2EE standards. This chapter introduces some of the extensions to the J2EE technology stack, such as WebLogic's management framework and its robust support for web services. In addition, this chapter prepares the groundwork for the rest of the book, and helps you get started with using WebLogic Server.