JCA is the Java Connector Architecture. This architecture provides a standard for connecting the J2EE platform to legacy enterprise information systems (EIS), such as ERP systems, database systems, and legacy applications not written in Java. JE supports this architecture.

Users who want to run JE within a J2EE Application Server can use the JCA Resource Adapter to connect to JE through a standard API. Note that the base API is required if you want to do this. The JE Resource Adapter supports all three J2EE application server transaction types:

JCA also includes the Java Transaction API (JTA), which means that JE supports 2 phase commit (XA). Therefore, JEs can participate in distributed transactions managed by either a J2EE server or the applications direct use of the JTA API.

The JE distribution includes an example showing JCA usage in a simple EJB. The Resource Adaptor has been tested using JBoss 3.2.6, and the Sun Java System Application Server, version 8.1. Instructions for how to build the Resource Adapter and run a simple "smoke test" example for each of the application servers can be found here:

JE_HOME/examples/jca/HOWTO-jboss.txt

and

JE_HOME/examples/jca/HOWTO-sjsas.txt