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- Unlike Java EE app servers, Fabric3 is designed with integration in mind to enable service-based as opposed to autonomous (and often monolithic) applications. Fabric3 is used to assemble applications from loosely-coupled distributed services.
- Dependency injection frameworks such as Spring and Guice assemble local application components; Fabric3 extends assembly from local to distributed services.
- Unlike Enterprise Service Buses (ESB), Fabric3 is not based on a proprietary programming and integration model that sends all communication through a routing and transformation framework. Instead, Fabric3 relies on the standards such as OASIS SCA standards and JAX-RS and open protocols such as ZeroMQ to wire application components directly without the complexity and overhead of an intermediary.
- Fabric3 does not compete with messaging middleware (MOM), but uses it for remote communication between services.
- Fabric3 does not replace web services but can be used to expose RESTful (JAX-RS) resources and WS-* endpoints to external clients.
- Fabric3 supports polyglot communications including JMS, ZeroMQ and file-based transports. Fabric3 can also be extended to support additional protocols and transports.
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