Design Note: Entity Facade

A Business Object implements complex relationships and encapsulates dependent business objects. In effect, it acts as a Facade [GoF] to all the objects it encapsulates. In J2EE applications that do not use entity beans, the Business Objects are implemented as POJOs.

In J2EE applications that use entity beans, Business Objects are implemented as Composite Entities , typically using local entity beans and POJOs. However, if the Composite Entity Remote Facade strategy meets your needs, you can implement a Composite Entity using a remote entity bean for the parent object and local entity beans or POJOs for its dependent objects.

The following class diagram illustrates these relationships.

Also see Service Facade.

Figure: Entity Facade Class Diagram

Excerpted from Core J2EE Patterns, 2nd Edition.