METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING TIMERS FOR ENTERPRISE JAVABEAN COMPONENTS

Methods and apparatus for implementing state machines as enterprise beans with reliable or transactional timers on an enterprise platform are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a state machine is arranged to be used within a computing system that supports an enterprise platform. The state machine includes an entity object, a home interface associated with the entity object, and a remote interface associated with the entity object. The home interface is arranged to create, find, and remove entity objects, while the remote interface is arranged to drive the state machine. The entity object is arranged to be deployed in a bean container, which includes a timer. In addition to including a timer, the bean container is arranged to invoke the entity object using the remote. In one embodiment, the timer is transactional.