The firstcup-war web application project consists of the Java Persistence API entity, the enterprise bean, and the JavaServer Faces web front end.

The firstcup-war example application consumes the data from the dukes-age web service using the JAX-RS client API. A JavaServer Faces web front end asks users to enter their birthdays to find out who is older, the user or Duke. This data is stored in an Apache Derby database table using the Java Persistence API. The business logic, which provides the core functionality of the application, is handled by an enterprise bean.

All the tiers described in Tiered Applications are present in the firstcup-war web application. The web or client tier is the JavaServer Faces front end. The enterprise information systems, or EIS, tier is the Derby database. The business tier is the enterprise bean.