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The promise of the Java 2 Platform

Why developers and IT professionals should consider migrating existing systems to Java 2 next year

By Mariva H. Aviram, JavaWorld.com, 07/25/99

At the recent JavaOne conference, Sun announced its redefined architecture for the Java platform, aptly named Java 2. The three products that make up the Java 2 Platform -- Enterprise Edition (J2EE), Standard Edition (J2SE), and Micro Edition (J2ME) -- encompass a number of new features. The differences between the editions mark Sun's attempt to target specific Java-using markets. J2EE, the edition of most interest to the majority of JavaOne attendees, is optimized for use on high-end, heavy-duty servers in an enterprise environment. J2SE offers many of the same features of J2EE, but its smaller package and lower cost mark it as intended for use on individual desktops or small workgroup servers. Most intriguing to developers for vertical consumer and embedded markets is J2ME, which is optimized for small, limited-memory applications. Each of these editions is composed of a Java virtual machine (JVM), Java programming language, technologies and features that are core to each product, and optionally-available features. Below, you'll find overviews of J2EE, J2SE, and J2ME. The J2EE section contains some interesting ideas from a few industry leaders about this new product's potential.

J2EE

Both JavaOne attendees and Sun itself are taking the Enterprise Edition of the Java 2 Platform very seriously. J2EE not only had its own technical track at the conference, but some of the individual sessions were so popular that they were repeated for the benefit of those who couldn't get into the presentation halls the first time around.

At the JavaOne J2EE overview session, Sun Senior Staff Engineer Mark Hapner and Distinguished Engineer Bill Shannon explained how J2EE will allow developers the flexibility to implement as many third-party applications and components as they want. The architecture of J2EE enables the use of containers -- the technology found in the platform -- and components, which are presentation, business logic, and data access applications executed upon, or from, the containers. Containers represent specific types of Java technology with the J2EE platform, such as applets, applications, Web services, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB). With Java as the common language amongst all containers and components, it's possible to use the native JDBC API as a container to manipulate SQL data, the JavaMail API to support e-commerce Web sites, and the Java Transaction API to manage transactions -- all interacting with the same database on the back end.

During the more in-depth J2EE birds-of-a-feather (BOF) meeting, Mala Chandra, director of engineering at Sun, said that the team that developed J2EE had two main goals in mind. The first was for J2EE to work with third-party application vendors in order to layer a single, consistent Java persona on top of a multivendor system that spans multiple platforms. The second was to make it easier for J2EE users to develop enterprise applications on multitiered systems; the goal would be to allow the seamless transfer of information from an enterprise database through security middleware to clients like desktops, pagers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) -- and the transfer new information through the same chain of devices in the opposite direction. One example of an important use of J2EE, according to Chandra, is to avoid having to set up and manage a proprietary transaction system.

 

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