News

Oracle offers early 'hands-on' look at J2EE 1.4

• By John K. Waters
• September 8, 2003

Just days before its annual West Coast developer conference, Oracle Corp. has released a toolset for developers looking to build applications using the latest Java and Web services standards. Oracle's Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 Developer Preview kit implements the highly anticipated J2EE specification, and features enhancements to the Oracle Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages and Enterprise JavaBeans technologies.

The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based software giant made its J2EE 1.4 developer preview available for download from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) last Thursday. The OracleWorld conference kicked off yesterday at San Francisco's Moscone Center and runs through Thursday.

Oracle released the preview to allow application developers to get "hands-on experience with the latest J2EE industry standards," according to company representatives. Oracle said it would fully certify support for the new J2EE 1.4 spec in an upcoming release of Oracle Application Server.

John Magee, vice president of Oracle application server marketing, said the new tools should allow developers to start learning and prototyping with the latest J2EE and Web services standards immediately.

J2EE 1.4 has been developed with an eye toward Web services. The latest version also includes improvements to the J2EE Connector Architecture, which allows for connectivity to Java Message Services, as well as support for the J2EE Deployment 1.1 API, which lets developers roll out J2EE applications to an app server.

Oracle Developer Preview implements the latest J2EE 1.4 spec and offers the following features as listed by the company:

* Web Services Interoperability: The new J2EE standards for Web services help to increase productivity because they interoperate with the Web services developed for WSDL and SOAP standards, including .NET. Oracle recently brought out a test application to help developers check the interoperability of Web services and software based on the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0.

* Web and Application Development: Enhancements to the Oracle Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages (JSP) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technologies make it easier to develop enterprise applications.

* Persistence Architecture: The combination of Oracle's enhanced Container Managed Persistence support and the award-winning Oracle Application Server TopLink accelerates and simplifies EJB development for applications accessing databases.

* Management: Support for the new J2EE Management 1.0 API, including JMX, enables instrumentation of J2EE components and provides a standard way to monitor and manage every aspect of the deployed application, from JSPs to EJBs.

* Application Integration: Enhancements to the J2EE Connector Architecture enable connectivity to incoming resource adapters and Java Message Service.

* Application Deployment: Support for the J2EE Deployment 1.1 API provides a standard way to enable J2EE application deployment to any application server.

The Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE Developer Preview for J2EE 1.4 is available immediately for download from OTN (http://otn.oracle.com).