In-Depth

Glassfish 3 Beta Geared to the Enterprise

The Glassfish V3 beta, an open source Java application server, offers better support for SOA and Web 2.0 applications.

• By John K. Waters
• April 1, 2007

GlassFish V3, the next generation of the open source Java EE 5 application server, is now in beta, as announced by Sun Microsystems and the GlassFish community.

The new version has been integrated with the NetBeans IDE (integrated development environment) and enhanced with enterprise-class features from Sun's Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition. Those features include clustering, administration and load-balancing capabilities designed to make GlassFish suitable for highly scalable, volume enterprise deployments for service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web 2.0 applications.

This release also comes with Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT), which integrates Web services with Web apps and enables better interoperability between Sun's Java platforms and Microsoft's Windows. In addition, it will feature a native implementation of the Java Business Integration Web services deployment framework.

GlassFish V2 will also have a smaller footprint, Sun says, at 63MB, which should make for an easier download. The memory footprint in this version is smaller, too, making it more portable.

Sun paired the GlassFish beta release with the release of the Sun Web Developer Pack, a toolkit designed for simplifying and enabling advanced rich Internet applications for the Java platform. The developer pack supports AJAX-style development with jMaki, a lightweight server framework for creating JavaScript-centric Web 2.0 applications. It also supports Dynamic Faces (JavaServer Faces with the responsive user experience of AJAX).

Both releases will help enterprises build and deploy SOA and Web 2.0 applications and services, the company said, by leveraging next-generation Web technologies (AJAX, scripting and REST), which simplify development and deployment of scalable, interactive applications.

The Sun-sponsored GlassFish project was launched in 2005 to develop an open source Java EE 5 application server. It's one of several community-type projects hosted on Sun's java.net collaboration site. GlassFish is part of ''a larger effort by Sun to release major portions of its code into open source for use and improvement by the community,'' according to Sun.

GlassFish is available under a dual license: Sun's own Common Development and Distribution License and the GNU General Public License version two (GPLv2).

Sun also announced a new Java Specification Request, JSR 311, which focuses on providing support for RESTful Web Services in the Java Platform. This JSR, Sun says, "will help further promote standardization around the next generation Web technologies." It also will aim to provide easy-to-use APIs for Java EE or Java SE platforms. Sun plans to work with BEA, Apache, Google, Jboss, TmaxSoft and Jerome Louvel.

The GlassFish beta is available now on the GlassFish download Web page, along with a survey and contest offer. The Web Developer Pack is also available for download at http://developers.sun.com/web/swdp.