Oracle Issues J2EE 1.4 Developer Preview

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Oracle Thursday released a software preview kit for the latest iteration of Java , the highly-anticipated Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4.

J2EE 1.4 has been developed specifically with Web services
in mind, which is crucial as competing software
vendors large and small are looking to stake claims in the industry turf with new applications. Web services, among other things, allow applications to communicate with one
another more efficiently.

Redwood Shores, Calif.’s, Oracle plans to offer such features in its
preview, including Java interoperability with the Web services developed for
WSDL and SOAP standards, including .NET.

The preview will also feature improvements to the Oracle Java Servlet,
JavaServer Pages (JSP), and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)
technologies, all of which make creating complex enterprise applications
easier. There will be support for the new J2EE Management 1.0 API, including
JMX, which provides a standard way to monitor and manage J2EE components
from seminal points such as the JSPs to full EJB implementations.

Lastly, there will be upgrades to the J2EE Connector Architecture, which
makes connectivity to resource adapters and Java
Message Service possible, as well as support for the J2EE Deployment 1.1
API.

“J2EE 1.4 provides the groundwork for J2EE Web services development and sets
new standards for application deployment and server management,” said Floyd
Marinescu, director of TheServerSide.com. “I welcome the availability of
Oracle’s J2EE 1.4 Developer Preview as a way to help the Java community
become familiar with the new specifications for creating fully interoperable
applications and take advantage of the strong integration of Web services
with the J2EE platform.”

Importantly for the software vendor, J2EE 1.4 will be supported in the
upcoming Oracle 10G Application Server, scheduled to be unveiled at
OracleWorld San Francisco 2003 next week. The new developer preview is
available immediately for download from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

The news follows the June release of a similar kit from Java purveyor Sun Microsystems
, which unveiled Java Technology for the Enterprise, version J2EE 1.4, which feature enhanced Web services integration. The SDK included blueprints, a tutorial and a J2EE 1.4-compatible application server, as well as Web services support.

In related Web services news, Oracle and partners Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC
said they have proven interoperability between four independent
implementations of reliable Web services based on the Web
Services-Reliability (WS-Reliability) specification, which the companies offered to
OASIS in January.

WS-Reliability is a spec for an open, reliable messaging infrastructure that
makes it possible for companies to conduct efficient business-to-business
trading with Web services.

Analysts agree on the importance of such as service, although the industry has been thrown into a bit of a uncertainty with the release of an alternative reliability spec from Microsoft, IBM, Tibco and BEA Systems, dubbed WS-Reliable Messaging.

This prompted Oracle and others to cry foul that Web services leaders like Microsoft and IBM are bent on driving a wedge between disparate specifications.

The companies behind WS-Reliability said they can now show how a sender will automatically resend the same message if no positive acknowledgement was received, and how a
receiving application eliminates duplicates of the same message. These
functions ensure proper delivery of a purchase order to suppliers.

The interoperability demonstration will be conducted today during the WS-RM
Technical Committee meeting in Bedford, Mass.