Wednesday, 22 February 2006

Sun Previews Java EE 5 SDK & Netbeans Enterprise Pack 5.5

Sun Microsystems along with the Java, GlassFish and NetBeans communities has unveiled the simultaneous release of preview versions of the Java Platform Enterprise Edition 5 Software Development Kit (SDK) and the NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 Software. The Java EE Platform 5 (Java EE 5) is a major revamp of the enterprise developer programming model that radically simplifies Java EE development, especially for Web Services and transactional components.

"As an advocate and supporter of the GlassFish Project, Oracle views the release of the Java EE 5 SDK Preview as a milestone event. By contributing Oracle TopLink Essentials as the reference implementation for EJB 3.0 persistence, Oracle is helping ensure Java developers have the most advanced and easy-to-use development platforms in the world," said Steven G. Harris, vice president, Java Platform Group, Oracle. "Oracle and Sun's contributions combined with input from dozens of ISVs and independent developers collectively make Java EE 5 an achievement that will help boost the productivity of Java development."

The forthcoming Java EE 5 platform accelerates and simplifies Web and Enterprise application development projects through inclusion of new productivity-enhancing technologies, such as, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB API 3.0, the Java Persistence API, JavaServer Faces API, Java API for XML-based Web Services (JAX-WS) and Annotations.

• EJB 3.0 adds support for programming with Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs), which can be converted to Web Services with Annotations or made persistent using the Java Persistence API.
• JAX-WS is designed to simplify invocation of Web services by automatically generating client and server code and supporting the latest SOAP and Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) standards.
• JavaServer Faces 1.2 simplifies the building of user interfaces for Web-based applications by providing pre-packaged components that developers can simply call-on from applications, significantly reducing new code development.
• Annotations greatly reduces the size of the deployment descriptors (that in previous versions of Java, could run up to hundreds of lines in length) that developers have to write.