Sun Sneak-Previews Next Version Of J2EE

By Richard Karpinski

Sun Microsystems this week is previewing the latest version of its J2EE server environment, the first release to include full, baked-in support for Web services protocol.

The preview is happening at its JavaOne Japan Developer Conference, and includes a first look at some of the Web services integration Sun has planned for J2EE 1.4.

Application server vendors are just beginning to roll out servers supporting the last J2EE release, 1.3, which despite its "dot" moniker included many significant upgrades. Users also are only beginning to move up to J2EE 1.3.

Despite the work involved in a major J2EE upgrade, enterprises are closely watching the latest move, particularly the tighter integration of Web services protocols into the J2EE platform.

J2EE 1.4 includes support for UDDI and ebXML registries, SOAP transactions, XML schemas, and processing and the Web Services Description Language (WSDL).

Most application-server vendors already provide fairly comprehensive Web services protocol support, but a formal J2EE version release bakes that support right into the standard platform.

"Using J2EE v 1.4 Web services developers won't have to carefully pick and choose in order to achieve interoperability. They will get it by design," said Mark Hapner, Sun's architect and co-specification lead for J2EE v 1.4, in a statement.

A beta version of J2EE 1.4 is expected in November with a final ship date for the spec of early 2003. Sun said it expects to roll out its own Studio products supporting J2EE 1.4 by May of next year.

The full spec for J2EE 1.4 is available at the Java Community Process Web site.