JEE 5 – having a “first cup”
So here we go… JEE 5, the web application framework / environment / platform /whatever based upon the Java programming language, is slowly gaining speed, and indeed it is a technology worth spending some time with. Compared to earlier versions, JEE 5 basically aims at making enterprise application development faster and easier, removing a lot of “overhead” especially to be found in “old” EJB specification (which made creation and especially testing of applications based upon Enterprise JavaBeans a tedious and time-consuming task). And, also relying upon features found in recent JDK platforms (most notably annotations), JEE 5 – code probably for the first time in the history of the platform even can be considered aesthetically appealing. 😉
Overally, there are a bunch of good reasons to get into this, and by now there also is a good way to do so: “Your First Cup: An Introduction To The Java EE Platform” provides you with a brief introduction to what JEE is all about, and how building Java Enterprise applications differs from “simply” building database-backed web sites. Still, this won’t probably keep you from reading at least parts of the “full” JEE 5 Tutorial or some good book on that topic – “First Cup” is good for another reason: If you already know about JEE, you’ll get an idea of the changes this platform has seen in its latest version. And, given the Open-Source Java IDE NetBeans and the JEE 5 application server Glassfish, the tutorial gives you an outline to quickly get started building full-scale applications making use of SOAP web services, EJBs, Java Server Faces and all the other things JEE is about. After all, quite a worthy read.
see also: blogs.sun.com/jenniferb