Updated March 29, 2023
Definition of J2EE Framework
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition which is also known as J2EE is a Java API collection owned by Oracle. It is used by programmers for creating server-side applications. The applications of Java EE are hosted on several application servers like WebSphere of IBM, GlassFish of Oracle, WildFly server of Red Hat, etc, where all of them run in the cloud or inside the corporate data center. Even though these applications are hosted in a server, some clients like IoT devices, standard web applications, smartphones, web sockets, RESTful web service, or microservices run in a Docker container.
Why do we need J2EE Framework?
Now, we may think that while there are so many technologies, what is the need for this framework.
One of the important reason why the Java EE framework is used because it offers services, that makes the common challenges faced by developers easy. That is, while developing applications, APIs make the process simpler for using common design patterns as well as industry-accepted practices. Suppose there is a challenge for enterprise developers in handling requests from web-based clients. For making this easy, this framework offers Server and JSP APIs, which offer methods that find out what a user typed in a form’s text field or saves a cookie in the browser.
Similar to that, another task is how information is stored in a database and retrieved from a database. To achieve this goal, JPA, also known as Java Persistence API is provided by Java EE that makes the data mapping within the program to information in database tables and rows easy. Moreover, the creation of web services, as well as logic components of high scalability, is made easy using the EJB, Enterprise JavaBeans specification. The advantage of these APIs is they are effectively tested and made easy for developers.
How J2EE Framework works?
The Java application’s server-side development steps involve:
- Write code that makes use of core technologies in Java EE
- Compile the created code to bytecode
- Package the created bytecode as well as resources associated with it into an EAR, Enterprise Archive file
- Deploy the Enterprise Archive file to an application server
For completing this process, all we need is a text editor as well as the standard Java compiler with JDK installation. But, we should also know that there exists a rich ecosystem of IDE (integrated development environment) tools that contributes to the Java EE code’s fast application development. In the case of IDEs which are open source, Eclipse and NetBeans are considered as the most common in Java EE development. Both offer project organization, syntax checking, and source code formatting in addition to the rich plug-in community, that allows users for the creation of components that adds additional functionality to the integrated development environment. Plug-ins are normally used for building, deploying, and performing continuous integration to applications of Java EE.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of Java EE include:
- Java EE runs on any OS and application server. But, some alterations are needed in some cases.
- Complex, high-transaction, high volume applications can be handled.
- Consists of the plethora of enterprise features in application integration, session management, load balancing, and fail-over.
- Used by famous enterprise vendors like BEA, IBM, Oracle, and SAP
- A wide range of tools, application servers are offered.
- A proven and valid track record is present.
- Development by a team of diverse application development skill level as well as experience is supported.
- Clearly separates the web designer roles and developer roles.
- Facilities offered by the application server can be leveraged for rapid development, prototyping, and deployment.
- Application server which is standard based offers interoperability as well as vendor neutrality.
- As this is based on Java, all the pros of java can be applied here also.
Example: cross-platform development
- Open-source application servers such as JBoss with DB server like MySql, are available. It permits both developments as well as deployment to be very cost-effective compared to further proprietary development platforms of applications.
Disadvantages of Java EE include:
- Complex application dev environment.
- Difficult to use the tools.
- Swing environment of Java has some limitations in ability to build GUI.
- Expensive for building, deploying, and managing applications.
- In-built support is lacked for the Webservices standards
- Difficult for projects which are low-cost, quick-turnaround, and mass-market
- Large learning curve linked to J2EE.
- Some developer restrictions are there like, anything that hinders the system’s app Server’s control.
Example: Write your own control threads as well as scheduled tasks is not allowed.
Usage of J2EE Framework
As already mentioned, J2EE is a specification comprising a wide variety of technologies that is used to develop and run enterprise Java applications.
Now, let us see some of the key features and services of J2EE:
- Pure HTML, java applets, java applications are supported by the J2EE at the client tier.
- Relies on JSPs (Java Server Pages) as well as servlet code for the creation of HTML or some other formatted data used for the client.
- EJBs (Enterprise JavaBeans) offer another layer where the logic of the platforms is saved.
- Server of EJB offers functions like threading, security, concurrency, and memory management which are transparent(visible) to the author.
- Normally, a JVM offers a run-time interpreter needed for running the compiled Java code. At the same time, in the case of applications that use some J2EE enterprise features, like EJBs/Enterprise Java Beans needs an application server which isJ2EE-compliant application server.
- Offers services like transaction processing, load balancing, session management as well as messaging which helps the enterprise applications’ developers do not need recoding of components with almost all applications they write.
- Supports high heterogeneous environments.
- A wide range of tools, application servers are offered.
Conclusion
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition is used by programmers for creating server-side applications. The Java EE applications are hosted on several application servers like WebSphere, GlassFish, WildFly server, etc, where all of them run in the cloud or inside the corporate data center. In this article, different aspects of Java EE are explained in detail.
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