GOVERNMENT

Free Preview Versions of Java EE 5 Software Developers Kit and NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 Software Available Now for the Developer Community -- Sun Microsystems, the inventor and leading advocate of Java technology, along with the Java, GlassFish and NetBeans communities today announced 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. These offerings provide developers with the next generation Java platform and tools for building and deploying Web services and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)-ready applications to solve business challenges. 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. Sun has led the development efforts of these breakthrough technologies, incorporating key contributions from the open source GlassFish Project and NetBeans communities to create an innovative, robust and scalable development platform that is ideal for building the next generation of the Internet. "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." Contributions from members of the Java Community Process (JCP) services to the new Java EE 5 platform, encompassed in the Java EE 5 platform SDK Preview, have been extensive and widespread. More than 30 community experts have provided innovations to Java EE 5 platform, making it one of the most significant Java platform to date. With more than 4 million downloads to date, Sun's current Java EE platform SDK is one of the most popular software download among Java technology enterprise developers. 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. These enhancements greatly reduce the amount of code and configuration with which application developers have to contend. The gains are significant and may be as high as 85 percent or more, in some cases. "Community involvement in the development of the Java EE 5 Platform and NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 Software previews has been invaluable. Combined with Sun's own expertise, input of the developer community and our Java platform partners are helping to extend Java technology's leadership position as the premier development platform for solving IT and business challenges in the Web 2.0 era," said Jeff Jackson, senior vice president, Java Enterprise Developer Group, Sun Microsystems. "Enterprises worldwide rely on the Java platform to help run their businesses, and they can rely on Java developers to help build and deploy new services and applications that give them competitive advantage. With these preview releases, Sun is helping ensure the developer community is equipped with some of the most productive tools to get that job done." With more than 8 million downloads of the NetBeans IDE to date, the NetBeans.org Project is thriving. Each month visitors from more than 130 countries use and contribute to NetBeans. The NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 Software Preview includes all of the capabilities of the recently announced open source NetBeans 5.0 IDE, plus the addition of a newly integrated, pre- tested collection of enterprise development technologies for Java, previously only available in the Sun Java Studio Enterprise Software. This preview bundle gives developers early access to tools that enable Java EE 5 Platform development and creation of SOA applications, including Unified Modeling Language (UML) tools; visual design tools for SOA architects; the Java EE 5 Platform SDK Preview (including the Sun Java System Application Server PE 9 Beta). The preview bundle is designed to help increase developer productivity, and make it easier to model, implement and deploy Web services, business process and SOA architectures. For more information and downloads of the Java EE 5 Platform SDK Preview, please visit its Web site. For more information and downloads of the NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 Preview, please visit the Sun Developer Network its Web site.