Sun Rolls Out Java Enterprise Edition 5 Beta

Sun Microsystems this week released the beta version of Java Enterprise Edition 5, which gives developers a peek at a new programming model and tool set designed to make building enterprise Java applications quicker and easier.

"I've been raving at people inside Sun about how important this is. I think Java EE 5 will be by far the biggest developer event of 2006," Sun Vice President Graham Hamilton said in his blog at Java.net.

Java EE 5 adds support for an array of new technologies for simplifying the creation of Web application interfaces and the invocation of Web services. It also streamlines the amount of code required to build applications.

Sun is concurrently releasing a set of tools to support Java EE 5, including the NetBeans 5.5 Enterprise Pack Preview. That pack features Unified Modeling Language (UML) tools and visual design tools for service-oriented architecture (SOA) developers. Also launching this week is Sun's Java System Application Server PE 9.0 beta, based on technology from the GlassFish open-source Java EE 5 application server project.

"Previous releases have lagged behind the Java specifications from a tooling perspective," said Dan Roberts, Sun's director of developer tools marketing. "This is a new direction with the [tools] technology. We want to get it out there for the community to preview and give us feedback on very early in the process."

Sun is aiming at a summer release for Java EE 5. Last week, the company released the beta of the next version of its Java Platform Standard Edition, aka Project Mustang.