Panel: J2EE 1.4 To Support XML Natively

Sun Microsystems

At the Java and Web Services panel, Sun Vice President of Java and XML Rich Green said J2EE 1.4 will require companies to have full support for XML messaging and XML-based Web services standards before they can ship platforms branded with J2EE 1.4 compatibility.

"When 1.4 comes out, the compatibility test suite will be amended to test for [XML services," said Green. "We will upgrade the certification test vehicle by which it drives assurance that XML will be required."

Observers have said that while XML is built into Microsoft's .Net platform, J2EE does not have the same native support. Rather, J2EE contains a series of Java APIs for integrating XML messages, registries and other Web services technologies into the platform.

Along with Green, other Sun executives--Vice President and Fellow James Gosling, Chief Technology Evangelist Simon Phipps, Distinguished Engineer and J2EE Lead Architect Mark Hapner--said that despite industry perception, XML already is as native to the Java platform as it is to .Net.

"What does 'natively supported' mean?" said Gosling sarcastically to a question about whether the Java platform's support of XML is comparable to Microsoft's XML support in .Net. He went on to explain that Java is an extensible platform, unlike .Net, in which companies get locked into using one technology. Because of Java's extensibility, XML can easily be integrated into Java, he said.

Gosling also said there is little difference between XML support in J2EE and Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE), the standard for Java on the desktop, other than how the technologies are packaged. "Hundreds of [extensions all plugged in vs. shipped in the bundle means nothing other than how [XML is shipped," he said.

Gosling added that J2SE 1.4, the platform on which J2EE is built, already has support for XML APIs to create Web services.

"If you have older J2EEs that run on J2SE, XML isn't there," he said. "But if you have a newer version of J2EE, XML is there."

Hapner said a key technology to support Web services that will be required in J2EE 1.4 is Sun's Java API for Remote Procedure Calls (JAXRPC). He expects the Java Community Process, the panel of companies that decide future Java specifications, will approve a final JAXRPC spec by midyear.

Phipps said that no matter what support is required in the J2SE or J2EE platforms, the reality is that vendors such as IBM and BEA Systems have been shipping application servers with native support for XML since last year.

"In the future, all [J2EE platforms will be shipping with XML in the box," he said.