11 December 2009, 11:45

Hat trick: Java EE 6, GlassFish 3 and NetBeans 6.8 released

Java maintainer Sun Microsystems has released the Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) version 6, its reference implementation, the GlassFish 3 application server, and the free NetBeans 6.8 Java development environment all in one swoop. Java EE 6 consists of about 30 specifications developed within the Java Community Process (JCP) and consistently builds on the approaches and ideas used in Java EE 5. True to the motto "less is more", the specification focuses on a metadata-driven development model with a meaningful standard behaviour.

Also important are the Java EE profiles, which assemble a configuration using varying technologies and a basic profile. The technological subsets define a run-time environment framework for application developers to work in. Further new features are EJB 3.1, JSF 2.0, Servlet 3.0 and the controversial "Dependency Injection in Java".

The new version of GlassFish is the environment's reference implementation and the first Enterprise Java server to implement Java EE6, which was only approved just over a week ago. It is modular and works with the Eclipse Equinox and Apache Felix implementations, which are both based on the modular OSGi Java specification. According to Sun's benchmark results, the system starts twice as fast as its predecessor, GlassFish 2. The server supports languages such as JRuby, Python and PHP, and can also be linked with web services created with .NET 3.5. Further features are listed on the product page. Sun also offers the server as an Enterprise Edition for a minimum subscription fee of about $1,000.

Netbeans 6.8 has been adapted to match the new versions of the Enterprise Java specification and the GlassFish server. The new version also supports PHP 5.3 and the Symfony PHP framework, as well as the current release of the JavaFX SDK. In addition, the developers have worked on the support of C/C++, Ruby and Maven. The Project Kenai collaboration software can now also be integrated with the JIRA bug-tracking system. Further information about the Java development environment can be found in the "New and Noteworthy" pages as well as the release notes.