» Next Page: Service Description

Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE is a widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language. The Java EE Platform differs from the Standard Edition (SE) of Java in that it adds additional libraries which provide functionality to deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, multi-tier Java software, based largely on modular components running on an application server. The platform was known as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition or J2EE until the name was changed to Java EE in version 5. The current version is called Java EE 5. The previous version is called J2EE 1.4.

Companies, focused on a more robust and secure solution that will manage more data, tend to choose J2EE. However companies that need a solution faster, and with less business complexity, tend to choose .NET. Sometimes the challenge can be finding developers with skills in both platforms or retraining Java developers to use .NET or vice versa.

Java EE includes several API specifications, such as JDBC, RMI, e-mail, JMS, web services, XML, etc, and defines how to coordinate them. Java EE also features some specifications unique to Java EE for components. These include Enterprise JavaBeans, servlets, portlets (following the Java Portlet specification), JavaServer Pages and several web service technologies. This allows developers to create enterprise applications that are portable and scalable, and that integrate with legacy technologies. A Java EE "application server" can handle the transactions, security, arity, scalability, concurrency and management of the components that are deployed to it, meaning that the developers can concentrate more on the business logic of the components rather than on infrastructure and integration tasks.

While the Microsoft .NET Framework is a software component that is a part of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common program requirements, and manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. The .NET Framework is a key Microsoft offering, and is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform.

The pre-coded solutions that form the framework’s Base Class Library cover a large range of programming needs in areas including: user interface, data access, database connectivity, cryptography, web application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. The class library is used by programmers who combine it with their own code to produce applications.

Programs written for the .NET Framework execute in a software environment that manages the program’s runtime requirements. This runtime environment, which is also a part of the .NET Framework, is known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR provides the appearance of an application virtual machine, so that programmers need not consider the capabilities of the specific CPU that will execute the program. The CLR also provides other important services such as security mechanisms, memory management, and exception handling. The class library and the CLR together compose the .NET Framework.

In the content of this article, we will take each of these challenges in turn and look briefly at how the two technologies handle Web Services in their technology. Web Services are currently concerned with four basic challenges:

Service Description
Service Implementation
Service Publishing, Discovery and Binding
Service Invocation and Execution

» Next Page: Service Description

Page 1 of 3