What’s New in the 9 Release

The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 implements many new features:

• Java EE 5 platform support — Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 implements the Java EE 5 specification to deliver one of the best application runtimes for next-generation enterprise applications and web services. Application Server 9 implements the following Java EE standards:

  • Enterprise Java Beans 3.0

  • JAXB 2.0

  • Java Persistence

  • Java Server Faces 1.2

  • Java Server Pages 2.1 (JSP 2.1)

  • Java Server Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) 1.2

  • Streaming API for XML (StAX)

  • Web Services Metadata

  • Java API for XML based Web Services 2.0 (JAX-WS 2.0)

  • Common Annotations for the Java Platform 1.0 (CAJ 1.0)

  • Java Servlet 2.5

  The complete list of Java EE 5 platform technologies is provided later in these notes, in Java EE 5 Platform APIs

• Improved Developer Productivity — Application Server 9 provides a rich developer experience with its open modular extensible architecture and lightweight, low footprint, high performance runtime. Fast application deployment makes iterative application development quick and easy. The product can be easily integrated into popular IDEs. NetBeans and Sun Java Studio Creator integrate Application Server 9, providing a superior development environment.

• Java 2 Standard Edition 5.0 Support — Application Server 9 supports Java 2 Standard Edition 5.0, which includes enhanced management and monitoring features and many performance and scalability improvements.

• Sophisticated Administration — Application Server 9 provides remote secure management using a browser-based Administration Console and a scriptable command line interface. New Admin Console features include:

  • Comprehensive web services management support including web services discovery, management, monitoring, and provisioning.

  • Enhanced application monitoring, visualization, and diagnosis.

  • JMX MBean API to provide for remote secure programmatic administration and monitoring using JMX.

  • Built-in management rules and triggers that can be expanded programmatically.

• Platform Support — Application Server 9 supports wide range of operating systems, databases, web servers, locales, and hardware. See the Platform Requirements later in these notes for the complete list.

• 64-bit Support — Application Server 9 adds support for the 64-bit Solaris Operating System.

• Java Web Services Developer Pack Integration — Application Server 9 is integrated with the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP) 2.0 to provide support for the latest web services standard--including Web Services Metadata 1.0 (specifies annotations for web services), JAX-WS 2.0 (specifies web services API for Java platform), and JAXB 2.0 (specifies Java and XML binding). In addition, it includes a Java EE Service Engine based on the Java Business Integration (JBI) standard.

• JMS Connectivity — Application Server 9 provides built-in connectivity with IBM MQ Series and Sun Java System Message Queue Server.

• Long-Running Transactions — Application Server 9 adds support for long-running distributed transactions.

• JDBC^TM Drivers — Application Server 9 connects to any database server with a JDBC driver. For a list of components that Sun has tested and found to be acceptable for constructing Java EE compatible database configurations, see JDBC Drivers and Databases later in these notes. Application Server includes DataDirect^TM JDBC drivers for major databases that can be used for deployment.

• Java DB Database — Application Server 9 bundles a Java DB database based on the Apache Derby database, making it possible to develop and deploy end-to-end Java EE applications.

• Call Flow Monitoring — Application Server 9 can be configured to monitor an incoming request as it flows through various containers in the application server, and through the user application code. For example, the Application Server can break down the time spent in the web container, web application code, EJB container, and EJB application code. The collected information is stored in a database, and is then available for query and analysis.

• Self Management Rules — Application Server 9 provides a powerful and flexible infrastructure to automate application server management tasks. A self-management rule consists of an event and an action. Examples of events include message logging, monitoring threshold, timer, and JMX notifications. Actions are logic defined by the user, which are then encapsulated in a JMX MBean. When an event is triggered, and it matches one of the events defined in a self management rule, the associated action will be executed. For example, an administrator might define a management rule such that he or she receives an email when a SEVERE message is logged in the application server.

• Migration and Upgrade Tools — Included tools enable you to verify Java EE applications for standards conformance and portability, help with migrations from other Java EE application servers (JBoss, WebLogic, WebSphere), and aid in upgrading from previous versions of Sun's Application Servers. These migration tools are also available separately at http://java.sun.com/j2ee/tools/migration/index.html

• Open Source and GlassFish Community — In June 2005, Sun launched the GlassFish community with the goal of developing a free, open source, commerical-grade application server that implements the newest features of the Java EE 5 platform and related enterprise technologies. Application Server Platform Edition 9 is based on the source code developed by Sun engineers and the GlassFish community.