J2EE Version 6

Sun Microsystems is coming out with the next edition of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition. I read a lengthy article about the new features in this framework. Here are some of the goodies that Sun says is in J2EE 6.

There are profiles which support a subset of the J2EE standard, allowing for lean deployments. Next is the idea of extensibility. Basically they are providing a way to include plugins into the system.

There is a JAX-RS API which helps you develop RESTful web services. There is also bean validation. This is a standard mechanism to perform data validation before saving to a database.

Asynchronous processing of beans is built in now. J2EE will also now support AJAX. There is a scaled down Enterprise Java Beans release called EJB lite.

Another technology is JPA, which stands for Java Persistence API. Finally there is a Criteria API which is a way to query objects. I myself do not have any experience with J2EE. However the Java dudes consider it essential. So you know I will be learning the basics soon.

Disappointing Advice

This semester I am taking a web development class in school. We are learning HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). However next semester I shall take an advanced Java programming class. I thought I had better brush up on my Java programming since I had not done any since my intro to Java class.

I thought I could combine what I learned in web development with some Java code to produce a Content Management System (CMS). It would take user input and spit out a blog site in HTML. This seemed doable in a month or two if I kept the app simple.

Today I read an advice column from a developer claiming to be a veteran who was in the know. He started out by recommending that developers do not create CMS systems. Ooops. He went on to say that developers should not code in Java. Ouch. That was the double whammy.

The reasons for this advice were twofold. First there are too many existing CMS solutions on the market. Second he said users just don't use Java apps. Well that might make sense if I was trying to start up a business with my product. But I am just trying to write a throw away app to gain some experience. So I think I am okay with my idea. It just won't turn into some money making opportunity. Or will it?