Web Services Spotlighted In Java UpdateWeb Services Spotlighted In Java Update

Sun Microsystems is making Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition more compliant with Web-services standards. An update in the works is intended both to make it easier for IT shops to write integrated apps and to establish Sun's leadership in Web services.

When J2EE version 1.4 ships this summer, it will support the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization's Basic Profile specification, which describes how apps are to interact regardless of their operating environment. Ultimately, this is going to benefit all companies using J2EE, says Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst with ZapThink, an XML and Web-services research and analyst firm.

Version 1.4 is designed to encourage development of Web services that could, for example, automate the communication between flight- and hotel-room-booking apps. The Sun One Application Server and Sun One Studio Integrated Development Environment are expected to support version 1.4 by the end of this year. Oracle's 9i Application Server is expected to support J2EE 1.4 by this summer.

Although version 1.3 supported Web services, it was harder for programmers using that version to create their own Enterprise JavaBeans and code that would interface with J2EE, says Mike Gilpin, a Giga research fellow. "It required more 'moving parts' to create a Web-services interface." With version 1.4, there will be less of a need to convert data between different formats as a Web-services request comes into a J2EE application server and is processed by a Java component.

There's also a strategic benefit for Sun in the new update, Bloomberg says. Version 1.4 helps keep Sun, which is looking for a spot on the WS-I's board, from being marginalized in the process of developing Web-services standards, says Ron Schmelzer, also a senior ZapThink analyst. BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, and webMethods wrote the Basic Profile standard. "Sun's biggest challenge on the software side has been capitalizing on their leadership in Java," Bloomberg says.

It's good that Sun is taking a more active role in Web services, but that in itself is not going to make Web services a mainstream phenomenon. Yefim Natis, a Gartner VP and research director, says Web services still lack standards for security and transaction processing.

"Version 1.4 makes Web-services programming more consistent and, long term, more reliable and reusable," Natis says, "but it's by no means the end of the road."