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Discovering the Possibilities

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by Jon Byous

San Francisco, June 5, 2001 -- At the 2001 JavaOne Developers Conference, most days begin with a keynote presentation. It sets the tone for the day's conference events and often previews the most important product and marketing news.

But for most of the JavaOne conference's 20,000 attendees, especially the code-writing developers, the technical keynote is where the real action is: no marketing, no fluff, no suits.

This year's technical keynote was opened by Jon Kannegaard, vice president and deputy director, Sun Labs, who immediately turned the stage over to two true techies: Tim Lindholm and Graham Hamilton.

Tim Lindholm is a Sun distinguished engineer and one of the original Java technology team members, working the code when it was called "Oak."

Graham Hamilton

Graham Hamilton is Sun's Chief Technologist for Java Software, and a major contributor to Java APIs for CORBA, JDBC, and JavaBeans.

Together, their "big picture" approach to describing today's Java technology opportunities for developers showed that each of the three platform tiers -- client, Web, and transaction -- are populated with powerful tools and services, all ready to use today.

Better yet, the technology pipeline is full with both new products and improvements to proven standards.

Make the Transaction

First, Hamilton explained that the transaction tier, dominated by Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), now offers developers automatic transaction management, massive scalability, load balancing, and separation of deployment issues -- all of which help to lower development and support costs.

The pipeline for the transaction tier includes a future release of EJB 2.0.

Present It via the Web

The web tier presentation layer for web clients includes Java Servlets, which allow you to run Java technology code in web servers, and Java Server Pages (JSP), which lets you mix Java technology code and HTML on one page. The popularity of both remain strong among developers.

The pipeline here includes a new technology based on a radical new idea. It's called JavaServer Faces.

JavaServer Faces: Looking Good

Within the presentation layer, a new initiative is gaining momentum. JavaServer Faces, a graphical user interface (GUI) component architecture for JavaServer engine-enabled applications, was presented and demonstrated by Sun's Amy Fowler.

As a significant break from classic client/server models, this architecture allows developers to run web user interfaces on the server, rendered to the client, which then posts events back to the server.

The idea behind this architecture is to take the burden off developers who must maintain their own increasingly complex GUI frameworks. It also establishes a standard for server-based GUIs that third-party tool makers can embrace.

By handling the tough work, endless details, and time-consuming maintenance of GUIs, JavaServer Faces will improve GUI quality for all of us.

XML Moves Out

Hamilton made it clear that Java technogy will increasingly leverage XML to take the capabilities of the platform to new levels in the presentation layer.

With Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP) 1.1, core XML processing is here now to use.

In addition, JAXB for XML data binding, a new means of mapping XML data to Java objects is coming soon. "I'm happy to report that JAXB is going into early access this week," said Hamilton.

"And JAXR for XML registry support is coming soon," said Hamilton. "To be initially targeted at UDDI, JAXR is expected to go into beta this fall with a final version at the end of the year."

Two additional XML technologies that will be coming soon include JAX-RPC, providing XML (Remote Procedure Call) RPC support, and JAXM for XML messaging.

Also in the pipeline is the Sun JAX Pack, offering the latest unified JAX technologies, documents, demos, and samples.

Tim Lindholm

Deliver the Client

Lindholm retook the stage to complete the big picture by discussing three basic classes of clients in the client tier: browsers, rich clients (PCs and workstations), and the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 1.0, seen in cell phones and consumer devices.

One highlight was Java Web Start software, which supports web-deployed applications with a one-click launch from inside the browser.

New Edition News

The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification 1.3 release is targeted to go final in fall of 2001. It will deliver increased XML support (JAXP 1.1 SAX, DOM, XSLT). It will also include the EJB 2.0 specification and J2EE Connectors to connect to existing enterprise applications.

J2EE 1.4 is currently in the requirements phase and will include capabilities for SOAP, XMLP, and UDDI. "But don't wait for J2EE 1.4," said Hamilton. "Key web pieces, such as JAX APIs, will be available separately in advance of the release and will be usable in the 1.2 and 1.3 releases."

Going Wireless

Lindholm took the stage and said, "The wireless road map for the near term is pretty simple. It consists of implementations of the MIDP 1.0 specification."

MIDP defines the application life cycle and execution environment for the quickly growing cornucopia of micro devices that are Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) projects. It also helps provide better security on the client for these devices.

As the tool of choice, MIDP 1.0 was shipped in fall of 2000 and will be upgraded to MIDP 1.0.3, offering better performance, in September 2001.

MIDP for the PalmOS, which will provide the Palm look and feel, is currently available for early access and will be shipped in September 2001.

Lindholm also made a pitch for PC-based wireless development tools. "It's difficult to develop for consumer devices on the device itself," he said. A variety of tools from Borland, Forte, and Metrowerks provide wireless device emulators for desktop systems that can help you with wireless projects. Similarly, Sun's wireless toolkit (WTK) offers emulation capabilities and can be plugged into commercial integrated development environments (IDEs).

Wireless Is in the Works at the Java Community Process Program

Lindholm then described several important initiatives being reviewed by the Java Community Process (JCP) program that will make wireless development easier in the near future.

The proposals include the next-generation MIDP, additional telephony support for MIDP, a Bluetooth option, and a PDA profile for Palm-class devices.

These Java Specification Reviews (JSRs) are in process at the JCP program. You can read about all the JCP JSRs as they are released for the Java community and public reviews through the JCP program.

Wireless Tools for Today

Lindholm explained that the route to wireless is PersonalJava release 3.1 or greater. For headless and embedded devices, use the Foundation Profile, released January 2001. A higher-performance release of the Foundation Profile is scheduled for fall 2001.

The RMI Profile, which adds Remote Method Invocation (RMI) support to the Foundation Profile, and the Personal Profile, which adds GUI support, are both scheduled for release in fall 2001.

Putting the Pieces Together

Lindholm emphasized that Sun supports open-protocol client/server development where not only all Java technology pieces work well together but Java technology works well with C++ and .NET also.

A Demo Shows the Way

Finally, Kenneth Lui, a Sun wireless technology architect, joined Lindholm onstage to demonstrate SmartTicket, an end-to-end Java architecture wireless theatre-ticket reservation and purchasing application his team developed.

The application connected a Motorola phone to a J2EE wireless server and showed how secure user preferences can reside on the phone while the server-based application can aggregate location-sensitive content and services from multiple third-party providers.

Straight Talk Spoken Here

Hamilton and Lindholm's message was clear: Now you can go boldly and target the Web for a full range of new services. The tools are here.

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) release 1.3 and J2EE release 1.2 enable you to use JSP for presentation and services, XML for data and communications, and EJB for transactions.

If you use MIDP for wireless and other consumer devices, JSP for browser clients, and Java Foundation Classes/Swing for rich desktop clients, you will break through the old barriers and eliminate the traditional limits.