A quick pointer for information technology recruiters and job seekers:
It isn’t called “J2EE” anymore.
“J2EE” meant Java Version 2 ( also called 1.2 ) Enterprise Edition
The term “J2EE” hasn’t been used since 2004 with the release of Java 5 ( 1.5 ).
The proper name is
Java EE <current version number of Java>
So, what is the “Java Enterprise Edition”?
Many recruiters as well as developers think it is a separate, advanced version of Java or a version of Java you have to pay for. Not true.
The Java language is not enough to build a server side application. You also need to use tools like a database, a database bridge, a transaction manager, a security system, a web server and/or directory services. A number of different vendors created “application servers”, software that integrates all of these services, the way Microsoft integrates all of their things into one platform. Very good idea, but each vendor created their own unique API that developers had to code. This made the resulting code useless and not portable without that application server.
“Java Enterprise Edition”(JEE) was created as a standard that application servers have to conform too. Compliant application servers must support specific APIs and a specific set of services & libraries which include, but are not limited to:
- RMI
- Servlets/JSP
- JNDI
- JTA ( transactions )
- Java Messaging
So there you have it. It isn’t called “J2EE” anymore. It is “JEE” a set of standard APIs that Java compliant application servers must support. It isn’t an advanced version of Java or a version of Java you have to pay for.