Java EE 8 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

1499 Pages·2018·7.28 MB·English

by  Josh Juneau [Josh Juneau]

Josh Juneau
Java EE 8 Recipes
A Problem-Solution Approach
2nd ed.
Josh Juneau
Hinckley, Illinois, USA
Any source code or other supplementary material referenced
by the author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via
the book’s product page, located at
www.apress.com/9781484235935 . For more detailed
information, please visit
http://www.apress.com/source-code .
ISBN 978-1-48423593-5
e-ISBN 978-1-4842-3594-2
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3594-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946699
© Josh Juneau 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by
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concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting,
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now known or hereafter developed.
Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this
book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the
names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to
the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of
infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of
trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms,
even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an
expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to
proprietary rights.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to
be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the
authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal
responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made.
The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein.
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This book is dedicated to my wife Angela, my five children:
Kaitlyn, Jacob, Matthew, Zachary, and Lucas. You are my joy
and inspiration. It is also dedicated to the many Java
developers worldwide. I hope that these recipes can lead you
to developing the sophisticated solutions of tomorrow.
—Josh Juneau
Introduction
The Java platform is one of the most widely used platforms for
application development in the world. The platform is so
popular that there are several different flavors of Java that can
be used for developing applications that run on different
mediums. From development of desktop, mobile, or web
applications and hardware operating systems, Java can be
utilized for development of just about any solution. As such,
Java has become a very popular platform for development of
web and enterprise applications, offering web services,
reliability, security, and much more.
Java Enterprise Edition was originally released in 1999 as
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Although several
enterprise frameworks were available for development of
reliable and secure applications on the Java platform, it made
sense to standardize some solutions in order to minimize
customization and help provide standards around Java
Enterprise development to make it more prevalent in the
industry. The platform originally included a terse number of
specifications for standardization, including Java Servlet,
JavaServer Pages, RMI, Java Database Connectivity (JDBC),
Java Message Service API (JMS), Java Transaction API
(JTA), and Enterprise JavaBeans. Early development of J2EE
applications had a large learning curve, and it was
cumbersome because it required lots of XML configuration.
Even with these setbacks, it became popular among larger
organizations and companies due to the prevalence of Java and
its well-known security benefits. In 2001, J2EE 1.3 was
released, adding more specifications to the platform, including
the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL), and Java
Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS). Other
specifications, such as Java Servlet, also gained enhancements
under the J2EE 1.3 release, making evolutionary
enhancements to the platform. The release of J2EE 1.4 in 2003
marked a major milestone for Java Enterprise, as many new
specifications were added to the platform, providing standards
for even more Java technologies. The release of J2EE 1.4
marked the first iteration of Web Services for J2EE 1.1,
JavaServer Faces (JSF), and Java APIs for XML solutions
such as JAXP, JAXR, and more. Although the release of J2EE
1.4 included many specifications, it was still deemed as
“difficult to learn,” “cumbersome,” and “not productive”.
Over the next few years, J2EE was re-worked in an
attempt to make it easier to learn and utilize for the
construction of modern web applications. Although XML is an
excellent means for configuration, it can be cumbersome and
difficult to manage, so configuration was a big item that was
being addressed for the next release. Technologies such as
Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) included some redundant
characteristics, making EJB coding time-consuming and
difficult to manage, so an overhaul of EJB was also in order.
In May of 2006, Java EE 5 was released, leaving the J2EE
acronym behind, and changing to simply Java EE instead. The
Java EE 5 platform was significantly easier to use and
maintain because features such as annotations were
introduced, cutting down the amount of XML configuration
significantly, as configuration could now be injected via
annotations. EJBs were made easier to develop, and Java
Persistence API (JPA) became a marketable technology for
object-relational mapping. Java Enterprise Edition has since
become a widely adopted and mature platform for enterprise
development. Java EE 6 was released in 2009, making
configuration and APIs even easier, and adding more
specifications to the platform. Specifications such as Contexts
and Dependency Injection and Bean Validation were
introduced, vastly changing the landscape of the platform and
streamlining development. Java EE 7 (released in 2013)
continued to strengthen and modernize the platform, adding
the WebSockets and JSON-P specifications. In the Java EE 7
release, specifications such as JSF and EJB were also
enhanced, adding even more features to increase productivity
and functionality and allowing them to work better for more
modern web solutions.
What occurred next in the timeline was a definitive game
changer for the Java EE platform. The Java EE 8 initiative had
begun in 2015 and many of the specifications that make up the
platform had begun to work. The focus of Java EE 8 was to
continue to work toward Java SE 8 compatibility throughout
the APIs and to continue making the APIs easier to use. There
was also a focus on creating new specifications around making
microservices easier to develop with Java EE. In late 2015,
many of the specifications stopped moving forward, and there
was a halt in progress across the board. A few specifications,
such as JSF, CDI, and JSON-B, continued to progress, while
many of the others stalled. During this stall, the community
became concerned about the future of Java EE, and there was
a perception that it was going to be dropped. Oracle was silent
on the progress of Java EE 8 and uncertainty was in the air. It
was during this same timeframe that the Java EE Guardians
group was formed, with the focus on trying to make Oracle
produce a statement about the future direction of the platform,
and to make open source the platform rather than dropping it.
Around that same time, the Microprofile project was started as
a collaborative effort by a number of the Java EE container
vendors, with the focus on providing a true Microservices
profile for the Java EE platform.
In late 2016, Oracle changed the direction of Java EE 8 by
removing some of the previously planned specification
updates and adding others. There became a renewed effort to
keep Java EE 8 moving forward in the hopes to produce a final
release in 2017, working towards a better platform for
producing microservices based applications. The Java EE 8
release was final in the fall of 2017, and it included updates to
many of the specifications. However, even some of the
specifications that were planned for enhancing microservices
development were dropped in an effort to produce a timely
release, including MVC and the Health Checking API.
In early Fall 2017 just before the release of Java EE 8,
Oracle announced that they were going to open source Java
EE. After a short while, it was announced that Oracle was
going to contribute all of the Java EE sources (for each of the
underlying specifications), along with all documentation and
TCKs (Technology Compatibility Kits) to the Eclipse
Foundation. In late 2017, the EE4J (Eclipse Enterprise for
Java) project was formed, and the transfer of each
specification began. In early 2018 it was voted that the new
name for the platform under the open source EE4J project
would become Jakarta EE. Once all of the specification
sources, documentation, and TCKs were transferred, Jakarta
EE was to release a 1.0, which was in parity with Java EE 8.
This book focuses on the Java EE 8 release, as well as the
Jakarta EE initial release. As such, throughout this book, I will
refer to the platform as Java EE 8. However, each of the
recipes in this book also work with the initial release of Jakarta
EE. The platform is covered as a whole, touching upon each
most of the widely used specifications that make up Java EE.
You will learn how to use each of the major specifications,
making use of real-world examples and solutions. This book
will cover APIs that have not been updated for Java EE 8, as
well as those that have been enhanced, providing complete
coverage for those who are newer to the platform. It also
features recipes that cover the newest features of the platform,
so that seasoned Java EE developers can skip those
introductory concepts and delve into newer material.
I work with Java EE/Jakarta EE on a daily basis, and I
have a deep passion for the technologies involved in the
platform. I hope that this book increases your passion and
productivity using the platform in its entirety.