Chapter 1. Java EE Platform Interoperability Essentials

According to Tiobe Community research (www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm) as of March 2006, Java was the world's most popular programming language, used widely for Web-based application development in every arena, including finance, transportation, telecommunications, media, and retail industry. One reason Java technology is so popular is its multi-platform nature, which gives it the capability to write an application once and run it anywhere. It has also a variety of interoperability technologies that work with business applications and legacy systems running on other platforms as well as a large development/architecture community that has emerged thanks to open frameworks and democratic suggestions.

The Java EE Platform is capable of interoperating with applications built on the .NET framework. It has a variety of interoperability technologies to cater for messaging, distributed objects, and Web services. This chapter gives an overview of the architecture of the Java EE Platform and introduces the features of the interoperability technology.