Sun goes to a Java Rave

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 13 Jun 2003 at 12:49

Sun has revealed details of Project Rave, which it describes as a tool for 'corporate Java technology development'.

What this means in practice is that Sun is trying to widen the user Java base and incorporate those who have previously restricted themselves to VBA and other macro programming for Microsoft products.

With the drag-and-drop creation of user interfaces, the use of components, and simplified access to databases, Project Rave is intended to aid the creation of corporate apps. It will use an event-based coding model based on the JavaServer Faces (used for building UIs for JavaServer applications) and be fully compatible with standard Java (J2SE and J2EE). It will feature the bells and whistles of a modern IDE, such as synchronised editing views, property sheets and wizards.

Note, however, that Rave is not scheduled to appear until the end of the year. You can find more details at sun.com/software/products/projectrave/. Though not at www.java.com, the new website intended to showcase Java technologies from a user perspective!

Project Rave is a codename, by the way. The full name will be revealed with the product's debut (Sun is running a prize competition to guess the release name, if you are feeling prescient).

Coinciding with the SunOne event in San Francisco, Sun has also released a Beta 2 version of the J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) 1.4 software development kit (SDK). The key feature of the enterprise version of Java is support for the WS-I (Web Services Interoperability organization) 'Basic Profile' specification.

Also updated is its Web Services Developer Pack (WSDP). Version 1.2 sees updated messaging APIs (JAX-RPC 1.1 and SAAJ 1.2), an XML Data Binding API (JAXB) and support for Web Services Security (XML Digital Signatures and Encryption for the secure exchange of XML documents). Sun's Java WSDP is intended to provide early implementations of Web services specifications, tools and Java APIs. Many will subsequently be supported in future versions of the Java platform.