J2EE 1.4 ships with Web services

Sun will ship Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4, which is designed to enable the use of Web services in Java applications, along with an application server based on the new platform.

This is set to be the first Web services-compliant platform delivered in the industry. It will feature the Web Services Interoperability Organization's (WS-I) Basic Profile for utilizing Web services.

The J2EE 1.4 reference implementation, for developing compliant applications, also will become Version 8 of Sun's application server and offered free of charge. However, higher-level application servers that are more scalable and fault-resilient will be available for a price.

Sun feels that Version 1.4 is really the fusing of Web services with the Java platform. And it hopes that the release of 1.4 will accelerate the trend of Web services being written in Java. Web services are intended to provide standards-based system integration.