Java Web Services: Up and Running, 2nd Edition

What’s Next?

The examples so far have published RESTful and SOAP-based services with command-line utilities such as Endpoint and production-grade web servers such as Tomcat and Jetty. At the production level, Tomcat or Jetty represent a lightweight option; a JAS such as IBM WebSphere, JBoss, GlassFish (the reference implementation), or Oracle WebLogic (formerly BEA WebLogic) represents a heavier-weight option. In the early 2000s, the lightweight Java movement, often associated with the Spring framework, emerged as a reaction against the complexities of J2EE and the JASes used to deliver J2EE applications. In the meantime, the move from J2EE to Java EE 5 and 6 has meant significant weight loss for JASes because Java EE 5/6 offers a lightweight alternative to the earlier J2EE. The popular JASes now support the updated Java EE specifications.

Packaging and configuration have become significantly easier with the new JAS versions, which have administrative and other utilities that make the JAS an attractive option for deploying web services. For example, Java EE applications now can express configuration information with annotations instead of with complicated XML documents; indeed, a Java EE application, including a web service, officially can be deployed without any configuration document, although the web.xml remains the rule rather than the exception for both websites and web services. The next chapter considers the publication of REST-style and SOAP-based services under GlassFish ...