Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials

Standalone J2EE Server

While OC4J is normally installed as part of Oracle Application Server, it can also be installed as a standalone J2EE server. This is ideal for creating a lightweight development environment. One member of a development team can install OC4J standalone on his personal computer to produce a fully functional workgroup development environment. Other members of the team can work directly in a development directory, storing and compiling their Java code in place.

When ready, the completed J2EE application can be packaged from the development directory and deployed on a complete Oracle Application Server installation acting as a quality assurance server for testing, then later moved to a production environment. Using OC4J in this fashion gives a development team a great deal of control over their development environment, while not requiring a great deal of expense to duplicate a production J2EE environment.

Oracle provides an OC4J standalone download available on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) web site for just this purpose. You can download OC4J along with its OC4J Standalone User's Guide. As stated earlier, it can be run with any JDK of the appropriate version. This also makes it possible to develop a J2EE application on any platform that supports Java, not just on platforms that support Oracle Application Server.