Sun Initiative Tests Java App Compatibility

Striking a blow in the battle for the enterprise developer, Sun Microsystems Inc. last week announced the Java Verification Program for the enterprise.

Glen Martin, a senior manager in Suns Java software division, said the program verifies applications to help ensure they can run on any application server based on J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) technology. Information on the program can be found at java.sun. com/j2ee/verified. Martin said the program helps customers differentiate product offerings that can run on different J2EE-compatible application servers.

Martin said the Java Verification Program is part of a two-pronged approach aimed at the Java application software market. The first part came at the JavaOne show in March, when Sun announced the Java AVK (Application Verification Kit), which is targeted at individual developers in corporations or at quality assurance professionals. The Java Verification Program focuses on ISVs, Martin said.

"We heard from developers on many occasions that they were not always certain how to build a J2EE application that could be portable across different application servers," Martin said. The verification program assures ISVs their solutions can run in heterogeneous J2EE application server environments.

The Java Verification Program for the enterprise tests the portability of enterprise applications across different implementations of J2EE by leveraging Java AVK for the Enterprise. Java AVK for the Enterprise is a Sun technology that lets developers test applications using guidelines and rules. Martin said ISVs whose products meet the cross-platform criteria in Java AVK for the Enterprise Handbook will receive the Java Verification certification and display the "Java Verified" brand and logo for their certified products after completing a licensing agreement.

Kathy Lippert, vice president at Flashline Inc., a Cleveland-based software reuse company and a Sun Java Application Verification Program beta user, said the concept of the AVK and the verification program is to prove that applications can run on different J2EE platforms.

"It goes a huge distance in helping us prove we can support these different programs that are J2EE-compliant," Lippert said. "It comes very close to the overall promise of J2EE portability."

Lippert said her company demonstrated the portability of its Flashline Component Manager Enterprise Edition and passed all the required tests.

"Reading between the lines—from the name and positioning—if this is a program to enable enterprises to certify that the applications they have built comply with J2EE specs to an extent that they should run on any app server that has passed the corresponding J2EE certification suite, then that would be a good thing," said Mike Gilpin, an analyst with Giga Information Group Inc., in Cambridge, Mass.

Sun said more than 20 companies participated in Java AVK for the Enterprise beta program earlier this year.