Interoperability through middleware

Network technologies have evolved considerably over the last 20 years. Low-level socket support provides the foundation for most of these technologies. However, they are hidden from the user through multiple layers of software. These layers are referred to as middleware.

Interoperability is achieved through middleware, such as JMI, SOAP, and JAX-WS—to mention a few. The Java EE edition is aimed primarily at supporting these middleware-type technologies. Java EE started with servlets, a Java application that was used to support web pages. It has evolved to include Java Server Pages (JSP) and eventually to Faclets both of which hide underlying Servlets.

These technologies are concerned with providing services to users whether they are a human at a browser or another application. The users are not necessarily aware of how the service is implemented. Communication is achieved through a number of different standards and data is frequently encapsulated...