What's in Java EE 8?

Java in general has enjoyed a successful run in the enterprise space for nearly two decades, but we all understand that being successful today doesn't guarantee success tomorrow. Businesses have become more demanding compared to how things used to be 10 years ago. The need for flexible, robust, and scalable solutions delivered over the internet using the web and mobiles is only growing. While Java addresses most of these needs, change is inevitable for it to adapt to newer challenges. Fortunately for Java, with a large community of developers around it, there are a plethora of tools, libraries, and architectural patterns being established to deliver solutions for these business complexities. Java EE standardizes these solutions and allows the Java developer to leverage his existing skills in building enterprise applications.

Just like a hammer can't be the solution for every problem, using the same technology stack can't be the solution to every business challenge. With the web becoming faster, there's been a rise in client-side frameworks that are very responsive. These web client frameworks rely on enterprise services to utilize the underlying business capabilities of an enterprise. Java EE enables teams to deliver cloud-ready solutions using architectural patterns such as microservices.

Java EE, which stands for Enterprise Edition, can be considered an umbrella specification for defining the entire Java EE platform. EE 8 is the latest specification, which itself relies upon several other specs and groups them together into a unified offering. These changes are meant to simplify, standardize, and modernize the technical stack used by developers to make them more productive in building next-generation applications.

The enterprise space for business applications has never been more vibrant than now. Java EE 8 brings with it newer APIs and improvements to existing ones. This chapter will try to provide you with a clear understanding of what this release train of Java comprises. There's a fair bit to cover, so brace yourself as we pe into the world of Java EE.

We will cover the following topics in this chapter:

• Improvements in EE 8
• Overview of Java SE 8
• CDI 2.0
• JSON Processing 1.1
• JSON Binding 1.0
• JAXRS 2.1
• Servlet 4.0
• JSF 2.3
• Bean Validation 2.0
• Java EE Security API 1.0