J2EE/J2SE

Introduction

This page details the various tooling available for developing J2SE, JSEE, or both kinds of Java applications. By default, you at least need a Java Development Kit (JDK) and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to get started (or for those hardcores, a JDK and a text editor). In my case, I use Sun’s JDK with the Eclipse SDK as my IDE (details below). From there, you can get as crazy as you want. My setup is detailed below.

Getting Started

In order to begin, grab the latest SDK provided by the Web Tools Project (WTP) as found on Eclipse. By the way, an overview of WTP can be found here. Once on the WTP page, look to the right most part of the page to see the latest downloads as shown here:

WTP Downloads

After clicking on the link of your choice, you will end up with a comprehensive download page where you’ll want to grab the all-in-one download for either Windows or Linux. This all-in-one download includes the following:

NOTE: The JavaServer Faces Tools (JSF) is not part of the WTP all-in-one download. You’ll want to download the JSF and install it on top of WTP. The JSF is scheduled to be part of the WTP all-in-one download in the upcoming 1.5 release of the WTP project.

Additional Software

Listed by order of installation (roughly):

  • Sun JDK - The core Java class libraries and virtual machine required to build Java applications.
  • Java Class Libraries - The following are useful Java libraries that can be loaded in addition to what you get with the core JDK libraries.
    • Jakarta Commons Lang - Provides API for additional manipulation of the original Lang API as provided by Sun.
    • Jakarta Commons IO - Useful IO API. The utilities classes are extremely helpful.
    • Jakarta Commons NET - Required by ANT for telnet and FTP support.
    • Jakarta ORO - Required by Jakarta Commons NET for telnet and FTP support.
    • Jakarta Taglibs - Defines common tab libraries that can be used in JSPs.
    • Jakarta Commons FileUpload - Useful API for dealing with file uploads via a dynamic web page.
    • JDOM - API for all things XML related.
    • JUnit - Unit testing for ensuring bugs don’t slip into your code.
    • Log4J - Teach all your classes to use Log4J and you’ll have excellent log and report capabilities.
  • Nvu - A free WSIWIG editor for HTML.
  • Apache ANT - An excellent aid for building Java applications in a consistent and reliable manner.
  • Apache HTTP Server - Enables core web serving capabilities.
  • Apache Tomcat - Essential if you want to develop, test, and deploy JSPs and Java Servets.
  • Apache Forrest - A subset of the Cocoon project. Provides a quick but powerful solution to generating static or dynamic web pages. All via the power of XML and XSLT transformations.

Tutorials

These tutorials and more can be found here.

References

Notes

  • Web Server Setup - I use the JK2 module to connect Tomcat with the Apache HTTP server. This provides a seamless transformation so that user’s never has to see the ugly default port number (8088) used by Tomcat when running via the Apache HTTP server. I believe that JK2 might not be supported any more though…
  • Eclipse Installation - Installing the WTP SDK gets you EMF, JEM, and GEF SDKs for free.

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