Upcoming versions of the Java platform will be fitted with capabilities such as flexibility, OSGi support, and modularity, Sun Microsystems officials said Tuesday afternoon at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco.

Road maps were detailed for Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 6 and Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) 7. Java SE serves as a base Java platform, with the Enterprise version adding enterprise-level capabilities.

With Java EE 6, Sun seeks to increase flexibility in implementing the platform.

"For EE 6, the theme is what I like to call 'rightsizing,' which essentially means making the platform the right size for you," said Roberto Chinnici, Java EE platform lead at Sun.

With version 6, profiles will be created based on specific needs, such as a Web profile focused on Web developers, Chinnici said. The Web profile is not fully defined yet, but will feature technologies that appear in the vast majority of Web applications. Other profiles are expected such as a telecommunications profile that features SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) services.

Profiles can be created by filing a Java Specification Request as part of the Java Community Process, according to Chinnici.

Also planned is a pruning process by which certain parts of the Java platform can be made optional. "The typical candidate is those technologies that have been superseded effectively by new ones," said Chinnici, citing JAX RPC and Entity Beans as candidates for pruning.

Scripting languages will be made first-class citizens on the Java platform as well. Web development will be made easier through annotations across Web APIs. Developers should see a reduced need to edit web.xml descriptors. Third-party libraries will self-register, removing a common source of errors for developers.

Another feature of version 6 is an API for REST-ful (Representational State Transfer) Web services. "We felt we need a new API entirely focused on them," Chinnici said.

Enterprise JavaBeans can go inside a Web application via version 6, removing the need for nested packaging.

There is no specific release date yet for Java EE 6, although it has been anticipated for later this year.

Java SE 7, due in summer 2009, features modularity in development and deployment. These capabilities are based on JSR 294, for improved modularity support, and JSR 277, for a Java Module System.