Java panel pondering Web services, portal proposals

Proposals to boost Web services and portal capabilities in Java are up for imminent votes by stewards of the programming language, according to an official at Java inventor Sun Microsystems.

Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4, which adds Web services support and backing for the Web Services Interoperability Organization's Basic Profile for Web services, is up for a vote by an executive committee of the Java Community Process (JCP) in the next couple of weeks, said Onno Kluyt, director of the JCP program office at Sun.

J2EE 1.4 will be voted on by the JCP Standard Edition Enterprise Edition Executive Committee (SE/EE), with results expected by the end of the year.

Up for a vote this week by the SE/EE committee is JSR 168, which is intended to define a standard API allowing developers to write a portlet once and deploy it from any compliant server with little or no recoding. The vote is expected to be finalized in two weeks, according to Sun.

JCP in the next two weeks also is conducting elections to its two executive committees. These committees are the ME (Micro Edition) committee, which oversees Java 2 Platform Micro Edition for consumer and embedded systems, and the SE/EC committee, overseeing Java technologies for the server and desktop. Five seats are up on each panel.

In place of current member PalmSource, Sun, which nominates 10 members for each panel, is nominating service provider Vodafone to the ME executive committee. JCP members then vote on the nominations. 

"Currently, there is no representation by service providers and Sun feels for the success of Java on cell phones and other wireless service providers that it is important to not only have manufacturers and platform providers and ISVs, but also to have service providers represented," Kluyt said

Sun is encouraging PalmSource to run in an open election in November. "By not re-nominating PalmSource, it is not in any way an assessment of PalmSource in the JCP. It is more that Sun felt it was very important to fix a hole, if you will, in representation on the executive committee," said Kluyt. PalmSource officials could not comment on Wednesday afternoon.

Sun's ability to nominate 10 of 16 members for the JCP executive committees does not necessarily mean Sun wields too much control over Java, according to Kluyt. Sun has nominated companies such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM, which are Sun rivals, he noted.