WAS v8.5 > Develop applications > How do I develop applications?Migrating to Java EE 6
v8.5 of the product supports the Java EE 6 specification. Your new and existing enterprise applications can take advantage of the capabilities added by Java EE 6.
WAS v8.5 supports the following specification and API levels that are new in Java EE 6:
- JSR 318: EJB 3.1
- JSR 315: Java Servlet 3.0
- JSR 245 JSP/Expression Language (JSP/EL) 2.1
- JSR 314: JavaServer Faces (JSF) 2.0
- JSR 199: JMS 1.1
- JSR-299: Contexts and Dependency Injection (JCDI) 1.0 (was Web Beans)
- JSR 317: JPA 2.0
- JSR 322: JCA 1.6
- JAX-WS 2.2
- JSR 311: Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) 1.0
- JSR 196: Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers (JASPIC) 1.0
- JSR 303: Bean Validation 1.0
The new specifications add several capabilities to benefit application developers, such as profiles that provide common features among applications.
Further, several specifications expand the use of annotations to more module types. Java language annotations simplify development of Java EE applications. By using annotations, many applications can avoid the need for deployment descriptors. In v7, the product supported annotations for EJB 3.0 and Web 2.5 modules . In v8, the product supports annotations for additional modules types, such as resource adapters or RAR files, as well as continues to support the use of deployment descriptors.
The general steps for migrating your enterprise applications follow.
- Decide whether to take advantage of new Java EE 6 capabilities in the applications.
The v8.5 product supports applications written to Java EE 6 and supports portable applications written to previous Java EE versions, specifically Java EE 5, J2EE 1.4, and J2EE 1.3. If you decide not to use new Java EE 6 capabilities, your portable applications will continue to work without change and with identical behavior on the current version of the platform.
- If you select to use new Java EE 6 capabilities in the applications, change the applications as needed to conform to the specifications.
- Deploy the applications.
Deploy applications that use new Java EE 6 capabilities only to v8 deployment targets. We can deploy applications written to previous specifications to v8 deployment targets or to v6.x or 7.x deployment targets.
Test the deployed applications to ensure the applications behave as expected. Update the applications as needed.
Related concepts:
Ways to install enterprise applications or modules
Reference:
API documentation
Related information:
Knowledge Collection: Migration planning for WAS