Java Centric Look At The New Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g
Oracle today launched the much awaited Fusion Middleware 11g. Below is a quick Java centric look at what to me are the highlights of the new Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g –
- The Weblogic application server is now the standard platform for Oracle middleware deployments, OC4J is history.
- Oracle continues to be committed to JDeveloper. JDeveloper today is a super all-in-one tool for Oracle development. While Eclipse plugins and support will continue, JDev continues to be thee Oracle developer platform.
- Oracle continues to be committed to Java Server Faces (JSF). Oracle continues to invest heavily in enhancing its JSF capabilites and the JSF components.
- Oracle Application Development Framework is now even more feature rich and pretty much makes drag-and-drop development a reality.
- ADF is still not free or open source. So it will continue to be a framework used only for Oracle centric development and not for generic Java web development.
- ADF has introduced many cool and nifty new components that deliver the kind of rich UI required for modern apps.
- With Fusion Apps, Oracle has shown the way for using ADF to build enterprise apps.
- Fusion Middleware 11g does not get legacy Oracle developers to the Java world. While many have gone over to Apex other are looking for ADF based development that requires minimal if any Java.
- Oracle developer community continues to be very wary of Java. Oracle seems to be addressing this by keeping Java in the background and hidden away. I am amazed at how many ADF based Java web development sessions I have seen in which not one line of Java code was shown. JDeveloper even has an application template called “Fusion Web Application”. The description talks of various ADF elements that will be used in the app but there’s no reference to Java, although the app that actually gets built is very much a Java web app.
- “Click, drag, drop, minor tweaks and you are done” seems to be the marketing line of 11g.
- JDeveloper has not moved much as regards being a Java developer tool. Most of JDev team’s time seems to have gone into making it a better tool for Oracle products’ centric development. So while JDeveloper has improved Weblogic, SOA, BPEL and ADF capabilites. It does not have support worth mentioning for many recent Java development trends.
Having said all that, the eminent entry of Sun products into the Oracle stable is going to have a major impact on Oracle’s fusion middleware products. The middleware space is where Sun has some of its top products. So if 11g is a post BEA version of Oracle Middleware, version 12 probably will be a post Sun version of Oracle Middleware.
