Java Platform, Enterprise Edition

Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE is a widely used computing platform for development and deployment of enterprise software (network and web services). Java EE was formerly known as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition or J2EE.

The platform uses the object-oriented Java programming language. It is part of the Java software-platform family. Java EE extends the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE), providing an API for object-relational mapping, distributed and multitier architectures, and web services. The platform incorporates a design based largely on modular components running on an application server. The platform emphasizes convention over configuration and annotations for configuration. Optionally XML can be used to override annotations or to deviate from the platform defaults.

Java EE is developed under the Java Community Process.

The platform was known as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition or J2EE from version 1.2, until the name was changed to Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE in version 1.5. The current version is called Java EE 7.

Java EE is defined by its specification. As with other Java Community Process specifications, providers must meet certain conformance requirements in order to declare their products as Java EE compliant.

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