Acronym Parade
As with most Java technologies, Web Services has its share of acronyms.
So let's take a quick look at them and what they mean.
- JAXB is the Java Architecture for XML Binding. This maps XML schemas to Java classes.
- In a way, it is like the RMI Complier (rmic).
- Its tasks include:
- unmarshall XML content into a Java representation.
- access, update, and validate the Java representation against schema constraints.
- marshall the Java representation of the XML content into XML.
- JAXB uses XML Schemas.
- JAXM is the Java API for XML Messaging. It is a reference implementation for XML-based messaging.
- Reference implementations are often free, functional versions of protocols or services. These are used for building prototypes of applications, or for educational purposes. But for production-level releases, it is advisable to use a full-featured version instead.
- For example, Java comes with the RMI reference implementation that you can use to develop RMI programs. But for production-level RMI, you often want to use a fully featured RMI service that comes with a commercial web server.
- This reference implementation covers the javax.xml.messaging package, which covers the APIs for using a message provider to send messages.
- SAAJ is Soap with Attachments API for Java. It covers the javax.xml.soap package, which is used to create and send SOAP messages. This is often considered part of JAXM.
- JAXP is the Java API for XML Processing. It enables applications to parse XML documents using an API that is independent of a particular XML processor implementation.
- JAXR is the Java API for XML Registries. It provides a standard API for accessing XML registries. Registries are used for building, deploying, and discovering web services. We use a similar registry with RMI, namely the rmi registry. ebXML and UDDI are two current registry protocols for Web Services.
- JAX-RPC is the JavaTM API for XML-based RPC, or Remote Procedure Calls.
- JSTL is the JSP Standard Tag Library. This provides a number of useful tags for creating a Java Server Page.
- Registry Server, UDDI. The Registry Server peforms the duties of the registry servers mentioned in the JAXR section (above). This registry server uses the UDDI protocol, or Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration.