Demystifying Java Acronyms

15/10/2007 15:28 by Sten Roger Sandvik

The Java world has alot of acronyms that is widely used. In Enonic we use java acronyms all the time. So it is not that easy for a non-java programmer to follow the tech talk in our development department. I will try to demystify the mostly used acronyms here.

JSR and friends

A lot of people, including us, says "jsr-168" in every sentence which starts with "portlet". This is confusing for most people. Here is a description of the JSR terms:

• JSR - Java Specification Request. This is requests for changes (or enhancements) of the Java language or API.
• JCP - Java Community Process. An open process that organizes and votes for JSR's.
• JSR-168 - Java Portlet API. 168 is the specification number of the JSR. The actual meaning is a standarized Portlet API for Java.
• JSR-170 - Java Content Repository API. Same as above. Only a JSR number, but this denotes the Java Content Repository API which is another acronym - JCR.

Portal Related

Portals, and Content Management in general, as alot of acronyms since it is composed of various technologies. A small list of acronyms used in portal related products here:

• JCR - A productified name for JSR-170 and JSR-283 specfications. It stands for Java Content Repository API and is an API to standarize the access of data inside "content hubs".
• Portlet - Not actually an acronym, but is included here since JSR-168 is already included elsewhere. Portlets is a viewport inside a page that can be a stand-alone application. JSR-168 is one standarization of such a concept.
• WSRP - Web Services for Remote Portlets. A web service API (SOAP) to access remote instances of simple applications (or portlets).

XML, WS and SOAP

Alot of products use XML these days. XML is the basis for most of inter-applicaiton communication and is also the data encoding used in Vertical Site. Here's a list of XML acronyms:

• XML - Extensible Markup Language. Most of you should now this, so no more explanation needed.
• DOM - W3C Document Object Model. A complex API for XML manipulation in Java.
• JDOM - A more simple form of DOM for Java. It's more programmer friendly, but lacks the decoupling from actual implementation.
• SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol. It is a standard method for calling services remote. Usually HTTP is used for the transport, but can also be used with JMS transport. In my opinion, SOAP in itself is a false advertising: it is not as simple as it seems.
• REST - Representational State Transfer. A more simpler and natural approach of accessing services and remote resources.
• WS - A collection acronym of all web service related technologies.
• JAXB - Java API for XML Binding. A standard way of mapping XML to java objects. Exists in two standards: 1.x and 2.x. Version 2.x uses annotations and should be used if you are using Java 5.
• JAX-WS - Java API for XML Web Services. A standard way of creating java stubs for web services. Can be both used on client and server side.

Persistence

In the world of Java data persistence, there's ofcourse more acronyms:

• JDBC - A standard interface to SQL databases for Java. It's like ODBC (for Windows), but for the Java language.
• JDO - Java Data Object. ORM (Object Relational Mapping) tool that is a java standard. It has been more or less replaced by JPA.
• JPA - Java Persistence API. This is part of the EJB2 specification and replaces entity beans. It is a ORM tool that is also a Java standard. The well known Hibernate tool is JPA compliant.