Installing J2EE SDK 1.3

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

Introduction

Sun Microsystems provides the following two J2EE platform implementations:

• Sun ONE Application Server - A J2EE-compatible product for developing and deploying J2EE applications.

• Java 2 Software Development Kit, Enterprise Edition (J2EE SDK) - A binary version of the J2EE reference implementation, plus related development tools and documentation that enable you to develop distributed applications for the J2EE platform. The J2EE SDK includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org).

Version 1.3.1 of the Java 2 SDK, Enterprise Edition (J2EE SDK) is a complete implementation of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition 1.3. The J2EE SDK is intended as a proof of concept and example for implementations in the application server marketplace. The J2EE SDK includes a J2EE application server and various tools to help developers prototype J2EE applications and learn about the J2EE platform and technologies. It can be used as a J2EE development environment for applications prior to their deployment and distribution.

This article provides the steps required to install and configure the J2EE SDK. Many developers use this reference implementation in order to run the J2EE Tutorial, also from Sun Microsystems. The J2EE Tutorial is a beginner's guide to developing enterprise applications on both the J2EE SDK and the Sun ONE Platform. The tutorial covers the technologies comprising the J2EE platform and describes how to develop J2EE components. While the J2EE Tutorial comes in both flavors (J2EE SDK and the Sun ONE Platform), the favorite amongst developers is the J2EE SDK.

NOTE: The J2EE SDK requires the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE™). Although I do not provide the details for installing the J2SE, it is a fairly straightforward installation and well documented on http://java.sun.com/j2se.

Downloading the J2EE SDK

The J2EE Software Development Kit (SDK) can be downloaded from the following location:

http://java.sun.com/j2ee/download.html#sdk

The latest J2EE SDK for release 1.3 is "1.3.1 FCS Release - January 31, 2002". Also keep in mind that you will have the option of downloading for the following platforms:

• Windows Install (17.3 Megs)
• Solaris SPARC Install (15.8 Megs)
• Linux Install (14.8 Megs)

Setting Environment Variables

Environment Variable	Value
JAVA_HOME	The location of the J2SE SDK installation.
J2EE_HOME	The location of the J2EE SDK installation.
PATH	Should include the bin directories of the J2EE SDK and the J2SE SDK.

Installing the J2EE SDK - Solaris

The following section details the steps in installing the J2EE SDK on the Solaris SPARC platform. For the purpose of this document, I will be installing the J2EE SDK to the /usr/j2ee directory. You should copy the file j2sdkee-1_3_1-solsparc.sh to the /usr directory and perform the following actions:

  % cd /usr
  % chmod 755 j2sdkee-1_3_1-solsparc.sh
  % ./j2sdkee-1_3_1-solsparc.sh
  % ln -s j2sdkee1.3.1 j2ee
  % rm j2sdkee-1_3_1-solsparc.sh

Starting / Stopping the J2EE Server - Solaris

To launch the J2EE server, open a terminal window and type the following command:

  % j2ee -verbose

Although not required, the verbose option is useful for debugging.

To stop the server, type the following command:

  % j2ee -stop