UNDERLYING PLATFORM OF THE E-COMMERCE

SYSTEM: J2EE VS. NET

Hamid Jahankhani, Mohammed Youssef

University of East London, School of Computing and Technology, Longbride Road, Dagenham, Essex RM8 2AS

Keywords: Microsoft.NET, Web Services, J2EE, E-busine

ss solutions, Syspro, ERP, SME.

Abstract: when considering the implementation of any new Web-based application these days, the main two

options available to developers are to either base the application on Sun Microsystems’ J2EE (Java 2

Enterprise Edition) platform, or on Microsoft’s .NET platform. Although other platforms do exist, the

IT industry has identified these two as the main choices. .NET initiative is a broad new vision for

embracing the Internet and the Web in the development, engineering and use of software. One key

aspect of the .NET s strategy is its independence from a specific language or platform. This paper is

about the strategic decision making that any Small and Medium size Enterprises (SME) should make to

adopt a technology platform for a new project. This paper refers to an on ongoing development to

provide an integrated business information and e-commerce system for a manufacturing company. The

company uses Syspro ERP system. Consumers of ERP systems are demanding solutions that can be

easily integrated with Web applications in order to provide such services as e-commerce to customers

and browser-based access to remote workers. The aim of this paper is to compare the two technologies

and discuss the main reasons why it is believed that .NET would be more appropriate than J2EE as a

technology platform for the e-commerce solution.

1 INTRODUCTION

The .NET platform offers powerful capabilities for

software development and deploying independence

from a specific language or platform. Rather than

requiring developers to learn a programming

language, programmers can contribute to the same

software project, but write code using any or several

of the .NET languages (such as Visual Basic .NET,

Visual C++ .NET, C#, COBOL, Fortran and others)

with which they are most experienced or skilled. In

addition to providing language independence, .NET

extends program portability by enabling .NET

applications to reside on, and communicate across,

multiple platforms thus facilitating the delivery of

Web services over the Internet. .NET enables Web-

based applications to be distributed to consumer

electronic devices, such as mobile phones, Handheld

PC’s and persona1 digital organizers, as well as to

desktop computers. The capabilities that Microsoft

has incorporated into the .NET platform created new

software-development model that will increase

programmer productivity and decrease development

time (Deitel, 2002).

.NET is also a set of standards, and an operating

atform, to enable different applications and

organisations to communicate over the Internet,

using industry-agreed protocols such as Simple

Object Access Protocol (SOAP).

.Net is a set of technologies for connecting

nformation, people, systems and devices over the

Internet through the use of XML Web services. In

order to create an XML platform there are five key

areas of deliverables, which are Clients, Servers,

Services, Developer tools experiences and solution.

Thus Microsoft adopted the use of XML Web

services as one of the key components for its next

generation Internet platform .NET, which addresses

all of these areas in the .NET Framework.

This paper reports on the ongoing development

o provide an integrated business information and e-

commerce system for a manufacturing company.

The company uses Syspro (Formerly Impact Encore)

ERP system.

In this paper we will be comparing the features

d properties of .NET with the J2EE.

The reason why J2EE is chosen is because of the

fact that it is

one of the most widely accepted

standards which is similar to the .NET with similar

properties. In fact it is the JAVA that has given

250

Jahankhani H. and Youssef M. (2004).

UNDERLYING PLATFORM OF THE E-COMMERCE SYSTEM: J2EE VS. NET.

In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, pages 250-257

DOI: 10.5220/0002619302500257

 SciTePress

existence to the .NET framework in other wards

Microsoft’s aim is to dominate and replace JAVA

with .NET. Therefore by evaluating and comparing

the two giant platforms we will have a clear picture

of advantages and disadvantages of both of the

platforms.

2 INTEGRATING ERP WITH

EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS

The manufacturing company uses Syspro solution

for its ERP system. E.net solutions is Syspro’s very

latest response to developer’s needs of a bridge

between external applications and the core ERP

system, (Syspro, 2003).

The term e.net coined by

Syspro does not refer to, and is totally different

from, the Microsoft term .NET. However, the two

terms are similar enough to cause confusion.

Since

e.net solutions utilises a COM interface to allow

integration of external applications with Syspro, it

follows that applications based on COM technology

as well as those based on Microsoft’s other more

recent technology framework, .NET, would

naturally be compatible with e.net.

Recently, Syspro have further increased the

ability of their ERP system to integrate with external

applications by enabling the business objects to be

accessed through Web Services. Developers can

therefore now choose to integrate their applications

with Syspro either through the original COM

interface or by utilising the Web Services.

In order to perform the most basic of its

envisaged functions, the e-commerce solution being

planned will need to be tightly integrated with the

company's Syspro ERP system. However, it is

almost certain that the final e-commerce system will

be more than just a website that exchanges data with

Syspro. Rather, the system will be a comprehensive

platform consisting of several components, with

each component possibly being required to interact

with a variety of different applications in addition to

Syspro. Some components may play an indirect role

in supporting e-commerce by automating certain

offline internal business processes; such components

may be required to interact with Microsoft Excel, for

example. Other components may play a direct role in

e-commerce but may be unrelated to the website

aspect of the system; such components may rely on

applications such as Microsoft Outlook and Syspro’s

DFM (Document Flow Manager). While the final

form of the complete e-commerce solution is

unknown at this stage, one certainty is that

maximum benefits will only be achieved if this

solution is tightly integrated with the company’s

overall IT infrastructure rather than just Syspro. Any

comparison of .NET and J2EE therefore needs to

examine the ability of the technology to enable such

integration.

Like most small-medium size enterprises

(SMEs), this company’s IT infrastructure is based on

Microsoft technology and most (if not all) of the

software used by the company is either Microsoft

software or other Windows-based software. Large

companies, on the other hand, usually have a highly

heterogeneous IT infrastructure that consists of a

wide variety of technology platforms (Windows,

Unix, IBM mainframe, etc.). This fundamental

difference between SMEs and large enterprises

heavily influences their choice of technology (J2EE

or .NET) when considering the implementation of

new applications that require close integration with

the overall IT infrastructure.

Being a small company with a Microsoft-centric

IT infrastructure, this organisation fits the profile of

a typical .NET adopter. Although this kind of

profiling may provide a rough guide as to what

technology is generally appropriate for which

companies, when making a strategic decision to

adopt a technology platform for a new project this

kind of general analysis should be supplemented

with a more specific analysis of the project. It is

important to mention that whether the e-commerce

system is based on J2EE or .NET, either choice

would not greatly affect its ability to integrate with

Syspro.

3 .NET FRAMEWORK

The Microsoft.NET framework is the result of the

ASP’s team and of the other teams in Microsoft who

hunted a better way to create Web applications that

would improve speed, provide more built-in system

services, improve state management, and separate

the HTML (interface) from the script (business

rules). Precisely, they were aiming to make it easier

to build Web-based applications. Also, they wanted

to give developers additional ways to have access to

extensibility points within this new ASP framework

that would enable more developers (that is, all

developers who were not C++ developers) to create

functionality similar to ISAPI filters and extensions.

Moreover ASP.NET applications offer a greater

degree of control; flexibility, and performance than

the standard ASP applications (Tabor, 2001).

We all know that every single thing in this world is

composed of more than one part or component

similarly the .NET Framework consists of the

Common Language Runtime (CLR), the Services

Framework, and the Applications Framework. The

UNDERLYING PLATFORM OF THE E-COMMERCE SYSTEM: J2EE VS. NET

251

CLR manages a common data type system, a

common metadata structure for describing

components, and a common security mechanism,

and also manages memory, object invocation, and so

forth. The Services Framework is a rich set of

libraries and tools developers can use to create

applications that work within a managed execution

context. The Applications Framework includes tools

for developers to create traditional Windows Forms

applications and ASP.NET.

The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the

heart of .NET, the foundation on which all

the dreams of the programmable Web are resting for

Microsoft. It is arguably the most important move

forward for Microsoft-based development and

constitutes the single greatest paradigm shift yet

introduced for the PC. In this section CLR is

introduced with discussion on how different or

similar to the ASP/COM environment. Code that

runs within the CLR are known as "managed code."

since there is no IL compiler for Visual Basic 6.0

and Visual C++ 6.0.

The CLR offers a number of major benefits.

First, the CLR defines a common set of data types

across all CLR programming languages, allowing

for multi-language integration. This feature makes it

possible to create classes in Visual Basic .NET that

derive from classes created in C# and vice versa

(Tabor, 2003), (Kennedy, 2002). The CLR enables a

development environment with many desirable

features.

These include cross-language integration, a

strongly typed shared type system, self-describing

components, simplified deployment and versioning,

and integrated security services. Since the CLR is

used to load code, create objects, and make method

calls, it can perform security checks and enforce

policy as managed code is loaded and executed.

Code access security allows the developer to specify

the rights or permissions that a piece of code needs

in order to execute. For example, permission may be

needed to read a file or access environment settings.

This information is stored at the assembly level,

along with information about the identity of the

code, (Kennedy, 2002), (Sullivsan, 2003). The CLR

provides code-access security, which is, in essence,

mini-checkpoints your code must pass through based

on the actions it is trying to perform.

This security measure ensures that unauthorized

users cannot access resources on a machine and that

code cannot perform unauthorized actions. If the

programmers code accesses information or perform

actions on the machine it is running on (access files

on the hard drive or access the network), it must ask

the CLR if it has permission to do that. The CLR at

runtime determines the source of the code and where

it was obtained from, as well as other information

stored in the code's assembly, and grants or denies

permission to the code to perform the given task.

In addition to code access security, the runtime

supports role-based security. This builds on the same

permissions model as code access security, except

permissions are now based on user identity rather

than code identity. Roles represent categories of

users and can be defined at development time and

assigned at deployment time. Policies are defined for

each role. At runtime the identity of the user on

whose behalf the code is running is determined. The

runtime checks what roles are associated with the

user, and then grants permissions based on those

roles.

The CLR encourages moving away from scripted

languages compiled at run time to the concept of

Managed code. Managed code means a clearly

defined level of cooperation between an executing

component and the CLR itself. Responsibility for

many tasks, like creating objects and making method

calls, is delegated to the CLR, which

provides additional services to the executing

component.

Source code is compiled into Microsoft

Intermediate Language (MSIL) that is

then consumed by the CLR. In addition to MSIL,

.NET compilers also produce metadata. This is

information the CLR uses to carry out a variety of

actions such as locate and Load class types in a file,

Lay out object instances in memory, and resolve

method invocations and field references (Tabor,

2003), (Kennedy, 2002), (Sullivsan, 2003).

The CLR defines a common metadata so that

components can be self-describing; other words, no

separate type-library file or header file is necessary

because the class definition, version, and so forth

reside within the component or executable file. This

metadata is generated from the component's actual

source code, so it is never out of sync with the actual

executable file.

The metadata that the .Net Framework compliers

produce includes class definitions and configuration

information. It allows an application to totally

describe itself.

In other words, an assembly can be one physical

DLL file with one or more classes and resources, or

an assembly can have multiple DLL files, each with

one or more classes and resources. From the user-

programmer’s perspective, all the classes appear to

be packaged into the same component.

There are a number of advantages to

this approach, including how you can formulate a

security policy around assemblies, control

versioning in your components (that is, which

version of the dependent component should be used

if multiple versions are present on the system), and

ICEIS 2004 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING

252

improve control of the configuration and

deployment of your applications.

The assembly's metadata is actually known as the

manifest, which includes dependency information,

the version of the component, the types that the

component supports, and other information.

Since assemblies are self-describing, no explicit

registration of your components is necessary. You

simply copy your assembly into a directory

(designated as a \bin directory) and the CLR takes

care of managing the registration process. Delete the

file, and the CLR takes care of unregistered the

assembly.

This method is in sharp contrast to the

registration (and unregistered) process for

COM/COM+ components that required you to create

an application in COM+/MTS or use the

regsvr32.exe command-line utility (Tabor, 2001).

Through the use of MSIL and assembly metadata,

code written in many languages can be debugged

together, with no loss of information or control as

we step through Multilanguage projects. An

exception thrown by a component written in one

language can be dealt with using a component

written in another language.

Cross-language inheritance is supported.

Assemblies can be made private to an application or

can be shared by multiple applications. Multiple

versions of an assembly can be deployed on a

machine at the same time. Application configuration

information defines where to look for assemblies,

thus the runtime can load different versions of the

same assembly for two different applications that are

running concurrency.

This means that installing an application now

becomes as simple as copying the necessary files to

a directory tree, provided security permissions are

satisfied (Tabor, 2003), (Sullivsan, 2003). One of the

most important benefits of the CLR is that it

provides high-level services to developers that are

not restricted to a particular hardware platform or

Operating System. Code written to the CLR does not

need to be re-written to run on different platforms

and under different Operating System One

immediate benefit is that the same code can run on

all of the various flavours of 32-bit Windows and

also 64-bit Windows. It extends the familiar ideas of

runtime libraries, template libraries, and the Java

Virtual Machine. It means that developers can reuse

more code and have to develop less in the way of the

more basic services themselves.

The CLR and .NET simplify the programming

model and make it more consistent. Initially, the

CLR supported only four languages namely Visual

Basic .NET, Visual C++ .NET, Visual C# .NET, and

Visual J# .NET. There were many companies

working on other compilers that produce managed

code for languages including COBOL. Pascal and

Perl. Now with all the effort put on to the .NET

Framework it is capable of supporting more than 24

languages including Fortran, Cobol etc.

The key design goal and features of .NET can be

briefly classified as following:

 New memory management, featuring the use of

garbage collection rather than reference

counting and deterministic finalization

 Just in Time (JIT) Compilation. Various designs

were implemented, explored, and refined,

including Optimising JIT and Fast JIT models

 Thread and Process Management

 Virtual Object System

 Remoting

 Common Type System (CTS)

 Code Access Security (CAS).

 Code Access Security (CAS)

 Support for debugging and profiling.

 Unmanaged code support

 Simplified, flexible deployment model

4 .NET VS JAVA

Before continuing with this comparison it should be

noted that this comparison was conducted without

any prejudice to any one platform in particular. We

shall not be comparing each and every aspect

because if we try to cover almost every aspect we

shall not be able to end this comparison. Therefore

in order to simplify we are only concentrating on the

main issues.

Microsoft .NET is product suite that enables

organisations to build smart, enterprise-class Web

Services and applications. Microsoft .NET is largely

a modification of Windows DNA, which was

Microsoft's earlier platform for developing

enterprise applications. Windows DNA includes

many proven technologies that are in production

today, including Microsoft Transaction Server

(MTS) and COM+, Microsoft Message Queue

(MSMO), and the Microsoft SQL Server database.

But the new .NET Framework replaces these

technologies and includes a web services layer as

well as improved language support (Vawter, 2003).

.NET architecture comprises of the following,

(Farley, 2003):

¾ C#, (C Sharp) a "new" language for writing

classes and components, that integrates

elements of C, C++, and Java, and adds

additional features, like metadata tags, related to

component development,

¾ A CLR "common language runtime", which

runs byte codes in an Internal Language (IL)

format as discussed in previous section in this

UNDERLYING PLATFORM OF THE E-COMMERCE SYSTEM: J2EE VS. NET

253

paper. Code and objects written in one language

can, apparently, be compiled into the IL

runtime, once an IL compiler is developed for

the language.

¾ A set of base components, accessible from the

common language runtime, that provides

various functions (networking, containers, etc.).

¾ ASP+, a new version of ASP which supports

compilation of ASPs into the common language

runtime (CLR) and thereby enabling the

programmer to write ASP scripts using any

language with an IL binding (Farley, 2003)

¾ Win Forms and Web Forms are new UI

component frameworks for building Windows

and Web Applications and are accessible from

Visual Studio.NET.

¾ ADO+ a new generation of ADO data access

components that use XML and SOAP for data

interchange.

The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is

an industry standard and was designed to simplify

complex problems with the development,

deployment, and management of multi-tier

enterprise solutions. J2EE is an industry standard,

and is the result of a large industry initiative led by

Sun Microsystems. The J2EE architecture is based

on the Java programming language, (Driver, 2002).

The process is as follows, (Vawter, 2003).

1. Developers write source code in Java.

2. The Java code is compiled into byte code,

which is a cross-platform intermediary, halfway

between source code and machine language.

3. When the code is ready to run, the Java Runtime

Environment (JRE) interprets this byte code and

executes it at the Run time.

In large-scale J2EE applications, business logic

is built using Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)

components. This layer performs business

processing and data logic. It connects to databases

using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) or SQL/J,

or existing systems using the Java Connector

Architecture (JCA). It can also connect to business

partners using web services technologies (SOAP,

UDDI, WSDL, ebXML) through the Java APIs for

XML (the JAX APIs), (Vawter, 2003).

5 SUPPORT FOR WEB SERVICES

J2EE application is hosted within the container,

which provides qualities of service necessary for

enterprise applications, such as transactions,

security, and persistence services.

The business layer performs business

processing and data logic. In large-scale J2EE

applications, business logic is built using Enterprise

JavaBeans, EJB) components. This layer performs

business processing and data logic. It connects to

databases using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

or SQL/J, or existing systems using the Java

Connector Architecture (JCA). It can also connect to

business partners using web services technologies

(SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, ebXML) through the Java

API's for XML (the JAX APIs).

Business partners can connect with J2EE

applications through web services technologies

(SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, ebXML). A servlet, which is

a request/response oriented. Java object can accept

web service requests from business partners. The

servlet uses the JAX APIs to perform web services

operations (Sun Microsystems, 2003). Shared

context services will be standardized in the future

through shared context standards that will be

included with J2EE.

Traditional 'thick' clients such as applets or

applications connect directly to the EJB layer

through the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP)

rather than web services, since generally the thick

clients are written by the same organization that

authored J2EE application, and therefore there is no

need for XML-based web service collaboration.

Browsers and wireless devices connect to Java

server Pages (JSPs) which render user interfaces in

HTML, XML, or WML. `In addition to the

specifications, Sun also ships a reference

implementation of J2EE. Developers write

applications to this to ensure portability of their

components. This implementation should not be

used for production but rather just for testing

purposes.

The .NET application is hosted within a

container, which provides qualities of service

necessary for enterprise applications, such as

transactions security, and messaging services.

The business layer: of the .NET application is

built using .NET managed components. This layer

performs business processing and data logic. It

connects to databases using Active Data Objects

(ADO.NET) and existing systems using services

provided by Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000,

such as the COM Transaction Integrator (COM TI).

It can also connect to business partners using web

services technologies (SOAP, UDDI, WSDL).

Business partners can connect with the .NET:

application through web services technologies

(SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, Biz talk).

Traditional 'thick' clients, Web browsers:

wireless devices connect to Active Server Pages

(ASP.NET) which render user interfaces in HTML,

XHTML, or WML. Heavyweight user interfaces are

built using Windows Forms.

ICEIS 2004 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING

254

Multiple language support is one of the key

differences between .NET and the J2EE and the

greatest feature of the .NET platform that dominates

over the J2EE .NET offers language-independence

and language-interoperability as stated, the most

Intriguing and fundamental aspects of the .NET

platform. A single .NET component can be written,

for example, partially In.NET version of Visual

Basic, and C#, Microsoft's new object-

oriented programming language and many other

.NET supported languages. The feature of .NET

proves to be the key differentiators between .Net and

J2EE, mainly points towards Microsoft’s real

play.Microsoft has two notable things with .NET

that It is opening up a channel to developers in other

programming languages and many other openings to

non-.NET components by integrating XML and

SOAP into their messaging scheme. .Net supports

development in any language that Microsoft’s tools

support due to the new CLR . With the exception of

Java, all major languages will be supported

Microsoft’s C# language is equivalent to Java. In

addition to this Microsoft have included a refined

version or the rewrite of JAVA as J#.NET, which is

available as a programming language within

VisualStudio.NET environment.

The multiple language support that Microsoft has

introduced with the CLR is an exciting innovation

for business. Cross language compatibility .NET is

enfranchising PERL, Eiffel, COBOL and other

programmers by allowing them to play in the

Microsoft Programming environment. By using

XML and SOAP in their component messaging

layer, Microsoft is bolstering their diplomatic face

and adding an element of openness to its platform

which I suppose will definitely be encouraged by the

developers and businesses, (Vawter, 2003).

J2EE promotes Java-Centric computing, and as such

all components deployed into a J2EE deployment

(such as EJB components and servlets) and must be

written in the Java Language.

6 RISK, MAINTAINABILITY AND

OTHER REASONS REGARDING

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

Many existing systems are internally convoluted.

Disrupting such existing systems is a risky

proposition as once disturbed it is extremely difficult

to put everything back to normal even for the

knowledgeable engineers.

We think that a combination of languages running in

the CLR may lead to a mess of combination code

which is very difficult to maintain. If you have an

application written in multiple languages, then to

fully develop, debug, maintain and understand that

application; you will need experts in different

languages. Several languages equates to an increase

in Development training expenditures but then again

there is an argument that if there is a problem with

existing code it can be replaced by any language in

which the programmer is proficient.

With combination language code, developers are

unable to share best practices. While individual

productivity may increase, communication breaks

down, and team productivity decreases but again

other had it will reduce the cost of development.

Developers using different languages may have very

quickly coded .NET system using VB.NET and C#.

Skills transfers like VB.NET developers to

understand and write code in C# or other code base

developers and bring them into .NET standards. The

resulting lack in productivity equates in reduced

time to market and a higher total cost of ownership.

In many other cases, it is much better design to

standardize on a single language, and to treat legacy

systems as legacy systems and integrate which can

be achieved either by J2EE or .NET.

J2EE based technologies or Windows DNA based

technologies an interesting discussion is the ease of

migration from the previous platform to the new

platform. J2EE does not impose many migration

problems. Microsoft .NET is based on MTS and

Com+, we are concerned that the migration to .NET

will be taxing compared to J2EE. It is entirely new

infrastructure based on an entirely new code base –

CLR. COM+. To accommodate a common type

system (CTS) it standardizes on data types used

between languages, the original Visual Basic data

types have been dismissed (Vawter, 2003).

The COM+ migration path In .NET terminology,

code that runs within the CLR is referred to as

managed code, while coding running outside the

CLR is called unmanaged code.

If one is a COM+ developer and want to take an

advantage of the new CLR. There are two methods

of solving in the first methid COM+ code needs to

rewritten to accommodate the CLR’s automatic

garbage collection mechanism and its depreciation

of pointers. In the other method the existing code

has to collaborate between managed and unmanaged

code and for that special measures must be taken.

This is another key issue with regard to .NET and

J2EE. in this case J2EE definitely dominates the

.NET as J2EE is platform-agnostic running on a

variety of hardware and operating systems, such as

Win32, Unix and mainframe systems where as .Net

does not support most of these.

This portability is absolute reality because the

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on which J2EE is

based, is available on any platform (Vawter, 2003).

UNDERLYING PLATFORM OF THE E-COMMERCE SYSTEM: J2EE VS. NET

255

As mentioned above J2EE is a standard so it

supports a variety of implementations such as BEA,

IBM, Borland, (Pallatto, 2001) and Sun. The danger

in an open standard such as J2EE is that if vendors

are not held strictly to the standard application

portability is sacrificed.

Sun has built a J2EE compatibility test suite

which ensures that J2EE platforms comply with the

standards. This test suite is critical because it ensures

portability of applications. J2EE portability will

never be completely free. It is ridiculous to think

that complex enterprise application can be deployed

from one environment to the next without effort,

because in practice organizations must occasionally

take advantage of specific features to achieve real

world systems. .NET only runs on windows its

supported hardware and the .NET environment.

There is no portability at all. It should be noted that

there have been hints that additional

implementations of .NET will be available for other

platforms (Vawter, 2003). The future of eBusiness

collaboration is undoubtedly web services. J2EE

supports web services through the Java API for

XML parsing (JAXP). This API allows developers

to perform any web service operation today

manually parsing XML documents. JAXP can be

used to perform operations with SOAP, UDDI,

WSDL and ebXML.

Transforming XML-to-Java and Java-to-XML.

Parsing WSDL documents and performing

messaging such as with ebXML this feature is

extremely easy to build. J2EE compatible 3

party

tools are available today that enable rapid

development of web services. There are at least

sixteen SOAP implementations that support Java.

Almost all of these implementations are built on

J2EE. There are only five UDDI API

implementations four of them support Java (IBM

UDDI4J, Bowstreet jUDDI, The Mind Electric Glue

and Idox WASP), (Vawter, 2003). The tools that

ship with Microsoft.NET also offer rapid application

development of web services with automatic

generation of web services wrappers to existing

systems. Concluding above J2EE you can develop

and deploy web services today using JAXP and

.NET you can develop web services today using

.NET which is much easier to build and deploy. The

Sun J2EE product portfolio includes a modular and

extensible Java based IDE that pre-date both Sun,

J2EE and .NET. Microsoft has always been a strong

tools vendor.

There are many implementations based on J2EE

architecture that are available for purchase. With

many price points varying dramatically, this enables

a corporation to choose the platform that fits with

their budget and desired service level. As far as

hardware, J2EE supports Unix and mainframe

systems while both J2EE and .NET support the

Win32 platform which is generally the less

expensive alternative. The takeaway point is that

you can get low-cost solutions with both Microsoft

and J2EE architecture.

Scalability is essential when growing a web

services deployment over time, because one can

never predict how new business goals might impact

user traffic. J2EE and .NET allow one to add

additional machines to increase user load while

maintaining the same response time. The significant

difference between J2EE and .NET scalability is that

since .NET supports win32 only a greater number of

machines are needed than a comparable J2EE

deployment due to processor limitations. This

multitude of machines may be difficult for

organizations to maintain.

7 CONCLUSIONS

Every SME goes through the strategic decision

making when they adopt a technology platform for a

new project. The decision making becomes more

difficult when attempting to integrate business

information and e-commerce system through an

ERP system. Consumers of ERP systems are

demanding solutions that can be easily integrated

with Web applications in order to provide such

services as e-commerce to customers and browser-

based access to remote workers. When attempting to

rewrite their software to provide this type of

functionality, .NET is the natural choice of platform

since most small-medium enterprises that use these

ERP solutions have IT infrastructures that are based

on Microsoft software.

Amongst SME’s .NET development is usually

the more appropriate choice. One reason why this is

so is that these type of organisations usually have

less technical expertise and resources available to

them, making fast and simple application

development (RAD) a priority. While J2EE

development can also provide a RAD route to the

implementation of applications, it is nowhere near as

effective as that provided by .NET; the advantages

of J2EE generally lie in its ability to create highly

complex enterprise-scale cross-platform

applications, rather than applications that are easy

and quick to implement. This is a matter that even

advocates of J2EE admit to.

In a comparative study of J2EE and .NET, it is

clear that .NET is definitely having command over

J2EE when it comes to multiple language support

and the development environment.

ICEIS 2004 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING

256

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This on going research and development is

undertaken as part of Knowledge Transfer

Partnerships Program.

REFERENCES

Deitel N.: Visual basics .net, how to program, 2

edition,

Prentice hall, UK, 2002.

Driver, M., .net Magazine, April 2002, .NET vs. Java: No

Easy Answers

http://www.fawcette.com/dotnetmag/2002_04/magazi

ne/columns/strategy/default_pf.asp

Farley J.: Microsoft .net Vs J2EE: how do they stack up?,

http://java.oreilly.com/news/farley_0800.html cited on

March 2003.

Kennedy A., Syme D.:.Design and implementation of

generics for the .Net CLR,

www.eecg.toronto.edu/~voss/ece1724f/Slides/DotNet.

ppt , November 2002, cited May 2003.

Microsoft: defining the basic elements of .net,

http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics/asp, cited

February 2003.

Pallatto J.: Borland Takes Lead in Industry Standard

Benchmarking of J2EE™ Application Servers,

http://www.borland.com/about/press/2001/j2eelead.ht

ml, cited April 2003.

Sullivan G. A.: .net, the big picture,

http://www.gasullivan.com/whitepapers/, cited on

April 2003.

Sun Microsystems’ Java website;

Java 2 Platform,

Enterprise Edition Client Access Services (J2EE CAS)

COM Bridge 1.0 Early Access

http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/earlyAccess/j

2eecas/download-com-bridge.html

Syspro Support Zone, Syspro e.net Solutions Online

Documentation: Web Services

http://support.syspro.com/user/enet_solutions/index.ph

p?section=Web%20Services

Tabor, R: Microsoft .net XML web services, SAMS, USA,

2001.

Vawter C., Roman E.: white paper, J2EE vs. Microsoft

.Net,

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/whitepapersA

uthor/0,293844,sid26_gci829769,00.html, cited April

2003.

UNDERLYING PLATFORM OF THE E-COMMERCE SYSTEM: J2EE VS. NET

257