Web 2.0 Technologies :

• Dynamic User Interfaces – Dynamic user interfaces refer to a web application's responsiveness and its ability to interact more dynamically with actions you take on its web pages. Using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) technologies to build more interactive user interfaces, Ajax enables web application users to asynchronously update and retrieve data from a server without having to wait for a screen refresh. Of particular importance here in the Java space are Sun Microsystems' jMaki and DynaFaces technologies.

  • jMaki tools enable developers to wrap any widget in a JSP tag or a JSF component so the widget can be easily implemented in a Web application.

  • DynaFaces focuses on enabling JSF developers to Ajax-enable the JSF components they already use.

  In addition to jMaki and Dynafaces, a third-party JavaScript library, called Dojo, is also included in the Sun WDP.

• Lightweight Programming Models – Platform-agnostic scripting languages are becoming increasingly popular with web application developers because of their flexibility and because they often allow for more rapid development than previous coding techniques. While no one scripting language is dominant at this time, Ruby and JavaScript are among the most popular. In response to this popularity, the Sun WDP includes technology from the Phobos project, which provides an application framework that enables you to develop web applications entirely in a scripting language, while still providing access to the entire Java EE stack. Phobos currently supports only JavaScript, but support for other scripting languages is planned with the help of JSR 223 (Scripting for the Java Platform).

• Lightweight Web Services – The Representation State Transfer Technology (REST) architectural model emphasizes building web services that can be accessed as resources by means of the common HTTP GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE operations. The technologies included in the Sun WDP that facilitate REST style coding are:

  • ROME – (RSS and Atom Utilities) API for processing and generating syndication feeds

  • WADL – (Web Application Description Language) Web services description language like WSDL, but designed for REST-based Web services by supporting the base set of HTTP methods for accessing resources

  • Atom – XML-based format for syndication feeds and a publishing protocol that provides CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) support for REST-based Web services