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What do we mean when we say "Migrating the specification level of Java EE projects"? Does this actually entail an application rewrite?

Arjan Tijms
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hakish
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  • cross-posted at Programmers: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/144963/migrating-the-specification-level-of-java-ee-projects – gnat Apr 18 '12 at 11:07

2 Answers2

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I don't think it means a rewrite.

It probably means that your Java EE project should pass the tests in the Application Verification Toolkit (AVK) for the required specification level or version (eg: J2EE 1.4/Java EE 5/Java EE 6)

Arjan Tijms
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Ryan Fernandes
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Basically, Java EE specification is backward compatible, so I don't think it requires you to rewrite your application code.

I think it rather means that you're moving from e.g. J2EE 1.4 to Java EE 6, so that you application server will provide additional features which you can but doesn't have to use.

However, in time, it might be required or acceptable to rewrite some of your application code because it might be cleaner, more maintainable, easier to read, faster, smaller and so on.

Piotr Nowicki
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  • "your application server will provide additional features which you can but doesn't have to use.".. This will result in a rewrite isn't it or are there any services which will be used automatically upon migration without any changes to the code? Thanks. – hakish Apr 19 '12 at 05:37
  • Well, I mean that all your services should be still operational. You'll just be using the application server features that you need. If a new version of specification brings new features to the app server - you firstly need to use them in your code, so then you'll need a refactor. But it's just a regular use case - you can't use any new features without rewriting your code. The point is - you don't **need to** do this. – Piotr Nowicki Apr 19 '12 at 07:29