The Eclipse Foundation has issued an open invitation for developers to get involved with the next phase of development of Java EE technologies. InfoQ has previously reported on the decision by Oracle to move Java EE to the Eclipse Foundation.

Eclipse has announced a new focus on Cloud Native Java and Microservices for the platform, enabling traditional enterprise Java developers to transition easily to this new world. The project will evolve the Java EE standard, and use the recently-released Java EE 8 version as a baseline.

The code name for the new project is Eclipse Enterprise for Java (EE4J), with a branding name to be announced later. The next Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 23rd, where the EE4J project is expected to be approved.

In advance of this date, a draft charter for the project has been prepared, and Eclipse are actively encouraging feedback on this draft, with the community mailing list being the preferred place to send feedback.

Due to the short timescale, all comments and feedback on the EE4J Charter should be sent no later than Monday, October 16th. Once the top-level project charter is approved by the Board, Eclipse can start creating EE4J projects.

After the projects have been created, the initial scope during the remainder of 2017 and into 2018 will be to move the existing Java EE 8 technologies to the project repos and to define processes for evolving the platform. This project is intended to be an open source initiative in the Eclipse tradition, with more flexible licensing and the hallmark open governance processes of the foundation.

Intial reaction from the community seems very positive, with Martijn Verburg, leader of the London Java Community, remarking that:

Oracle donating Java EE 8 to the Eclipse Foundation is a huge step forwards for traditional enterprise Java. A open, shared community including Oracle, other vendors such as TomiTribe, Red Hat, IBM, Payara and many 1000's of Java developers from the community will be able to quickly progress enterprise Java for cloud native and microservice use cases. An unprecedented level playing field has been created here and I highly encourage everyone in the Java ecosystem to join the Eclipse EE4J project now and shape the future of cloud native and microservices Java for enterprise developers.

With EE4J being only one of the major developments announced for JavaOne, enterprise Java is definitely back. In the coming weeks, InfoQ will be reporting on the progress of efforts to reinvigorate the platform and bring it to the microservices ecosystem and a new generation of developers.



