GlassFish hosting

The latest version of GlassFish is 3.1 and was released on 28 February 2011. GlassFish is actively development by a huge community and is distributed as an open source solution under Common Development and Distribution License & GNU General Public License.

For the comprehension of the layman, GlassFish is a community. Involving over 1100 people all over the world, the objective of this community is to come up with an open source application server that makes use of Java EE 5. Not just that, the work of GlassFish community is aimed at the development of various web service technologies, on which the members of this community are working simultaneously. The GlassFish community consists of both independent contributors as well as contributors from other software organizations and companies. The work flow of this community does not involve the contributors to GlassFish hosting working 24x7 on the development of the open source application server. All they are required to do is to use the application server, and report bugs in the system along with other important information to other members of this community. GlassFish and Tomcat are frameworks for Java but they have many differencies, as well as similarities as you can read at this article.

This project of developing an open source application server was launched by Sun in June 2005. Christened the GlassFish project, the commencement of this project led to the development of the GlassFish community. However, the GlassFish project is a cog in the wheel for a larger project started by the Sun. This project would enable Sun to release major portions of its code into open source so that they can be used by the GlassFish community. This will also bring about the necessary changes in the open code. This project is being hosted on Java.net. The open source application server which is being developed by the Glassfish community is based on Sun’s source code for Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9. The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 was donated by Sun Microsystems. The project provides the members of the GlassFish community with a chance to improve the code of the open source application server. It allows the programmers to contribute various fixes and add new features to the open source application code.

Sun Microsystems continues to develop and maintain a commercial version of GlassFish. Nowadays GlassFish is used as an enterprise level server solution for multimillion organizations, large corporations and governmental portals. As you can see in the above diagram, GlassFish can accomplish even the highest expectations concerning server availability if it is hosted by a reliable GlassFish hosting provider.

The question one is bound to ask is what the relevance of the GlassFish community is? The important thing to note here is that the project is able to put a free, open source, and a commercial-type implementation of Java EE 5 into the hands of its community members. This cannot be done without the involvement of community members. A programmer who is a member of the GlassFish community will get an opportunity of developing and testing the open source application. This will ensure that the application confirms to the Java EE 5 standards by constant tests performed by the programmer. The community also plays an important role in the project by exchanging vital information regarding the development of the open source application server, with each other. The community members make use of various platforms to exchange information. These include the GlassFish discussion forum, mail listings, or sometimes even blog entries. Using these mediums, the members initiate the exchange of information including their personal opinion on the features of the GlassFish project, the issues that they encounter during the development of the open source application server. These forums are also used to answer technical questions regarding the project.

A group blog called The Aquarium is known to keep track of all the information and dialogue related to the GlassFish project. It also keeps an eye on the latest news pertaining to the GlassFish project. The Aquarium provides free-flowing information to the members of the Glassfish community, which also consists of engineers from organizations such as Sun and Oracle.

If a programmer wants to become a part of the community, he or she can do so by accessing the official webpage. He or she will then be required to download the program and start using it. The code is distributed on the Internet under the Common Development and Distribution License or CDDL. This Common Development and Distribution License or CDDL is approved by the Open Source Initiative or OSI. This approval allows the members not only view and use, but also edit and modify the open source application server code being developed by the GlassFish project. The GlassFish community members can also distribute the code or use the code for production purposes. The GlassFish community puts the nightly builds of the GlassFish project for download. The community members also make available for download the weekly ‘promoted’ builds. As far as the GlassFish project is concerned, then the promoted builds undergo more tests than the nightly builds. Also, these promoted builds are not likely to possess as many fixes that can be found in the nightly build.

While using the open source application server under the GlassFish project, a programmer has access to information such as the Blueprints, specifications, technical tips, user guide, and the FAQs of the project.