Java EE and JDK

Question

I want to move from Java SE to Java EE. I will be using some of the sample projects that come with the Java EE. I have uninstalled the JDK but I think this may have been a mistake?

When I download the latest Java EE (6), upon installation it asks me for the location of the JDK (which is uninstalled). I was under the impression that the JDK was specific to each version of Java i.e. SE or EE. Am I wrong here? I would have thought that when I download Java EE 6 that it was actually the EE JDK?

Can anybody please clarify this for me?

Answer 1

Java EE is simply a set of APIs on top of Java SE. You'll need to re-install your Java SE JDK.

Answer 2

The JavaEE downloads from Sun's site are just the reference implementations. They build on top of the existing JDK. If you want to use the reference implementation, then go ahead... however, there are lots of other implementations instead.

If you're only doing web applications, you can get away with just a Servlet container.

Reference:
GlassFish v3 - Full JavaEE 6
GlassFish v3 Web Profile - Servlet-only JavaEE 6

Servlet-only:
Apache Tomcat - JavaEE 5
Jetty - JavaEE 5

Open Source Full:
Apache Geronimo - JavaEE 5
JBoss - JavaEE 5, partial 6

Commercial implementations:
IBM Websphere - JavaEE 5
Oracle Weblogic - JavaEE 5