Unable to create Java Web EE 7 project in Netbeans7.3.1

Question

I am having a problem with Netbeans and when I tried to create a Java Web by following their instructions:

Choose File | New Project.

Under Categories, select Java Web.

Under Projects, select Web Application.

Click Next. Web Server-- Apache Tomcat 7.0.42

but Java EE version-is only EE6 and EE5 . Why does it not Show EE7 ?? should i need to install any plugin?

I have the follwong installed:

JDK 1.7_upadte_42
Netbeans 7.3.1
Apache Tomcat 7.0.42 

Answer 1

Tomcat is not a Java EE compliant application server to begin with, it is a servlet container ¹ . It is clearly stated in the official site :

Apache Tomcat™ is an open source software implementation of the Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages, Java Expression Language and Java WebSocket technologies.

In order to use Java EE 7+ capabilities, you need to use a Java EE 7+ compliant server. Currently, AFAIK this is done by GlassFish 4 only. When you visit the official site, it is stated in the top: World's first Java EE 7 Application Server . Make sure you configure your project to use GlassFish 4 and then you may use Java EE 7 benefits for your applications.

Note that this is also covered in Netbeans 7.3.1 community news :

NetBeans IDE 7.3.1 is an update to NetBeans IDE 7.3 and includes the following highlights (emphasys mine):

• Support for Java EE 7 development
  • Deployment to GlassFish 4 (not Tomcat)
  • Support for major Java EE 7 specifications: JSF 2.2, JPA 2.1, JAX-RS 2.0, WebSocket 1.0 and more

---

¹ At least not until Tomcat 7. Looks like from Tomcat 8 it will support Java EE 7 profile (from the official site linked above):

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the next release candidate for Apache Tomcat 8 - 8.0.0-RC5 (alpha). Tomcat 8 is aligned with Java EE 7.

Answer 2

Short Answer: You need to use Tomcat 8+ for Java EE 7 web projects. Additionally (as mentioned), you may need to use a later version of NetBeans (7.4+) for full support.

Long Answer: I'm a little late answering here, but I'm posting an answer for the record in case others see this question and to clear up misconceptions. Contrary to the prevailing belief, you can deploy Java EE apps to Tomcat.

There are two Java EE profiles relevant here: the "Full" profile (which includes the full Java EE stack) and the "Web" profile (a subset of the full profile which is designed to be implemented more easily by servlet containers). As mentioned, if you must use functionality only available in the full Java EE 7 profile you will need to deploy to an app server such as Glassfish 4+, [Jboss] Wildfly 8.1+, or JEUS 8.

However, Tomcat does comply with the Java EE Web profile, so you can deploy Java EE apps to it so long as you stick to just the functionality provided by the Web profile.* Often (if not usually) the web profile is all you need. The web project mentioned by the asker only uses stuff from the web profile. Tomcat 7 complies with the Java EE 6 Web profile and Tomcat 8 complies with the Java EE 7 Web profile, so the OP just needs to upgrade to Tomcat 8 if he wants to use EE 7.

* Oracle makes it easy to stick to one profile or another by distributing specific API jars for each profile ("javaee-api" for the full profile, "javaee-web-api" for the web profile, etc). That's the only dependency you need** to create Java EE apps, and you don't even have to (and shouldn't) bundle it in your WAR. In reality you may need to bundle (but not compile against) some libraries a la carte--or use the TomEE variant of Tomcat--to use all EE 7 web features.

** If you see gobbledygook about "endorsed dirs" and "endorsed APIs" in your build files, that's not a real dependency and is just to ensure that your code compiles against the correct class versions. For example, the standard (non-EE) Java 7 runtime already includes a version of JPA, but Java EE 7 includes a different version so the compiler needs to know which version to use. Don't take out that gobbledygook or you could (but probably won't) have runtime "class version incorrect" issues.

Answer 3

At the moment, Java EE 7 is only partially supported by Netbeans 7.3.1. They will support it in NB 8.0. Also, you need Tomcat 8 for Java EE 7, but their support is still partial too. Glassfish 4.0 is the way for now.

Here are some useful docs:

http://wiki.netbeans.org/JavaEE7

http://tomcat.apache.org/whichversion.html

http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/7/tutorial/doc/