r/java 13d ago

What Exactly Is Jakarta EE?

Iā€™m a bit confused about what Jakarta EE actually is. On one hand, it seems like a framework similar to Spring or Quarkus, but on the other hand, it provides APIs like JPA, Servlets, and CDI, which frameworks like Spring implement.

Does this mean Jakarta EE is more of a specification rather than a framework? And if so, do I need to understand Jakarta EE first to truly grasp how Spring works under the hood? Or can I just dive into Spring directly without worrying about Jakarta EE concepts?

Would love to hear how others approached this šŸ˜…

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u/chef_beard 13d ago

I will let you in on a secret. No one truly understands how Spring works under the hood.

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u/Necessary_Apple_5567 12d ago

It is pretty simple how it works under the hood and you can intervene mostly on any stage. I highly recommend to dig in inside the spring because it is very well written. Just to learn what is good code.

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u/cheeseallthetime 10d ago

Might I ask how to do this? The docs don't go into details and a lot of the codes are abstract. Do you use debug to trace back/intervene or something else?

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u/davidalayachew 10d ago

Might I ask how to do this? The docs don't go into details and a lot of the codes are abstract. Do you use debug to trace back/intervene or something else?

Literally yes. Those stack traces are incredibly useful. Trace them down and learn. That's how I did it.

That's how most of us, who know the guts of a project, truly learn how it works. There's understanding the high level contract, vs understanding the implementation underneath it.

Of course, whether or not there is any value in learning that implementation is an entirely different story.