As the Internet software market has matured, the infrastructure services required by distributed Internet applications, including ColdFusion applications, have become increasingly standardized. The most widely adopted standard today is the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification. J2EE provides a common set of infrastructure services for accessing databases, protocols, and operating system functionality, across multiple operating systems.

About ColdFusion and the J2EE platform

ColdFusion is implemented on the Java technology platform and uses a J2EE application server for many of its base services, including database connectivity, naming and directory services, and other runtime services. ColdFusion can be configured to use an embedded J2EE server (in the server configuration) or it can be deployed as a J2EE application on an independent J2EE application server (in the multiserver configuration or the J2EE configuration). ColdFusion Enterprise includes a fully featured version of the JRun J2EE application server, or can be deployed on third-party J2EE servers such as IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic.

For more information on ColdFusion configurations, see Installing and Using ColdFusion.

By implementing the ColdFusion scripting environment on top of the J2EE platform, ColdFusion takes advantage of the power of the J2EE platform while also providing an easy-to-use scripting environment and built-in services. Moreover, because ColdFusion is built on a J2EE platform, you can easily integrate J2EE and Java functionality into your ColdFusion application. As a result, ColdFusion pages can do any of the following:

• Share session data with JSPs (Java Server Pages) and Java servlets.
• Import custom JSP tag libraries and use them like ColdFusion custom tags.
• Integrate with Java objects, including the J2EE Java API, JavaBeans, and Enterprise JavaBeans.

For more information on using J2EE features in ColdFusion, see Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML Applications