J2EE; Short for Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition. J2EE is a platform-independent, Java-centric environment from Sun for developing, building and deploying Web-based enterprise applications online. The J2EE platform consists of a set of services, APIs, and protocols that provide the functionality for developing multitiered, Web-based applications. Some of the key features and services of J2EE: At the client tier, J2EE supports pure HTML, as well as Java applets or applications. It relies on Java Server Pages and servlet code to create HTML or other formatted data for the client. Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) provide another layer where the platform's logic is stored. An EJB server provides functions such as threading, concurrency, security and memory management. These services are transparent to the author. Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), which is the Java equivalent to ODBC, is the standard interface for Java databases. The Java servlet API enhances consistency for developers without requiring a graphical user interface.