What is GlassFish?

| programming | java |

I jumped down another rabbit hole trying to figure out how to get started with java ee without using an ide. Although IDE’s are very handy when it comes to Java development, they also are sometimes a crutch. For instance, if you want to transition to CI, do you actually know what commands the IDE runs when you right click and run tests?

First, I have no idea what Java EE actually is. There is something called GlassFish, which is an open source Java EE “reference implementation”. It also the same thing that is installed when you go to the main Java EE website.

Java EE does not support the latest Java JDK 1.9. On my Mac I had a tough time trying to get two versions of Java to run at the same time.

I think 99.9% of all tutorials about getting started with Java EE include using Netbeans or Eclipse. I wanted to write one that used the CLI. This involves using maven.

Maven has a concept called “archetypes” which creates the necessary directory structure for a new Java project. The main problem is that I could not find a bare bones archetype definition.

At the end of the day, I dug deep into the rabbit hole and came up empty. I will figure this out at some point and write a blog post about it.

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

“Use links, don’t talk about them.”

The classic – but still important – rule of web design says to avoid labeling links “click here.” It’s one of the oldest web design principles. Tim Berners-Lee wrote about it in 1992; if you visit this link right now, it might be the oldest pag…

via Unsung April 17, 2026

Markdown.new + bookmarklet

Markdown.new is a nice little tool to convert a webpage into Markdown without any fuss. To make it even easier, I created a bookmarklet to instantly convert the page you’re viewing to Markdown. javascript:(()=>{location.href='https://markdown.new/…

via Information Overload April 17, 2026

JTR

This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with JTR, whose blog can be found at taonaw.com. Tired of RSS? Read this in your browser or sign up for the newsletter. People and Blogs is supported by the "One a Mon…

via Manuel Moreale — Everything Feed April 17, 2026

Generated by openring