Learning Jakarta EE can sometimes feel like solving a puzzle. You have JPA, CDI, REST, Security, and Docker… but how do they all fit together in a real-world scenario?
To answer this, I decided to build a comprehensive, open-source guide: The Jakarta EE Developer Full Path.
This project is not just a collection of snippets; it is a structured marathon consisting of 15 practical sessions. We start fro an empty folder and finish with a fully containerized microservice running on Payara Micro, covering the entire software development lifecycle.
Here is what developers will find in this tutorial series hosted on GitHub.
1. The Foundations: Getting the Basics Right
The journey begins with the essentials. We use Payara Server Community as our runtime because of its “deployment-ready” nature.
Setting up: We configure a robust Maven project structure.
Data & Logic: We implement JPA with PostgreSQL and Jakarta Data pattern, tied together with CDI (Contexts and Dependency Injection).
API First: We expose our logic using Jakarta REST (JAX-RS), ensuring best practices in clean code and architecture.
2. Going Enterprise: Logic and Security
Once the CRUD is ready, we step up the game. Real applications need more than just saving data.
Security: We implement a Hybrid Security approach, combining standard Jakarta Security for the web and JWT (JSON Web Tokens) for the API.
Async Processing: We integrate Jakarta Messaging (JMS) to decouple heavy tasks and use Jakarta Batch for bulkprocessing.
Modern Concurrency: We even explore the new Java 21 Virtual Threads capabilities managed by Payara.
3. The Frontend and Real-Time
A backend is nothing without a user interface. We build a functional UI using Jakarta Faces (JSF), leveraging templating and validation. We also add a “wow” factor with Jakarta WebSocket, pushing real-time notifications from the server to the browser without refreshing the page.
4. The Grand Finale: DevOps and Cloud Native
The last stretch of the tutorial is dedicated to modern deployment strategies. “It works on my machine” is not enough.
Observability: We configure MicroProfile Health & Metrics to monitor our application.
Dockerization: We containerize the Payara Server full instance.
Microservices Transition: In the final session, we refactor the application to run on Payara Micro, optimizing it forKubernetes environments using the Jakarta EE Core Profile.
Why this Tutorial?
Every session in the repository includes the complete source code, tested and working. The repository is designed to be a livingreference, continuously updated with the latest Jakarta EE specifications and Payara versions.
Whether you are a student making your first HTTP request or a senior developer looking to modernize a legacy monolith, this pathcovers the “how” and the “why” of modern Java development.
8 minutes
