GlassFish is the reference Java EE application server.
GlassFish is a Java EE open source application server.
The latest GlassFish release is version 5.0 in September, 2017. GlassFish 3.0 was the first application server to completely implement Java EE 6. GlassFish 4.0 introduced Java EE 7 support, and GlassFish 5 for Java EE 8. GlassFish is the reference implementation for Java EE JSR's (EE 6, EE 7, EE 8)
The Java EE 6 and 7 platforms significantly improves developer productivity, introduces the lightweight Web Profile for Web-centric applications, and includes the latest versions of technologies such as such as
- Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) 2.0
- JavaServer Faces (JSF) 2.2
- Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.2
- Java Persistence (JPA) 2.1
- Contexts and Dependency Injection for Java EE (CDI) 1.1 and more.
The official GlassFish blog is called TheAquarium. There also is an official Twitter handle @GlassFish. On 4 November 2013, Oracle announced an end to commercial Oracle support for GlassFish. Commercial customers will instead be encouraged to transition to Oracle's alternative product, Oracle weblogic Server. A fork of GlassFish with active development and commercial support is payara.