Company's A pplication Server 4.0 offers modular design JBoss is shipping JBoss Application Server 4.0, which the company is billing as the first open source application server certified as compatible with the J2EE 1.4 platform.The advent of Version 4.0 means the product has passed the 23,000 tests in the J2EE 1.4 Test Compatibility Kit, according to JBoss.“Other products have achieved J2EE 1.4 certification, but this is the first open source application server that has been certified,” said Marc Fleury, chairman and CEO of JBoss. The application server is available for free under the Lesser General Public License, which the company says is the least restrictive of all the open source license formats. JBoss sells support services and training for the product.JBoss is touting the AO (aspect orientation) functionality in the application server. AO presents a modular way of designing application servers so users can remove and add different parts. “With AO, we achieve more [modularity], more performance in middleware, and more flexible middleware,” Fleury said.JBoss offers clustering of Java objects, including EJB, JMS (Java Message Service), HTTP, and “plain old Java Objects,” the company said. Also featured is a customizable footprint, in which the architecture leverages JMX (Java Management Extensions) to enable users to tailor the footprint. Additionally, services can be added based on user needs. Technology Industry