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Metro is an opensource web service stack that is a part of the GlassFish project, though it can also be used in a stand-alone configuration.[1] Components of metro include JAXB RI, JAX-WS RI, SAAJ RI, StAX (SJSXP implementation) and WSIT. It is available under the CDDL and GPLv2 (with classpath exception.)[2]
It is supported by Sun Microsystems.
Originally, the Glassfish project developed two semi-independent project :
In June 2007, it has been decided to bundle these two components as a single component named Metro[1].
Metro is bundled with Java SE 6 in order to allow consumers of Java SE 6 to consume Web Services [2]
Metro is bundled with numerous Application Servers [3] such as :
The JAXB reference implementation developed for Metro is used in virtually every Java Web Services framework (Apache Axis2, Codehaus XFire, Apache CXF) and Application Servers.
Metro compares well with other web service frameworks in terms of functionality. A comparison is provided by Codehaus at [4], which compares Apache Axis 1.x, Axis 2.x, Celtix, Glue, JBossWS, Xfire 1.2 and JAX-WS RI + WSIT (the bundle was not yet named Metro at this time).