<chapter id="Overview">
<title>Overview</title>

<para>
Originally released in 2009, RESTEasy has tracked and implemented a series of official specifications
that provide a Java API for RESTful Web Services over the HTTP protocol:

<table frame="topbot">
<tgroup cols="2" rowsep="1" colsep="1">
<thead>
  <row>
    <entry>RESTEasy version</entry>
    <entry>Specification</entry>
  </row>
</thead>
<tbody>
  <row>
    <entry>2+</entry>
    <entry><ulink url="https://download.oracle.com/otndocs/jcp/jaxrs-1.0-fr-eval-oth-JSpec/">JAX-RS 1.0</ulink></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry>3+</entry>
    <entry><ulink url="https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=339">JAX-RS 2.0</ulink></entry>
  </row>
  <row>
    <entry>3.5+</entry>
    <entry><ulink url="https://jakarta.ee/specifications/restful-ws/2.1/restful-ws-spec-2.1.html">Jakarta RESTful Web Services 2.1</ulink></entry>
  </row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>

JAX-RS 1.0 (<ulink url="https://download.oracle.com/otndocs/jcp/jaxrs-1.0-fr-eval-oth-JSpec/">JSR-311</ulink>),
JAX-RS 2.0 (<ulink url="https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=339">JSR-339</ulink>), and
JAX-RS 2.1 (<ulink url="https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=370">JSR-370</ulink>) are 
<ulink url="https://jcp.org/en/procedures/overview">Java Community Process (JCP)</ulink> specifications.
In 2017, the Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) specifications, including JAX-RS,
were transferred to the Eclipse Foundation
(<ulink url="https://blogs.eclipse.org/post/mike-milinkovich/java-ee-moves-eclipse-foundation">
Java EE Moves to the Eclipse Foundation</ulink>), Java EE became Jakarta Enterprise Edition,
and new governing committees under the umbrella of the
<ulink url="https://projects.eclipse.org/proposals/eclipse-jakarta-ee-platform">Eclipse Jakarta EE Platform</ulink> were constituted. For JAX-RS,
the specifications are provided by the <ulink url="https://jakarta.ee/specifications/restful-ws/">Jakarta RESTful Web Services</ulink>
committee.<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href=""?>
The first specification released under the authority of Jakarta RESTful Web Services was
<ulink url="https://jakarta.ee/specifications/restful-ws/2.1/">Jakarta RESTful Web Services 2.1</ulink>, that being
essentially identical to JAX-RS 2.1.
</para>

<para>
RESTEasy is a portable implementation of these specifications which can run in any Servlet container. 
Tighter integration with the WildFly application server is also available to make the user experience nicer in that environment.
RESTEasy also comes with additional features on top of the plain old specifications.
</para>
<note>
  <para>
    References in this document to JAX-RS refer to the &REST-API; unless otherwise noted.
  </para>
</note>
  <note>
    <para>
      References in this document to JAXB refer to the &XML-BIND-API; unless otherwise noted.
    </para>
  </note>
</chapter>
