JTA – Java Transaction API – allows multiple transactions (thus, distributed) to be performed on more than one XA resources in Java environment.

Note: XA describes the interface between the global transaction manager and the local resource manager. The goal of XA is to allow multiple resources (such as databases, application servers, message queues, transactional caches, etc.) to be accessed within the same transaction, thereby preserving the ACID properties across applications. XA uses a two-phase commit to ensure that all resources either commit or rollback any particular transaction consistently (all do the same).

JTS – Java Transaction Service – is a specification for building a transaction manager that maps onto the Object Management Group’s (OMG) Object Transaction Service (OTS) used in the CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) architecture.

* note: Due to late criticism and decline in popularity of CORBA (WebServices are getting more and more popular) JTS is primarily used within J2EE architecture and rarely supports integration with other languages/architectures.

More information:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp0305/index.html

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp0410/index.html

JAAS –  Java Authentication and Authorization Service – provides a way for a J2EE application to authenticate and authorize a specific user or group of users to run it. It is a standard Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) framework that extends the Java 2 platform security architecture to support user-based authorization.

• Java