Published December 9, 2022
Iron Software Announces First Java Language Product
5 minutes with our developer team
Today, Iron Software launched IronPDF for Java. This gives our community of more than 50,000 developers a new tool, in a new language.
This is a significant move for Iron Software. For the first time, they have released a product outside of .NET languages.
“We started with IronPDF for .NET in 2015, and it seems fitting it’s our first new product in C#’s ‘sister’ enterprise language: Java,” says Jacob Mellor, Head of Engineering.
As a 1:1 equivalent of the .NET product, developers can use the Java version for the same use cases.
For the first five years, Iron Software have only offered .NET language products, why change now?
Iron Software announced in August 2022 their intention to diversify into new languages. IronPDF for Java launched three months later.
Jacob Mellor saw Java as the natural next step for Iron Software customers, who have been requesting Java more than any other language.
“Our products are based on customer feedback. We make changes to our roadmap based on technical support, including feature requests and reporting bugs as regression tests.
“We’ve formed whole teams around giving our customers the best support and information to make a purchasing decision, so it makes sense our new product development would take their feedback into account.”
In addition, both Jacob and Ikkyu, the lead engineer on this project, noted that both languages are linguistically similar.
“Java is popular with the same kind of enterprises as .NET. Our customers are in financial institutions, public corporations & governments, where security is a primary concern. These are the two leading languages in the sectors using our products.”
Ikkyu adds that, “the additional benefit of supporting Java is that the Java runtime also supports some new popular languages like Scala and Kotlin.”
This gives developers another way to make the most of the product, without having to make additional purchases.
Ikkyu, Lead Engineer of IronPDF for Java
This is the first time in a long time that the company has released a new product - what are you most proud of?
Jacob says, “I’m proud of the way our team has architected this change. They have designed IronPDF for Java so we can naturally expand into other languages including Python, C++ & Node.JS. Java is just the start.”
The maturity of the architecture means Iron Software have planned for other languages, cloud services and docker support.
“This architecture, using Google Protobuf over GRPC to cross interop boundaries has created the opportunity for us to start providing cloud services which use exactly the same client code,” explains Jacob.
Why is Iron Software giving IronPDF for Java free with IronPDF for .NET?
Existing and new customers who purchase the IronPDF for .NET product; or the Iron Suite, can use their same license key for Java.
Jacob says, “Rather than ask people to pay for it, we decided to encourage as many users as possible to use it. We want feedback. That way we can improve the product as quickly as possible.” Buying IronPDF for Java also gives access to the .NET product.
You can start a 30 free trial here.
