JAF : Java Glossary

With the JAF (Java Activation Framework), version 1.1.1 Last revised/verified: 2009-09-10 Java developers can take advantage of standard services to determine the type of an arbitrary piece of data, encapsulate access to it, discover the operations available on it and to instantiate the appropriate JavaBeans component to perform said operation(s). For example, if a browser obtained a JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image, this framework would enable the browser to identify that stream of data as an JPEG image and from that type, the browser could locate and instantiate an object that could manipulate, or view that image. JavaMail needs it to deal with MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). You typically use this is Java Web Start or JavaMail applications. As of Java version 1.6, JAF is bundled with the JDK (Java Development Kit).