4.0.0 javax.activation activation 1.0.2 JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) is a standard extension to the Java platform that lets you 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 instantiate the appropriate bean to perform the operation(s). http://java.sun.com/products/javabeans/jaf/index.jsp http://java.sun.com/products/javabeans/glasgow/jaf.html