With the Java Framework developers work exclusively in their Java programming environments while QA staff work exclusively in Silk Performer. There is no need for staff to learn new tools.
Java developers typically build applications and then hand them off to QA for testing. QA personnel are then tasked with testing Java applications end-to-end and component-by-component. Typically QA personnel are not given clients (test drivers) to test applications and they typically are not able to code such test clients themselves. This is where Java Explorer and the Java Framework are effective. Java Explorer offers a means of visually scripting test clients. In effect Java Explorer acts like a test client and can be used to interact with the application under test.
All Java components can be tested with Java Explorer, but the focus lies on the following three Java components: Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), Web Services, and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
The Java Framework enables users to run stand-alone Java test code, to use other tools to invoke Java test code, or to execute test code from an exported standalone console.