Blog

We are happy to announce the final release of the KumuluzEE 3.0.0. The new major release brings full support for Java 9+ and support for Java EE 8 with some new components and a bunch of updated components.

The following components from Java EE 8 have been added:

• JSON-B 1.0
• Java Mail 1.6

We’re including the reference implementation for both of the new components, with alternative implementations planned in the future when they become available.

The following components were updated to their Java EE 8 versions:

• JSF 2.3
• JPA 2.2
• JAX-RS 2.1
• CDI 2.0
• Bean Validation 2.0
• JSON-P 1.1

All implementations of the listed components have been updated to the latest Java EE component versions, so you’re free to use any of them.

Furthermore, the new release brings the support for the Apache CXF JAX-WS implementation. We are continuing in the spirit of modularity, as this is the second JAX-WS implementation, supported by the KumuluzEE framework, the first one being Metro. The samples showing the usage of the new framework are already available at the kumuluzee-samples repository.

We have also included some missing integrations between various components. The Bean Validation has been integrated with the CDI, which allows injection of Validator instances in CDI beans and validation of input arguments and return values of CDI methods. Also, the JNDI now allows lookup for the JTA UserTransaction. Additionally both JSON-P and JSON-B can now be used with JAX-RS automatically. You don’t need to do anything, simply add the relevant components as your dependencies and it will work.

Make note that the Servlet component is still on version 3.1 as the default implementation Jetty has not yet updated upstream to support the 4.0 version of the Servlet component. It will be added as soon as it will become available. The omission of Servlet 4.0 for this release however is a rather minor issue, as KumuluzEE already supports HTTP2, which is the flagship feature of Servlet 4.0.

Due to popular request we began implementing the mechanism that will allow activating or deactivating extensions via configuration framework properties. The necessary support in the core framework is finished and we will be pushing out support in each individual extension soon alongside with the updates necessary to support Java 9+ in each individual extension.

We’re also hard at work at continuously optimizing and reducing the footprint of the framework and its dependencies, such as removing unneeded libraries, reducing the footprint of the initial loader and general speed ups of the framework. The release also includes updates to the maven plugin and the uber JAR loader, which address a number of issues found since its introduction. It’s now more stable and handles edge cases better. We also took this opportunity to remove some of the legacy stuff still residing inside KumuluzEE. All deprecated features in versions 2.x are removed, so make sure to check whether you’re still using any.

Some enhancements that support further development of extensions also made it into this release. The translation of configuration keys into environment variable names has changed to allow the kumuluzee-config-mp extension to align with the latest MicroProfile Config 1.3 specification. We will be supporting the legacy lookups, so this won’t break existing configuration.

A new configuration property has been added to the startup configuration, which instructs Jetty to propagate any exceptions that happen during startup. This property has little use for the end-user but aids in the development of the KumuluzEE Arquillian Container Adapter.

The release also includes bug fixes, improved compatibility with the EE specification and updates of the various components and libraries to their latest upstream versions.

Features:

• Added support for Java 9+.
• Added new EE component Java Mail 1.6 (RI).
• Added new EE component JSON-B 1.0 (Yasson).
• Updated EE component JSF to 2.3 (Mojarra).
• Updated EE component JPA to 2.2 (EclipseLink, Hibernate).
• Updated EE component JAX-RS to 2.1 (Jersey).
• Updated EE component CDI to 2.0 (CDI).
• Updated EE component Bean Validation to 2.0 (Hibernate Validator).
• Updated EE component JSON-P to 1.1 (RI).
• Added support for Apache CXF JAX-WS implementation.
• Added support for JSON-P and JSON-B when (de)serializing objects with JAX-RS (Jersey).
• Added ability for extensions to specify, when they should not be initialized.
• Removed deprecated features and config values.

Enhancements:

• Sped up the classloading when using the uber JAR.
• Added Bean Validation CDI integration.
• Added transaction manager to JNDI.
• Added environment variable lookups as defined in the MicroProfile Config 1.3 specification.
• Added configuration property that enables Jetty startup exception propagation.
• Added the ability to retrieve registered Servlets at runtime.
• Retrieve configuration value as a raw key if the parsed key is not found.
• Updated libraries and component implementations to their latest versions.
• Added support for dynamic key names with a custom prefix.
• Added support for key names containing dots.
• Added Rest Client extension group.

Bugs:

• Fixed stopServlet method in JettyServletServer throws IllegalStateException.
• Added support for legacy key names in getListSize for environment variables.
• Uber JAR will now work in directories that include special characters (spaces, # …).
• Fixed test that fails if build path contains space.
• Fixed an issue when loading resources in the Uber JAR.
• Fixed an issue where shutdown hooks of the Uber JAR were overlapping and causing undefined behavior on shutdown.
• Fixed an issue where CDI not triggering shutdown events correctly when using the Uber JAR.
• Fixed allowing repackaging WAR and EAR into an Uber JAR.
• Updated Travis build.
• Fixed package-info.java loading when running in JAR with Java 9+.

More details about this release can be found on GitHub.