Introducing JBoss AS 7.1 Final!

Great news for the Java EE Community and the fantastic JBoss AS/EAP development team, who can at last get some sleep(!): JBoss AS 7.1 was released!

The code name of the release is Thunder, emphasizing one of the main characteristics of the JBoss AS7 personality: speed! The server boots in just 2.2secs in the default profile on my humble laptop with two thirds of the services actually started, not just lazily loaded! I am soon expecting another round of people experimenting with the start-up parameters to achieve sub-second start-up times!

The number of JIRAs resolved in the 7.1 series in total (from the Alpha version down to Final) since 7.0.2 was released last September, reached the record number of 1465 issues, so you can imagine how big is the delta between the two releases and how productive the development team has been.

Jason has summed up pretty nicely what's new with JBoss AS 7.1 in the release notes which is a must read.

However, the big news with this release is the achievement of Java EE6 Full Profile certification. It took us a while to get there, mostly because the architecture of JBoss AS was essentially redesigned in order to address the pain points of the previous iteration and accommodate an ever increasing set of requirements.

But we are confident that the end result is pleasing for developers and administrators alike. JBoss AS7.1 is smaller, faster and more manageable than any previous JBoss AS release and really pushes the envelope in terms of Application Server technology.

In other words JBoss AS got its Mojo back. It is fully functional and sexy!

Give it a spin and let us know.

Enjoy
/Dimitris

JUDCon 2012 India - Recap

Back to base after attending and presenting at the first ever JUDCon in India!

The 2-day event was fully booked and registrations reached the record number of close to 800 participants!

I had the opportunity of taking part along with other fellow JBossians at the 1st day's expert panel, where we had the chance to answer lots of questions, many of which were related to JBoss AS/EAP.

During the panel discussion, as well as during my first talk on JBoss Application Server 7 - Reloaded, and the many private discussions I had between sessions, I realized that pretty much everyone uses JBoss AS in India, all the way back from versions 3 and onwards, while usage of JBoss AS 7 and Enterprise Application Platform (EAP - our supported offering) is picking up nicely.

There was good coverage of JBoss AS 7 through different talks, most of which were recorded and should become available soon. It was very encouraging to see people's reactions on the latest installment of the JBoss AS series and the significant architectural changes and innovations that JBoss AS 7 brings.

The developer audience was absolutely fantastic, with packed sessions and people asking one question after another, until the organizers had to push for the next session to begin! People would come to me with their long lists of questions and discussion items related to the inner workings of the server.

My second session on The 7 Secrets of Successful Opensource Developers was also packed, and I was very pleased to have to answer questions and provide tips and personal advice for a solid 20' after the presentation was over. I expect we will be seeing some interesting contributions coming from Indian developers over the coming months :-)

Some coverage of the event from various people inside JBoss:

• Jaikiran's impressions from JUDCon India
• Manik's take on JUDCon India.
• Galder's JUDCon India post-mortem

And outside JBoss:

• TUX's JUDCon experiences
• Nibin's JUDCon India rocks
• Aravind's impressions on JUDCon India

A great JUDCon, overall. Looking forward for the next opportunity to visit Bangalore!

/Dimitris

JBoss AS 7.1 CR1 released!

Santa came early this year at JBoss because his assistants have been really-really busy working around the clock across different timezones to produce JBossAS 7.0 CR1!

This is a very important milestone in the AS 7.x series because full EE6 support is now considered feature complete! (This is provided by running the standalone-full.xml profile.)

The release features several management improvements and enhancements to the clustering subsystem, as well as, final updates to a series of subsystems, like WebServices, for example.

The team has managed to resolve a whopping 378 JIRA issues within exactly one month, which means that there is a ton of new stuff and there is also a good chance for your reported issue to have been resolved. (If not, you are always welcome to contribute.)

The development team will keep the current pace until we get to the Final release, which comes next. In the meantime, we encourage you to download it, give it a spin and let us know! This is your chance to help us produce a quality 7.1 Final release.

Besides, what better passtime you can think of for the holiday break? :-)

Merry Xmas!


/Dimitris

Devoxx 11 recap

This year's Devoxx must have been my 4th in a row and I must admit it is my favorite European Java Conference.

We had quite a few related JBoss talks (in general) and JBoss AS related talks (in particular) as I had posted before the event.

On the 2nd day of Devoxx, myself  and Kabir Khan together we organized the JBoss AS 7 Community BOF in which we hosted a panel of fellow JBossians (Carlo De Wolf, Andrew Lee Rubinger, Dan Allen, Pete Muir, Aslak Knutsen, Lincon Baxter III & Max Andersen) that represented a good mix of the various technology groups within JBoss, from Core AS and Testability (Arquillian/Shrinkwrap), to Grid (Infinispan), Tools integration, and more.

After a quick introduction on the features that make JBoss AS7 unique, we followed up with a panel discussion while trying to answer questions from the audience. BOFs are a great way to receive input and exchange ideas (and gripes) with the community, so I would like to thank everyone that participated; your suggestions are taken very seriously and they are often used to change our priorities and shape our roadmaps. The interest remained really high and we kept going until we started eating time from the following OpenJDK BOFs (sorry guys!) at which point we were basically kicked out :)


The following day, Andrew and Dan gave a smashing presentation on the 7 Reasons to Love JBoss AS 7. The (huge) room was completely packed, a clear evidence of the interest that has built up around JBoss AS7. The presentation should be coming online at parleys.com soon, so check it out there in case you've missed it.

It is clear that people are migrating to AS7 in increasing numbers, a trend that will only accelerate with the coming of JBoss 7.1 that targets full Java EE6 compliance. And talking about JBoss AS, 7.1.0.Beta1 went out TODAY so Get It Now!

On the 4th day of the event, Pete gave a very interesting presentation on using JBoss AS7 on OpenShift, Red Hat's PaaS offering. The Cloud is here to stay and OpenShift presents a pragmatic approach to deploying your application on the cloud, right now, on the way to Java EE7. If anything, OpenShift Express is totally free so there is zero-risk for anyone that wants to wet his/her feet with Cloud development.

And exactly because AS7 is Super Fast and Lightweight, it provides an excellent runtime for cloud deployments!

Cheers
/Dimitris

JBoss AS 7 at Devoxx'11

Soon on my way to yet another great Devoxx, with JBoss AS 7 having a fair bit of representation.

• Join us at our Community JBoss AS 7 BOF on Tuesday evening to discuss the latest JBoss AS7 developments and meet with fellow JBossians.
• Check out the Death of the slow, and the 7 Reasons to Love JBoss AS7.
• Learn how to use Java EE in the Cloud with JBoss AS7 running on OpenShift PaaS.
• Deploy JEE applications to OpenShift

Other Conference topics of interest:

• the BOF Marathon on Wednesday night (JavaEE, CDI, Seam)
• JPA on NoSQL using Hibernate OGM
• A glimpse into the Ceylon programming language

And if you are attending the University Talks, don't miss:

• Arquillian, the Extendable Enterprise Test Platform
• Forge new Ground in Rapid Enterprise Java Development 
• Deep-dive into Infinispan, the open source data grid platform

Or just meet as for a beer at the JBoss booth.

See you there!
/Dimitris

JUDCon 2011 - London

If you are in London on Oct/31st, don't miss the JBoss User & Developer Conference, hosted in the same venue with JAX. Check out the Agenda for a large number of interesting talks.

For JBoss AS 7 aficionados, I would recommend:

• Java EE in the Cloud, by Pete Muir, showcasing the Red Hat PaaS offering with JBoss AS7.
• Racing JBoss AS7 bootup across clouds, by Adrian Cole (jclouds).
• Configuration and Management with JBoss AS7, by our Emanuel Muckenhuber.
• OSGi in complex Enterprise Applications on AS7, by Thomas Diesler

/Dimitris

JBoss AS7 at Profict

Last Friday I was invited to talk about the JBoss Application Server project/Enterprise Application Platform and Java EE6 at the Profict Java Summer Camp day in The Netherlands.

It was a bit of an exercise trying to spot the venue on Google Maps because all you could see at this point was a water tower! Apparently, the Google Maps picture was a bit outdated and there was a new office building next to the water tower, however, the renovated tower was indeed part of the complex and the Profict crew was kind enough to take us for a coffee at the top, which offers a great view to the surroundings.

Now onto the actual conference,  my talk was first so I had the opportunity to present Java EE6, from the point of view of the JBoss Application Server project. I've talked about how we started with JBoss AS6 implementing the Java EE6 profile, then moving on to AS7 with a radical architecture change, as well as our current plans about AS7.1 and full profile certification. Slides are available here.

EAP6 will be based off of JBoss AS 7.1 and if you want to get on the bandwagon there is an early access program, or alternatively, start off by developing on the "everything" distro of JBoss AS 7.0.2, released last week, and that should ease the transition to AS 7.1/EAP6 when the time is right.

If you want to use JBoss AS7 in a cloud context, try OpenShift Express/Flex, Red Hat's PaaS offering.

Next engagement is going to be at Devoxx11 for the JBoss AS7 Community BOF with a bunch of other JBoss Developers, so hope to see you there!

Cheers
/Dimitris

JBoss AS 7.0 CR1 released

So after long-long hours and busy weekends put into this project by the fantastic JBoss AS team, JBoss AS 7.0 CR1 is a reality. It was released by Jason on June 29th and you can get it straight away from the downloads page.

JBoss AS 7.0 is build around the Java EE 6 Web Profile, with some additions like JCA and JAX-RS. There will be a hopefully short period of time for polishing and doc writing between now and AS 7.0 Final, and your help is definitely needed to test drive it and report back any issues. For those wondering, a future AS 7.1 release will be targeting Full EE 6 Profile compliance.

Now, if something stands out immediately out of AS7 is the insane boot time achieved (among others) through a highly concurrent architecture. (Sorry guys, no more excuses for coffee breaks.) If you want to tell us how fast is yours, do it here.

Some links to get you started: AS 7 Documentation

Blog entries on AS7

• Kabir on how you can get started
• Pete pointing to tutorials and quickstarts
• Max on getting AS7 to work with JBoss Tools

ScreenCasts/videos

• 5 ways to deploy your application to JBoss AS 7
• JBoss AS7 - The Next Generation
• Operations, Administration & Management of JBoss AS7

You can find out tweets using the #jbossas7 hashtag.
You can get help in the AS7 User Forum.
You can report problems in the AS7 JIRA.

Again, the best way to get started is to download JBoss AS 7.0 CR1 and try it out.

The future is now, enjoy it!

/Dimitris