Announcing IronJacamar 1.0.0

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The IronJacamar team is very happy to announce our first stable release of the project !

What is IronJacamar ?

IronJacamar is an implementation of the Java EE Connector Architecture 1.6 specification featured in the Java EE 6 Full Profile.

Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA) defines a standard architecture for connecting the Java EE platform to heterogeneous Enterprise Information Systems (EIS), like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), database and messaging systems.

The IronJacamar container comes in different flavors

  • Inside JBoss Application Server 7
  • Standalone environment (JCA 1.6 Chapter 3.5)
  • Embedded environment (based on standalone)

and provides the possibility to use resource adapters in your applications. The IronJacamar project also provides the back-bone for datasource integration in the above environments to take advantage of IronJacamar's features.

What is new in JCA 1.6 ?

The Java Connector Architecture 1.6 specification adds the following major areas:

  • Ease of Development: The use of annotations reduces or completely eliminates the need to deal with a deployment descriptor in many cases. The use of annotations also reduces the need to keep the deployment descriptor synchronized with changes to source code.
  • Generic work context contract: A generic contract that enables a resource adapter to control the execution context of a Work instance that it has submitted to the application server for execution.
  • Security work context: A standard contract that enables a resource adapter to establish security information while submitting a Work instance for execution to a WorkManager and while delivering messages to message endpoints residing in the application server.
  • Standalone Container Environment: A defined set of services that makes up a standalone execution environment for resource adapters.

which will allow developers to take advantage of more modern development methods and control their work instance environment to a higher degree.

What is new compared to JBoss Application Server 6 ?

The IronJacamar project have replaced the JCA container found in JBoss Application Server 6 by focusing on a pure Plain Old Java Object (POJO) approach to keep services as light-weight as possible, and enabling simple wiring mechanisms.

Highlights

  • Java EE Connector Architecture 1.6 certified
  • POJO container environment
  • New configuration schemas which focuses on usability
  • Fast XML and annotation parsing for quick deployment
  • Reauthentication support
  • Prefill support for security backed domains
  • Support for pool flushing strategies
  • Crazy fast embedded environment for ease of development
  • New management layer for components
  • New statistics integration including 3rd party extensions
  • Numerous performance improvements

Furthermore IronJacamar have various tools that will help you in your development tasks, like

  • Code generator: Powerful tool to generate a complete development environment for resource adapters based on the latest features of the specification
  • Validator: Validates your resource adapter implementation against the specification and provides feedback about violations
  • ShrinkWrap / Arquillian integration: Resource adapter testing taken to the next level with in-memory assembly of resource adapters and using IronJacamar/Embedded and Arquillian to execute unit tests in milliseconds - yes, milliseconds !

A lot of new features, so download the distribution today, and try them out and send us your feedback :)

JBoss Application Server 7

You can upgrade the IronJacamar container in JBoss Application Server 7 by

cd doc/as
./as-upgrader.sh 1.0.0.Final /path/to/your/as7/installation

That will give you the latest features and bug fixes.

And JBoss AS 7.0.0.Final will be out really soon now :)

The Road Ahead

Planning and development on IronJacamar 1.1 have started, but first more importantly:

Champagne !!

Please, raise your glass, and celebrate with us that the first part of the journey is complete.

Last, but not least - A HUGE shout-out to our community and developers who helped with this release. You know who you are !

For Those About to Rock, We Salute You !

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