GlassFish v3 is not just modular but the components can be updated through IPS-based UpdateCenter machinery. The Update Center team has been evolving tracking the IPS changes and adding refinements of their own; newer releases, like GFv3Preview, have been running recent UC, but the repositories for GFv3Prelude were running an older version of UC. Last week the Glassfish team pushed Update Center Toolkit 2.2u2 to the Prelude repositories. In normal conditions you should not notice the change but if you visit the repository directly you will see new graphics and additional facilities (like package search) plus improved performance and metrics.

GFv3 FCS is around the corner and we are seeing very high interest in the release. At that point we expect the bulk of the GlassFish downloads to switch to being served from the IPS repositories - and we will find out if our capacity planning has been accurate :-)

It took a bit longer than anticipated, but we have updated the repositories behind GlassFish v3 Preview (STABLE from glassfish.sun.com). You are most likely to notice this through the see new SoftwareUpdate tool, but you might also see it through the GUI UpdateTool or the embedded UpdateTool, or do it manually via the CLI. Full details in Alexis writeup and Abhijit's announcement. The whole thing has been working very well for me in recent builds but this is software, so please let us know if you experience any issues.

Jeff's blog entry on installing Web Stack using IPS (a new feature in 1.5) now has a screencast version (4 min. ogg format, use Firefox 3.5 or VLC 1.0), courtesy of Brian. The GlassFish Web Stack (see recent 1.5 release) uses the same packaging technology as the GlassFish App Server and as OpenSolaris (where the technology initially came from). IPS, also known as pkg(5), offers a packaging system and tools (both command-line and graphical) to install and manage images. Check the IPS tag for more coverage (mainly applied to GlassFish AS).

Earlier in the week Brian had also posted a detailed entry on how to setup Django using WebStack on Solaris, together with a screencast (also in .ogg format). This one uses the "native" Python implementation and the Apache web server. For details on how to run Django with Jython on GlassFish, visit Vivek's blog which has all the details for you (the GlassFish v3 update center now has a jython container available as an add-on).

Also don't forget that Hudson is now part of the GlassFish Web Stack and thus now a supported product.

We have been converting our distributions to leverage the new IPS format. Recent conversions to IPS include OpenMQ 4.4 and some distributions of GFv2.1 but the distribution with the largest volume remains GFv3 Preview.

The current release of GFv3 Preview uses pkg.sun.com/glassfish/v3/stable/. These packages were last updated before J1 (except docs) but we will soon push out an update based on an stable promoted build and when that happens you are likely to encounter the New SoftwareUpdate Tool.

The SoftwareUpdate tool provides a simplified interface to the standard UpdateTool, normally activated via a PopUp Notice. A single click Starts a Search for all the Apps that can be updated. Once Completed, choose the Apps you want to update, accept the license terms, and install.

The SoftwareUpdate tool will report on the progress of the install: [1], [2], [3]. Once Completed you are done. The underlying machinery is the same used in the UpdateTool, and you can peek into the details, both before installing and after installing, but the SoftwareUpdate experience is faster and simpler, and more appropriate for most users.

IPS is one of the key new technologies that we are leveraging for GlassFish v3; related entries are tagged IPS. If you want more technical details, Christophe has a very good Presentation as part of the IPS Best Practices wiki. Also check the UC2 Blogs.

Jersey 1.1.1-ea (see Announcement) is now available at the GlassFish.org DEV Update Center repository. This means you can update your GlassFish to this development module with a couple of clicks. Follow the same instructions as for the latest Mojarra/JSF to discover and install the module; see our previous post for details.

The Update Center technology and repositories leverage IPS and GFv3's modularity (built on OSGi) to make updates, upgrades and additions very easy. The technology supports multiple repositories, local, intra-net, or remote and can be used not just to deliver updates to GlassFish but also all sorts of functionality on it, from Sun, its partners, your partners, your group, your IT shop, etc...

This is a significant change to the way we currently address these tasks and we are still improving all the pieces of this chain. I'm considering organizing a couple of online webinars on the topic later in the summer to get more details out but also to get your feedback and do some additional brainstorming.

There is a new beta for Mojarra 2.0, the RI of JSF 2.0 (relnotes, news, downloads). Mojarra 2.0 is bundled in GlassFish v3 and the new release of Mojarra is included in recent Promoted Builds; an alternative is to use the Update Center and only update JSF.

The Update Crenter is accessed through an update tool; either the one bundled in the GlassFish console or the unbundled one. To do that, first ensure that you have http://pkg.glassfish.org/v3/dev as your preferred repository and then check on available updates. You will get a long list; you can then unselect all the components (using (Command-Modifier)-U on my mac) and then select JSF only. Then you just need to install the new packages.

Thanks to Jim for the tip. Ah!, also note that Mojarra can also be used in other containers; install and configure it manually.

I've posted the May 09 GlassFish Adoption Report. Some growth from April 09, but not back to the March 09 peak; probably some seasonal drop, possibly some impact from the Oracle announcement. The full report includes the usual download data for run-time and tools bundles, a comparison with JBoss downloads, GeoMap, Registration and Update Center.

I expect to post the June report next week.

Alexis has posted additional entries in his GlassFish à la carte series. Part I and Part II (also see Review) showed how to get a minimal distro and add components to it, including some containers; Part III shows how to create a Custom Layered Distro from GlassFish v3 using the IPS tools.

The distro only bundles pre-existing components; enough to run an ejb/jersey sample. I think that this layered distro arrangement may become quite common for distribution of packages for GFv3 and it nicely shows the power of the modularity in GFv3, IPS and the embedded IPS support in GFv3.

Alexis' examples show how to create the new package, add it to your own IPS repository, and then create a new domain to run the EJB-Jersey sample. The IPS setup is very easy thanks to the documents and binaries from IPS Best Practices project, plus the Package Prototype from Alexis. To learn about IPS, check out Producing and Maintaining Packages (specially Christophe's Prezo) and MakePkgs. All the binaries you need are included in the IPS Toolkit.

The whole thing works like a champ; excerpting some of the key commands from my shell trascript:

# Created a directory for my local repo % pkg/bin/pkg.depotd -p 10001 -d /Users/pelegri/Software/my-repo # port no. and store dir. # downloaded package prototype and renamed it as pkg_proto_epll.py % cat >LICENSE.txt # need a LICENSE file! % pkg/bin/makepkgs -s http://localhost:10001/ -b ../Sample ../Sample/pkg_proto_epll.py % bin/pkg set-publisher -P --enable -O http://pkg.glassfish.org/v3/dev dev.glassfish.org % bin/pkg set-publisher --enable -O http://localhost:10001 localRepo % bin/updatetool # screenshot % bin/pkg install sample-distro # pretty much all done % bin/asadmin create-domain --instanceport 8080 --adminport 4848 mydomain % bin/asadmin start-domain mydomain # download the jersey-ejb sample WAR file % bin/asadmin deploy ../../jersey-samples/jersey-ejb-1.1.1-ea-SNAPSHOT.war % open http://localhost:8080/jersey-ejb/ # screenshot

You probably know that the new, modular, GlassFish v3 is built from (OSGi) components that can be updated using IPS. We assemble these pieces into ready-to-go JavaEE 6 Web Profile and full JavaEE 6 bundles but they can also be used to create à la carte distributions, as Alexis shows in his latest posts.

I recommend you to at least try the first example to get a better understanding of how all these technologies work together. The beauty of GFv3 is that everything is very small and fast - I'm writing this entry from a public WiFi site with pretty moderate connectivity and I'm spending more time waiting on BSC than running the example.

Part I starts with a IPS toolkit image from IPS Best Practices. The toolkit image is 5MB (most of it is the python 2.4 runtime) and has no GlassFish in it. From there, the next step is to download the GF v3 nucleus (2.41MB), which automatically brings in Felix (564KB), Grizzly (943KB) and HK2 (565KB); the IPS packages include the relevant OSGi modules. The rest of that entry shows how to install the updatecenter IPS pkg (that is the biggest package because of python graphical toolkit) and how to use it to add the management pkg, and then creates and starts a domain.

Part II in the series shows first how to install the GFv3 Web Container; then it mirrors Jerome's recent entry on GF v3, OSGi and Spring (that portion gets a bit complex and I see that Jerome already published a simpler version). Part III will continue the main theme of creating an a la carte GF v3 that has the components you want and is yet extensible.

I just posted the Apr'09 report on GlassFish Adoption. All indicators are positive but a bit down from March 09; most of the drop seems seasonal (spring break) but there might be some impact from the IBM rumor and the Oracle announcement. The full report includes the usual download data for run-time bundles, tools(+run-time) bundles (second month for the Eclipse Bundle) and a comparison with JBoss downloads. I also report on data from the GeoMap, Registration and Update Center.

Do you want your favorite package to be one-click away from millions of desktops Around the World? If so, help us add these packages to the GlassFish community repositories. To help this Alexis has been writing a series of blog entries; the last entry explains Different Strategies for Different Types of Components, covering Frameworks and Libraries, Applications Running in GlassFish, Applications Independent of GlassFish and GlassFish Extensions (HK2/OSGi Components).

Previous posts covered: Overview of Concepts and Hibernate as a Sample; more posts will follow soon.

Alexis has published his second article in a series ([1]) on creating IPS packages for GlassFish v3, this time explaining how to create the Hibernate package. The latest post gives detailed instructions on the process needed, including setup, key files and directories, Authoring the Hibernate IPS package example and Publishing and testing. More entries to follow; our goal is to make it very easy for you to publish your favorite packages to the community repository so that hundreds of thousands of people can use them. Also see other entries tagged as IPS and UpdateCenter

Alexis has started a new series to document / encourage more IPS packages for our GFv3-based repository. The first post introduces the packaging and repository concepts and provides links to a number of entry points like the UpdateCenter2 and GlassFish-Repo projects. Alexis's next post will use as an example the existing hibernate package in the v3 repository; then he will document how to create these packages for frameworks, Java EE applications, standalone applications, and GlassFish extensions. Check them out and let us know how the whole experience works for you; our goal is to improve the process. Other related entries are tagged IPS

GlassFish v3 uses EclipseLink as the default JPA provider but it supports Hibernate equally well, and, thanks to the benefits of IPS and the UpdateCenter, that's just a click away: just fire the updatetool and clicking on the package. For more details - but just a few more, there is really not much to tell - check on Mitesh's writeup.

ICEfaces is now in the GlassFish v2 Update Center, this includes the Ajax Push Server and several demos. Check out Ted's Announcement and also the previous report on JSF 2.0 early support. You can also check Ted's 10' Prezo from the Portfolio Launch.