NetBeans 6.8 beta is now available (Download, NB 6.8 Home Page). NB 6.8 has a number of key features, from support for GlassFish v3 to JavaFX to PHP frameworks like symfony. The NB6.8 website links to other documentation that is being updated as we get closer to fcs, including Tutorials and Screencasts. NetBeans screencasts can also be found in the NB Channel at Channel Sun (for example, see the Symfony Support recording; and that of kick butt).

Abhijit has announced an update to the GlassFish v3 fcs schedule. We could not keep the previous date due to a black-out period at the JCP (EC elections) and moving the date forward proved to be unworkable for several reasons - including the current Java.Net problems - so we moved the date out by two weeks. New dates set the hard code freeze (HCF) date to Nov 9, 2009, with a final release by Dec 10. Full details at Schedule Page@Wiki.

One of the areas that has been improved significantly in GlassFish v3 is monitoring - see Prashanth's Functionality Overview. Most of the functionality is in the core product but some added value features will be part of the next version of the GlassFish Enterprise Manager available through Sun's commercial Sun GlassFish Portfolio. Two recent posts by Sreeni explain how to use the new functionality to Enable/disable monitoring and attach Btrace-agent and to Create pluggable container-monitoring elements. The new monitoring functionality can also be used with JRuby, as Arun describes in How to monitor a Rails app using asadmin, JavaScript, jConsole, REST.

We are all looking forward towards GlassFish v3 FCS!

As we get closer to GlassFish v3 FCS, the development is moving into cleanup stage - and with high volume, see the DEV alias. Part of the cleanup is the usual bug fixing, part is an Increased Testing via FishCAT and part is general code quality cleanup via tools like FindBugs. FindBugs is particularly useful because it helps to find new bugs and prevents future bugs. FindBugs is integrated into the development cycle through a Hudson job; see High Priority FindBugs. The FindBugs cleanup phase started recently (see FindBugs thread), but the Trend Chart shows the progress.

I've been enlightened. A while ago - I just checked, it was actually 2006! - I read Cay's Elvis Meets GlassFish and I thought it was a cute reference to The King. Then yesterday I noticed that Byron's Mort Learns Monitoring and Administration Commands and I thought it was about Terri Prachett's Mort... Well, turns out I was wrong and they are about Mort, Elvis and Einstein, which are personas for developer classes that were used at Microsoft (we had our own back in DevPro); check out Wesner Moise's note, Nikhil Kothari's explanation and Jeff Atwood's update...

So, now that I've been educated, check Byron's posts for Mort, the opportunistic developer:

• Mort Learns JDBC
• Mort learns JDBC Realm Authentication,
• Mort learns Monitoring and Administration Commands

PS. Does anybody know where "Mort" comes from? The other two are clear, even to a guy that was not born in the US :-)

The FishCAT is Back! (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)! Judy has announced the Launch of the FishCAT Program for GlassFish v3, building on the success of the GFv3 Prelude Program (also see the 100 members achievement). We are in the final stretch for GFv3 (roadmap); if you are interested in helping with the quality of this critical release for GlassFish, check Judy's Post, and the FishCAT home and Wiki pages and contact Judy through the Quality Alias.

GlassFish v3 is available in a number of download bundles. The bundles are available at different locations: the Community Download Page and the JavaEE Preview SDK, with different installer technologies: ZIP file or an installer and with different feature sets: Web or Full Profile. Alexis has written a good summary of the issues involved to help you navigate through these options. Check it out, and continue to get ready for the GF v3 fcs release.

As previously reported last month, JavaEE 6 will include JSR330 and JSR299. Roger Kitain already has a simple yet detailed blog entry on using JCDI (JSR 299, ex-WebBeans) in GlassFish. He walks through JSF 2.0 and JSR 299/JSR 330 code. You'll see there @Inject, @Qualifier, @SessionScoped, @ApplicationScoped, all in action.

If you're curious enough to test this sample, I would recommend using NetBeans 6.8 M1 - register a recent GlassFish v3 build (promoted build web 62 for instance), create a Web Application with Java EE 6 as the platform level and copy paste the various pieces. No further settings are required.

Overall, this shows progress since Cay's previous entry on the topic. Other posts on similar topics are marked with the "jsr299" and "jsr330" tags. Keep an eye on Roger's blog for more entries on this topic.

Carla has provided an overview of 3 new logging related commands in GlassFish v3:

• asadmin rotate-log • asadmin list-logger-levels • asadmin set-log-level --level level logger-name

Upgrade to the latest GF v3 and try it out.

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.

Prashanth has written a detailed description of the new monitoring framework in GlassFish v3, which includes descriptions of the basic concepts of probes, probe provider and probe listeners. Probe providers include both class-based and XML-based providers, where the framework will automagically create a provider without requiring modifications to the existing code. Probe listeners are called from the providers to produce the desired information; for example statistics are generated by StatsProviders.

Prashanth's note also describes how to expose the probes to DTrace and to a OS-agnostic scripting client, and how this is used by different clients, including: JMX/AMX, REST, the Admin console and asadmin. Overall, a great overview - check it out.

PS. I was on vacation last week, just catching up now and I missed announcing the JavaEE 6 and GF v3 webinar from this morning; from what John told me and what I read in the Twitter posts, it was very successful: more than 4K subscribed, and over 1200 attended.

Alexis and Paul have updated the GlassFish Release Feature Table that compares GlassFish v2, v3 Prelude and v3 Preview. My shortened summary is still applicable: v2.1 is for production deployments, v3 Preview is a beta for v3 final and v3 Prelude is/was a transitional release...

More JSF 2.0 samples: • Carol has converted the Pet Store to Use JSF 2.0, JavaEE6 and GFv3 preview, • Jim shows how to take a YUI calendar widget and integrate it in a JSF 2.0 page, • ... and then takes that widget and Moves it into a JSF Component.

A couple of weeks we provided an update of the GlassFish v2.1.1 Schedule; it's now time to do the same with that for GlassFish v3.

The key driver for GlassFish v3 is JavaEE 6. This means GFv3 leverages the expertise of the wide JCP community and our users have the benefits of a standard but... it also means we don't control all the variables - which is ultimately good, but can be painful in the short-term.

We knew things could get complicated when JSR 330 appeared in mid-May, after the PFD for most of JavaEE 6, and was later accepted by the JCP EC. The relationship between JSR 330 and JSR 299 was resolved recently and both will be part of JavaEE 6, so it was just a matter of doing the numbers, and... The answer is about 8 weeks. The updated GF v3 Roadmap puts the FCS at Nov 24th, just in time for Thanksgiving@USA. The change propagates to NetBeans 6.8 (roadmap) as well as follow-up releases to GFv3 (exact dates still shimmering).

So, that's the new date. It's actually quite good, considering the magnitude of the last-minute change. Overall, I know 330 will make for a better release - just let's hope that next time submissions don't come so late in the cycle... See GlassFish+v3

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.