This is the first of our weekly news catch-up and covers Nov 1 to Nov 11, 2009. This week the news catch-up is partial; next week I'll create the entry through the week and will try to be more comprehensive. This week we also cover old news on JRuby and OSGi.

GlassFish and Middleware News

• IBM DeveloperWorks: Introducing Metro. Nice to see IBM refering to the GlassFish WebServices implementation as it is Used by Many, including IBM. Incidentally, the article triggered several internal and external threads on the topic, see for example: Broken Fault Handling in Metro.
  
• Subversion is now an Apache Incubator podling and same for LibCloud (from Apache incubator)
• New IzPack, and new GlassFish v2.1.1 installer (via alexismp)
• Sun's Financial results for Q3FY2010 are now available. The revenue for MiddleWare+MySQL are shown as a single entry and are (slightly) up, Year-to-Year (Y/Y); Java and OpenStorage are significantly up Y/Y; other segments are down Y/Y.  Also check the numbers for previous quarters.
• IntelliJ IDEA 9 (Maia) goes Beta with full JavaEE 6 (and GlassFish v3) suport.
• Sun's to cut 3000 jobs.
• New record month in GlassFish GeoMap numbers (more details still to come).
  

Predicting our Systems Future

• Systems-related: New DTrace CheatSheet, Simple LB in OpenSolaris,
  
• Latest installment in Chris's series on Reduced Install of OpenSolaris. The series deserves a spotlight...
• Dedup in ZFS. This is a big deal; DeDup is big $$ business.

From the past: OSGi in GlassFish (triggered by this thread):

• Sahoo has done a lot of work on the OSGi portion of GF; see his blogs on: Running GlassFish on Equinox (and other OSGi Platforms), OSGi enabled web applications inGlassFish, Developing Hybrid (OSGi + Java EE) applications in GlassFish and Our second hybrid application: EJB as OSGi Service and OSGi Declarative Service bundle in GlassFish.
• Also see Arun's note building on this work at GlassFish v3 with different OSGi runtimes – Felix, Equinox, and Knoplerfish

From the past: JRuby on GlassFish (triggered by this thread)

• From GF Wiki: Getting Started with JRuby on GF
  

Mojarra 2.0, the production-quality, reference implementation for JSF 2.0 is out! Yet another step closer to v3 final. This will of course be part of GlassFish v3 later this year (with an integration planned as early as this week) but Maven and standalone are two other options to grab the bits. In his blog, Ryan lists a set of very good resources (mainly blog posts) on JSF 2.0. Earlier this year, Ryan authored a series of blogposts which were also very detailed and informative. He covers tools support (yes, it's coming very soon as Cay discusses for NetBeans in his latest blog post) and recognizes the numerous contributors to this major release.

Note also that while JSF 2.0 is set to be part of Java EE 6, it does not require a servlet 3.0 container. In the case of GlassFish v3.0, web.xml is optional and there is no longer the need to declare the Faces servlet (see Cay's entry on that as well).

Mojarra as an implementation of JSF 2.0 is the first one out but it is also set to be part of a number of coopetitor's. Finally, now is probably a good time to skim throught The Aquarium posts tagged with the jsf2 and mojarra keywords.

Added The latest release is Mojarra 2.0.1, see Jim's post.

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.

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.

Java EE 6 will include JSR 330 and JSR 299. Roberto explains the changes: • JSR-299 will be updated to use the JSR-330 annotations • JSR-330 has evolved to take into account requirements from JSR-299 • Both JSRs will be part of the Java EE 6 Platform

Thanks to everybody that worked so hard to make these changes; obviously we wished this had happened earlier in the Java EE 6 cycle but the result will be an improved platform. We estimate that the final release of Java EE 6 (and GFv3) will be around November but we should have specific dates next week.

Check out Roberto's Announcement for details.

Ludo seems to win the race to be the First to Announce it, but NB6.8 M1 is now available for download. This is the first build that provides JavaEE 6 support, including a bundled GlassFish v3 (b57). See New And Noteworthy and Ludo's Post for details. Download the different bundles from the NB6.8 M1 page.

Added - Reviews from:

• Adam Bien - "Netbeans 6.8m1 - The (lightweight) Java EE 6 IDE"
• James Branajam - More About NB 6.8 M1

JSF 2.0 continues to show signs of good adoption in the enterprise world. From IBM's DeveloperWorks, David Geary has posted JSF 2 Fu, Part 3. And, from the other side, Andy Schwartz, Oracle's rep to JSR-314, has now published a very nice and complete What’s New in JSF 2?.

Other posts on this topic are tagged JSF2. An easy way to play with the technology is to download GlassFish v3 Preview and then Upgrade to the Latest Mojarra.

With JavaEE 6 due out very soon, we are moving into the final stages, including completing courses and certificates. Roberto is Asking for your Help to validate the content; please consider contributing to make these offerings as valuable as possible. When is "very soon"? Stay tuned for an schedule update.

Ken and the Expert Group have done a great job in making EJB 3.1 easier to use and Ken has been also easing learning it through a number of short notes: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. Ken's latest addition is an Overview with Samples where he covers all the highlights. So, if you are curious about EJB 3.1, check Ken's Overview and try it on GlassFish v3 Preview.

Thanks to Ed for the tip, and, for related entries, check the EJB3 and javaee6 tags.

Not exactly the Antipodes but I think we can argue we have the whole world covered... While FISL is hosted in Porto Alegre, Jazoon will be held in Zurich. Check out the Jazoon Home Page and Schedule and check Alexis' List of Talks related to GlassFish. And, if you are on the other side, check GlassFish @FISL!

Now that JSF 2.0 is Final and is is easily accessible in GFv3 Preview, it is a good time to learn more about it, so here is a set of useful links:

Also, all related TA entries are tagged JSF... And, please send us feedback on the spec or the implementation to help us with the Fit and Finish.

Adam's Java EE (5/6) book (Real World Java EE Patterns) is now available. The book uses GlassFish (v3) and NetBeans for its examples, which are all available online at Kenai. The book is an example of self-publishing (through Lulu) and you can buy it online in either electronic or paper form. More details at Adam's announcement. This is the second book based on JavaEE 6 (due for release in late September); the previous one is Antonio's Beginning Java™ EE 6 Platform with GlassFish™ 3: From Novice to Professional. More GlassFish book's tagged Book.

The Proposed Final Draft specification for JSR 299 has been submitted to the JCP. See Gavin's Announcement and Overview and/or download the document. Still unfolding is the relationship between 299, JavaEE 6 and JSR 330; see the comments at Gavin's post for some ideas, and you can also compare the results and comments between the votes for 299 and for 330. I'll post when there is something public to share.