Going back a little bit to the GlassFish v2.1 release (January 2009), if you're into JMS (the most under-used Java EE technology IMO) it's important to notice that OpenMQ 4.3 is now shipping with this latest version of the application server (full documentation here). The most obvious new feature listed in the Release Notes is UMS (Universal Message Service).

Universal Message Service (UMS) is documented here and offers access to Message Queue from any HTTP client. OpenMQ ships with C#, Python and Ajax examples which are also featured in this nice screencast demo (last in the series of videos). Performance-wise, UMS is not a replacement to the existing C and Java APIs but still a nice addition to GlassFish 2.1 and MQ 4.3.

OpenMQ was recently highlighted on The Aquarium TV (archive). You can find a quick overview of version 4.3 (and what led to this release) on the GlassFish Podcast in episode #26. Also, make sure you listen to Linda's "Santa Claus" presentation in the following episode (#27). Well worth the time for anyone interested in JMS architectures.

The vast majority of Tomcat applications ran fin on GlassFish. Jan tell us that now even the ones using the Tomcat-style valves will run unmodified. Of at The ServerSide Pawan explains How to use OpenMQ with Mule ESB by configuring the Mule JMS connector. Added (by pelegri) - I've heard of a number of requests for this, please let us know if you use the combination so we can track OpenMQ adoption. LayeredTech announced free GlassFish hosting for Sun Startup Essentials™ Program participants. CrazyRails has a post on how to install JRuby on Rails on Mac, including GlassFish and MySQL setup. More GlassFish coverage is promised.

With the advent of the GlassFish-powered OpenESB product, there's been some very interesting activity around SOA on java.net so here's a recap of SOA-related projects on java.net :

• OpenESB - the core project, implementing JBI, serving as the foundation to JavaCAPS and leveraging the GlassFish runtime.
• Project Mural - Master Data Management community. Get your feet wet with this Hands-On-Lab.
• Project Fuji - an experimental project building on GlassFish v3, OSGi, and JBI. Listen to Andi's presentation here.
• JBI Components - a collection of JBI components, Binding Components and Business Engines.

And some sister projects :

• KeyChain - ESB components for legacy application integration for SPML Provisioning gateway.
• OpenMQ - the high-performance JMS implementation that is integrated in both GlassFish and OpenESB.
• Metro Web Services - the one-stop-shop for Web Services from WS-I Basic Profile to advanced (secure, reliable, optimized, ...) SOAP web services.
• NetBeans. SOA without tools?

Expect a roadmap and vision document in the near future for how these pieces all come together (for those that don't already, that is).