Christmas in February! It took a bit longer than I expected but the GlassFish v3 M2 is now available. This release supports the Java Web Container (no JSF so far) and JRuby on Rails. Also supported are multiple HTTP listeners and Virtual Servers. Have fun! Downloads and Available Commands.

The Mediacast team (the companion to BSC for large media files) has rewritten the application using JRuby, Rails, Goldspike and GlassFish. Igor has a good Writeup describing the good and the bad. I know that the area around memory comsumption and performance is improving rapidly right now; we will see how things look like by JavaOne.

Are you a Rails developer and looking for a better development container ? - GlassFish Gem provides that option. You can use GlassFish V3, instead of WEBrick, for deploying your Rails application. Read the complete details here. Are you an existing GlassFish V2 user and interested in using Rails ? - JRuby module on the Update Center allows to create WAR of a Rails application that can be easily deployed on GlassFish. Read the complete details here and watch the screencast.

Here are some useful entries (with numerous pointers on screencasts, blogs, tips & extensive feature sets) to get you started:

• JRuby in GlassFish
• NetBeans Ruby Support

Rails Europe Conference Report from Arun. Covering GlassFish, jMaki, jRuby and NetBeans. • Day 1. • Day 2.

We have been improving how jRuby and GlassFish run together (entries) and Jerome now has a Ruby Gem that makes the process as simple as possible. Ruby Gems are the Ruby package mechanism, similar in spirit to RPMs or pkg(1) for Solaris, which enables very natural encapsulation of the functionality.

The result is: • Install jRuby • gem install rails • gem install glassfish • gem install whatever else you need • create your rails app • run your rails app! -- runs on GlassFish! Can't get any simpler than that!

The GlassFish GEM is one of the first concrete deliveries from GlassFish v3; don't rush to go production on this :-), but the future is bright! See more details in Arun's writeup and in the Mail Thread.

Added: Also see the report by Charles.

In three simple steps, Takai explains how to start your JRuby on Rails application using Grizzly 1.6: Step 1: Install JRuby on Rails Step 2: Prepare Rails app Step 3: Setup JRuby on Rails with Grizzly    And that's it!

Grizzly 1.6 will be integrated in GlassFish V3. The currently available v3 build contains Grizzly 1.5 and an Earlier Post shows how to How to Run jRuby on them.

The JRuby Process Models explains the difference between the processes involved when a Rails application is deployed using Grizzly and webapp mode.

Thanks to Jean-Francois for the tip!

In a recent interview, David Heinemeier Hansson (creator of Rails) talks about how JRuby bridges the gap between JavaEE and Rails. Here are couple of quotes ... JRuby is a great way to open the conversation with enterprises by saying, You don't have to throw out all this "junk" you've accumulated over the years, Ruby is just an incremental piece you can put in. But in some ways, it's sugar coating to get people to really come on board. It's a bridge for getting from one place to another.

On Sun promoting Rails ...

I think they recognize what developers want, they are recognizing there is great enthusiasm and passion for Ruby on Rails, and they don't want to miss out on that. To a large extent, they are following the passion, the excitement. ... I welcome Sun and IBM to come in and offer services.

Here are some useful entries (with numerous pointers on screencasts, blogs, tips & extensive feature sets) to get you started:

• JRuby in GlassFish
• NetBeans Ruby Support
• Ruby Tutorials and Demos

A tip from Arun: Difference between Ruby Gem and Rails Plugin

Arun has been documenting how to use Ruby, jRuby and Rails (entries). The whole jRuby team has been making improving usability very quickly so old writeups sometimes need refreshing and Tom's recent changes prompted Arun to revisit Configuring ActiveRecord. BTW, we had a recent thread on what shorthand to use to describe "Rails Running on jRuby on the Java Platform"; we settled on jRoR; what do you think?

Ruby Hack Day (see Arun's report) included a presentation by Nick Sieger on how to deploy Rails Application for production. The traditional (old?) arrangement (diagram) is to have the HTTP processing done via Mongrel and then use Mongrel_Cluster: one Rails per Mongrel, one Mongrel per (native) Ruby, each Ruby as an OS process. Nick showed 3 variants using jRuby instead of Ruby.

The first approach uses Mongrel_jCluster: one Rails per Mongrel, one Mongrel per jRuby, many jRuby per JVM. In the second approach the Rails app is packaged as a WAR, the HTTP processing is done by GlassFish and then, via the Goldspike RailsServlet delivered to Rails instances. In the third approach the requests are passed directly from the Grizzly layer to Rails.

Arun has a nice writeup capturing these options from where I stole the pictures. You may also want to check the Wiki pages on Ruby and GlassFish and on Ruby and NetBeans.

Summer is almost over and the different projects are showing renewed activity, and that includes GlassFish v3. Arun has been doing a number of screencasts around Ruby recently and the latest one shows How to Run jRuby on V3.

Other GFv3-related activity already announced includes working on the Separate JSP Project and Hg Plugin for Hudson. Stay tuned for more; things should start picking up in speed after we get GlassFish v2 out. That is still scheduled for mid-next month.

Arun has posted a nice set of write-ups on how to use jRuby and Rails on GlassFish, including Getting Started with RoR and several Hello Worlds: basic, RoR with a database and RoR with a database in a WAR. His last two blogs have started to move info GlassFish v3 - check his jRuby Tutorial overview, and then how to run Mephisto on v3

The feedback so far is very positive ... and even simpler approaches are cooking....

Here are two related entries by Ashish. First he reports on the latest release (1.1.1) of Rails Integration (creation of WAR files from Rails apps), which improves deployment, performance and conforms to Rails 1.2.x. Ashish next describes how to deploy these WARs to a GlassFish v2 cluster! We will show this demo at JavaOne but you can beat the crowds (for free!) at GlassFish Day (requires registration).

PS. I'm falling quite behind in reporting important news because I'm very busy with J1 and GFD and the pace of announcements is increasing. Fortunately it is just one more week!

Here are two recent entries showing how to use fastCGI to enable using Scripting Languages in the new Sun WebServer 7.0. First, check Natarajan detailed blog to learn how to use the new PHP AddOn. Then you can also check Seema and Marina's very detailed article to use Ruby on Rails. All TheAquarium entries related to the Sun WebServer use the WebServer tag. For details on the Sun WebServer 7.0, check the Product Page and the SDN Developer page. The download is available here and the documentation here.

Ashish is making Rails apps run well on GlassFish, and has been writing about it. His latest writeup describes how to take a RoR app, deploy it into GlassFish and have it use a Derby database embedded (the alternative is remote, where Derby runs in a separate process). A few gotcha's, so check Ashish's blog for details if you are to do this.