By Guest Blogger John Clingan

GlassFish Server 4.1 Open Source Edition is available for download! This release of the world's first Java EE 7 application server includes multiple new and valuable features and updates. Here is a quick look at what's new:

• Updated Platform Support.  This release adds support for Java 8, CDI 1.2, and WebSocket 1.1. GlassFish, the world's first Java EE 7 application server, maintains leading compatibility with the latest Java EE specifications.

• Improved Developer Experience.While GlassFish 4.1 remains an open-source only release, quality and a productive developer experience remain a key focus.  GlassFish Server is made up of over 20 sub-projects (like Tyrus, Jersey, Weld, EclipseLink, and more). Each of these projects adds features and bug fixes, over 1,000 in all! Thanks to those developers who participated in the GlassFish 4.1 FishCAT program to make GlassFish even better!  A special shout out to Joonas Lehtinen, who found a bug that caused GlassFish to fail to boot on Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)!

• New Features.  Here's a list of some of the most important updates in this release.

• Tyrus (WebSocket 1.1 RI).  Now supports the WebSocket 1.1 specification, which adds a couple of APIs for improved support for Lambda expressions. Tyrus adds some features above and beyond the specification, like throttling the number of open sessions, metrics exposed through JMX, client reconnect, proxy support, optimized broadcasting of a message to all open sockets, and more. 

• Jersey (JAX-RS 2.0 RI). Updated with some impressive new features. Jersey brings the OAuth support originally available in Jersey 1.1, and adds a new client-side API for OAuth 1 and 2 support. Jersey has also improved diagnostics with better error reporting, exposes Jersey metrics over JMS, and per-request tracing to a log file or to the HTTP reponse header. Jersey also adds client-side server-sent event reconnect support.

• OpenMQ (JMS 2.0 RI). Open MQ adds support for communicating over WebSocket. There are two types of WebSocket clients that are supported. First, mqstomp, which adds support for any WebSocket client that supports the STOMP 1.2 protocol. Second, mqjsonstomp, which enables a (WebSocket) client to send JSON formatted messages using the STOMP 1.2 protocol. 

• Java EE 7 SDK. The Java EE 7 SDK has been updated to make it more approachable overall. First, it is shipped as a zip bundle, offering a very simple installation process. The SDK also bundles GlassFish 4.1 and now supports Java 8. Last, the Java EE 7 SDK bundle includes updates to both the Java EE 7 Tutorial and Java EE 7 First Cup.

In summary, GlassFish 4.1 offers updated platform support, improved developer experience, new features and is bundled in the refreshed Java EE 7 SDK. GlassFish 4.1 can be downloaded from glassfish.org, and the Java EE 7 SDK can be downloaded from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). 

Ed Burns, Consulting Member of Technical Staff, and Kinman Chung, Principle Member of Technical Staff, both at Oracle, presented a session on Monday in which they described new features in JSR 341, Expression Language (EL) 3.0. They discussed the APIs for the use of EL in standalone environments and EL syntax for new operators, plus lambda expressions, and support for collection objects, all the while offering copious code illustrations.

Burns remarked that he was pleased that Java Champion and JavaOne Rock Star Adam Bien had referred to EL 3.0 as “the hidden gem of Java EE”. “I don’t know how hidden it is,” said Burns, “but I think it’s a gem.”

He discussed the origins of EL, which has a long and active history in the Java platform. EL began in 2004 as part of the Java Standard Tag Library (JSTL 1.0), moved to JSP 2.0 in 2006, and became an independent specification with JSR 341 in 2011. It is used in JSF, CDI, and Avatar. Now, 9 years after its inception, it is an independent specification that is heavily used in JSF.   

Burns observed that the presence of EL is the key differentiator between Java server and non-java server stacks. “Java server-based web frameworks are likely to use EL,” said Burns. “When you show someone who is not familiar with EL how easy it is to move things together from disparate parts of your application, it’s very compelling.”

The most important feature that EL 3 brings is lambda expressions – developers do not have to wait until Java SE 8 is released. It all runs on Java EE 7, which requires Java SE 7 -- which means that it is currently available. Burns gave a brief discussion of lambda expressions, which basically behave like an anonymous function -- lambdas in EL are EL expressions. They offer full access to the EL environment within the body of the EL lambda expression, something not available from Java SE lambdas. “You won’t be able to refer to other EL things from a plain old SE lambda expression,” said Burns.

The goal of EL 3 is to provide greater expressive power for applications and to use it outside of Java EE. Burns and Chung provided an overview of collection operations and explained EL’s support for stand-alone environments. EL 3 is easy to use outside of Java EE and provides standard data structures: ELContext; ELResolvers; and local variable and function repositories.

They explained that it enables direct EL operations and has: EL expression evaluation; Bean definition; and Function definition. They emphasized that other key parts of Java EE can also be used standalone, such as: Bean Validation; Persistence (JPA); and Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI). They encouraged developers to consider the possibilities for cloud deployment in: Defining functions and variables and defining beans.

They spent the rest of the session illustrating their key points with a healthy dose of code.

Links and Downloads:
* JSR 341: http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=341
    Download spec and API javadocs

* Project home: https://java.net/projects/el-spec/
   Report spec bugs or RFE for el.next

* RI: https://java.net/projects/uel/
   Maven artifacts available from Maven Central
   Download source and report RI bugs

* Integrated in Glassfish 4.0: https://glassfish.java.net/

You can listen to this session in early October on Parleys.com.

Oracle, Eurotech, Hitachi Communication Technologies America and Hitachi Consulting Collaborate to Present a Live, Conference Attendee People Counter Solution

A joint initiative between Oracle, Eurotech, Hitachi Communication Technologies America (Hitachi CTA) and Hitachi Consulting has led to the creation of a new demonstration of the Internet of Things (IoT) concept: “IoT in Motion – Driving Business Value from Edge Device to Application”. The people counter solution is based on a unique blend of cutting-edge Eurotech hardware, Hitachi SuperJ® Applications Ecosystem, Oracle Java SE Embedded, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Business Intelligence products and will be showcased at the JavaOne and Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco 2013 conferences, running September 22-26.

IoT in Motion will also be shown on a running basis throughout JavaOne and Oracle OpenWorld 2013 at:

• Java DEMOgrounds and OTN Lounge at JavaOne (#5207)
• Eurotech booth at JavaOne (#5616)
• Hitachi CTA booth at JavaOne (#5507)
• Hitachi Consulting booth at Oracle OpenWorld (#1901 Moscone South)

JavaOne 2013 Session ID: CON7824 - The Enterprise of Things: Extending the Enterprise from the Data Center to Devices on Thursday, September 26 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Hotel Nikko, Monterey I/II

• 17 Eurotech People Counters will be installed at a variety of locations at JavaOne and Oracle OpenWorld including:
• Moscone North, Hall D – JavaOne and Oracle OpenWorld keynotes
• Java Exhibition Hall (Hilton San Francisco Union Square)
• JavaOne registration area (Hilton San Francisco Union Square)
• Java DEMOgrounds and OTN Lounge at JavaOne (#5207)
• Eurotech booth at JavaOne (#5616)
• Hitachi CTA booth at JavaOne (#5507)
• Hitachi Consulting booth at the Oracle OpenWorld exhibition hall (#1901 Moscone South)

Oracle Press Release: Industry Leading Companies to Showcase How Customers Can Achieve Business Value from the Internet of Things at JavaOne and Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco 2013

The biggest Java conference in Europe is taking place in Antwerp, Belgium from November 11 to 15, 2013. The conference is designed by developers for developers and attracts renowned international speakers.

The review committee looks for passionate speakers who are technically knowledgeable and not afraid to speak in front of a full room of Devoxxians.

The speakers can increase CFP acceptance rate by submitting one or more talks for Tools in Action, Quickie, BOF, University session, Conference and Hands On Labs sessions.

Up on otn/java is a new article by Oracle senior software engineer Mahesh Kannan, titled “An Overview of Batch Processing in Java EE 7.0,” which explains the new batch processing capabilities provided by JSR 352 in Java EE 7. Kannan explains that “Batch processing is used in many industries for tasks ranging from payroll processing; statement generation; end-of-day jobs such as interest calculation and ETL (extract, load, and transform) in a data warehouse; and many more. Typically, batch processing is bulk-oriented, non-interactive, and long running—and might be data- or computation-intensive. Batch jobs can be run on schedule or initiated on demand. Also, since batch jobs are typically long-running jobs, check-pointing and restarting are common features found in batch jobs.”

JSR 352 defines the programming model for batch applications plus a runtime to run and manage batch jobs. The article covers feature highlights, selected APIs, the structure of Job Scheduling Language, and explains some of the key functions of JSR 352 using a simple payroll processing application. The article also describes how developers can run batch applications using GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 4.0.

Kannan summarizes the article as follows:

“In this article, we saw how to write, package, and run simple batch applications that use chunk-style steps. We also saw how the checkpoint feature of the batch runtime allows for the easy restart of failed batch jobs. Yet, we have barely scratched the surface of JSR 352. With the full set of Java EE components and features at your disposal, including servlets, EJB beans, CDI beans, EJB automatic timers, and so on, feature-rich batch applications can be written fairly easily.”

Check out the article here.