Those of you following Jakarta EE probably know that the upcoming Jakarta EE 8 release will be functionally equivalent to Java EE 8. The reason for this is that we want to prove that the transfer from Oracle is complete and that we are able to produce the processes, specifications, test suites and a compatible implementation through the Eclipse Foundation.

So far Eclipse GlassFish 5.1 has been released and certified as Java EE 8 compatible. The next step is to set everything up for Jakarta EE 8 and release Eclipse GlassFish 5.2 as Jakarta EE 8 compatible.

One of the tasks that need to be done in order to release Jakarta EE 8 is to transform the existing Java EE specification documents to Jakarta EE. This will involve renaming the specifications according to the trademark agreement between Oracle and Eclipse Foundation*.

In addition to this, the scope for the existing EE4J projects containing the APIs for the individual specs will need to be updated and the projects themselves will be converted into Jakarta EE specification projects as defined in the Eclipse Foundation Specification Process (EFSP). The Jakarta EE Specification process will be a specialization of the EFSP.

To keep track of all of this, we have created a planning board in the Jakarta EE Platform GitHub project.

What I have described in this post is just a couple of the things that need to be done regarding the specifications in order to get Jakarta EE 8 out the door. There are a lot of other activities involving the TCK and not the least Eclipse GlassFish 5.2 that need to be done as well. But for now, the most critical item is to get through the legal hurdles of the trademark agreement and the transfer of the specification documents over to Eclipse Foundation.

*) The details of this agreement is yet to be defined when this blog post is published.