Java EE with NetBeans 10

The Apache NetBeans project is really shaping up. Version 10.0 was released on the 27th of December 2018. The main features added since version 9.0 are listed on the download page. For me personally, the most important feature is the JDK 11 Support.

So, what about Java EE then?

Until all the NetBeans sources have been transferred from Oracle to Apache and incorporated into the Apache NetBeans build, an additional step is required in order to get Netbeans set up for Java EE development.

The first thing you need to do is to add the NetBeans 8.2 Distribution Update Center. Select Tools->Plugins in Apache NetBeans 10.0. Then click on the Settings tab and choose Add. Paste in the URL:

http://updates.netbeans.org/netbeans/updates/8.2/uc/final/distribution/catalog.xml.gz

Update Plugin Center Configuration

After saving the configuration, the next step is to select the Available Plugins tab and type java ee in the search field.

Search for Java EE plugins

As a minimum, check the plugin called Java EE Base and click the Install button. Follow the instructions and accept the licenses. NetBeans will need to restart before continuing after the installation.

After this, you are able to set up a Java EE server as shown with GlassFish 5.0 below. Choose Tools->Servers and then click Add Server.

GlassFish 5.0 with NetBeans 10.0

Happy Coding!

2018 Annual Summary

It’s this time of the year again. Time for the yearly summary of conferences, travels, community activities, open source projects, amazing people!

Like most recent years, I have been speaking at quite a few conferences around the World. The countries I visited as a speaker in 2018 were Sweden, Germany, USA, England, Denmark, France, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Speaker Appearances 2018

One of the highlights this year was to be awarded the JCP Outstanding Spec Lead Award together with Christian Kaltepoth for our work with JSR 371.

Getting the JCP Award for Outstanding Spec Lead 2018

Another acknowledgement by the community was to be re-elected for an associate seat in the JCP Executive Committee.

Besides speaking at conferences, a great deal of my time in 2018 was dedicated Jakarta EE at the Eclipse Foundation where I act as the PMC Lead of EE4J a well as being a member of the Steering-, Specification-, and Marketing Committees in the Jakarta EE Working Group.

All in all 2018 was an eventful year and I expect no less of 2019!

Oracle Groundbreaker APAC Tour 2018

This year, I was so lucky to get the chance to be part of the Oracle Groundbreaker APAC Tour 2018. The cities that I joined the tour was Perth and Melbourne in Australia as well as Wellington in New Zealand.

Perth, Australia

Copenhagen – (Singapore) – Perth
Gone swimming…

In Perth, I did a talk called Serverless with Java. I demoed various FaaS options available, including running Fn Project on Oracle Cloud. Between the sessions, I also managed to slip outside for a swim in the ocean.

Melbourne, Australia

Perth – Melbourne
New bush hat

In Melbourne, I had two sessions scheduled. The first was an informal Q&A with the local Java User Group. We had great discussions regarding the 6 months release cadence of Java, we discussed Jakarta EE and Eclipse MicroProfile and talked about Java development and Java user groups in general.

Later that afternoon, I did my Serverless with Java talk for a small, but an enthusastic crowd. 

Wellington, New Zealand

Melbourne – Wellington
Installing fn on OKE

The last stop on the journey was Wellington, New Zealand. Even here, it was the Serverless with Java talk that was put on the schedule.

To spice things up a little, I did a last minute try to get fn up and running on a managed Kubernetes cluster in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

I was close, so the next time I do this talk this will be part of the demos…

Wrap up

This was a fantastic trip, even considering the busy travel schedule and probably spending more time in the air or at airports than on the ground. The trip home from Wellington took ~36 hours door-to-door with short layovers in Auckland, Perth, and Singapore.

WLG – AKL
AKL – PER
PER – SIN
SIN – CPH

Source Code

The Function Duke project on GitHub contains all the source code for my serverless talks.

While Waiting for Jakarta EE

It is more than a year since Oracle announced the transfer of Java™ EE to Eclipse Foundation at JavaOne 2017. Since then, a lot has happened:

  • Java™ EE 8 API and implementation projects have been set up under EE4J.
  • The Eclipse GlassFish 5.1 release is approaching.
  • A brand new Jakarta EE specification process is right around the corner.
  • Community shows involvement regarding the technical direction of Jakarta EE.
  • The Jakarta EE NoSQL specification project proposal has been created.

This is all very good, excellent actually! When you think about the size of it all, it is actually quite an achievement. We are talking about 7.7 million lines of code! More than 60.000 files and a total of 38 new projects that have been set up at the Eclipse Foundation.

But, as everyone knows, developers are impatient and eager to try out everything new, so there are still a couple of questions that I always get when talking about Jakarta EE:

  • When can I start developing Jakarta EE applications?
  • How does Eclipse MicroProfile fit in this picture?

The answer to the first question is: “not yet”. Until the Jakarta EE specification process is finalized, the technologies are still Java™ EE. 

The answer to the second question differs a little depending on who you ask, but usually is something in the lines of “I am pretty sure that some of the MicroProfile specs will be integrated into Jakarta EE when they have proven to be useful”.

So, what should an eager developer do in the meantime? Switch to Spring Boot…ouch…or…JavaScript…squeal…?

NO, here is what you should do: Use the power of JavaEE 8 and combine it with Eclipse MicroProfile.

Many of the application server vendors have added MicroProfile features to their Java™ EE 8 compliant or certified application servers. Examples are Open Liberty, WildFly, Payara and Apache TomEE. See the respective vendor’s documentation for which versions they have included.

Java EE 8 with Eclipse MicroProfile 2.1

I have put together a simple application called Jakarta EE Duke to demonstrate how to do this. The application uses the @ConfigProperty annotation from MicroProfile Config to configure a message as well as the new @Email annotation from Bean Validation 2.0, which came with Java™ EE 8 to validate input.

While this example is extremely simple, it does indicate how you can combine the full power of Java™ EE 8 with the lightweight APIs of MicroProfile to implement cloud-native microservices using Java™ technology.

One last tip: Make sure to join the Jakarta EE Community Mailing list to always stay up-to-date on the latest development of Jakarta EE.

JCP Elections 2018

Time flies like a banana…

It is almost two years since I was elected to the Java Community Process Executive Committee and the end of my term as a holder of one of the two associate seats are approaching. That means that the elections for representatives in the EC is going on, and you have a choice to make!

If you are an associate member of the JCP and haven’t already decided who to vote for in the ongoing election, please read my position statement for a motivation why you should vote for me.

A vote for me is a vote for the Community
 – Ivar Grimstad

#JavaOneStreak revamped to #GetFitForCodeOne

The last couple of years, we have been running a concept called JavaOneStreak the month before JavaOne. Since JavaOne is history, and the event replacing it is Oracle Code One, it makes sense to renew this concept as well. 

The original JavaOneStreak was to run a mile a day for in last month before the conference and tweet about it using the hashtag #JavaOneStreak.

For this year’s Oracle Code One, I want to expand the concept to include any physical exercise.

How does it work?

1. Work out (yes, you have to get out of that chair!)
2. Log your move using your favorite activity tracker (e.g. Endomondo)
3. Tweet about it using the hashtags #GetFitForCodeOne and #CodeOne (for extra exposure)

If you join the challenge on Endomondo, you will get listed below:

Eclipse GlassFish Release Plan

UPDATED!

Yesterday, the release plan for Eclipse GlassFish was announced on the EE4J mailing list. For convenience, I have repeated the plan here:

September 18
All code required for GF build contributed.

September 23
Eclipse GlassFish builds.

October 1
Java EE 8 CTS testing. We are able to run CTS tests on Eclipse GlassFish.

October 22 ⚡
CI/CD release pipelines completed.

October 22
Eclipse GlassFish 5.1-RC1 milestone release.

November 5 ⚡
Dependencies updated. All projects are released to OSSRH and have dependencies to Eclipse version of other components.

November 30 ⚡
Release Review completed.

December 14 ⚡
Eclipse GlassFish 5.1 release. All CTS tests are passed.

There is a lot of work to do, so every contribution is appreciated, especially regarding setting up the CI/CD pipelines for all the EE4J projects. Take a look at our status sheet and sign up where you think you can contribute.

Ozark becomes Eclipse Krazo

One of the requirements for Eclipse Projects is that the name is not associated with any trademarks or potential trademarks. When we created the project proposal for Ozark, this turned out to be the case here. The name Ozark is simply used too many places for it to be a valid Eclipse project name.

So, how did we come up with the new name? First of all, we asked for input on the Ozark developer mailing list. We also wrote a small program that generated all permutations of ‘ozark’ to see if something cool came out of that.

public static void main(String[] args) {
    new Permutations().permutations("ozark").stream()
            .forEach(System.out::println);
}

Then we started filtering, discussion and voting until we ended up with Krazo, which turns out to be Ozark spelled backward. We are really excited about the new name and hope you all will join us in spreading the word that the reference implementation of MVC 1.0 that was previously known as Ozark is now called Eclipse Krazo.

Setting sails for Jakarta EE!

The future of Cloud Native Java with Jakarta EE is here! The Jakarta EE website was launched today with lots of information, news and resources, including the new results of the 2018 Developer Survey.I even got my blog posts about the relationship between Jakarta EE, EE4J and Java EE listed in FAQ section. The website even features the new Jakarta EE logo.

I should be honest and say that it wasn’t my first choice when I voted, but when I see it in use with different colors and backgrounds, I must admit that it looks pretty good.

The initial strategic and participating members of the Jakarta EE working group are also listed on the website.

It is pretty awesome to see this list of companies participating and supporting Jakarta EE! And the list is likely to expand as more companies join. The future of Cloud Native Java is Jakarta EE, and the future looks bright. Let’s set the sails and sail towards the future (finally got the logo, I think…).

https://jakarta.ee