GIDS 2024

My fifth time speaking at GIDS was just as good as the previous ones. The conference has an amazing lineup of high-profile speakers, so it is a great honor to be among them. This year, the conference had 5400 attendees spread over four days with five parallel tracks.

I had a packed room for my talk titled From Spring Boot 2 to Spring Boot 3 with Java 21 and Jakarta EE. One of the great things about this conference, and maybe the main reason why I keep coming back to it, is that the audience is so engaged. They are not afraid to ask relevant questions during as well as after the talk. I am also very often approached while roaming the exhibition hall by attendees that want to talk about the talk or other topics of interest.

In one of the breaks, I was interviewed by Cassandra Chin for Techstrong TV. We chatted about open source and how getting involved in open source can be a game changer for your career as a developer. The interview should air on their website within a couple of days or so.

Bangalore is known as the Garden City of India with green areas spread around everywhere between the buildings. It can be very hot in Bangalore in April. This year, the temperature was in the high thirties (celsius). Luckily the hotel had a pool to soak in after the conference days.

Hashtag Jakarta EE #225

Welcome to issue number two hundred and twenty-five of Hashtag Jakarta EE!

I will be in the air on my way to India for my fifth appearance at GIDS when this post is published. I look forward to meeting the Indian Java community again!

Milestone 2 of Jakarta EE 11 has been published. Take a look at the specification documents on the Jakarta EE 11 Specification pages:
– Jakarta EE Platform 11
– Jakarta EE Web Profile 11
– Jakarta EE Core Profile 11

The API artifacts are available in Maven Central with the following coordinates:

Jakarta EE Platform 11 Milestone 2

<dependency>
    <groupId>jakarta.platform</groupId>
    <artifactId>jakarta.jakartaee-api</artifactId>
    <version>11.0.0-M2</version>
</dependency>

Jakarta EE Web Profile 11 Milestone 2

<dependency>
    <groupId>jakarta.platform</groupId>
    <artifactId>jakarta.jakartaee-web-api</artifactId>
    <version>11.0.0-M2</version>
</dependency>

Jakarta EE Core Profile 11 Milestone 2

<dependency>
    <groupId>jakarta.platform</groupId>
    <artifactId>jakarta.jakartaee-core-api</artifactId>
    <version>11.0.0-M2</version>
</dependency>

The component specifications of Jakarta EE 11 are steadily moving through the release reviews and here is the current status. As you can see, there are quite a few that will have their release review started next week.

Done:
– Jakarta Annotations 3.0
– Jakarta Contexts and Dependency Injection 4.1
– Jakarta Expression Language 6.0
– Jakarta Interceptors 2.2

In progress:
– Jakarta RESTful Web Services 4.0
– Jakarta Validation 3.1

About to start:
– Jakarta Authorization 3.0
– Jakarta Data 1.0
– Jakarta Pages 4.0
– Jakarta Persistence 3.2 (starting on Monday)
– Jakarta Servlet 6.1
– Jakarta WebSocket 2.2 (will be restarted shortly)

One of the most exciting features of Jakarta EE 11 is the new Jakarta Data specification. Gavin King has written a two-part article series titled A Preview of Jakarta Data 1.0 about it. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 to understand the rationale of the specification and learn what it is all about.

Hashtag Jakarta EE #224

Welcome to issue number two hundred and twenty-four of Hashtag Jakarta EE!

I am home from Devnexus 2024 just in time for writing this post. Since most of last week was dedicated to the Jakarta EE track at Devnexus which I covered in the blog post from the event, I will keep this Hashtag fairly short. The upcoming week will be spent at home before I travel eastward to India for GIDS.

The Jakarta EE 11 specifications are steadily moving through the release reviews and here is the current status:

Done:
– Jakarta Annotations 3.0
– Jakarta Contexts and Dependency Injection 4.1
– Jakarta Expression Language 6.0
– Jakarta Interceptors 2.2

In progress:
– Jakarta RESTful Web Services 4.0
– Jakarta WebSocket 2.2

About to start:
– Jakarta Authorization 3.0
– Jakarta Pages 4.0
– Jakarta Persistence 3.2
– Jakarta Servlet 6.1
– Jakarta Validation 3.1

Devnexus 2024

One notable thing about Devnexus is that you are dragged into a whirlwind of activities and fun from the minute you disembark your plane at the beginning of the week until you board again at the end. It is exhausting, but so much fun!

It all started with the JUG Leaders Summit and the Java Champions Summit on Tuesday followed by two full conference days on Wednesday and Thursday. To top it up at the end, on Friday all speakers were invited to hang out and socialize in a Park with volleyball, football (both the real kind where you kick the ball and the American version with the oval ball), or just hanging out in the sun and talk with fellow community members. Later that evening we went Duckpin bowling. I’ll leave out the details here. It turns out that Java developers are not necessarily great bowlers…but we have fun doing it!

Just as last year, we had a dedicated Jakarta EE track on both days of the conference. I think this is a valuable thing to do for the community. It is good for visibility as it gathers all the content related to Jakarta EE in one room, so it doesn’t drown in the rest of the 13 parallel tracks.

I had the pleasure of opening up the Jakarta EE track with a talk on Wednesday morning directly after the keynote ended. I gave an overview of how to prepare for Jakarta EE 11 and what it means for your productivity as a developer and your applications’ performance.

I promised to go for a morning run every day during the conference and invited everyone awake to join me. It started slightly under par with skipping the Tuesday morning run due to heavy rain, but the rest of the week eager runners met up by the Olympic Rings for a 5K awakening run.

Hashtag Jakarta EE #223

Welcome to issue number two hundred and twenty-three of Hashtag Jakarta EE!

A busy week for the Java Community is coming up. One of the finest Java conferences in Europe is happening at the same time as the premier Java conference in the US. JavaLand and Devnexus in the same week! I am usually a regular at both of these events, so this year I had to choose. It will be the first edition of JavaLand that I am not present at having been speaking there at every one of the nine previous ones. A bummer, but that’s the way it is.

We are repeating the success from last year with a dedicated Jakarta EE track at Devnexus. We will also have a booth where you can come and have a chat with us and maybe even pick up some swag.

The best way to get the most out of the conference days is to get some exercise in before it all starts. An excellent option is a quick trip to the hotel gym, but if you are into running a little, come join me and run With Jakarta EE at Devnexus. We will start at 6:30 am every morning from the Olympic Rings on the corner of Centennial Olympic Park (across the street from the Ferris wheel).

Jakarta EE 11 continues to move forward. We are just waiting for the release review of Jakarta Interceptors to be completed before we can release Milestone 2 to Maven Central. The release reviews for the next milestone have started, or are being prepared. Hopefully, most of them will be underway shortly.

Done:
– Jakarta Annotations 3.0
– Jakarta Contexts and Dependency Injection 4.1
– Jakarta Expression Language 6.0

In progress:
– Jakarta Interceptors 2.2
– Jakarta WebSocket 2.2

About to start:
– Jakarta Authorization 3.0
– Jakarta Pages 4.0
– Jakarta Persistence 3.2
– Jakarta Servlet 6.1
– Jakarta RESTful Web Services 4.0
– Jakarta Validation 3.1

One of my most popular talks last year was the talk about migrating from Spring Boot 2 to Spring Boot 3 with Java 21 and Jakarta EE. In this list of most viewed talks on YouTube, the one I did at Devoxx Belgium is currently in 71st place. It is still a popular talk, and it keeps getting accepted at conferences even in 2024.

JDevSummitIL 2024

I rarely give online talks nowadays after getting an overflow of it during the pandemic. But sometimes, circumstances prevent travel, so online is the only option. That was the case with my talk at JDevSummitIL 2024. With reports of 250 attendees watching the talk, it must be deemed a success even if online talks are not optimal, neither for the speaker nor the audience.

I did the From Spring Boot 2 to Spring Boot 3 with Java 2122 and Jakarta EE talk, which has been incredibly popular throughout 2023 and 2024. I guess I will keep submitting it to CFPs as long as it keeps getting accepted to conferences and user groups.

Run with Jakarta EE at Devnexus

Devnexus in Atlanta is coming up next week. If you are like me and haven’t packed your bags yet, don’t forget to pack your running shoes!

I can never repeat too often that the best way to start a day at any conference anywhere in the World, is to go for a refreshing morning run. And Devnexus is no exception. Meet me every morning at 06:30 am by the Olympic Rings in Downtown Atlanta and experience the beautiful sunrise while going for a 1K, 2K, 3K, or 5K run. The distance is up to you, the pace is up to you. We are a very accommodating bunch.

06:30 am
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

The Olympic Rings at Centennial Olympic Park

I will bring a limited supply of high-quality, Jakarta EE branded running shirts (and yes, I do have women’s sizes as well). Ping me before I pack my bags on Monday morning if you want to make sure I pack one in your size…

Hashtag Jakarta EE #222

Welcome to issue number two hundred and twenty-two of Hashtag Jakarta EE!

This week I was in Bucharest for Voxxed Days Bucharest 2024. Even with a strike looming over Austrian Airlines, my trip was smooth without disruptions. The release reviews of the Jakarta EE 11 specifications are progressing. The current status of these reviews are:

Done:
– Jakarta Expression Language 6.0

In progress:
– Jakarta Annotations 3.0
– Jakarta Contexts and Dependency Injection 4.1
– Jakarta Interceptors 2.2
– Jakarta Web Socket 2.2

About to start:
– Jakarta Authorization 3.0
– Jakarta Persistence 3.2
– Jakarta Servlet 6.1
– Jakarta Validation 3.1

So far, everything is more or less according to the release plan. The second milestone release (11.0.0-M2) will be made available soon. It turned out that the keys used to sign the release artifacts had expired, so we have to wait until those in charge of renewing them are back to work after the Easter holidays.

Voxxed Days Bucharest 2024

My first visit to Voxxed Days Bucharest was a pleasant experience with great keynotes and three parallel tracks filled with excellent content. With so many great speakers, the hallway track and speaker dinners are like conferences on their own.

I had a packed room for my talk From Spring Boot 2 to Spring Boot 3 with Java 22 and Jakarta EE with an engaged audience and good questions after the talk. Check out the slides here.

In between the talks, we could join the sun in the atrium. No better place to write this blog than that. I also had some time for a walk around Bucharest in the nice, warm, sunny weather.

Hashtag Jakarta EE #221

Welcome to issue number two hundred and twenty-one of Hashtag Jakarta EE!

The work with Jakarta EE 11 is chugging along, and we are approaching the deadline for component specifications to engage in release reviews to be a part of Milestone 3. Talking about milestones, Jakarta EE 11 Milestone 2 will be available shortly. The reason why it is not available just yet is that we need all component specifications to be released to Maven Central before we can push the button. This will happen as soon as the release reviews have concluded. The current status of these reviews are:

Release Review in progress:
– Jakarta Contexts and Dependency Injection 4.1
– Jakarta Expression Language 6.0
– Jakarta Interceptors 2.2

Release Review about to start:
– Jakarta Annotations 3.0

The release review for Jakarta Annotations can start as soon as there is a compatible implementation that passes the TCK on Java 17. Eclipse GlassFish 8.0.0-M3 passes on Java 21. It looks like the next beta release of Open Liberty will include the Jakarta Annotations 3.0 API and be used as a compatible implementation for ratification along with GlassFish.

The 2024 Jakarta EE Developer Survey is open until May 31, 2024, but there is no need to wait. Take a couple of minutes and provide your valuable insights. By completing the survey, you can win a wonderful Jakarta EE T-shirt!