JSON-B Public Review Draft Now Available

The JSON-B (Java API for JSON Binding) specification has recently released a public review draft. For those unaware, JSON-B is one of the key APIs slated to be included in Java EE 8. It is a very high level declarative, annotation-based API for processing JSON. Java EE 8 is also scoped to include an important revision of the lower level JSON-P (Java API for JSON Processing) specification.

These two APIs together are extremely important in making JSON a first class citizen of the standard Java platform, just like JAXP (Java API for XML Processing) and JAXB (Java API for XML Binding) did many years ago for XML. With these two APIs in place Java developers can simply think of JSON as yet another Java serialization format. No more third party libraries and no more configuration - things will simply work out of the box when it comes to processing JSON. In my view these APIs are so critical they should indeed be moved to a modular Java SE release, much like JAXB and JAXP are already a part of Java SE.

You can download and take a look at the draft specification from the JCP site. A release of the reference implementation is also available here, complete with Maven coordinates. You should also note the read-only GitHub mirror. If you are looking for a gentler introduction, the best resource is a slide deck from specification lead Dmitry Kornilov (click here if you can't see the embedded slide deck).

JSONB introduction and comparison with other frameworks from Dmitry Kornilov

You should do your part demonstrating first hand that JSON-B is a critical standard for Java - by engaging actively. Here are the many ways you can engage (most of this comes directly from the Adopt-a-JSR page I drafted while still at Oracle):

• You can join the specification itself as an expert or a contributor. You can do that via the JCP page for the specification.
• You can have your JUG officially support the standard through Adopt-a-JSR.
• You can simply join the discussion without any ceremony by subscribing to the JSON-B specification user alias.
• You can share ideas and feedback, possibly by entering issues in the public issue tracker.
• You can read the public draft specification now.
• You can try out the reference implementation now.
• You can write or speak about JSON-B now.
• You can encourage others to participate.

The next step is up to you. You can be a real part of Java's ongoing success yourself instead of simply being a passive consumer. If you have any questions I am happy to try to help - just drop me a note any time.

JBoss EAP 7 Brings Red Hat Commercial Support for Java EE 7

JBoss EAP 7 has recently been fully Java EE 7 certified. For most developers this essentially represents serious commitment from Red Hat towards commercial support for Java EE 7. As many of us know WildFly (the upstream community project for JBoss EAP) was one of the earliest Java EE application servers to get certified against Java EE 7. There are already numerous publicly known adoption stories for Java EE 7 on WildFly. However lack of Red Hat commercial support for WildFly had been a show-stopper for many - particularly very large enterprises. JBoss EAP removes this hurdle and is bound be to a further boost to Java EE 7 adoption. Indeed in my view JBoss for many years has ranked as one of the best Java EE implementations with one of the most adoption. That said one of the most valuable characteristics of Java EE is the rich implementation choices it offers (and hence the freedom from vendor lock-in).

JBoss EAP 7 joins the Java EE 7 compatible ranks of GlassFish 4, WildFly, WebSphere Liberty Profile 8.5, WebLogic 12.2.1, Hitachi Cosminexus and TmaxSoft JEUS. All of the Java EE certified offerings are always listed on the official Java EE compatibility page. For some perspective few other open standards such as SQL have as many available implementations as Java EE 7 already has (and this is bound to only just keep getting better).

Under the hood JBoss EAP 7 is the same core runtime as WildFly 10. Here is the download link for JBoss EAP 7. You can try it for free although you will need to register with the site (you don't need to do that with WildFly). Unlike WildFly there is also a GUI installer that is not too cumbersome and does make customized setup easier.

To test things out I ported over the demo code for my Java EE 7 testing talk using Arquillian to JBoss EAP 7. The porting process was very trivial and the overall experience was great. Like most modern modular Java EE application servers startup, shutdown, deployment and undeployment was blazing fast - in the order of seconds (in fact many of my integration tests finished in less than a second!). One of the things that I felt was a strong point for GlassFish was it's mature administration features. JBoss and WildFly seem to be catching up fast both with their CLI (command line) and GUI admin console. The JBoss EAP console was genuinely impressive.

Overall I definitely recommend taking JBoss EAP 7 for a spin perhaps using my demo code (the demo code comes with setup instructions). If you haven't tried out vanilla Java EE code in a while the demo may be an eye opener for you in terms of simplicity, power, productivity and ease-of-use.