Apache Jackrabbit is a fully conforming implementation of the Content Repository for Java Technology API (JCR), and has released version 1.4 after over 9 months of hard work.
Included in the release notes are 220 new features, improvements, and bug fixes since the 1.3 release, making 1.4 the largest release to date. Jukka Zitting highlights some of the new 1.4 features as:
- Friendlier Jackrabbit webapp. The jackrabbit-webapp component now comes with a more polished user interface, better error handling, and improved repository connectivity for local and remote clients.
- Object/content mapping framework. The jackrabbit-ocm component maps Java objects to JCR nodes and vice versa, making it possible to persist normal Java objects in a content repository.
- Service provider interface for JCR. The jackrabbit-spi component defines an architectural layer below the JCR API. The SPI layer is designed specifically for remote access and outlines a way for us to avoid the performance limitations of JCR-RMI that works on top of JCR.
- Optimized storage for binary content. The new DataStore feature in jackrabbit-core avoids all unnecessary copying of binary content and promises huge performance increases for versioning and copying operations. DataStore is a beta-level feature in Jackrabbit 1.4 and disabled by default.
- Improved query engine. The jackrabbit-core component has been extended with new features like configurable indexing, synonym and similarity queries, and spell checking. Many typical queries are now noticeably faster than before thanks to numerous performance improvements.
More information about the Apache Jackrabbit project, as well as download locations, can be found at the Apache project website http://jackrabbit.apache.org.