RedHat has released JBoss 7.2, with full support for the EE 8 specification.
Notable improvements are the new Servlet 4.0 spec, which adds support for cross-browser HTTP/2 connections, as well as support for Java microservices and the Eclipse MicroProfile framework.
Developers who host microservices in JBoss can also take advantage of the Open Tracing API, currently in technology preview, which helps to coordinate log information between microservices.
"With EE Microservices, developers only focus on business logic." explains Adam Bien, author of Real World Java EE Patterns. "Your thin war deployments are tiny and that makes them extremely fast. There is a clear separation between infrastructure and logic. With MicroProfile on top of Java EE 8 you get features like distributed tracing, metrics, openAPI, configuration and even resiliency without including any external libraries."
JBoss is one of several EE 8 certified application servers available. This specification ensures a level of compatibility between servers, letting developers focus on building applications to work free of any vendor lock-in. Other EE 8 servers include IBM WebSphere, Payara, WildFly, and the reference implementation - Eclipse GlassFish.
Bien clarifies how each EE 8 server is similar but different, "Apache TomEE comes with powerful SSH integration like sheldon, Payara integrates well with Kafka, OpenLiberty comes with great Swagger client and WildFly supports S2I builds on OpenShift very well. The list is huge."
Java EE 8 is a specification covering more than web applications and WAR files. Unlike servlet containers such as Apache Tomcat, application servers contain integration for more services like JMS and MQs. Many application servers also offer a simple "web profile" to act as a smaller servlet container.
This release comes at a time that Java EE is migrating to its new name, Jakarta EE, with stewardship under the Eclipse Foundation. Java EE is sometimes also known by its much older name, J2EE, which was changed way back in May 2006.