Friday, November 20, 2015

JAX-RS 2.1 specification work has started

JAX-RS 2.1 specification work has finally started after a rather quiet year and this is a good news for JAX-RS users at large and CXF JAX-RS users in particular.
JAX-RS 2.1 is entirely Java 8 based and a number of new enhancements are on the way. I was concerned earlier on that having a Java 8 will slow down the adoption but I think now the spec leads were right, Java 8 is so rich and JAX-RS needs to be open to accepting the latest Java features - ultimately this is what will excite the users.

The main new features list is: support for Server-Sent Events (something CXF users will enjoy experimenting with while also keeping in mind CXF has some great WebSocket support done by Aki), enhanced NIO support and introducing a reactive mode into Client API.

I've already mentioned before that JAX-RS 2.0 AsyncResponse API is IMHO very impressive as it makes a fairly complex task of dealing with suspended invocations becoming rather trivial to deal with. Marek and Santiago are doing it again with the new 2.1 proposals. Of course there will be some minor disagreements here and there but overall I'm very positive about this new JAX-RS project.


We now have a CXF Java 8 master branch to support the future JAX-RS 2.1 features but having a Java 8 trunk is great for all of the CXF community.

What is really good is that there appears to be no obvious end to the new requirements coming into the JAX-RS space. The HTTP services space is wide open, with the new ideas generated around the security, faster processing, etc, and it all will be eventually available as future JAX-RS features. I'm confident JAX-RS 3.0 will be coming in due time too.


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