Thanks for all your support for our beta program so far. Here’s the latest beta of WebSphere® Application Server Liberty Profile and WebSphere Developer Tools (WDT).

If you’d like to know where we’re up to with implementing Java EE 7 support in Liberty, here’s a summary showing beta support vs actual support (see the Liberty Profile column).

Look out for more betas over the coming months. Some of the features in previous betas are now available and supported in production in WebSphere Application Server Liberty Profile V8.5.5.

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What’s in the Liberty beta for May 2015?

In the May 2015 Liberty beta, we’ve added the following goodies for you…

Java EE 7

The javaee-7.0 convenience feature (introduced in the April/May 2015 beta to make it easier to configure a Java EE 7 server) now includes j2eeManagement-1.1 , jaspic-1.1 , jacc-1.5 , and wasJmsSecurity-1.0 .

convenience feature (introduced in the April/May 2015 beta to make it easier to configure a Java EE 7 server) now includes , , , and . You can also download the Web Profile convenience feature with the relevant platform and architecture of Java 8 (IBM Java SDK) if you don’t already have Java installed.

WebSphere Developer Tools for Eclipse

Ability to publish standalone EJB projects from within the tools No EAR required! This means more flexibility to organize applications the way you want and share resources between them.

No EAR required! This means more flexibility to organize applications the way you want and share resources between them. Support submitting jobs deployed as EAR files You can now submit jobs in either Web or EJB projects that are published to the server by themselves or through an EAR. This means you can reuse previously existing code and integrate it into your batch projects.

You can now submit jobs in either Web or EJB projects that are published to the server by themselves or through an EAR. This means you can reuse previously existing code and integrate it into your batch projects. Publish EAR 7 applications WDT now supports publishing EAR version 7 applications to a Liberty server.

WDT now supports publishing EAR version 7 applications to a Liberty server. Liberty Tools support for configuration dropins The Servers view and the Runtime Explorer view now have menu items for creation of configuration dropins:





Configuration dropins are displayed in the Servers view and Runtime Explorer view:





Configuration dropins are also processed by the configuration validator; variables and references defined in dropins are displayed in the content assist when you’re editing the server configuration.

The Servers view and the Runtime Explorer view now have menu items for creation of configuration dropins: Configuration dropins are displayed in the Servers view and Runtime Explorer view: Configuration dropins are also processed by the configuration validator; variables and references defined in dropins are displayed in the content assist when you’re editing the server configuration. New dialog allowing resolution of feature conflicts The tools automatically add features to the server configuration when a new application is added to the server or an existing application is updated. Sometimes, the new features cause conflicts so a dialog opens to help you resolve any conflicts:





The tools automatically add features to the server configuration when a new application is added to the server or an existing application is updated. Sometimes, the new features cause conflicts so a dialog opens to help you resolve any conflicts: Install Liberty assets from your own repositories Easily access assets shared within your organization. Simply add your repository to the list and your assets will show up in the Add-ons wizard in WDT. Select the assets you want and install them into your runtime.





Easily access assets shared within your organization. Simply add your repository to the list and your assets will show up in the Add-ons wizard in WDT. Select the assets you want and install them into your runtime. Validation support for EJB and Interceptor lifecycle callback and session synchronization methods There are validation messages for improper method signatures, duplicate annotation usage i.e. multiple @PrePassivate, @AroundConstruct methods:

Some examples: @PrePassivate and @PostActivate methods; e.g. validation errors on @PrePassivate methods on a Stateful bean if the method signature is incorrect:



@AroundConstruct methods; can only be specified on an interceptor class or its superclass. The following example shows a warning is issued when used on a class that is not an Interceptor class:



validation of TransactionAttribute types according to section 8.3.7 of the EJB 3.2 spec; e.g. timer callback methods can only specify a transaction attribute type of REQUIRED, REQUIRES_NEW, or NOT_SUPPORTED. Specifying a value of MANDATORY will result in an error:





There are validation messages for improper method signatures, duplicate annotation usage i.e. multiple @PrePassivate, @AroundConstruct methods: Some examples:

And, of course, a bunch of bug fixes.

What’s already in there?

In the April/May 2015 beta, we made it easier to configure a Web Profile or Java EE 7 server.

In earlier betas, we added JSF 2.2, Remote EJB support, CDI 1.2, JSP 2.3 and EL 3.0, application client 1.0, JASPIC 1.1, JACC 1.5, SIP Servlets 1.1 and tools, SPNEGO support, OSGi App integration, JDBC 4.1, OSGi & Web 3.1 facet configuration for OSGi bundles, and JAX-RS 2.0 client wizard; we fixed a shedload of bugs and added things like support for remote development, auto-scaling and dynamic routing, Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) and CouchDB; finally, there was JAX-RS 2.0, Java Batch, JMS 2.0, JPA 2.1, bean validation 1.1, JSON-P 1.0, EJB 3.2 Lite, concurrent-1.0, Servlet 3.1, OpenID Connect, Java 8 toleration, WebSockets, a facelift for the Liberty Repository…

Go take a look at the previous beta announcements for a full list:

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