WAS v8.5 > New features > New features overview: DevelopingWhat is new for developers
This version contains many new and changed features for application developers.
- Configure EJB bindings in SCA OASIS applications
The SCA stateless session bean binding is a protocol binding used to integrate SCA with EJB-based services. WAS v8.5 provides OASIS support for both EJB 3.x and 2.x bindings for services and references.
- Deploy OSGi applications
The WebSphere Application Server dmgr console provides panels used to examine or debug a specific set of OSGi bundles running on an application server. We can, for example, view and explore the package and service dependencies between the bundles in an OSGi application.
- Develop asynchronous SCA services and clients
SCA OASIS specifications support the asynchronous running of request-response services. This enables a client thread to continue doing other work while the service runs. We can use SCA OASIS annotations and APIs in Java interfaces to enable asynchronization in services.
- Develop OSGi applications
An OSGi application can contain Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs). OSGi applications can access and invoke an enterprise bean directly.
The enterprise beans in your OSGi bundles can be developed from scratch, or we can include existing EJB assets and migrate them to use OSGi modularity with minimal code changes. Stateful, stateless, and singleton enterprise beans are supported. Your OSGi application can also contain message-driven beans (MDBs).
You deploy and configure an OSGi application containing enterprise beans in a similar way to deploying and configuring a Java EE enterprise application, using wsadmin or the dmgr console.
We can configure bean security in the Blueprint XML file of your OSGi applications, so the methods of the bean can be accessed only by users assigned a specified role. We can configure bean-level security, so that a single role is associated with all the methods of the bean, or we can configure method-level security, where different roles are associated with specific methods.
- Liberty profile: Developing applications
The Liberty profile support in WAS delivers a new, lightweight profile of the application server for web and OSGi applications, along with a simplified configuration approach for developers. Key benefits of the Liberty profile include, but are not limited to, the following capabilities:
- Free and frictionless download for development purposes
- Ultra lightweight modular runtime environment, with an install size of under 50 MB
- Incredibly fast startup time: under 5 seconds for simple web applications
- Simplified configuration for quick time to productivity
- Java EE and OSGi application deployment support for web applications
- LDAP registry support
- Deployment, as a package, of an application and configured server
- Managed, centralized deployment of a packaged application and server
- Availability of WAS Developer Tools as Eclipse plug-ins for broad tooling support
- Platform support for distributed platforms, z/OS , and Mac OS
Incredibly fast restart times, coupled with its small size, dynamic behavior, and ease of use, make the Liberty profile a good option for developers building web applications that do not require the full Java EE environment of traditional enterprise application server profiles. Familiar WebSphereApplication Server enterprise qualities of service, such as security and transaction integrity, are enabled as required.
- SCA in WAS: Overview
v8.5 adds support for the SCA OASIS programming model implementation.