Java Weekly #8: Java9, JMS 2, JUnit, Microservices and more...

The Java ecosystem is evolving at a rapid pace and it can be a challenge to keep track on it. Fortunately lots of resources are created every week, explaining new features or looking at existing stuff from a different angle.
I am using the Java Weekly series to collect the most interesting resources I found during the week and present them to you all in one place. I hope that you find it useful and that it makes it easier for you to keep up-to-date. If you like to suggest a resource or something I can improve on, please leave me a comment. I will definitely read it and come back to you.

Java 9

Mark Reinhold announced the first batch of JEPs for Java 9. These are:

• JEP 102: Process API Updates
• JEP 143: Improve Contended Locking
• JEP 197: Segmented Code Cache
• JEP 198: Light-Weight JSON API
• JEP 199: Smart Java Compilation, Phase Two
• JEP 201: Modular Source Code

For me as a developer the two most interesting JEPs are 198 Light-Weight JSON API and 201 Modular Source Code. JEP 201 is only the first step for the JIGSAW project and JEP 200 will be more interesting. But it is good to see, that it is targeted for Java 9.

Java EE

The Java Temporary Cache API (JCache) was released a few month ago and was one of the most wanted features in the Java EE 8 community surveys. If you like to refresh your knowledge of this specification, you should have a look at Java Temporary Caching API aka JCache by David Delabassee. He gives a short overview of existing resources and upcoming JavaOne sessions.

There are multiple ways to implement asynchronous execution with Java EE. Abhishek Gupta gives an overview about 5 different specifications and their asynchronous capabilities in his post Java EE: Asynchronous constructs and capabilities.


Reza Rahman gave a 1 hour presentation and lab about JMS 2. If you like to learn more about the new features of JMS 2.0, you should watch the recorded video on the NightHacking YouTube channel.

Test

Michael Scharhag wrote a nice introduction to JUnit's Runner architecture. JUnit Runner control the test execution and are used by many test frameworks to enhance the existing JUnit functionality. If you like to learn how a Runner works and what you need to do to create your own, you should have a look at this tutorial.

Microservices

Martin Buhr wrote an interesting post about his experience with building an application based on a microservice architecture. This is really a good read, because he describes the approach they used to develop the application and summarizes the good and bad parts of choosing a microservice approach.


Failing at Microservices. Please avoid our mistakes! by Richard Clayton is another great discussion about creating an application based on a microservice architecture. Richard describes the microservices related challenges his team faced during the last project and gives some recommendations to avoid these issues in the future.

Back to you!

These were the most interesting Java related resources I found this week. Which one did you like the most? Was there something you like to learn more about?
Please leave me a comment.