I just heard that there's a slip in the schedule to finalize the Java EE 6 specification, which is JSR-316 (http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=316). In short, there were competing JSRs that had to do with resource injection, and since Java EE 6 is supposed to be about the simplification of Java EE, this would have countered that. Therefore, a four-to-six week delay is expected which puts Java EE 6 finalization and the Glassfish v3 release close to the end of CY 2009. There's no official release date yet so that's an estimate.

To learn more about the issues, take a look at the following JSRs:

 

• JSR-299 - Web Beans, which are a POJO-based model for deployment inspired by Spring (see http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=299)
• JSR-330 - Dependancy Injection for Java (see http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=330)

 

Robert Chinnici explains it well in his blog, here: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/robc/archive/2009/08/dependency_inje.html

Glassfish V3

If you haven't kept up with the progress of the Glassfish V3 prelude suite, here's a rundown. The Glassfish V3 platform will now come in different flavors, or bundles, to make it easier to target a deployment for your application. Here is a summary:

 

• Glassfish Enterprise Server 3: Full bundle; OSGi-based; Embedded API; RESTful admin API; Lightweight and fast startup; Session retention for easier debugging
• Glassfish Metro: Deployable subset includes XML/WS/REST/JSON stack (JAXP, JAXB, SAAJ, JAX-WS, JAX-RS, WSIT all integrated)
• Glassfish ESB: Open-source ESB with base set of adapters for core integration, built on Glassfish server for enterprise readiness.
• Glassfish Web Stack: LAMP stack on Glassfish; Fully integrated Apache HTTP/Tomcat/MySQL/PHP stack on Linux or OpenSolaris. This removes the tedious work of downloading, installing, and integrating the various components, and delivers it for you in one installation.
• Glassfish Web Space Server: Expansion of Portal Server; Includes web 2.0 features such as content collaboration, wikis, blogs, calendaring, document sharing, web content authoring and publishing, Ajax support, a library of Web UI controls, and advanced security.

 

You can read more about these bundles, view demos, and download the preview releases at: http://www.sun.com/software/products/glassfish_portfolio/ 

 Happy coding!

-EJB