I've had a few requests for status information on JiBX, so figured I'd send this to the list and update everyone at once.
For the last year I've been working mostly on web services hooks for JiBX, including improving the Axis2 support, developing the Jibx2Wsdl code, and also working on JiBX/WS, the long-awaited replacement to JibxSoap, and on code generation from schema as part of JiBX 2.0. Here's a status by area: _JiBX 1.1_ I've been very lax in releasing updates to the existing 1.1 code. There are a considerable number of fixes and changes in the current codebase compared to the last release, and a number of new bug reports in Jira I need to investigate and try to fix. I'm going to traveling for trainings and meetings over the next two weeks, but will make the JiBX 1.1.6 release a priority when I get back. I'll take care of as many of the bugs as I have time for as part of this. Expect the release by the end of this month. _JiBX 1.2 (including Jibx2Wsdl)_ Most of what was originally planned for JiBX 1.2 is now implemented in the 1.1 code, including the new versions of code->binding+schema and code+binding->schema that are part of Jibx2Wsdl. What remains to be done is to create the proper documentation for all the components, and also take care of some issues that people have encountered in using Jibx2Wsdl. I'll push to have this out by mid-February. The Jibx2Wsdl code is designed to support converting JAXB 2.0 annotations to customizations, so that people with legacy JAXB code will be able to easily upgrade to JiBX in the future. Implementing the conversions is not high on my list at the moment, but if anyone is interested in working in this area I can help you get started. _JibxSoap / JiBX/WS_ JiBX/WS is the official replacement for the old JibxSoap demonstration code. Nigel Charman has been working on this with me, and at this point we have most of the functionality in place that I wanted to see for a beta-level release. This includes POX support in addition to SOAP, and support for a DIME-based TCP transport in addition to HTTP. It also includes support for using XBIS encoding as a higher-performance alternative to text XML. Right now I've got a performance issue to track down in the XBIS support, and we also need to put together updated documentation and examples. I'd also like to include real REST support as part of this. The first official release of this will be in conjunction with JiBX 1.2. _JiBX 2.0_ My biggest project over the last year has been to lay the groundwork for JiBX 2.0. Philosophically, the biggest difference from JiBX 1.X is that JiBX 2.0 will be much more schema-oriented. That's an approach which I feel is forced by the ever-increasing dominance of schema in the world of XML data exchange, especially in web services. I now have a solid code generation from schema implementation which IMHO generates better code (in particular, code which does a better job of exposing the schema structure to the developer) than any of the alternative data binding frameworks for Java. It includes support for Java 5 generic collections and enumerations, but makes these features optional to retain compatibility with Java 1.4.X. I'm currently working on generating the actual binding code to implement JiBX conversion of the generated data structures to and from XML, and expect to have that working this month. Initially this will be used only by a couple of my client companies, but in the longer term it will become part of the 2.0 release. The next step is to generate the binding code from a binding definition, rather than as part of the code generation from schema. Initially this will be implemented using source code generation - a major change from JiBX 1.X - but it's being written to support JiBX 1.X-style direct bytecode generation in the future. My intention is to implement this using bytecode generation from an abstract syntax tree (AST) of the Java code, so that the binding code can always just work with the AST irrespective of whether the output is going to be as source or as bytecode enhancements to existing class files. I'm using the Eclipse AST for all the source code work, and although I'm not thrilled by some aspects of the model (it has some lame aspects, especially that every component of the AST - even a variable or field name - is linked into a DOM-style tree structure and hence cannot be reused under any circumstances) it delivers adequate performance for source code generation. Using the Eclipse AST should offer some nice advantages for adding JiBX 2.0 support in Eclipse, but the AST is independent of the rest of the framework and does not require Eclipse. My hope is to have an initial JiBX 2.0 release by April. This will include both the code generation from schema and the source code binding generator, along with the 2.0 runtime. _Schedules_ I know I've done a poor job of holding with planned schedules in the past. I tend to be a little obsessive about getting the code structured in the way that feels right to me, and that often means going back and tearing up what I've already done to replace it with something better. That's been a major issue in the code generation from schema, in particular. At this point I think I'm far enough along to give a high confidence level for the dates I've given in this email. Beginning with the 1.1.6 release of JiBX I will try to update the web site status page at least once a month so that the information stays current. My thanks to everyone who's using JiBX, and especially to those who are helping out other users on the mailing list. I'll do my best to see that your faith in JiBX is rewarded with continuing enhancements and advances over the next year, so that JiBX becomes not only the fastest and most flexible way of working with XML in Java, but also the easiest (including for people who are starting from schemas or WSDLs). - Dennis -- Dennis M. Sosnoski SOA and Web Services in Java Training and Consulting http://www.sosnoski.com - http://www.sosnoski.co.nz Seattle, WA +1-425-939-0576 - Wellington, NZ +64-4-298-6117 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. 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