Chapter 2. New Features and Enhancements

Java EE 8 Support

JBoss EAP 7.2 includes support for the following Java EE 8 standards:

Java EE 8 Security Support

Java EE 8 includes support for JSR 375, which defines portable, plug-in interfaces for authentication and identity stores, and a new injectable-type SecurityContext interface that provides an access point for programmatic security. You can use the built-in implementations of these APIs, or define custom implementations.

JBoss EAP 7.2 now supports JSR 375.

Securing the JBoss EAP Management Console with Red Hat Single Sign-On

You can now configure Red Hat Single Sign-On to manage authentication for the JBoss EAP management console.

For more information, see Secure the Management Console with Red Hat Single Sign-On in How to Configure Server Security.

Server Blocks Non-SSL IIOP Socket When SSL Is Required

When the server-requires-ssl attribute is set to true in the IIOP subsystem, the server will now block attempts to connect to the non-SSL socket.

FIPS 140-2 Compliant Cryptography Using the BouncyCastle Providers

You can use the BouncyCastle providers to configure a FIPS compliant instance of JBoss EAP using the elytron subsystem. Full instructions are available at Enable FIPS 140-2 Cryptography for SSL/TLS Using BouncyCastle in How to Configure Server Security.

Define a FIPS 140-2 Compliant Credential Store Using the BouncyCastle Providers

You can use the BouncyCastle providers to obtain a FIPS compliant credential store. These credential stores can be defined using either of the following methods.

Enable SASL Authentication for the Management Interfaces Using the CLI Security Commands

SASL authentication can now be enabled for the management interfaces using the security enable-sasl-management CLI command. This command creates all of the non-existing resources necessary to configure authentication.

For more information, see Enable SASL Authentication for the Management Interfaces Using the CLI Security Command in How to Configure Server Security.

Enable HTTP Authentication Using the CLI Security Commands

HTTP authentication can now be enabled for the Undertow security domain and the management interfaces using the security CLI commands.

For more information, see Enable HTTP Authentication for Applications Using the CLI Security Command and Enable HTTP Authentication for the Management Interfaces Using the CLI Security Command in How to Configure Server Security.

Using Git to Manage Configuration Data

You can now use Git to manage and persist your server configuration data, properties files, and deployments. This not only allows you to manage the version history, but it also allows you to share server and application configurations across multiple servers and nodes using one or more Git repositories. This feature only works for standalone servers that use the default configuration directory layout.

For more information, see Using Git to Manage Configuration Data in the Configuration Guide.

Kill Servers in a Server Group

The kill-servers operation is now available for server groups in a managed domain. This is useful in cases where a problem is causing all servers in a server group to hang, so that you can kill all of the server processes in one operation as opposed to performing the kill operation on each server.

Keyboard Navigation Shortcuts

The management CLI now supports several ways to navigate around when editing a management CLI command. The keyboard shortcuts to use depend on which platform you are using. See Use Keyboard Navigation Shortcuts in the Management CLI Guide for the list of supported shortcuts.

Generate Output for HTTP Management API

The echo-dmr command provides a new --compact argument to display content on a single line. When used with the --output-json management CLI startup argument, this argument allows you to generate output that can be directly consumed by the HTTP Management API.

Management CLI Output Scrolling

The management CLI now supports scrolling directly inside the console if the output is longer than the terminal window. You can use the scroll wheel, directional arrows, or the PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys to navigate through the output.

On Windows this feature is only available beginning with Windows Server 2016. There are no issues with other operating systems.

Searching Management CLI Output

You can now search multi-page output in the management CLI. See Searching Multi-page Output in the Management CLI Guide for more information.

Printing CLI Output in Color

You can now configure the management CLI to print the CLI log output in color based on the log message output type. For more information about the available colors and how to enable and disable color printing, see Configuring the Management CLI in the Management CLI Guide.

Enhanced Help

The management CLI help functionality has been updated to provide easier access to help information. The help command now features tab completion and can also show help information for management CLI operations and command actions.

See the Management CLI Guide for more information on using the management CLI help command.

Indicator for Required Attributes

When using tab completion in the management CLI, attributes that are required for the current operation are marked with a * character.

/subsystem=naming/binding=test:add( [TAB]
!              class          module
binding-type*  environment    type
cache          lookup         value

In the above example, pressing Tab after entering /subsystem=naming/binding=test:add( lists the available attributes and indicates that binding-type is a required attribute for this operation.

Viewing Multi-page Output

When you run the management CLI in interactive mode and the operation results in multiple pages of output, the command processor pauses the screen at the end of the first page. This allows you to page through the output one line or page at a time. The occurrence of multiple pages of output is indicated by a line of text displaying --More(NNN%)-- at the end of the output.

See the Management CLI Guide for the options available if you encounter multiple page output when running a management CLI command.

Using for-done Control Flow

You can use for-done control flow in the management CLI to iterate over a collection returned from an operation and execute commands on each item in the collection.

For more information, see Use for-done Control Flow in the Management CLI Guide.

Output Operation Responses in JSON Format

You can configure the management CLI to output operation responses in pure JSON format by setting the output-json element to true in the EAP_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.xml file or by passing the --output-json flag in when starting the management CLI. By default, operation responses are displayed in DMR format.

Redirecting Output

Instead of printing output from a management CLI operation to the terminal, you can redirect the output using the following operators:

For more information, see Redirect Output in the Management CLI Guide.

Unified Deployment Command

The management CLI deployment command allows you to manage your deployments using a unified interface to deploy, undeploy, enable, disable or list information about the deployments.

For more information, see Deploy an Application to a Standalone Server Using the Management CLI and Deploy an Application in a Managed Domain Using the Management CLI in the Configuration Guide.

Topology View

In a managed domain, you can now see an overview of the hosts, server groups, and servers in the domain, and the status of each server. This is available from the Runtime tab by selecting Topology.

Breadcrumb Bar

When viewing resources, a breadcrumb bar is available at the top that allows you to easily switch between resources. From the breadcrumb bar, you can also open the resource in a separate window or switch to expert mode to browse the management model.

Navigation Enhancements

This release introduces a new interface for navigating JBoss EAP resources. You can use the arrow keys to navigate through the resource finder, pin frequently used items to stay at the top of the list, filter to quickly find items, and view the main attributes of a resource from its preview.

Deployment Enhancements

This release adds more support for deploying and managing your applications through the management console. You can drag and drop to add or replace deployments, browse deployment content to preview text and images, download deployments, and create exploded deployments.

Enable SSL Wizard for the Management Console

A wizard is now available to help you enable SSL for the HTTP management interface, which is used by the management console. Using the wizard, you can optionally create a truststore for mutual authentication as well as choose from the following keystore scenarios:

To access the wizard for a standalone server, select the Runtime tab, click View on the appropriate server, select HTTP Management Interface and click the Enable SSL button.

To access the wizard for a managed domain, select the Runtime tab, click Hosts and select the appropriate host, select View Management Interface HTTP and click the Enable SSL button.

Enable SSL Wizard for Undertow HTTPS Listeners

A wizard is now available to help you enable SSL for Undertow HTTPS listeners. Using the wizard, you can optionally create a truststore for mutual authentication as well as choose from the following keystore scenarios:

To access the wizard for a standalone server, click the Configuration tab, select Subsystems Web (Undertow) Server, click View on the appropriate server, select Listener HTTPS Listener, select the appropriate HTTPS listener and click the Enable SSL button.

To access the wizard for a managed domain server, click the Configuration tab, click Profiles and select the appropriate profile, select Web (Undertow) Server, click View on the appropriate server, select Listener HTTPS Listener, select the appropriate HTTPS listener and click the Enable SSL button.

Configuring Logging Profiles

You can now use the management console to configure logging profiles in the logging subsystem.

Configuring the Security Manager Subsystem

It is now supported to configure the security-manager subsystem from the management console.

Configuring Elytron Components

It is now supported to configure the following Elytron components using the management console:

It is also supported to create, deactivate, update, and change the account key for certificate authority accounts from the Runtime tab of the management console.

Viewing Session Details

You can now view detailed session information for deployments using the management console.

From the Runtime tab, choose the appropriate server, select Web (Undertow) Deployment, choose the deployment, and click View. The Sessions page provides a table that lists the ID, creation time, and last accessed time for all active sessions. You can also click on a session to view its attributes.

Invalidating Active Sessions

You can now invalidate active sessions for deployments using the management console.

From the Runtime tab, choose the appropriate server, select Web(Undertow) Deployment, choose the deployment, and click View. From the Sessions page, select the session ID to invalidate, and click Invalidate session. Click Yes on the popup that appears to invalidate the session.

Configuring Scattered Caches

This release introduces scattered caches, which can be configured from within the cache configuration in the infinispan subsystem.

In addition, scattered caches support the use of the hotrod cache store.

Additional Subsystem Configuration

The following subsystems have been added or enhanced to include additional configuration options, available from the Configuration tab:

Additional Subsystem Monitoring Support

This release provides new and enhanced monitoring support for the following subsystems, available from the Runtime tab:

Undertow Byte Buffer Pools

You can now use Undertow byte buffer pools to allocate pooled NIO ByteBuffer instances. All listeners have a byte buffer pool and you can use different buffer pools and workers for each listener. Byte buffer pools can be shared between different server instances.

For more information, see Configuring Byte Buffer Pools in the Configuration Guide.

Setting the Default Cookie Version

Undertow now provides a way to set the default cookie version to use for cookies created by the application. For information about the new default-cookie-version attribute, see servlet-container Attributes in the Configuration Guide.

Allowing Unescaped Characters in a URL

You can now configure Undertow to allow non-escaped characters in a URL by setting the allow-unescaped-characters-in-url attribute for the HTTP, HTTPS, and AJP listeners. When this attribute is set to true, the listener processes any URL containing non-escaped, non-ASCII characters. When set to false, the listener rejects any URL containing non-escaped, non-ASCII characters with an HTTP Bad Request 400 response code.

For more information about listener attributes, see Undertow Server Attributes in the Configuration Guide.

PROXY Protocol

Undertow now supports the PROXY protocol Version 1, as defined by The PROXY protocol Versions 1 & 2 specification. This option is disabled by default and must only be enabled for listeners that are behind a load balancer that supports the same protocol. It is configured using the new proxy-protocol attribute on the Undertow HTTP and HTTPS listeners.

For more information about listener attributes, see Undertow Server Attributes in the Configuration Guide.

Forwarded HTTP Extension

JBoss EAP 7.2 introduces the Forwarded handler, which implements RFC 7239, allowing servers behind a reverse proxy to receive peer and local addresses within the header.

Typically, this handler should not be used in conjunction with any of the X-Forwarded-* headers enabled on the reverse proxy. This means that you should either use this handler or enable the proxy-address-forwarding attribute in Undertow listeners.

Session Manager Operations

The following operations to get detailed session information are now available from the management CLI at /deployment=DEPLOYMENT_NAME/subsystem=undertow.

New Worker Attribute

In previous releases of JBoss EAP, the core threads size was always equal to the max threads size. This meant that threads would never die, even if the task-keepalive attribute was set. In this release, the number of threads for the core thread pool can be configured separately using the task-core-threads attribute, allowing the keepalive setting to work as expected.

For more information, see Configuring a Worker and IO Subsystem Attributes in the Configuration Guide for JBoss EAP.

Socket Log Handlers

You can now configure a socket log handler to send log messages over a TCP or UDP socket to a remote logging server.

For more information, see Configure a Socket Log Handler in the Configuration Guide.

JSON and XML Formatters

You can use the JSON and XML log formatters to format log messages in JSON and XML.

For more information, see Log Formatters in the Configuration Guide.

New maximum-timeout Transaction Manager Attribute

Previously, when users set a transaction timeout of 0, which implies an unlimited timeout, the transaction manager used Integer.MAX_VALUE as the actual value for the transaction timeout. Because the maximum integer value could exhibit problems, the transaction timeout value is now capped at a smaller value.

A new configurable attribute, maximum-timeout has been added to the transactions subsystem with a default value of 31536000 seconds (365 days). If a transaction is configured with an unlimited timeout, the transaction manager now uses the value of maximum-timeout instead, and a WARN message notifying this behavior is logged.

Retrieve Datasource Class Properties for a JDBC Driver

The datasource-class-info runtime attribute provides the list of datasource connection properties that can be set for a JDBC driver’s datasource class. When using the management console to add or edit an XA datasource, or edit a non-XA datasource, the properties field provides this list of properties as suggestions.

For more information, see the Datasource Attributes table in the Configuration Guide.

EJB and JNDI over HTTP/HTTPS with HTTP Load Balancer

Performing EJB and JNDI invocations using the HTTP protocol, so that requests are mapped directly to HTTP requests, is now fully supported in JBoss EAP 7.2. In addition, you can invoke EJBs over an HTTP load balancer. For more information, see EJB Invocation Over HTTP in the Developing EJB Applications.

Returning Context Data to EJB Clients

An EJBClientInterceptor can request specific data from the server side invocation context by calling org.jboss.ejb.client.EJBClientInvocationContext#addReturnedContextDataKey(String key). If the requested data is present under the provided key in the context data map, it is sent to the client.

Disallowing DOCTYPE Declarations in JSF Deployments

You can use the management CLI to disallow DOCTYPE declarations in JSF deployments.

For more information, see Disallowing DOCTYPE Declarations in the Configuration Guide.

Upgraded from Hibernate ORM 5.1 to Hibernate ORM 5.3

JBoss EAP 7.2 now includes Hibernate ORM 5.3. Hibernate ORM 5.3 includes changes that were made for Hibernate ORM 5.2, which was built using the Java 8 JDK and required the Java 8 JRE at runtime. Hibernate ORM 5.3 also adds support for the JPA 2.2 specification. It contains changes to comply with this specification, along with other improvements.

For more information about the features introduced in Hibernate ORM 5.2 and 5.3, along with what you need to know to migrate your applications from Hibernate ORM 5.1 to Hibernate ORM 5.3, see Migrating from Hibernate ORM 5.1 to Hibernate ORM 5.3 in the Migration Guide for JBoss EAP.

Upgraded from Hibernate Validator 5.3.x to Hibernate Validator 6.0.x

JBoss EAP 7.2 includes Hibernate Validator 6.0.x, which is the reference implementation for JSR 380: Bean Validation 2.0.

For more information, see About Bean Validation in the Development Guide for JBoss EAP.

Enhanced Execute Methods Use CompletableFuture

In this release, CommandDispatcher asynchronous methods were enhanced to take advantage of the new Java EE 8 CompletableFuture interface. This allows consumers of CommandDispatcher to implement non-blocking handling of dispatched commands.

For more information, see Public API for Clustering Services in the Development Guide.

HotRod Client Injection

You can inject a HotRod client to connect to a remote JDG cluster using the @Resource JNDI injection.

For more information, see Externalize HTTP Sessions to JBoss Data Grid in the Configuration Guide.

Non-blocking Initial State Transfer

Caches can now be made immediately available instead of waiting for state transfer to complete. This is accomplished by setting the timeout attribute of the cache to 0, allowing the cache to receive its state through background operations.

For more information, see State Transfer in the Configuration Guide.

Scattered Cache Mode

The infinispan subsystem now supports scattered cache mode. Scattered mode is similar to distributed mode in that it uses a consistent hash algorithm to determine ownership. However, ownership is limited to two members, and the originator, or node receiving the request for a given session, always assumes ownership for coordinating locking and cache entry updates. The cache write algorithm used in scattered mode guarantees that a write operation results in only a single RPC call. This can potentially reduce contention and improve performance following a cluster topology change.

For more information, see Clustering Modes in the Configuration Guide.

Externalize HTTP Sessions Using the Remote Cache Store

A new method of externalizing HTTP sessions to JBoss Data Grid is included in this release. This method utilizes a remote cache container in the infinispan subsystem of JBoss EAP that has a client SSL context defined for security.

You can configure remote cache containers from the management CLI and the management console.

For more information, see Externalize HTTP Sessions to JBoss Data Grid in the Configuration Guide.

Java API for JSON Binding

RESTEasy supports both JSON-B and JSON-P. In accordance with the specification, entity providers for JSON-B take precedence over the ones for JSON-P for all types of entities except JsonValue and its sub-types.

The JsonBindingProvider property from resteasy-json-binding-provider module provides support for JSON-B. To satisfy JAX-RS 2.1 requirements, the JsonBindingProvider provider takes precedence over the other providers for dealing with JSON payloads, in particular the Jackson payload. In order to retain backward compatibility, you can set the resteasy.preferJacksonOverJsonB context property to true and disable the JsonBindingProvider configuration for the current deployment.

For details, see the Java API for JSON Binding section in Developing Web Services Applications for JBoss EAP.

Asynchronous HTTP Request Processing

The default asynchronous engine implementation class for RESTEasy is ApacheHttpAsyncClient4Engine. You can set the asynchronous engine as the active engine by calling the useAsyncHttpEngine method in the ResteasyClientBuilder class.

For details, see the Asynchronous NIO Request Processing section in Developing Web Services Applications for JBoss EAP.

Custom RESTEasy Annotations

With the addition of parameter names in the bytecode, you are no longer required to specify the parameter names in the following annotations: @PathParam, @QueryParam, @FormParam, @CookieParam, @HeaderParam and @MatrixParam. To do so, you must switch to the new annotations with the same name, in a different package, which have an optional value parameter.

For details, see the Custom RESTEasy Annotations section in Developing Web Services Applications for JBoss EAP.

Extending the ParamConverter Functionality

In the JAX-RS semantics, a ParamConverter converts a single string that represents an individual object. RESTEasy extends the semantics to allow a ParamConverter to parse the string representation of multiple objects and generate a List<T>, Set<T>, SortedSet<T>, array, or any other multi-valued data structure.

For details, see the Extending the Functionality of the ParamConverter section in Developing Web Services Applications for JBoss EAP.

Resource Method Algorithm Switch

A bug discovered in the resource method matching algorithm used in RESTEasy 3.0.x versions prior to 3.0.25.Final caused RESTEasy to return too many resource methods when responding to requests. For more information, see JAX-RS and RESTEasy Application Changes in the Migration Guide.

RESTEasy Service Provider Interface

JBoss EAP now provides a RESTEasy service provider interface (SPI) to modify resource class metadata, which is created using ResourceBuilder. Implementations of the ResourceClassProcessor interface allows customizing the metadata generation.

For more information about the RESTEasy SPI, see the RESTEasy SPI to Modify Resource Metadata section in Developing Web Services Applications for JBoss EAP.

JAX-RS Client Support for HTTP Redirects

JAX-RS ClientHttpEngine implementations based on the Apache HttpClient support HTTP redirection. For more information, see HTTP Redirect in Developing Web Services Applications.

IBM MQ Resource Adapter

This release of JBoss EAP was tested with the the following configurations.

For more information about the IBM MQ resource adapters, see Deploying the IBM MQ Resource Adapter in Configuring Messaging for JBoss EAP.

Messaging Journal Persistence Using a JDBC Database

In addition to the currently supported Oracle 12c database, this release of JBoss EAP adds support for the IBM DB2 Enterprise database when using JDBC to persist messages.

Support for HA Topology for Messaging JDBC Persistence Store

This release of JBoss EAP supports HA topology for messaging JDBC persistence store. For details, see Configuring HA for Messaging JDBC Persistence Store in Configuring Messaging for JBoss EAP.

Simplifying Connection to Remote Red Hat AMQ 7 Messaging Broker

Connection to Remote Red Hat AMQ 7 messaging broker no longer requires the presence of JBoss EAP’s embedded messaging broker. You can define resources required for connection to remote Red Hat AMQ broker directly in the messaging-activemq subsystem.

Connect to Red Hat AMQ Using the Integrated Artemis Resource Adapter

You can configure the integrated Artemis resource adapter to connect to a remote installation of Red Hat AMQ 7, which then becomes the JMS provider for your JBoss EAP 7.2 applications. This allows JBoss EAP to be a client for the remote Red Hat AMQ 7 server.

For more information, see Configuring the Artemis Resource Adapter to Connect to Red Hat JBoss AMQ 7 in Configuring Messaging for JBoss EAP.

For more information about configuring the journal-file-open-timeout attribute, see Configuring Message Journal Attributes in the Configuring Messaging book for JBoss EAP.

Change in Artemis Logging Codes

Artemis logging codes for Artemis core protocol have changed, whereas the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) codes remain the same. This creates a problem if you are monitoring issues based on these codes.

The logging codes changed because the codes were duplicated between AMQP and the Artemis core protocol.

KUBE_PING Integrated Natively In JBoss EAP

Previously, the KUBE_PING JGroups discovery protocol was implemented only in the JBoss EAP OpenShift image. KUBE_PING is now implemented natively in JBoss EAP, so users creating their own custom container images are now able to natively use KUBE_PING for clustered applications. For more information on using KUBE_PING, see the Clustering reference in Getting Started with JBoss EAP for OpenShift Container Platform.

Predefined Modules

A set of predefined modules, org.jboss.modules, which includes all of the JBoss Modules API, is supported in JBoss EAP 7.2 when you use the default module loader. This special module is always available and is provided by JBoss Modules. The standard Java Platform Module System (JPMS) modules, which are provided in Java 9 and later, are also available by their standard names. When using JDK 8, the JDK 9 modules are emulated by JBoss Modules.

For more information, see Predefined Modules in the Configuration Guide.

JBoss EAP BOMs Available for Application Development

The artifact IDs for JBoss EAP Maven BOM files have changed because of the update to Java EE 8. The following table lists the Maven BOMs that are available for application development in this release.

For more information about the BOMs available for application development, see Manage Project Dependencies in the Development Guide.