Release Notes

What's New in WebLogic Server 9.0

What's New: The Big Picture

Systems Management

Performance and Availability

Enterprise Web Services

Enterprise-Ready Messaging Infrastructure

System Administration and Management

Server Operations

Server Life Cycle State Isolates Administration Operations

Work Contexts Ease Implementation and Maintenance

Network Channels Can Manage Traffic Between Server Instances

Configuration Persistence Changes That Affect Core Functionality

System-Wide Default Persistent Store

Store-and-Forward Service for Highly Available Messaging

Configuration Data Changes After WebLogic Server 9.0 BETA

New Look, Feel, and Functionality in the Console

Portal Application Support in the Administration Console

Predictable Distribution of Domain Configuration Changes

WebLogic Scripting Tool Automates Domain Configuration Tasks

wlconfig and weblogic.Admin

Centralized Diagnostic Service with More Visibility and Run-time Control

Increased Visibility

Logging in a Standard Format

Dynamic, Custom Instrumentation

Diagnostic Context for Reconstruction and Correlation of Events

Event Capture for a Single Request or a Single Client

Data Harvesting from the Server and Applications

Server Image Capture for Post-Failure Analysis

Notifications Provide Tighter Integration with Legacy Monitoring Software

Dynamic and Offline Access to Current and Historical Data

Standard Integration of Third-Party Analytic Tools

WebLogic Logging Services

Logging Volume Control

Support for Log4J

Support for Commons API

New Log File Directories and Locations

Log Content Enhancements

Web Application and Resource Adapter Logging

Server Reliability, Availability, Scalability, and Performance

Automatic and Manual Server Migration to Another Machine

Support for CommonJ Timer and Work Manager API Specification

HTTP Session Replication and Failover Across Wide or Metropolitan Area Networks

Server Self-Tuning for Production Environments

Node Manager Enhancements

Dynamically Generated Cluster Address for Each Request

New Overload Protection Increases Availability

J2EE Standard Web Services

Differences Between WebLogic 8.1 and 9.0 Web Services

JWS Annotations-Based Programming Model

Web Services for J2EE 1.1 Implementation

Asynchronous, Loosely Coupled Web Services

Digital Signatures and Encryption

Data Binding Between XML and Java

Use of WS-Policy Files

Ant Tasks That Handle JWS Files

Implementations of and Conformance to Standard Web Services and Java Specifications

Messaging (JMS)

JMS 1.1 Specification Support for Production Environments

Modular Configuration and Deployment of JMS Resources

Store-and-Forward for Highly Available Message Production

Enhanced Run-time Message Management

Pause and Resume Message Operations on Destinations

More Transparency with Message Life Cycle Logging

Debug and Diagnostic Information More Readily Available

Strict Message Ordering with Unit-of-Order

Uniform Distributed Destinations

Improved Message Paging

Access to JMS Applications from Programs Written in C

Message-Driven Bean (MDB) Enhancements for JMS

Document Object Model (DOM) Support for XML Messages

Deprecated JMS Features, Methods, and Interfaces

Legacy JMS Configuration Interfaces

JMS Helper APIs

JMS Session Pool and JMS Connection Consumer MBean Interfaces

JMS File Store and JMS JDBC Store MBean Interfaces

Resource Adapters

Multiple Outbound Connections

Inbound-Outbound Transactions

Connection Proxies No Longer Necessary

RAR Visibility to External Application Components

Resource Adapter Life Cycle Management

Suspend( ) and Resume( ) Speed In-Flight Transactions

Self-Tuning Work Manager Avoids Direct Creation of Threads

Resource Adapter Security Identities

Adapters Bound in JNDI Tree as Independent Objects

Connection Factory-Specific and Adapter-Scoped Properties

Viability Test (ping) for Single and Pooled Connections

Configurable Connection Proxy Generation for 1.0 Adapters

Deprecation of link-ref Mechanism

JNDI

JDBC

JDBC 3.0 Support

RowSet Extensions

Support for the J2EE Management Model (JSR-77)

Modular Configuration and Deployment of JDBC Resources

Fewer Resource Types for Simpler JDBC Configuration

JDBC Monitoring and Diagnostics Enhancements

New Monitoring Statistics and Profile Information for JDBC Resources

Callbacks for Monitoring Driver-Level Statistics

JDBC Debugging Enhancements

Optimized Performance for Non-XA Resources in Global Transactions

Credential Mapping of WebLogic and Database User IDs

Multi Data Sources Supported for XA Transactions

Updated WebLogic Type 4 JDBC Drivers

Deprecated JDBC Features, Methods, Interfaces, and MBeans

Enterprise JavaBeans

New Features to Support the EJB 2.1 Specification

EJB Timer Service for Modeling Business Processes

EJB-QL Changes

Message Destination References

Stateless Session Beans Exposed as Web Services

Message-Driven Bean Enhancements

Improved EJB Caching and Pooling

Dynamic Entity Cache and EJB Pool to Match Demand

EJB Cache and Pool Initialization and Re-Initialization on Demand

Passivation During a Transaction

Query Caching

Concurrency Options for Optimistic Beans

Automatic Retry of Rolled Back Transactions

SQL Query Support

Trimming String-Type Values

Improved Operation Ordering for CMP Entities

Web Applications, JSPs, and Servlets

Web Applications

Servlet 2.4 Implementation

JSP 2.0 Implementation

Deprecated and Obsolete Web Application Features

Application Development

J2EE Library Support for Easier Sharing of J2EE Modules

Optional Package Support for Sharing JAR Files

Context Propagation

Split Development Directory Support for Deployment Plans

New Features in Medical Records Sample Application

Upgrading Deployment Descriptors From Previous Releases of J2EE and WebLogic Server

Startup and Shutdown Classes Deprecated

Application Deployment

WebLogic Deployment API Implements and Extends JSR-88

Application Configurations Deployable to Multiple Domains

New Directory Structure for Easier Production Deployment

Production Redeployment and Maintaining Availability

Version Designation to Support Production Redeployment

Sanity Checking in Production with No Disruptions to Clients

JMS and JDBC Deployable Resource Configuration

Deployment Targets in WebLogic Server 9.0

New Deployment Configuration Tools

Enhanced Deployment Configuration Editing Extends JSR-88

Deprecated and Unsupported Deployment Features

XML

StAX Implementation

JAX-P 1.2 Implementation

JAX-R 1.0 Implementation

Parsing XML Documents in a Servlet No Longer a Default

Deprecated XML Features

WebLogic XML Streaming API

Default XML Parser Based on Apache Xerces

Installation Changes

WebLogic Upgrade Wizard

Java Management Extensions (JMX)

JMX 1.2 and JMX Remote API (JSR-160)

Revised Model for Distributing Domain Configuration Data

Changes to the MBean Data Model

New, Functionally Aligned MBean Servers

New Reference Document for Public WebLogic Server MBeans

New and Deprecated MBeans and Interfaces

Facilities for Registering Custom MBeans

J2EE Management APIs

Security

Support for Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC)

Single Sign-On Capabilities

Support for Certificate Lookup and Validation

SSL Features

New WebLogic Security Providers

Authentication Providers

Identity Assertion Providers

SAML Support

SAML Providers

Certificate Lookup and Validation Providers

Enhancements to WebLogic Security Providers

Enhancements to the Security Service Programming Interfaces (SSPIs)

WebLogic Tuxedo Connector

Examples

Certifications

Standards Support

Deprecated APIs

Deprecated Command-Line Properties

Third-Party JAR Files

Documentation Updates

New Books

Reorganized Information

Retired Documentation

RMI/IIOP Documentation

Documentation Name Change