1 What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0

This document describes the new features and changed functionality in the Oracle WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 release.

Oracle WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) includes the following new and updated functionality:

The following sections describe these features, upgrade improvements, and supported standards and configurations.

JDK 21 and 25 Certification

Oracle WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) supports JDK 21 and JDK 25.

See Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations for the JDK versions certified with this release. Supported WebLogic Server clients are certified for use with JDK 21 and JDK 25. A certified JDK is required for running the WebLogic Server installation program.

JDK 21 introduces features, optimizations, and bug fixes that can enhance the performance and stability of your applications, including a key encapsulation mechanism API, and previews of string templates and structured concurrency.

JDK 25 builds on these capabilities with improved Java Flight Recorder diagnostics, compact object headers, ahead-of-time caching and method profiling, scoped values, and a key derivation function API. It also incorporates improvements introduced since JDK 21, including reduced virtual-thread pinning and garbage collection optimizations. These enhancements can reduce memory consumption, accelerate startup and warmup, and improve application scalability and troubleshooting. JDK 21 and JDK 25 are long-term support releases of the Java SE Platform.

See the following topics:

Jakarta EE 11 Support

Oracle WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) is a fully compatible implementation of the Jakarta Platform, Enterprise Edition (Jakarta EE) Version 11.

To understand what’s new in WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 compared with WebLogic Server 15.1.1.0.0, it is important to understand the differences in the Jakarta EE specifications that these versions support.

WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 supports the Jakarta EE 11 Platform specification, whereas WebLogic Server 15.1.1.0.0 supports the Jakarta EE 9.1 Platform specification. The following provides a summary of the changes introduced in the Jakarta EE 11 Platform specification, relative to the Jakarta EE 9.1 Platform specification.

Table 1-1 Changes in Jakarta EE 11

Area Jakarta EE 9.1 Jakarta EE 11
Java baseline Java 8 or 11 Java 17+. Jakarta EE 11 takes advantage of Java 21 features such as virtual threads.
Main purpose Stabilize the jakarta.* namespace migration Modernize APIs, productivity, cloud-native performance
Data access JPA-centric Adds Jakarta Data 1.0 repositories, CRUD, pagination, and query methods
Persistence Earlier JPA generation Persistence 3.2: records, Instant/Year, richer queries, CDI-scoped injected EntityManager, Java configuration
Concurrency Traditional managed executors Concurrency 3.1 supports virtual threads where the JDK supports them
Records No platform-level focus Records supported in Persistence and Validation
Removed/pruned Retained some optional legacy specs Managed Beans removed; SecurityManager references and optional specs removed; SOAP with Attachments and XML Binding are no longer part of the Platform
Testing Earlier TCK structure Modernized/restructured TCKs

Jakarta EE 11 removed the following technologies from the Jakarta EE Platform:

  • Jakarta Managed Beans
  • Jakarta SOAP with Attachments (SAAJ)
  • Jakarta XML Binding (JAXB)
  • Jakarta XML Web Services (JAX-WS)

For backward compatibility, WebLogic Server retains support for additional API specifications that are no longer required by Jakarta EE 11, as listed in Table 1-3. These compatibility APIs are supported in WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0).

Jakarta EE 11 also removes requirements related to the Java Security Manager. This change to the platform specification does not remove all compatibility APIs from WebLogic Server.

WebLogic Server also supports Jakarta MVC 3.0 and Jakarta NoSQL 1.0 as additional APIs outside the Jakarta EE 11 Platform. Jakarta Data 1.0 can use Jakarta Persistence or Jakarta NoSQL for data access.

Jakarta Data and Jakarta NoSQL Integration

WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 adds Jakarta Data 1.0 support for repository-based application data access. Applications declare repository interfaces and inject their implementations through CDI. Jakarta Persistence-backed repositories integrate with persistence units, JTA, Bean Validation, and applicable Jakarta Data exception semantics.

The optional Jakarta NoSQL integration uses server-supplied Eclipse JNoSQL and NoSQL Providers in DOCUMENT mode. Administrators configure global NoSQL system resources, provider properties, protected credentials, server or cluster targets, and runtime monitoring. Applications bind local resource-reference aliases to these resources through effective Jakarta EE and WebLogic deployment descriptors.

Supported Providers: MongoDB, DynamoDB, Couchbase, CouchDB, Elasticsearch, Solr, and Oracle NoSQL.

NoSQL access is protected by resource-specific NoSQLResource policies evaluated for the current subject. Targeting and JNDI mappings do not substitute for authorization.

Resources can be managed using WLST, RESTful management services, and WebLogic Remote Console.

For more information, see:

Jakarta MVC 3.0 Support

WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 adds support for Jakarta MVC 3.0, an action-based model for building server-side web applications. Jakarta MVC is supported as an additional API outside the Jakarta EE 11 Platform and builds on Jakarta RESTful Web Services and Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI).

WebLogic Server supplies Eclipse Krazo as the default Jakarta MVC implementation, integrated with its Jakarta RESTful Web Services, CDI, Servlet, and JSP facilities. CDI-managed controller actions process requests, populate models, and select views. A built-in JSP view engine renders the selected views.

Applications can use standard Jakarta MVC APIs for form binding and validation, CSRF protection, output encoding, redirects and URI generation, internationalization, and lifecycle events. Applications are packaged and deployed as WAR files using the server-provided MVC APIs and runtime. Keep the MVC API at provided scope in the application build rather than packaging a different MVC implementation in the WAR.

For details, see:

Spring 7.x and Hibernate 7.x Support

WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) supports applications that use Spring 7.x and Hibernate 7.x in supported configurations.

These framework updates help application teams use current Spring and Hibernate releases with WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0, Jakarta EE 11 APIs, and supported JDK versions. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations for the framework versions certified with this release.

Certificate Management Service

Oracle WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) provides a production-ready Certificate Management Service, a built-in method for managing SSL/TLS keystore entries in a WebLogic Server domain.

The Certificate Management Service significantly streamlines the distribution and renewal of keystore entries to the correct servers, ensuring certificates remain valid with minimal intervention.

The Certificate Management Service makes requests to supported Certificate Issuers to obtain identity and trust material. It then stores the received material in a managed storage and distribution system and distributes it to servers as necessary. It can even automatically check and renew identity and trust material from the built-in Domain Certificate Issuer.

For more information, see Managing Certificates with the Certificate Management Service in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Note:

Significant changes were made to the implementation of the Certificate Management Service since its original release in WebLogic Server 15.1.1.0.0 as a technology preview.

Domain-wide Application Deployment-State REST Resource

WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) provides a domain-wide application deployment-state REST resource. Administrators can use this REST resource to retrieve deployment-state information for applications across a domain through the WebLogic Server REST Management APIs.

This resource helps automation, monitoring, and operational tooling determine application deployment state without requiring separate checks for each individual deployment target.

Feature Compatibility Security Gates and Enhancements

Feature Compatibility security gates provide a controlled way to introduce security hardening that can change established WebLogic Server behavior. They help customers test changes to applications, clients, integrations, permissions, and authorization policies.

In WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0, applicable security feature gates are enabled by default. Where a gate remains configurable, customers can explicitly disable it temporarily for compatibility testing. The persisted setting overrides the default, and the associated protection is not active while the gate is disabled. Some protections, including strict replication authorization, are always enforced and cannot be disabled.

The supporting documentation provides gate-specific behavior, error scenarios, configuration guidance, and testing recommendations. WebLogic Server logging and the Security Validation Tool warn when applicable configurable gates remain disabled. Configuration Wizard, Reconfiguration Wizard, and WebLogic Remote Console enhancements provide controls for applicable configurable gates during testing, validation, and deployment.

Test enabled behavior in non-production environments and re-enable any temporarily disabled gates as soon as validation is complete.

For more information, see Managing Gated Security Features in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.

FIPS 140-3 Support

WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) adds support for FIPS 140-3 in supported configurations. This support helps customers run WebLogic Server environments that require FIPS 140-3-aligned cryptographic operations.

For certified platforms, JDK versions, and other requirements for FIPS 140-3 support, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations and the WebLogic Server security documentation.

Jipher JCE Provider

Oracle WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) adds support for Jipher JCE 20.0, a new release of the Oracle developed JCE provider.

The Jipher JCE 20.0 provider is included with WebLogic Server by default and uses OpenSSL 3.6.3. WebLogic Server also includes Jipher PKI 10.15. FIPS 140-3 compliance requires a supported configuration that uses approved cryptographic algorithms and a CMVP-validated cryptographic module.

WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 also introduces the ability to automatically register the Jipher JCE provider at runtime, granting flexibility in its usage.

The Jipher JCE provider is located in jipher-jce.jar, which is in the WebLogic Server classpath by default.

For more information, see Using the Jipher JCE Provider in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Deploying Exploded Applications and Application Installation Directories with REST

WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) enhances REST deployment support for exploded applications and application installation directories.

Administrators can use the WebLogic Server REST Management APIs to deploy directory-based application content as part of REST-based deployment workflows.

This support helps automation and deployment tooling work with expanded application layouts and application installation directories without requiring every deployment operation to use an archived application file.

Upgrade Improvements

WebLogic Server application upgrade tooling uses OpenRewrite recipes to help automate application changes for newer WebLogic Server, Java, Jakarta EE, Jakarta Faces, and Spring Framework versions.

OpenRewrite Recipes

WebLogic Server application upgrade tooling uses OpenRewrite recipes to help prepare applications for WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0), Jakarta EE 11, and JDK 21 or JDK 25. Run the selected Java build-target recipe first, followed by the Jakarta EE 11 migration recipe and then the WebLogic Server 26.1 core recipe.

These recipes help update Jakarta EE APIs and deployment descriptors, update WebLogic Maven configuration, align dependencies for server-provided APIs, and identify deprecated or removed APIs and migration risks. Separate recipes support Spring Framework 7 and Jakarta Persistence 3.2 with Hibernate 7; select them when those frameworks are used by the application.

The Java recipes change the build target; they do not modernize application source code. Review the reported migration risks and make application-specific changes before building and testing the application on the selected JDK and WebLogic release. Gradle applications may require equivalent build-configuration changes manually.

Applications upgraded from a Java EE-based WebLogic release require applicable javax-to-jakarta changes. Applications upgraded from WebLogic Server 15.1.1 already use the jakarta namespace and require compatibility review for Jakarta EE 11.

For workflow details, see the WebLogic Server application upgrade tooling Documentation. To jump-start your hands-on learning, see the Examples and Tutorials.

Manageability Improvements

Oracle WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 continues to provide new management features that simplify the configuration, monitoring, and ongoing management of WebLogic Server domains and applications.

Management enhancements include the production-ready Certificate Management Service and the domain-wide application deployment-state REST resource. The following section summarizes documentation-library updates.

Documentation Update History

The update history of the Oracle WebLogic Server documentation library summarizes updates to user and reference guides and online help for WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0).

The following table summarizes updates made to the documentation library for its initial 26 (26.1.0.0.0) release:

Table 1-2 Documentation Update History

Date Description of Updates
November 2026

Initial release of the Oracle WebLogic Server 26.1.0.0.0 documentation library. Significant library changes include:

Standards Support, Supported Configurations, and WebLogic Server Compatibility

Oracle WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) provides Jakarta EE 11 full platform support, Java SE 21 and 25 certification, support for web services standards, support on multiple operating system and JVM platforms, and support for several security standards.

The following sections describe WebLogic Server standards support, supported system configuration, WebLogic Server compatibility, WebLogic Server installation support:

Standards Support

WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0) supports the following standards and versions:

Jakarta Standards

Table 1-3 lists Jakarta EE 11 standards and additional Jakarta EE and Java EE APIs supported by WebLogic Server for compatibility. Jakarta MVC and Jakarta NoSQL are additional APIs outside the Jakarta EE 11 Platform.

Note:

See WebLogic Server Security Standards in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server for the currently supported security standards, such as JAAS, JCE, Jakarta Authentication, Jakarta Authorization, Jakarta Security, and so forth.

Table 1-3 Jakarta EE 11 Standards and WebLogic Server Compatibility API Support

Standard Version

Jakarta EE Platform

11

Jakarta Activation

2.1

Jakarta Annotations

3.0

Jakarta Authentication

3.1

Jakarta Authorization

3.0

Jakarta Batch

2.1

Jakarta Concurrency

3.1

Jakarta Connectors

2.1

Jakarta Contexts and Dependency Injection

4.1

Jakarta Data

1.0

Jakarta Debugging Support for Other Languages

2.0

Jakarta Dependency Injection

2.0

Jakarta Deployment

1.7

Jakarta Enterprise Beans (EJB)

4.0

Jakarta Enterprise Web Services

2.0

Jakarta Expression Language (EL)

6.0

Jakarta Faces (JSF)

4.1

Jakarta Interceptors

2.2

Jakarta JSON Binding

3.0

Jakarta JSON Processing

2.1

Jakarta Mail

2.1

Jakarta Managed Beans

2.0

Jakarta Management

1.1

Jakarta Messaging (JMS)

3.1

Jakarta MVC

3.0

Jakarta NoSQL

1.0

Jakarta Pages (JSP)

4.0

Jakarta Persistence (JPA)

3.2

Jakarta RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS)

4.0

Jakarta Security

4.0

Jakarta Servlet

6.1

Jakarta SOAP with Attachments (SAAJ)

3.0

Jakarta Standard Tag Library (JSTL)

3.0

Jakarta Transactions (JTA)

2.0

Jakarta Validation

3.1

Jakarta Web Services Metadata for the Java Platform

3.0

Jakarta WebSocket

2.2

Jakarta XML Binding (JAXB)

4.0

Jakarta XML Web Services (JAX-WS)

4.0
Other Java Standards

Table 1-4 lists other currently supported Java and related standards.

Table 1-4 Java and Related Standards Support

Standard Version

Java API for XML Processing (JAXP)

1.4.4

Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI)

1.3

JDBC

4.3

JDKs

21.0 and 25.0

See JDK 21 and 25 Certification and Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations for details.

JMX

1.2

OTS/JTA

OTS 1.2 and JTA 1.3

RMI

1.0

RMI/IIOP

1.0

Streaming API for XML (StAX)

1.0
Web Services Standards

For the current list of standards supported for WebLogic web services, see Features and Standards Supported by WebLogic Web Services in Understanding WebLogic Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Other Standards

Table 1-5 lists other standards that are supported in WebLogic Server 26 (26.1.0.0.0).

Note:

See WebLogic Server Security Standards in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server for additional information on standards relating to security, such as SSL, TLS, and XACML, and so forth.

Table 1-5 Other Standards

Standard Version

X.509

v3

LDAP

v3

TLS

v1.2, v1.3

HTTP

2.0, 1.1

SNMP

SNMPv3

eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML)

2.0

Partial implementation of Core and Hierarchical Role Based Access Control (RBAC) Profile of XACML

2.0

Internet Protocol (IP)

Versions:

  • v6

  • v4

For more information about IPv6 support for all Fusion Middleware products, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page on Oracle Technology Network.

Jython Version

WLST supports Jython 2.7.1. See Behavior Changes in Jython version 2.7 in Release Notes for Oracle WebLogic Server for compatibility information and workarounds.

Supported Configurations

For the most current information on supported configurations, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page on Oracle Technology Network.

Licensing Information

For the most current information on Oracle Fusion Middleware Licensing, see Licensing Information User Manual.

WebLogic Server Compatibility

For the most current information on compatibility between the current version of WebLogic Server and previous releases, see WebLogic Server Compatibility in Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server.