EE10 Direction Statement

[starksm64]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Yes, we need to start laying out the key focus initiatives for EE10

Describe the solution you'd like
We need a statement of key areas to be addressed in EE10 for consumption by end users and marketing

Describe alternatives you've considered
A traditional roadmap with deliverables is still premature, so we need to highlight areas of focus that will build into an eventual roadmap. Areas of focus that need progress before a proper roadmap can be defined include:

• Addressing lack of specification standalone TCKs that can be composed into new platforms
• Defining the makeup of the core profile
• Defining how profile specifications can be released independently and what versioning would look like under this approach
  ** Introducing release candidates prior to final profile release should be introduced
• Promoting individual specification releases
• Work to define relationship between Jakarta Config and MicroProfile Config
• Updating core profile specifications to enable build time capable implementations
  ** CDI lite
  ** Jakarta RESTful Web Services?
• Handling of optional specification features
• Removing the current circularity between specifications at the TCK level
• Java SE version and JPMS strategy
• Improve architecture guidelines and address specification cohesion
  ** Annotation usage conventions
  ** Consistent use of CDI

Additional Context

• Need to define how specification TCKs that reference other specification containers are handled #339
• Create guidance on how to produce standalone TCKs #333
• Define how the independent release of profiles should work #332
• Settle on the Java SE version requirements for EE 10 profiles #331
• We need to define the JPMS strategy for EE10 and beyond #329
• Platform Core Architecture #3

Proposed Statement
Jakarta EE 10 focuses on independent releases of individual specifications along with updating the associated TCKs to facilitate both validation of individual specification implementations and composition of TCKs into novel Jakarta EE profiles. The first new profile in focus is a core profile that supports smaller microservice based runtimes that may make use of ahead of time compilation. Work will also be done to enable independent releases of profiles and the platform specification along with a versioning scheme that supports a hybrid time box/feature driven approach for a cohesive brand awareness.

[smillidge]

What about mention of driving forward Jakarta EE as a platform in general? There is a whole set of specs that have created release records?

[starksm64]

What about mention of driving forward Jakarta EE as a platform in general? There is a whole set of specs that have created release records?

I added the 'Promoting individual specifications releases' item for this.

[arjantijms]

One important issue: for cohesion several specs, specifically CDI, could do things to accommodate the specs building on them. Faces and Security for instance both need a portable way to decorate beans, and those (and several other specs) need to be able to access interceptor annotation attributes in a portable way.

[starksm64]

One important issue: for cohesion several specs, specifically CDI, could do things to accommodate the specs building on them. Faces and Security for instance both need a portable way to decorate beans, and those (and several other specs) need to be able to access interceptor annotation attributes in a portable way.

#3 is a platform architecture definition issue that I would put this topic under. I have added a bullet point explicitly for this and added a couple of sub-bullets with CDI usage being one.

[kwsutter]

What about mention of driving forward Jakarta EE as a platform in general? There is a whole set of specs that have created release records?

I added the 'Promoting individual specifications releases' item for this.

I think there are two parts to @smillidge's question... (1) promotion of the individual spec releases, ie. releasing jax-rs 3.1 prior to releasing jax-rs 4.0 in Jakarta EE 10, and (2) definition and packaging of the Jakarta EE 10 Platform and Web Profile release. @starksm64, even if you are not the driver of the Jakarta EE 10 Platform effort, could we add this latter item to the Direction Stmt list?

[Emily-Jiang]

We could release core profile in EE 10 and also package the updated specs such as CDI, JAX-RS, etc and release web profile, full profile as a point release EE 10.x rapidly.

[jmcc0nn3ll]

I am with @smillidge on this, I think there should be two statements, one from the general EE platform perspective and a follow up with more specific 10 thinking. IE

Platform: The driving force behind the JakartaEE platform remains as it has always been, to promote a clear and concise set of specifications that when brought together form Profiles that users can leverage their knowledge of the past while preparing for the features of the future.

EE10: The technical goal of the EE10 release will be to further the independence of each specification and their corresponding tcks while taking the initial steps to create and inject a common configuration specification. We seek to create a more core or foundational Profile that will the current Web and Full Profiles will built on top of. Finally, we look forward to charting a path forward for Profiles to be composed of more independently minded specification adhering to a common set of conventions.

[aeiras]

@starksm64 we are going to push via public mediums in a bit.
The name ought to be Jakarta EE 10 Direction Statement.

More highlight to TCK is missing. Is there a way for the document to refocus on it.

[starksm64]

I have added an initial draft of the proposed direction statement. I'll update it based on feedback and platform discussions.

[Emily-Jiang]

The other option is:
Release individual specs such as JAX-RS 3.1, etc. If CDI 4.0 is not ready, it might not worth releasing Core Profile. Instead, release web profile and platform release with the updated spec in EE 10 and then release core profile in EE 10.1 when CDI 4.0 is ready.