I think before making a decision we need to understand the technical differences of
jta/jts
and the configuration implications. I suppose I can go and RTFM, however do you see issues
in having nodes in a cluster running jts? Do you need to have somekind of coordinator node
or the nodes auto-arrange themselves?
Jonathan Halliday wrote:
Hello all
Arguably one for the AS list, but in light of potential impact on other
projects I think it needs wider discussion, so hello dev list...
I'm pleased to say that we will shortly be announcing the change of
licence terms for the JTS (distributed, interoperable transactions
between e.g. EJB containers) and XTS (transactions for Web Services)
parts of JBossTS from GPL/Dual to LGPL.
The current JBossAS release bundles our JTA ('local only' transactions),
which is already LGPL. The JTS and XTS options are available to the
community as additional downloads that can be integrated into AS 4.x
The EAP 4.x releases include support for JTA only. We have promised EAP
5.x will include JTS also, and probably at least some parts of XTS.
Now that it's legally feasible to do so, does the AS dev community wish
to include either JTS or XTS with the AS 5.x releases, in order to
provide users with these increased capabilities?
I see the advantages as: The AS will have more functionality out of the
box and can be pulled into the EAP with fewer changes. For both cases it
would otherwise be necessary to retrofit the additional transactions
pieces and retest the server.
I see the disadvantages as: Changing something as core as the
transactions engine between CR and GA may raise issues that further
delay the release. It adds additional complexity and footprint for
something not all users need.
Hybrid solutions are available, such as sticking with the JTA for the
'default' config and putting the JTS into the 'all' config. These
further muddy the waters and complicate the testing, although I rather
like it from a point of view of offering the most appropriate technical
solution for users with different needs.
There may be a degree of tension here between the AS (community) and EAP
(product). Putting the JTS into the AS reduces the productisation work
at the cost of more engineering effort in the AS for example.
I'm wearing my community developer hat today: JBossAS and JBossTS are
open source projects, it's up to the core developers to discuss the
engineering tradeoffs and make the call on this. That may of course be
unduly idealist: commercial realities dictate that EAP product
management have at least some influence on the final decision :-)
Does anyone have strong opinions one way or the other on this?
Regards
Jonathan Halliday
JBossTS dev team lead.