Virgo 3.0 (Maya) Release Candidate 1

The first Release Candidate of Virgo 3.0 (Maya) is available for download. See the release notes for details.

RC1 finally brings the snaps framework for modular web applications out of prototype status. The separate snaps download includes a completely new Virgo Snaps User Guide and a comprehensive sample application. The User Guide describes how to install snaps on top of Virgo Tomcat Server and uses the sample application to verify the installation and step through all the major features of snaps.

RC1 of Virgo Tomcat Server embeds Gemini Web 2.0 RC1 which now comes with new documentation in the form of a User Guide plus a minimal Programmer Guide.

We encourage users to take RC1 for a spin and provide feedback via bugzilla or the Virgo forum. Unless critical bugs are found, we'll be focussing on the documentation until 3.0 is released, probably towards the end of August.

Exploiting p2 in EclipseRT projects

Virgo committer Borislav Kapukaranov has written an interesting blog entitled "RT meets p2". Here he gives some of the background behind the work to integrate p2 into Virgo (bug 343543) which is targetting the Azure (3.5) release of Virgo.

Virgo Maya (3.0) feature freeze at milestone 6

Milestone 6 of the Virgo Maya (3.0) release is available for download. This milestone marks the feature freeze of Maya, so we'll be working on bugs and documentation from now on. We plan to ship the release in August.

The milestone includes the new shell based on Apache Felix GoGo, accessible via telnet or ssh as described in the release notes. There are a few bugs in this support which need fixing, but apart from that the new function is in good shape for trying out.

This milestone also includes snaps for the first time. Snaps is a framework supporting modular OSGi web applications. We are bringing snaps out of prototype status in Maya, primarily by documenting its function and limitations in the next few weeks. Several groups are using snaps, so this should give them a more stable base. Including snaps in the release process will ensure it stays in step with Virgo Tomcat Server as the two evolve.

Finally, this milestone moves Virgo Jetty Server out of prototype status as the User and Programmer Guides now include appropriate documentation.