With the Java EE 6 specification becoming final last december, the Apache Tomcat guys have been working hard to implement the new Tomcat 7 that supports the Servlet 3.0 and JSP 2.2 spec. The RC3 has been released yesterday.
The most exciting thing about Tomcat 7 is that it supports the Servlet 3.0 specification which is part of Java EE 6. Servlet 3.0 supports a more modulair style of webapps through webfragment, there is no need for one big web.xml anymore. It also lets you define Servlets and Filters through annotations. Another important new feature is the asynchronous processing of requests. If you want to learn more about the Servlet 3.0 specification check this article on dzone.
Besides the Servlet 3.0 API Tomcat 7 also supports JSP 2.2 and EL 2.2 but does not support any of the Java EE 6 profiles out of the box. Of course you can package all the libraries that you require with your application as you wish.
Tomcat 7 is not yet available through the official Apache Tomcat website but you can download the Tomcat 7 binaries from here: http://people.apache.org/~markt/dev/tomcat-7/
I`m running Tomcat 7 on Windows 7 64bit and on my machine I noticed ‘dramatic’ improvements in startup time. You will need at least Java SE 6 for Tomcat 7 to run.
For most of my application development I use IntelliJ. Even though IntelliJ officially supports Tomcat up untill version 6, your apps will deploy to Tomcat 7 seamlessly.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sergi Almar, Stephan Oudmaijer. Stephan Oudmaijer said: Tomcat 7 is just around the corner: http://www.oudmaijer.com/blog/2010/05/24/tomcat-7-is-just-around-the-corner/ [...]
What is ‘dramatic’? My custom framework including Spring, DB and a caching layer loads in 5-6 seconds.
Agree, not a very objective measurement. But I did a quick compare with a clean Tomcat:
Tomcat 6 startup: 1104ms
Tomcat 7 startup: 663ms
But again, still not an objective measurement.
How can Tomcat already be at RC3 if there hasn’t been an alpha or beta yet?
[...] 7 final! Posted by soudmaijer | on 17 Jun 2010 under Development, English, Servers In a previous post I wrote that Tomcat 7 is just around the corner. Indeed it is, you can already download it! The [...]