Product Release Information

Spine Java Application Framework

This document contains the release notes for Spine version 0.9.2 The following sections describe the release in detail and provide late-breaking or other information that supplements the main documentation.

This is an early access release for wide evaluation and usage. Your feedback is important to us, please help us make this the best product possible. Keep in mind that we are continuing to work on Spine and things may change in the future.

(WHEN 0 IN VERSION NUMBER CHANGES) This is a major release with many new features. Users of previous releases should check the "Version Compatibility" section below for instructions on how to use existing data with this new release.

(WHEN 9 IN VERSION NUMBER CHANGES) This is an upgrade release with some significant enhancements. Users of previous releases are encouraged to upgrade.

(WHEN 2 IN VERSION NUMBER CHANGES) This is a maintenance release that improves quality, reliability, and performance without adding significant new functionality. All users of previous 0.91 releases should upgrade to this release.

(WHEN DEFECT CORRECTION CLOSES SIGNIFICANT SECURITY HOLES) This is a critical upgrade release that addresses recently discovered security holes. All users of previous 0.9 releases should upgrade immediately to this release.

What's New?

• Added SpineMessageManager to provide faster access to localized messages


• Added exceptionMessageFile property to MessagePlugin, to speed up access to exception specific messages


• Added Service Locators viz DataSourceServiceLocator and PluginServiceLocator objects used to locate references to plugins and Datasources registered with the framework.


• Re established ConfigurationEngine to serve as Plugin engine


• Amended configuration xml files to use a more user friendly means of adding user defined properties using the property tag


• Created default DataSourceBuilder which uses user defined properties to locate accessors defined by database drivers to initialize a suitable dataSource


• Many improvements to the product's quality, reliability, ease of use, and performance. See "Recent Changes" below for details.

Installation and Upgrade Notes

Installation

See the installation instructions for full details. Please note that in this release, ...

IMPORTANT: You must completely uninstall any previous "developer release" or "early access" version of this product before installing this release.

Manifest

This release consists of the following items:

• Release notes (this file)
• Quick-start guide for web applications
• User guide

Minimum System Requirements

System Processor:	1GHz PROCESSOR-TYPE
System Memory:	500MB
Free Disk Space:	7MB
Operating System:	Unix,Linux,Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X, All operating systems capable of running J2SE 5
Networking:	Internet access
Existing Software:	J2SE 5 Libraries J2EE 1.4 Libraries (Optional) Log4J libraries (packaged with distribution) Junit libraries (packaged with distribution) Apache Commons Library (packaged with distribution) Hibernate 3 Libraries (packaged with distribution)

Version Compatibility

Files saved by earlier versions of this product may be used with this version.

Recent Changes

• Enhancements
  
  • Added SpineMessageManager to provide faster access to localized messages
  • Added exceptionMessageFile property to MessagePlugin, to speed up access to exception specific messages
  • Amended AbstractBusinessDelegate to possess the ability to locate and initialize any other DataAccessObject (specified in the active configuration) than the present DAO associated with it.


• Defects fixed
  
  • Rewrote the way in which DisplayMessages and SpineMessageException search for entries within all the listed providers
  • Rewrote most files which used MessageManager to use SpineMessageManager to stop the entry not found error.
  • Amended AbstractBusinessDelegate to close previous resources after a successful re initialization of a different DataProxy

Known Problems and Workarounds