Live from the JavaOne conference, I’m currently attending a session on JCA specification 1.6 enhancements. According to the specification team, the goal of the new version of the spec is to simplify writing resource adapters (RAs) for those who have not written them in the past or may be new to the specification. In this article, I highlight some of the important new features.

1. New Annotation: @Connector
An alternative for creating XML information, this can now be done simply in the annotation.

2. New Annotation: @ConfigProperty
Complicated in previous versions, the new 1.6 spec will allow for automatic discovery of config properties to ease development of connectors.

3. New Annotation: @Activation
They’ve replaced activation interface required with simple annotation property as follows:

@Activation()
public class MyActivationSpec {
   // Use of bean validation annotations to express validation requirements
   @Size(min=5,max=5)
   private int length;
    // other methods...
}

Generic Work Context
They updated the concept of work context to accomplish tasks. A resource adapter submits a job request to the work manager, which then creates a work plan to complete the request, such as setting the proper transaction request. Backwards compatible with existing JCA 1.5 connector work solution.

More Information
This article is briefer than previous ones, in part because the slides were fast and flowing during the talk. Hopefully, I’ll update the information when the official slides are published.