Java News Roundup: JDK 27/28, Jakarta EE 12, and Spring Updates
The Java ecosystem marked significant progress this week with the general availability of A2A Java SDK 1.0, continued momentum for Jakarta EE 12 development, and a broad suite of point releases across the Spring Framework. These updates, ranging from agentic application support to refined build tool capabilities, reflect a industry-wide push toward modularity and cloud-native performance.
What is the status of Jakarta EE 12?
Jakarta EE 12 is currently on track, with most specifications within the Core Profile already reaching milestone status, according to Ivar Grimstad, Jakarta EE Developer Advocate at the Eclipse Foundation. Development teams are actively debating the future of configuration, specifically whether to migrate MicroProfile Config into Jakarta EE as a native Jakarta Config specification. Additionally, the Eclipse GlassFish project has signaled a shift in strategy by filing Compatibility Certification Requests for the Jakarta EE Core Profile 11, suggesting it may serve as the primary implementation for the upcoming Jakarta EE 12 Core Profile.
How are agentic applications changing the Java landscape?
The release of A2A Java SDK 1.0 provides a standardized library for developers to implement the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol. According to the release documentation, this SDK enables the creation of “agentic” applications that function as A2AServers. The release includes a Quarkus-based integration test kit, which allows developers to test interoperability across different SDKs. A corresponding release candidate for Jakarta Servers further extends this capability, enabling agentic communication patterns within traditional Jakarta EE environments.
What updates are arriving for build and performance tools?
Build efficiency remains a priority, evidenced by the second release candidate of Gradle 9.6. According to Gradle release notes, this version improves Configuration Cache hit rates by tracking project properties from environment variables more accurately. In the GraalVM ecosystem, Native Build Tools 1.1.2 has added support for “grund,” a polyglot reference checker designed to validate ID-based citations across source code and Markdown documentation. These updates suggest a tightening integration between documentation, build-time validation, and runtime performance.
How do Spring and Micrometer updates impact enterprise monitoring?
The Spring team delivered a wide range of updates, including the GA release of Spring AI 2.0.0 and Spring Data 2026.0.0. Simultaneously, the Micrometer project released version 1.17.0 for Metrics and 1.7.0 for Tracing. The Tracing update is particularly notable for its dependency upgrade to OpenTelemetry Instrumentation 2.28.0. By keeping these dependencies aligned, Spring and Micrometer maintain compatibility with modern observability standards, ensuring that enterprise applications can leverage current telemetry protocols without extensive refactoring.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the primary change in Eclipse JNoSQL 1.2.0?
The release moves toward Jakarta Data repositories, deprecating the older engine in favor of a newer, more integrated approach, while requiring a minimum of JDK 21. - Why is the Gradle 9.6 release candidate significant?
It introduces a –non-interactive command line option, which is designed to prevent interactive prompts in automated CI/CD environments. - Where can I find the latest JDK early-access builds?
Build 26 of JDK 27 and Build 2 of JDK 28 are currently available, focusing primarily on issue resolutions and stability fixes.
Which of these framework updates will have the biggest impact on your current project architecture? Share your thoughts in the comments below or subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest Java ecosystem updates.