Helidon 2.2.0 Released
The Helidon team is proud to announce that Helidon 2.2.0 is now available with the following new features and enhancements:
- MicroProfile GraphQL support
- Micronaut Integration
- Virtual Threads (Project Loom) support
- GraalVM Native Image support for MySQL JDBC driver
- Bug fixes and small improvements throughout
Helidon 2.2.0 is not a new major release so you don’t need to worry about API changes if you are running a prior 2.x version. If you are still using Helidon 1.x, consider upgrading to 2.x. Helidon 2.x has a lot of features that you shouldn’t miss such as GraalVM Native Image support in MicroProfile 3.3 applications!
What’s New in 2.2.0
MicroProfile GraphQL Support
Over the last few years developers and enterprises have adopted GraphQL at an astonishing rate. If you haven’t tried GraphQL yet, here are some reasons why you should:
- GraphQL lets the client specify exactly what data it needs.
- Instead of many rigid endpoints, a GraphQL API has only one smart endpoint that can take complex queries. Use of GraphQL makes it easier to aggregate data from multiple sources.
- Helidon has implemented MicroProfile GraphQL 1.0.3 to ensure a future-proof, portable code-first set of APIs to develop more efficient client-server communication.
- GraphQL has nothing to do with graph databases.
Read more and follow our tutorial to write your first GraphQL-based application!
Micronaut Integration
If you’ve been considering Micronaut Data (or Spring Data), but you want to continue using MicroProfile, then we have good news. Helidon now integrates with Micronaut Data to provide a data repository experience in the MicroProfile environment. Check out the Micronaut Data documentation and our tutorial to try it for yourself. You’ll be able to configure Micronaut features through Helidon or MicroProfile configuration and use any Micronaut Singleton beans (as CDI beans) and Micronaut interceptors. Finally, you’ll compile the application using GraalVM Native Image to take full advantage of this integration.
Virtual Threads Support — OpenJDK Project Loom
Support for Virtual Threads through Project Loom is coming soon. Team Helidon has already started to work on the integration and Helidon 2.2.0 provides experimental features to test your applications using Virtual Threads. If you haven’t done so already, check out Project Loom and the benefits that it can provide. Blocking I/O? No problem. Forget reactive programming and return to those simpler, joyful times of synchronous programming.
At this time GraalVM Native Image does not have early access builds that support Loom, so you cannot compile a native executable binary. To test Virtual Threads you must use Project Loom Early Access build.
As always, many thanks to our contributors.
If you have any questions or comments, visit our webpage, this blog, our YouTube channel or ask using Slack or Stackoverflow.
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