Where Helidon flies

Almost a year ago we released Helidon 1.0. Since then we have been actively working on improving Helidon performance and adding new features and support for new MicroProfile specifications. We are planning to release Helidon 2.0 in Q1 CY2020 (this plan is subject to change), and today we have released the first milestone build including two major features: GraalVM support in Helidon MP and Helidon DB Client. Other features will be released as part of the next milestone releases.

Here is a list of all features planned for Helidon 2.0:

• GraalVM support in Helidon MP (2.0.0-M1)
  This is one of the most requested features from our users. We already support GraalVM in Helidon SE. Adding it to Helidon MP will allow building native binaries from Helidon MP applications. This feature is a part of our 2.0.0-M1 build. Tomas Langer created a simple sample project to play with. You can find it here.
• Helidon DB Client (2.0.0-M1)
  This new database client for Helidon SE adds a unified reactive database access API and allows you to work with JDBC databases in a reactive way. It also supports the MongoDB reactive driver. We are bringing Health Checks, Metrics and Tracing support to all Helidon APIs, and the Helidon DB Client is no exception. The preview version of Helidon DB client is included in the 2.0.0-M1 release. This sample will help you to get started.
• MicroProfile Reactive Messaging and Reactive Operators support
  In Helidon 2.0 we are extending MicroProfile APIs support by adding implementations of two specifications which are optional in MicroProfile.
  MP Reactive Operators will be added to both Helidon MP and Helidon SE. MP Reactive Messaging will be added to Helidon MP only. An equivalent API will be added to Helidon SE that is designed to align better with Helidon SE APIs.
  Also, we are planning to add a Kafka connector for Reactive Messaging as part of the Helidon 2.0 release and add more connectors in future.
• Websocket support
  We are extending Jakarta EE specifications support in Helidon. In this release we are adding WebSocket API support based on the well-known Tyrus implementation.
• Helidon Web Client
  One of the missing bits in Helidon SE was an HTTP client. In Helidon 2.0 we will introduce a reactive Helidon Web Client that is designed to integrate with other Helidon SE APIs.
• Helidon command line tool (CLI)
  The Helidon command line tool will help you create new Helidon based projects, add and remove features and dependencies, and build your application using different profiles (jar, native-image, jlink). It will also support live reloading.

Helidon 2.0 also introduces some backwards incompatible changes. You can find more information in release notes.

You can access the Helidon 2.0.0-M1 quickstart guides here. Note that the 2.0.0-M1 docs are not the default documentation (since it is a pre-release). Those continue to be 1.4.x docs.

Please try the Helidon 2.0.0-M1 release and give us your feedback as a comment here, in our official Twitter or in our official Slack channel.