MVC 1.0: The perfect fit for microservice admin tools

Getting people talking about MVC 1.0 and JSR-375

Cameron McKenzie: TheServerSide was really lucky to catch up with Ivar Grimstad earlier this year. These days he’s evangelizing a couple of what I think are pretty important topics. One is the new MVC framework, and the other one is Java security.

The interesting thing, though, is that despite how important these specifications are, MVC and JSR-375 just don’t quite get the headlines like, say, microservices and containers do. So I wanted to know from Ivar, what are the big things that people need to know about the new MVC specification and JSR-375.

Ivar Grimstad: If I take MVC first, we had a lot of attention around that a couple of years ago when the spec was a part of the EE platform. And there was some noise about it when Oracle took it out. And then, happily, I was fortunate to be in the position that I could be the lead of that specification, so I got it from Oracle and keep on doing it. I also brought on Christian Kaltepoth. Since we were the two most active members of that spec, we were the best guys to take it further.

And there has been a little bit of silence around MVC, and we don’t get much attention anymore. The community really wanted MVC when it started and then they kind of moved away towards microservices and containers.

So while we are kind of in the back stream of the cool technology, MVC is still something I think will be used. We get a lot of community responses when I tweet or blog or say anything about it. We have a lot of contributors on the mailing list, and it’s doing fine.

Cameron McKenzie: Now, one of the things about MVC 1.0 is the fact that it seems to work really well with microservices. And I can see it being used heavily to create UIs for container-based applications. Is that where you see the focus being?

Ivar Grimstad: I also think it’s going to be used a lot in more enterprise, in-house applications, but that’s not the sexy topic that attracts the audience at conferences.

MVC 1.0 and JSR-RS

Cameron McKenzie: So in your eyes, what is that makes MVC 1.0 so special?

Ivar Grimstad: Well, the most important thing, the way I see it, is that it’s built on top of JAX-RS, so if you’re using JAX-RS to create your REST endpoints, the transition to also add some web interfaces to your applications becomes easy. Most REST applications also have some kind of admin tool going on along with it. With MVC 1.0 we can actually build on the exact same technology used by the REST application, because with MVC we just add some flavors to JAX-RS and then we’re good to go.

Cameron McKenzie: So is MVC the new UI framework for container-based applications?

Ivar Grimstad: Definitely. I mean, if you’re creating a containerized service that also has some kind of UI to it, it makes sense to use MVC. If you have developers that are on JAX-RS platform and know Java EE and you’re building on that infrastructure, I see MVC as a very good fit there.

Cameron McKenzie: Now, you are also an expert on JSR-375, the new security API that’s going into Java EE. What can you tell us about that?

Ivar Grimstad: This is a brand new security API for Java EE 8.

I think it’s an important specification because it bridges some of the gaps that were lacking in previous versions. We introduce a common terminology, so we are kind of talking about the same thing, no matter, when you’re talking about security such as the authentication mechanism. We also have the more application developer-managed support. So you can, with annotations, easily add security, and you don’t need to do any container or vendor-specific configuration to get it up and running.

Standardized security with JSR-375

Cameron McKenzie: Now, when I read the JSR-375 spec, I kinda say to myself, you know, “Really? Have we not standardized a lot of this stuff already?” I guess a lot of the stuff like custom user registry APIs and how we connect to user repositories, stuff that’s been managed by the vendor in the past. So the developer really hasn’t had to think about it. But, yeah, I mean, do you not get that impression, “Jeez, how did we get to 2017 and not have this stuff standardized already?”

Ivar Grimstad: Yeah, that’s true. And we have the same feeling. But now it’s there, and that’s a good thing. And it’s definitely a good foundation to build upon.

Cameron McKenzie: So what is it about JSR-375, the Java security spec 1.0, that makes it so conducive to working with microservices?

Ivar Grimstad: You do the security in the application, so you don’t need to configure it from the outside. So it’s contained in your application, the security configuration.

Cameron McKenzie: So what are the big topics you see going forward into 2018?

Ivar Grimstad: Since I’m moving around in the Java EE world, I think that one of the main topics we are gonna discuss is the Java SE 9 move to the Eclipse Foundation. And there’s also a lot of discussion already on Twitter about the naming because they released the name for it to be Eclipse Enterprise for Java, and people of course have opinions about that. So I think that’s gonna be discussed a lot.

Java: A curse or a blessing

Cameron McKenzie: Now, here is a question I have been asking a number of people lately. It’s this: looking past, over the past six or seven years, do you think being the steward of the Java Platform has been a blessing or curse for Oracle?

Ivar Grimstad: I think they are making big money on Java, So I think it’s been pretty good for them. So I don’t think it’s been a curse. I think the handling of EE 8 in 2016 was not good. And we saw the community react to that with the Java EE guardians and the MicroProfile which grew out of that. But the turn they have now taken to open-source things, like open-source NetBeans to Apache and the EE to Eclipse Foundation and also open-sourcing more of the JDK tooling, they’re taking a step in the right direction. I think it’s gonna be positive reception.