Java is the most popular and trusted programming language with a community that is consistently working to improve the overall experience of programmers and developers. One such initiative was MicroProfile which came as an enhancement to the Java Enterprise Edition (EE) and claimed to be
“An open forum to optimize Enterprise Java for a microservices architecture by innovating across multiple implementations and collaborating on common areas of interest with a goal of standardization.”
Microservices Architecture
Microservices have been in place for quite some time and have been used extensively by Java development team India. In layman terms, microservices pertain to the component packages which in traditional method required a considerable amount of work because the file types had to be modified for different implementations.
Microservices architecture model aims at reducing the effort by using Java application programming interface (API). This would prevent all the deployment and redeployment work caused by problems with the components.
Anticipations
It was obvious from the reports being published in September 2016 that MicroProfile.io was willing to either establish a foundation or being associated with one. This plan was to limit the dominance of Oracle. At that time, the inclination was more toward establishing a foundation, working without dominance, and using Java Community Process (JCP). This was seen as a tough stand against Oracle which has often been accused of side-lining Java Enterprise Edition.
Eclipse Foundation’s Announcement
In a recent announcement on December 19, 2016, a tweet by the Eclipse Foundation revealed that MicroProfile has now become an Eclipse Foundation project. The current terms are governed by the Apache License v.2 (ALv2). Eclipse is trying to include the Eclipse Public License (EPL). Therefore, the only restriction at the moment is to reach a consensus on the dual-license of the project ALv2+EPL.
Expectations
Eclipse Foundation has been a comrade for Java for a long time and this along with a few other reasons led the MicroProfile becoming Eclipse MicroProfile. The Eclipse Foundation has been in existence for more than a decade now and it has all the necessary infrastructure that MicroProfile needs. This made Eclipse Foundation a desirable partner.
At the same time, Eclipse (not be confused with the IDE) has constantly been looking up for projects that it can contribute to and MicroProfile seems to be an appropriate project because it complements Eclipse by being the only microservice project associated with the foundation.
Licensing Agreement
As mentioned above, the current MicroProfile and Eclipse deal is governed by the Apache License version 2. Eclipse has been lobbying for a dual-license because to comply with the Eclipse community regulations. This would facilitate using code easily across the community without any copyright issues. Eclipse has been suggesting the use of dual-licensing as opposed to the initial deal which required to proceed with Apache license only. Eclipse has maintained a stand that dual-license has no implications whatsoever and therefore, accepting dual-license would not harm anyone.
With the “It’s a done deal” expression that Eclipse Foundation posted on Twitter, it is clear that the association is positive and this has got all people awaiting microservices excited to see what is to follow.