Today Oracle released the next (minor) JDeveloper release 11.1.2.3.0. The big news about this is the first release of Oracle ADF Essentials. ADF Essentials combines the core ADF technologies in a bundle free to use (it comes on its own web page, see link!)

Oracle ADF Essentials is an end-to-end Java EE framework that simplifies application development by providing out-of-the-box infrastructure services and a visual and declarative development experience. Oracle ADF Essentials is free to develop and deploy.

ADF Essential comes with it’s own FAQ which answers questions like ‘Is it really free?’ and ‘What’s in the package’. Take a look at the FAQ for all the questions and answers!
To give a summary of the included and excluded technologies read the quote from the FAQ:

What is included in Oracle ADF Essentials?
Oracle ADF Essentials includes the following Oracle ADF
components: Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client Components,
Oracle ADF Controller, Oracle ADF Model and Oracle ADF
Business Components.
The following functionality is not included in Oracle ADF
Essentials, and requires the full Oracle ADF version – Oracle
ADF Mobile, Oracle ADF Desktop Integration, Oracle ADF
Security, The Oracle ADF Web service data control, Oracle
ADF remote taskflows, Oracle ADF Business Component’s
Service Interfaces, Oracle ADF Data Controls for BI, Essbase
and BAM, Integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware features
such as MDS, OPSS, OWSM, Enterprise Manager and
MBeans, High Availability and Clustering.

That’s almost all I ever use on a daily basis. One of the features the community was looking far is the ability to deploy to GlassFish 3.1 and and other server you like without buying a licence. Let’s see how the community handles all this.

Beside the news on the ADF Essentials I had a short look at JDev 11.1.2.3.0. There are mostly bug fixes in this version. The new mobile is missing (hopefully we get it with 11.1.1.7.0). Some nasty bugs (e.g. task-flow initialization) are fixed. See the Release Notes for the full list of bug fixes. At the time of writing this the Release Nostes where not available (!?), hopefully the missing patch numbers needed to upgrade a WLS 10.3.6 server are added when the document is back on.
Other then the possibility to deploy to GlassFish 3.1 there are only a couple of changed and new features in the DVT department. Notable is the change of the af:table rendering on tablet devices: pagination is back!

First impression was that this version starts even faster then the 11.1.2.2.0 version. The reason might be that more features are only loaded when you use them the first time (OSGI), but I couldn’t find out if this is the case. Nevertheless, faster starting (my personal impression) is welcome!

Lets see when we get the patch numbers to upgrade an existing WLS. I’ll then update my other blog post JDeveloper Versions vs. Weblogic Server Versions

25th-Sep-2012 Update: The patch numbers are now available in the Release Notes:

For 11.1.2.3.0, the patch numbers are 14582286 (ADF) and 14582309 (WebCenter). Both patches need to be applied. Download the patches from My Oracle Support and follow the instructions to apply the patches.