Change Log for JSR 3 Maintenance Review 4

Éamonn McManus, JSR 3 Maintenance Lead

This is the Change Log for the fourth Maintenance Review of JSR 3. Questions and comments on this Change Log should be directed to jmx-spec-comments@sun.com.

This Maintenance Review defines version 1.4 of the JMX API as originally defined by JSR 3.

The 7-digit code numbers associated with each change are identifiers in the public bug database at bugs.sun.com.

A larger set of updates to the JMX specification is planned as part of JSR 255, "JMX Specification, version 2.0". The changes proposed in this Maintenance Review are intended as interim steps towards JSR 255. These changes have all been approved by the JSR 255 Expert Group.

An updated standalone TCK will be available that reflects the changes in this Maintenance Review. In addition, it is intended that these changes will be included in the Java SE 6 ("Mustang") release.

Contents

Remove javax.management.timer.TimerAlarmClockNotification (6387340)

This class is unusable by code outside the package it is defined in, because its only visible constructor has a parameter whose type is a non-public class. If you call that constructor with a null parameter, you get an immediate exception. Therefore, exceptionally, this public class can safely be deleted from the Java SE API.

Better support for schema evolution in CompositeData and CompositeType (5072004)

Given a CompositeType ct, the method javax.management.openmbean.CompositeType.isValue(x) previously returned true only if x was a CompositeData and x.getCompositeType() was equal to ct. This rule has been relaxed. The type returned by x.getCompositeType() must still have the same name as ct, and it must have all the same items as ct, but it can have additional items. This change also impacts the rules for TabularType.isValue and ArrayType.isValue regarding CompositeData items contained by the TabularData or the array.

OpenType should not declare public static array ALLOWED_CLASSNAMES (6333582)

This field is deprecated in favour of a new field ALLOWED_CLASSNAMES_LIST.

CompositeDataView.toCompositeData should have CompositeType parameter (6392303)

The signature of this method has changed from toCompositeData() to toCompositeData(CompositeType ct) to simplify typical uses.

DescriptorKey has inconsistent meta-annotations (6417022)

The definition of the @DescriptorKey annotation had a spurious @Inherited meta-annotation which has been removed.

ModelMBeanConstructorInfo says certain fields invalid, but doesn't check (6236765)

The specification of ModelMBeanConstructorInfo previously said that the persistPolicy and currencyTimeLimit fields were invalid, but the Reference Implementation did not check this. To avoid breaking existing code that might have included those fields, the specification has been changed to say that they are meaningless but are not considered invalid.

MLet support for native libraries is underspecified and should be optional (6223396)

The specification of MLet.findLibrary has been updated to detail the algorithm used to find native libraries inside jar files, and to add a @throws clause for implementations that do not support this functionality. The PDF specification has been updated similarly (section 8.3.2).

Clarify how DescriptorKey used in an MBean interface is handled (6355323)

The specification is updated to say that annotations defined with @DescriptorKey are only considered on the most specific occurrence of a method in the interface hierarchy.

Clarify behaviour when null Descriptor parameter to MBeanInfo etc (6289244)

The specification of the constructors of MBeanInfo and related classes previously stated that a null input value for the Descriptor parameter would produce an empty Descriptor. In fact it is equivalent to an empty Descriptor input value, to which the implementation can add certain standard fields.

Better specify type strings in MXBean descriptors (6367912)

The specification of type strings in the originalType field of an MXBean descriptor has been clarified in the MXBean specification.

Added conventional metricType Descriptor field (6375105)

A field metricType has been added to the list of conventional Descriptor fields to specify whether a value is a counter or a gauge.

Specify that // is reserved in ObjectName domains (6392494)

It is planned to use the string // in ObjectName domains as part of the "cascading" feature in the next version of the JMX API. A warning has been added to the specification that this string should be avoided, even though the string does not yet have any special meaning to the implementation.

JMX implementations should be allowed to make permission checks even if no SecurityManager (6419572)

The JMX specification previously said that permissions checks were made if and only if there is a non-null SecurityManager. This has been changed to say that an implementation is free not to make checks if there is no SecurityManager. In other words, an implementation may now choose to make checks even in the absence of a SecurityManager.

@javax.management.PropertyNames becomes @java.beans.ConstructorProperties (6176120)

Version 1.3 of this specification included an annotation @javax.management.PropertyNames. In a class used within an MXBean interface, this annotation established the connection between constructor parameters and properties defined by getX() or isX() methods. This annotation has been superseded by the annotation @java.beans.ConstructorProperties which has the same function for MXBeans but also a parallel function for JavaBeans.