Apache Synapse Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) - 2.1 Release Notes - December 2011

1. Overview
    The Apache Synapse ESB is a robust, lightweight and highly scalable and distributed
    Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). It supports SOAP Web services as well as Legacy services over
    transports such as JMS, Apache VFS File systems, Mail etc, and SOAP, REST/POX, plain text
    and binary message payloads. (Please see http://synapse.apache.org for more details)

    Apache Synapse graduated from the Apache Incubator on the 2nd of January 2007, and the first
    Synapse 1.0 was released on the 11th of June 2007. On the 20th of December 2007, Synapse was
    accepted as a top level project (TLP) under the Apache Software Foundation.

2. Installation Prerequisites 

    Apache Synapse requires a J2SE runtime of version 1.5.x or later. Running the samples also
    requires Apache Ant 1.7.x or later. Although Synapse would run with a JDK > 1.5.x, the Script
    mediator may not properly function on these JDKs. Building Synapse from source requires
    JDK 1.5.x, and Apache Maven 2.0.6 or later

3. Quick start
    Please see the docs/quick_start.html guide

4. Building the Samples
    Please see the documents docs/samples.html

5. Synapse configuration language
    Please see the document docs/config.html

6. Extending Synapse
    Please see the document docs/extending.html
    
7. Known Issues and limitations

  * All the know issues are reported in https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SYNAPSE

8. Frequently asked questions

  * Please refer the FAQ section. (http://synapse.apache.org/faq.html)

9. Reporting Problems

    Please use the Apache JIRA system (http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SYNAPSE) to report issues
    You may also join the:
        synapse-dev mailing  list by sending email to dev-subscribe@synapse.apache.org
        synapse-user mailing list by sending email to user-subscribe@synapse.apache.org

10. New features

    The 2.1 release
        * Support for creating and managing REST APIs with URL patterns and URI templates
        * Define sequences and endpoints as templates and reuse seamlessly across the whole configuration
        * Payload factory mediator for constructing custom XML payloads
        * Recipient list endpoint
        * HTTPD like access logging capability in the NHTTP transport
        * Message stores and message processors for implementing complex integration patterns and advanced messaging scenarios
        * Receiving sequence support in the send mediator to make service chaining easier
        * Conditional Router mediator


    The 2.0 release
        * New, fine-grained configuration model
        * Hot deployment and hot update support for configuration artifacts
        * Priority based mediation support
        * Comprehensive eventing capabilities with WS-Eventing support
        * Secure vault for encrypting passwords in configuration files
        * File locking support in the VFS transport for concurrent polling
        * URLRewrite mediator for fast and simple URL rewriting
        * Synapse configuration observer API
        * Multiple identity support in the HTTPS transport
        * Enhanced JMX monitoring support for the NHTTP transport
        * Dead letter channel implementation (experimental)
        * Synapse XAR Maven plugin for generating configuration artifacts


    The 1.2 release
        * Support for Hessian binary messages
        * FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol transport
        * WS-Reliable Messaging support with WSO2 Mercury
        * Support for re-usable database connection pools for DB report/lookup mediators
        * Support for GZip encoding and HTTP 100 continue
        * Natural support for dual channel messaging with WS-Addressing
        * Cluster aware sticky load balancing support
        * Non-blocking streaming of large messages at high concurrency with constant memory usage
        * Support for an ELSE clause for the Filter mediator
        * Ability to specify XPath expressions relative to the envelope or body
        * Support for separate policies for incoming/outgoing messages
        * Support for a mandatory sequence before mediation

    The 1.1.1/1.1.2 releases                
        * Enhanced clustering support for the Cache/Throttle Mediators
        * New Mail transport that supports POP3/IMAP/SMTP
        * JMX Monitoring support
        * Callout Mediator
        * Improved JMS/VFS transports
        * Improved REST/POX support
        * Annotations support for POJOCommand mediator
        * Ability to pin a proxy or a task to server instances

    The 1.1 release
        * Apache VFS based file transport
        * Scheduled Task support
        * XQuery mediator
        * POJO Command mediator
        * DB Report and DB Lookup mediators
        * Cache and Throttle mediators/enhancements
        * Split/Clone/Aggregate mediators
        * Improved logging and tracing support

    The 1.0 release
        * Non blocking HTTP and HTTPS transport based on Apache HttpCore/NIO
        * Proxy services with in/out/fault sequences, endpoints, inline sequences and WSDL support
        * WSDL endpoints
        * Load balancing and Failover endpoints
        * Throttling mediator

    The 0.91 release adds support for:
        * WS-Reliable Messaging Sequence management

    The 0.90 release adds support for:
        * WS-Security termination and initiation
        * WS-ReliableMessaging termination and initiation
        * Support for dynamic reloading and remote registries
        * Scripting mediators based on Apache BSF
        * Refactored and cleaner synapse configuration xml
