Using JPA is the most common approach in Java EE to persist data to a database. The latest update (JPA 2.1 as part of Java EE 7) introduced several new features to the specification. You can get an overview and a cheat sheet about the new features here: JPA 2.1 - 12 features every developer should know.


If you read the Java Weekly on a regular basis, you should be well aware of Arun Guptas Hanginar Series. Last week, he did the 6th Hanginar with Axel Fontaine about database migration with Flyway. Don't worry if you missed the live event. You can still watch the replay and learn more about Flyway and how it integrates with Java EE applications.


Using EARs in Java EE can be an issue, if you want to create portable applications. As Mark Struberg describes in his recent blog post, the Java EE specification does not clearly define isolation and visibility of classes: CDI in EARs.
After he published his post, several discussions started on his blog and twitter about it and were continued on the CDI mailing list: CDI Mailing List - Extension handling in EARs.

Java EE 8

MVC is one of the new specifications that will be part of Java EE 8. Manfred Riem, the co-spec lead of the JSR, started to collect interesting links and resources about it: MVC.


Arjan Tijms collects interesting links about the specifications that will be part of Java EE 8 since April 2014. He now analyzed the popularity of the different links and tried to find the most popular specification in Java EE 8.

OpenJDK

Two weeks ago, Ivan St. Ivanovs first post of his series about using primitives in generics was already part of the Java Weekly. Now he published the second post in which he describes the current proposal implemented in Project Valhalla: Primitives in Generics, part 2.

This and that

The HTTP/2 specification was approved by the IESG. David Delabassee created a short write up with links to some useful resources about it and what it means for use Java developers: HTTP/2 is done.