The long awaited second early access release of Oracle Java ME Embedded 8 is available on OTN.

It comes with the following updates and enhancements to the Oracle Java ME Embedded software:

• Enhanced device controls and improved input/output (IO) for small embedded devices, including a windowed Watchdog timer.
• Ongoing support for CLDC 8 and Profile MEEP 8
• Device Access APIs
• Generic Connection Framework (GCF) API

See the following Reference Platform Release Notes for more information about the new features and platform-specific aspects:

Release Notes for Raspberry Pi

Release Notes for Qualcomm IoE

See the Oracle Java ME Software Development Kit Release Notes to learn how these features can be used to develop Java ME applications with Java ME SDK.

The Java ME documentation team published the Getting Started Guides for all the supported platforms. Ready to try the new features? Check the following documents:

• Getting Started Guide for the Reference Platform (Raspberry Pi)
• Getting Started Guide for the Reference Platform (Qualcomm IoE)
• Getting Started Guide for the Reference Platform (Windows)

The deployment guide for Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) has been reorganized and relevant information from the obsolete pre-6u10 deployment and plugin guides has been updated and included. The obsolete guides have been removed from the JDK 7 documentation set and replaced with pages that direct you to the Java Rich Internet Applications Guide.

Due to the reorganization, the URL for some pages has changed. If you get a Page Not Found error, please use the Table of Contents for the Java Rich Internet Applications Guide to locate the page.

The pre-6u10 Deployment Guide and Plug-in Guide are available in the JDK 6 documentation set.

An updated Java Tutorial was released today to coincide with the release of JDK 7u51. In addition to the changes for the 7u51 release, this update includes the following changes to JDK 8 early access documentation:

• The Type Inference section in the Generics trail has been updated with the section Target Types, which describes how the Java compiler takes advantage of target typing to infer the type parameters of a generic method invocation in JDK 8.

• The names of the formal parameters of any method or constructor in JDK 8 can be obtained with the method java.lang.reflect.Executable.getParameters. See the section Obtaining Names of Method Parameters.

• The Interfaces and Inheritance trail has been enhanced with information about Default Methods in JDK 8, which are methods in an interface that have an implementation. In addition, you can define static methods in interfaces.

• The Collections trail has been updated with new Questions and Exercises for Interfaces and Aggregate Operations in JDK 8. These updates help you focus on some important points when working with lambda expressions, streams, and aggregate operations.

For more information on JDK 8 Early Access documentation, see JDK 8 Documentation - Developer Preview Release.

The Java Development Kit 7 Update 51 (JDK 7u51) release with JavaFX 2.2.51 is available and can be downloaded from the Java SE Downloads page. For information about this release, see the JDK 7u51 Release Notes.

Documentation has been updated for the following changes to the JDK:

• The Exception Site List feature provides a way for users to run Java applets and Java Web Start applications that do not meet the latest security requirements. RIAs that are hosted on a site in the exception site list are allowed to run with the applicable security prompts.

• Unsigned and self-signed RIAs are blocked when the security level is set to Very High or High. Also, the Permissions attribute that was added for 7u25 is now required when the Security Level slider in the Java Control Panel is set to either Very High or High. See the Security section of the Java Control Panel documentation for information on the criteria for allowing or blocking a RIA.

• When signing a JAR file, time stamping the signature is recommended. A warning is shown if the signature is not time stamped. See Signing JAR Files for information.

• When installing the JRE on Windows, or when the JRE is automatically updated on Mac OS X, users are prompted to restore the security prompts that they previously chose to hide by selecting the "Do not show this again" option.

Minor improvements have been made to some of the JavaFX tutorials, and the JavaFX API documentation has been updated for the 2.2.51 release.

For all tutorials, guides, and API documentation, see Java SE Technical Documentation and JavaFX 2 Documentation.

The audio recordings are now available for some of the conference sessions held at JavaOne 2013 in San Francisco. The recordings are free and you can find them on oracle.com.

More sessions will become available, so check back for updates!

The Java Development Kit 7 Update 45 (JDK 7u45) release with JavaFX 2.2.45 is available and can be downloaded from the Java SE Downloads page. For information about this release, see the JDK 7u45 Release Notes.

The Java Control Panel now has an option for restoring the security prompts that were hidden when the option to not show the prompt again was selected. See the documentation for the Security tab for more information on the Restore Security Prompts option.

New JAR file manifest attributes are available to provide additional security for your applets and Java Web Start applications. See JAR File Manifest Attributes for Security for information on the Application-Name, Application-Library-Allowable-Codebase, and Caller-Allowable-Codebase attributes. The launchable examples in the Java Tutorial have been updated to use these new attributes, where applicable.

Note: The Permissions attribute that was added for 7u25 is now required when the Security Level slider in the Java Control Panel is set to Very High.

In the Java Tutorial, the JAXP trail has a new lesson on Processing Limits.

Minor improvements have been made to some of the JavaFX tutorials, and the JavaFX API documentation has been updated for the 2.2.45 release.

For all tutorials, guides, and API documentation, see Java SE Technical Documentation and JavaFX 2 Documentation.

The Collections trail in the Java Tutorial has been updated to describe the preferred method of traversing collections with JDK 8, which is obtaining a stream and invoking its aggregate operations. Aggregate operations are often used with lambda expressions to make programming more expressive using fewer lines of code. The Collection, Set, List, and Map interface pages now contain examples that demonstrate this new language feature.

There are several advantages to signing a JNLP file. It will:

• Ensure that others cannot change the content in your JNLP file. For example, by adding a random library, or changing application information.
• Allow the use of arbitrary Java Virtual Machine (JVM) options and Java system properties in your application.
• Prevent others from referencing your JAR file directly in their HTML browser applets.

To create a signed JNLP file you don't sign the JNLP file itself, but you include the JNLP file inside the directory structure before the JAR file is created and then signed. The JNLP file must be named APPLICATION.JNLP and is included in the JNLP-INF subdirectory. The JAR file is then created and signed in the usual manner. When a web start application is started, the JNLP file used must be identical to the JNLP file in the signed JAR in order for the application to run.

Note that you cannot use the APPLET tag to run an applet if JAR file contains a signed JNLP file.

The Signing and Verifying JAR Files lesson in the Java Tutorial explains how to sign a JAR file.

Two JavaOne talks centered on the Oracle Java Embedded Suite:

• Monday, September 23, Jai Suri (Oracle): Simple Embedded Applications Development with Oracle Java Embedded Suite

• Tuesday, September 24, Noel Poore (Oracle) and Rick Hillegas (Oracle): Multitenant Data-Rich Applications for Oracle Java Embedded Suite

For more information on Java Embedded Suite 7.0, see the Developer's Guide and Release Notes.

On Tuesday, September 24, Marcus Hirt (Oracle) gave his presentation at JavaOne 2013 entitled Oracle Java Mission Control: Java Flight Recorder Deep Dive. Java Flight Recorder is the main profiling tool in Java Mission Control starting from the latest release of Oracle JDK 7 update 40. Java Flight Recorder originated from JRockit Flight Recorder as part of the convergence between the HotSpot and Oracle JRockit JVMs.

For more information about Oracle Java Mission Control, see the JMC User's Guide.

For more information about Java Flight Recorder, see the JFR Runtime Guide.

Today at JavaOne, Gerrit Grunwald, the senior software engineer of Canoo Engineering AG, will give a presentation titled Be Creative and Create Your Own JavaFX 8 Controls.

This session is supposed to demonstrate various ways to create custom controls including extending an existing control, extending a region, or creating a more library-style control with custom control, skin, behavior, and CSS file. It also will show how to avoid some common performance problems.

You can learn some additional tips for customization of UI controls from the JavaFX UI Controls tutorial. Also, see Skinning JavaFX Applications with CSS and the JavaFX CSS Reference Guide for more information about available CSS styles and how to apply them to JavaFX application UI.

For more information about lambda expressions in general, see the Lambda Expressions section of the Java Tutorial.

On Wednesday, September 25th, Xeuming Shen (Oracle), Roger Riggs (Oracle), and Stephen Colebourne (OpenGamma), gave a presentation entitled Converting to the New Date and Time API in JDK 8 [CON6091]. The new Date-Time APIs coming in the JDK 8 release provide an entirely new model for writing date and time code. This session focused on tips and techniques for converting date and time code that was written using the java.util classes, to the new java.time packages.

For more information on the new Date-Time APIs, see the new Date-Time trail in the Java Tutorial. The Legacy Date-Time Code page may be of special interest.

Staffan Larsen, Java Serviceability Architect, Oracle, presented the conference Java Flight Recorder Behind the Scenes [CON5091] , which discusses in detail a new diagnostics tool that is available in the latest JDK 7 update. For more information about this tool, see the Java SE Java Flight Recorder Runtime Guide in the Java SE 7 Documentation.

During JavaOne 2013, the following conferences about the Nashorn engine, which can be used to interpret JavaScript code in a Java application or from the command line, were presented:

• The Curious Case of JavaScript on the JVM by Attila Szegedi, Principal Member of Technical Staff, Oracle

  This conference discusses the issues involved in implementing a programming language on top of an existing platform, in particular, implementing JavaScript on the Java Virtual Machine.

• Teaching the Java Platform with Nashorn by Anna Barraclough, Senior designer, Curved Spaces Design and Ben Evans, CEO, jClarity

  This conference discusses the experience of using the Nashorn engine to teach newcomers how to explore the Java language and platform.

For more information about Nashorn, see the following sections in the JDK 8 Early Access documentation:

• Nashorn User's Guide
• Java Scripting Programmer's Guide
• jjs (the command that invokes the Nashorn engine) man page for Windows and Unix