Axon Framework 0.5 released

Today, I finalized the 0.5 release of the Axon Framework. There is quite a number of changes since the 0.4 version. The 0.5 version is a major step towards production readiness of the framework.

Besides some changes to existing building blocks, such as the event bus, which is now much more powerful, the 0.5 version also includes some new features.

Read on to find out more.

New features

• Code restructuring. The package structure has been changed to better reflect the different architectural components Axon Framework provides. It should be easier to find the one you’re looking for.
• Command Bus. The command bus is added to Axon. It provides you the ability to explicitly define commands and dispatch them to your command handlers. Furthermore, the command bus provides you the ability to process commands regardless of their type using interceptors. This is useful for, for example, logging, authorization and correlation of incoming commands.
• JPA Event Store. The easiest CQRS configuration is on using full-consistency. That means everything should run within a single transaction. Since transactions over multiple data sources involve a huge performance penalty, Axon provides a JPA Event Store. Its performance is not as good as the FileSystem version, but is does provide transaction support.
• Easy switching between full-consistency and eventual consistency. You can easily choose to process all commands and related events inside a single transaction, or to handle events asynchronously. Choosing for consistency or high-performance is just a matter of configuration. No coding required.
• Per-event listener configuration of asynchronous processing. It is now possible to decide on synchronous vs asynchronous event processing for each event handler individually, just by adding an annotation. If you configure a transaction manager for your event listeners, Axon will process the events in batches and manage the transactions around them.
• Support for rolling snapshots. All event stores will automatically pick up snapshot events. Snapshot events are an important performance booster when aggregates generate a lot of events. Instead of reading all passed events, the event store just needs to read the last snapshot event and the regular events created since the snapshot.
• Transactional Event Processing. Configuring transactions in asynchronous event processing is now a lot easier. 0.5 includes a SpringTransactionManager you can use in combination with Spring’s PlatformTransactionManager.
• Major documentation update. The documentation has been restructured to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Maven Central

Where the 0.4 version required configuration of a repository in your project’s pom.xml, the 0.5 version doesn’t. All required artifacts are available in the maven central repository.

Workshop and professional support

We believe that the 0.5 version of Axon Framework is a major step towards production readiness. Therefore, JTeam has decided to provide professional support for the Axon Framework and organize workshops to get you acquainted with the numerous features and choices involved with CQRS.

The first workshop is planned for Friday May 21st in our office in Amsterdam. For more information, visit http://www.jteam.nl/training/workshop/cqrs-axon-framework-training-workshop.html.

Getting started

Want to get started? Visit www.axonframework.org and download the reference guide. That should contain enough information to get you started. If you still have questions, drop me a message.