Stabilized features

If you are migrating your configuration from an earlier release of WebSphere® Application Server, you should be aware of the various features that have been stabilized in this release.

If a feature is listed here as stabilized, IBM® does not currently plan to deprecate or remove this capability in a subsequent release of the product; but future investment will be focused on the alternative function listed under Strategic Alternative. You do not need to change any of your existing applications and scripts that use a stabilized function; but you should consider using the strategic alternative for new applications.

Features stabilized in Version 8.5.5

Table 1. Features stabilized in Version 8.5.5
Category	Stabilized Function	Strategic Alternative
Cloud integration	Usage metering The usage metering feature is stabilized. It is currently used with WebSphere Automation and was previously used with the now removed metering service in IBM Cloud Private.	For general performance and metering needs, consider using WebSphere Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI).
Databases	Liberty `mongodb-2.0` This feature is stabilized because the MongoDB Java driver versions 2.10.0 to 2.14.2 that the feature supports are no longer in service.	Create a CDI producer for Mongo. Use any Mongo version that meets your requirements.
Edge Components	Load Balancer for IPv4 and IPv6	Use an alternative load balancer that best fits your environment. If you directly connect from Load Balancer for IPv4 and IPv6 to an application server, you can instead use the web server plug-in, with or without Intelligent Management routing capabilities. For more information, see Implementing a web server plug-in.
Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition resources	Full profile: JDBCProvider configuration templates for all DataDirect JDBC drivers Liberty: DataDirect Connect for JDBC property `properties.datadirect.sqlserver` in server configuration elements	No strategic alternative is necessary. Although the DataDirect JDBC drivers are no longer be certified with WebSphere Application Server, their use continues to be fully supported as detailed in the Other Configurations section of the IBM Support Statement
Monitoring	Connections to the IBM Cloud Product Insights service. This feature is stabilized as a result of the removal of the Product Insights service.	There are no strategic alternatives. After the Product Insights service is removed, when a server attempts to connect to the service, the server displays a connection error but otherwise runs normally. To resolve the error, remove the was-product-insights.properties file from your server configuration.
Performance monitoring	WebSphere Application Server Liberty `monitor-1.0` Perf MBean	Access monitoring data using standard MXBeans. For more information, see Monitoring the Liberty server runtime environment.
Proxy components	Use of the on-demand router (ODR) for HTTP and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)	The features of the ODR for HTTP are being implemented in the WebSphere Web server plug-in for Apache and IBM HTTP Server (IHS). All new intelligent management features will be implemented in the Web server plug-in rather than in the ODR. The strategic alternative to the ODR for SIP is the SIP proxy server. Read Intelligent Management for web servers overview for more information.
Proxy components	Use of the WebSphere Proxy for HTTP only The WebSphere Proxy is not being stabilized for SIP.	The features of the WebSphere Proxy are being implemented in the WebSphere Web server plug-in for Apache and IBM HTTP Server (IHS). All new features will be implemented in the Web server plug-in rather than in the WebSphere Proxy. Read Intelligent Management for web servers overview for more information.
System administration	Intelligent Management support for the following assisted lifecycle middleware server types: Apache Tomcat BEA WebLogic JBoss External WebSphere application server (application servers that run outside the Intelligent Management cell)	Use wsadmin scripting to manage these middleware server resources.

Features stabilized in Version 8.5

Table 2. Features stabilized in Version 8.5
Category	Stabilized Function	Strategic Alternative
Application programming model and container support	Use of the Common Base Event application-programming interface (API) for problem determination Classes or Interfaces: All classes and interfaces from org.eclipse.hyades.logging.* packages Methods: Use of CommonBaseEvent or CommonBaseEventLogRecord as a message parm in the following WsJDK14Logger methods: public void trace(Object message) public void trace(Object message, Throwable t) public void debug(Object message) public void debug(Object message, Throwable t) public void info(Object message) public void info(Object message, Throwable t) public void warn(Object message) public void warn(Object message, Throwable t) public void error(Object message) public void error(Object message, Throwable t) public void fatal(Object message) public void fatal(Object message, Throwable t) Other: Use of the eventfactory Logger.properties logger extension CBE-XML-1.0.1 output format for showlog CBE-1.0.1 output format for HPEL logviewer Use of the custom property name="com.ibm.ws.logging.zOS.errorLog.format" and value "CBE-XML-1.0.1" Use of the showlog command on z/OS®	None

Features stabilized in Version 8.0

Table 3. Features stabilized in Version 8.0 . This table describes the features that are stabilized in Version 8.0.
Category	Stabilized Function	Strategic Alternative
Application programming model and container support	ActiveX to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) Bridge	Do not use Active X to access EJB.
	WebSphere Application Servers V4 Data sources and ConnectionManager	Use the WebSphere Application Servers Data sources (non-V4) and ConnectionManager.
	Use of CommonBaseEventLogRecord for logging	Use standard java.util.logging API for logging; and when needed, use High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) log and trace facility's LogViewer command to convert log and trace messages into Common Base Event XML.
System administration	WebSphere Application Server Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) basic logging formats—System.out, System.err, trace.log, and activity.log	Use the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) log and trace facility to improve logging performance as well as to improve analysis and merging of logs.

Features stabilized in Version 7.0

Table 4. Features stabilized in Version 7.0 . This table describes the features that are stabilized in Version 7.0.
Category	Stabilized Function	Strategic Alternative
Application programming model and container support	Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) entity beans: Container-Managed Persistence (CMP) 1.x and 2.x, and Bean-Managed Persistence (BMP)	Use the Java Persistence API (JPA) for new database and other persistence-related operations.
Application programming model and container support	Java API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC) The Java Community Process (JCP) is limiting the focus for enhancements to the JAX-RPC runtime for building web services; therefore, WebSphere Application Server will follow suit and limit enhancements.	Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) will become the strategic runtime on which any new enhancements will be focused. The focus to ensure interoperability for the subset of capabilities that map to the JAX-RPC and JAX-WS intersection will be maintained; but all new enhancements related to updating to support new standards will be only in the JAX-WS runtime.
System administration	Application server administrative (wsadmin) scripting support for the Jacl language	Use Jython syntax for any new wsadmin scripting.
J2EE resources	Support for configuring and using message-driven beans (MDBs) through JMS listener ports	Perform the following actions to use JMS activation specifications instead of listener ports: Create a JMS activation specification to replace the listener port. Modify the configuration of the application's Message Driven Bean listener bindings to use the activation specification instead of the listener port. Because an JMS activation specification can be defined at a wider scope than a listener-port definition (which is restricted to server scope), you might be able to replace multiple listener-port definitions with a single activation specification. Update any administrative scripts that define or administer listener ports to define or administer JMS activation specifications instead. Update any administrative scripts that use the stop or start operations of the ListenerPort MBean to use the pause and resume operations on the Message Endpoint MBean instead.