Apache Synapse 1.2 Released

The Apache Synapse team is pleased to announce the release of version 1.2 of the Open Source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).

Apache Synapse is an lightweight and easy-to-use Open Source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) available under the Apache Software License v2.0. Apache Synapse allows administrators to simply and easily configure message routing, intermediation, transformation and logging task scheduling, etc.. The runtime has been designed to be completely asynchronous, non-blocking and streaming.

The Apache Synapse project and the 1.2 release can be found here:
http://synapse.apache.org

Apache Synapse offers connectivity and integration with a range of legacy systems, XML-based services and SOAP Web Services. It supports non-blocking HTTP and HTTPS using the Apache HTTPCore (http://hc.apache.org) components, as well as supporting JMS (v1.0 and higher) and a range of file systems and FTP sources including SFTP, FTP, File, ZIP/JAR/TAR/GZ via the Apache VFS project (http://commons.apache.org/vfs/filesystems.html).

At the same time Synapse 1.2 release adds the support for the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) an industry driven messaging standard through QuickFixJ, Hessian binary web service protocol, as well as other functional, stability and performance improvements. Synapse supports transformation and routing between protocols without any coding via configurable virtual services.

Synapse provides first class support for standards such as WS-Addressing, Web Services Security (WSS), Web Services Reliable Messaging (WSRM), Throttling and caching, configurable via WS-Policy upto message level, as well as efficient binary attachments (MTOM/XOP).

The 1.2 release contains a set of enhancements based on feedback from the user community, including:

* Support for Hessian binary web service protocol
* FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol for messaging
* 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 concurreny 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 combination of XML streaming and asynchronous support for HTTP and HTTPS using Java NIO ensures that Synapse has very high scalability under load. Performance tests show that Synapse can scale to support thousands of concurrent connections with constant memory on standard server hardware.

Apache Synapse ships with over 50 samples (http://synapse.apache.org/Synapse_Samples.html) designed to demonstrate common integration patterns "out-of-the-box", along with supporting sample services, and service clients that demonstrate these scenarios. Apache Synapse is configured using a straightforward XML configuration syntax
(http://synapse.apache.org/Synapse_Configuration_Language.html).

Apache Synapse is openly developed by a community that welcomes all forms of input, ranging from suggestions and bug reports to patches and code contributions. Your comments and feedback on the project and release are welcome.

The Apache Synapse code and binaries are available from the website at http://synapse.apache.org