Seam in JBoss Application Server 7?

Question

Which Seam framework version is supported in JBoss AS 7? I am planning to use Seam2.2.2, is it compatible with Jboss AS 7?

Answer 1

Yes and no.

If you visualize yourself the timeline of Seam, the answer comes from alone:

• Seam 2.x was created to ease development against Java EE 5 and to serve as an incubator for future standards, mainly Java EE 6 and JSF 2
• Java EE 6 took the ideas from Seam 2 (and others) to specify CDI (and improve APIs like JSF)
• Seam 3 brings new ideas to Java EE 6 and serves as an incubator for future standards, mainly Java EE 7 and JSF 2.x

Yes, Seam 2 is - more or less - compatible with JBoss AS 7. Why? Because Java EE 6 is downwards compatible with Java EE 5. But you will have to deal with some issues, like this and like that one. I just migrated a Seam 2.x application from JBoss AS 4 to JBoss AS 6, and it took me a good deal of a month.

No, don't use Seam 2 for a new project, not in 2011. CDI is so much more mature than Seam 2 bijection, JSF 2 is so much easier than JSF 1.2, that any kind of application development will simply be much more fun with Seam 3. And at the end, it's all about having fun at work, or?

Answer 2

I can tell about my experience : we recently migrated a seam 2.2.0 / jsf 1.2 / primefaces 1.1 / jpa 1.0 project on Jboss as 5.1 to seam 2.3.0 CR1 / jsf 2.1 / primefaces 3.4 / jpa 2.0 on Jboss as 7.1. In fact the seam 2.3 branch was specifically developped to support jsf 2 and it "naturally" targets Jboss as 7.

Our application uses extensively the "Seam Application Framework" and the migration happened to be relatively straightforward, you can check this for instructions. In the other hand, as it already has been said above, for a new project there should be better alternatives.