ANNOUNCEMENT
Eight years ago in 2002, I created the iBATIS Data Mapper and introduced SQL Mapping as an approach to persistence layer development. Shortly thereafter, I donated the iBATIS name and code to the Apache Software Foundation. The ASF has been the home of iBATIS for the past six years.
A lot changes in six years. By 2010 we've seen a great deal of innovation and change in the areas of development methodology, source control, social networking and open-source infrastructure. As part of the ASF, iBATIS has had only limited ability to benefit from some of these new developments -- some of which are not all that new anymore.
Our project has a committed team, a vibrant community, a great culture of cooperation and some exciting new releases. But we believe we can make it even better.
Therefore, the entire core development team of iBATIS has decided to continue the development of the framework at a new home and with a new name.
This includes all of the iBATIS for Java committers:
* Clinton Begin
* Brandon Goodin
* Jeff Butler
* Larry Meadors
* Nathan Maves
* Kai Grabfelder
And all of the iBATIS.NET committers:
* Michael McCurrey
* Ron Grabowski
* Michael Schall
NEW NAME AND HOME
Both the Java and .NET project teams have forked the software to Google Code, where they'll continue to maintain it and create new releases.
* The names of the new projects are: MyBatis and MyBatis.NET
* The website for the new projects is:
* Java Google Code Project:
* .NET Google Code Project:
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Some answers to obvious questions:
* The license will not change
* Your code will be fully compatible
* The package names and namespaces won't change anytime soon
* iBATIS 2 and 3 will be supported, with both 2.3.5 GA and 3.0.1 GA releases becoming available immediately
* iBATIS.NET 1.x and 3.x will be supported, with a new release coming available soon
* None of the existing Apache resources will be deleted
* The Apache project will be archived in the Apache Attic, if or when it becomes stale
DATES
* Now - The Confluence wiki is already frozen (due to login issues)
* By June 23rd - The Jira issue tracker will be changed to read-only mode
* By June 30th - The team (mentioned above) will unsubscribe from the Apache mailing lists
* July 1st, 2010 - Marks the 8th birthday of the framework!
GOALS
We believe can improve a number of things by making this move, including (but not limited to):
* Lighter process
* More frequent releases
* Unified infrastructure
* Modernized tools (source control etc.)
* Build and deployment automation
* Easier to use mailing lists
* Single sign-on for users
* Greater community involvement
* More productive development team
NEXT STEPS
There are only a few things you need to do immediately, and a couple that you'll need to do eventually.
1. Sign up for new mailing lists (now)
2. Use the new issue tracker and wiki (now)
3. Change bookmarks / links to the new site (now)
4. Download new build (when you need your next build)
5. Change DTD/XSD DOCTYPE headers in XML files (after you upgrade in #4, but old doctypes will work with the new framework too)
Full details for each of these steps can be found at the following Wiki page.
Making this move is a big decision and a lot of work. However, we truly believe that the efforts will pay off.
We'd like to thank the Apache Software Foundation for the past six years of working together.
We'll see you all on the other side.
Cheers,
Clinton Begin
Original Creator of iBATIS