cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

We are happy to announce the new Windchill Customization board! Learn more.

Windchill 10.2 M020 and Java 8

GregOlson
15-Moonstone

Windchill 10.2 M020 and Java 8

Does anyone know if Windchill 10.2 M020 will eventually support Java 8 via a CPS? Currently 10.2 M030 is slated to support Java 8, but we are upgrading before M030 is released. It seems odd that we would be installing the LATEST version of Windchill and be behind the ball immediately out of the gate (in regards to Java). Also Java is going to discontinue support early 2015. PTC really needs to get a handle on this Java issue.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
jessh
5-Regular Member
(To:hlinseisen)

First off, to answer the question, I don't know if Java 8 support will be added to 10.2 M020 via a CPS. I'm pretty sure that it's not out of the question, but I can't say for certain.

Secondly, I should clarify a few things here.

  • While Java 8 was released some time ago now, it almost always takes a couple of Java maintenance releases after any initial major Java release for quality to reach the point where one should contemplate moving to it in production. Additionally, it also takes some lead time for PTC to fully test (and fix where necessary) a Windchill release against a new Java client version. Thus while it's unfortunate, it's not a total surprise that M020 did not initially contain Java 8 client support, even though it was released after Java 8.
  • As far as "Java" discontinuing support in early 2015, what's being referred to here is that Oracle currently plans to stop providing free maintenance/security updates to Java 7 in April 2015. See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html#Java6-end-public-updates.
  • From my own testing, almost all Windchill applets work fine with Java 8. I did find a couple of features in a couple of administrative applets that didn't work, but that was it in my testing. I'd also note that one has to enable RMI tunneling for Windchill applets to run under Java 8, due to changes Java 8 made to the applet security model. Finally, one still needs the various Windchill fixes and Site Exception List setting that one needed to run applets under the latest Java 7 releases.

View solution in original post

9 REPLIES 9

I think you should simply try out whether it works by replacing the jdk within the Windchill installation. In the past we also ran windchill with a newer jdk even if it was not "supported" by PTC which only means that theydid not fully test it.
Apart from that i can't see any features in Java 8 urgently nedded for Windchill development.ay

By the way all the java applets work with a jre 8 installed.

jessh
5-Regular Member
(To:hlinseisen)

First off, to answer the question, I don't know if Java 8 support will be added to 10.2 M020 via a CPS. I'm pretty sure that it's not out of the question, but I can't say for certain.

Secondly, I should clarify a few things here.

  • While Java 8 was released some time ago now, it almost always takes a couple of Java maintenance releases after any initial major Java release for quality to reach the point where one should contemplate moving to it in production. Additionally, it also takes some lead time for PTC to fully test (and fix where necessary) a Windchill release against a new Java client version. Thus while it's unfortunate, it's not a total surprise that M020 did not initially contain Java 8 client support, even though it was released after Java 8.
  • As far as "Java" discontinuing support in early 2015, what's being referred to here is that Oracle currently plans to stop providing free maintenance/security updates to Java 7 in April 2015. See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html#Java6-end-public-updates.
  • From my own testing, almost all Windchill applets work fine with Java 8. I did find a couple of features in a couple of administrative applets that didn't work, but that was it in my testing. I'd also note that one has to enable RMI tunneling for Windchill applets to run under Java 8, due to changes Java 8 made to the applet security model. Finally, one still needs the various Windchill fixes and Site Exception List setting that one needed to run applets under the latest Java 7 releases.
GregOlson
15-Moonstone
(To:jessh)

Jess,

Thank you for the reply.

Who can I contact to get an answer in regards to Java 8 support being added via CPS or a patch at a later date (tech support didn't know)?

I am just concerned that upgrading to M020 will lead to many Java issues a year or two from now....once Java gets extremely outdated, the client machines get randomly blocked from using apps unless an update is done. Also if there is an issue with Java 8, your tech support will do nothing unless supported. Dealing with Java and Windchill has been a constant battle for years now, I just need to make the right decisions now to avoid issues the later.

jessh
5-Regular Member
(To:GregOlson)

The product owner for this area would be David Randall.

As for your concern, no one should plan to move to 10.2 M020 and just "stay there". I realize this is common practice, but quite frankly customers need to plan to move to new MORs as they become available. PTC for its part must ensure that there are not regressions or end-user-visible changes in MORs -- and a lot of focus has been applied to these areas recently.

That said, there is another (implicit) part of your concern: "what about until M030 is released?"

That's definitely a valid question -- as I believe the Java Plug-In's auto-update feature will start updating Java 7 Plug-In installations to Java 8 very soon if it has not done so already, unless this feature is disabled, of course.

GregOlson
15-Moonstone
(To:jessh)

Jess,

As much as I want to agree with you on moving to the latest release as soon as it's available, small companies do not have the resources to move to a new release as soon as they become available. We are spending almost 20k to move to 10.2, then we are supposed to fork over another 2-3k months later to move to M030..... Quite frankly until PTC has a handle on how to upgrade customers with basically a plug and play situation this is how things are going to go.

jessh
5-Regular Member
(To:GregOlson)

I'm certainly not arguing that anyone fork over 20k -- or anything in that ballpark to move to an MOR.

What makes moving to a new MOR costly? If it's lack of trust in the new MOR, then that's a cyclical problem. PTC's working hard on its end of that, i.e. to not make end-user visible changes in MORs, improve quality, etc.

Hey Greg,

What version are you coming from when going to 10.2? I am just curious, because I am in the middle of a test upgrade from 10.1 M020 to 10.2 M020 and could give you some valuable information that could save you much of that money by doing it yourself. If you would like to discuss send me a pm sometime.

Buddy Hudson

pmöllberg
4-Participant
(To:GregOlson)

Hi

Java 1.8 will be supported in 10.2 M020 CPS 09. CPS 09 is already released.

GregOlson
15-Moonstone
(To:pmöllberg)

Excellent

Top Tags