JDK-11 will remove a lot of older parts of the JDK (JEP-320).
For some of them (e.g. JAXB) functionality will be provided as regular library. You simply add another dependency and everything works fine again.
But not so for CORBA, because
There is no significant interest in developing modern applications with CORBA in Java
I am however in the painful situation of needing to maintain older applications that still require CORBA while still wanting to update to JDK-11.
Is there a replacement-library out there or another good way of migrating to JDK-11 without removing the CORBA functionality of these applications?
You can definitely take a look at javaee/glassfish-corba. The documented home page reads -
The GlassFish ORB complies with the CORBA 2.3.1 specification, and
with the CORBA 3.0 specifications for the Interoperable Name Service
and Portable Interceptors. It includes both IDL and RMI-IIOP support.
The GlassFish ORB has an open, extensible architecture that supports
flexible configuration and extension through an open SPI.
Further what shall also interest developers, from the JEP itself -
The risks of removing the java.corba module are:
1. CORBA implementations will not compile or run if they include only a
subset of the "endorsed" CORBA APIs and expect the JDK to provide the
remainder.
2. Applications and CORBA implementations that use RMI-IIOP will not
compile or run. The RMI-IIOP packages (javax.rmi and javax.rmi.CORBA)
are located in the java.corba module and tied to the CORBA
implementation therein, so there will be no RMI-IIOP support in Java
SE once java.corba is removed.
3. Applications and CORBA implementations that use the javax.activity
package will not compile or run. This package is located in the
java.corba module and tied to the CORBA implementation therein, so
there will be no support in Java SE once java.corba is removed.
and further down there
The transition of stewardship of Java EE from the JCP to the Eclipse
Foundation includes the GlassFish implementation of CORBA and
RMI-IIOP.
additionally,
- The "CORBA interop package" if required is implemented along with the artifact
javax.transaction : javax.transaction-api.
I haven't moved to Java 11 yet but I always had problems with the Java CORBA implementation anyway as it was incomplete and didn't support all the Object methods defined in the standards, didn't support ssliop, etc. etc. I always replaced it by placing th JacORB OMG jar in the endorsed directory and setting the system property to pont to the JacORB orb:
-Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBClass=org.jacorb.orb.ORB
-Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBSingletonClass=org.jacorb.orb.ORBSingleton
BTW. I do not agree that ""There is no significant interest in developing modern applications with CORBA in Java" after all what is J2EE sitting on?
this dependency could be used in JDK11
<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish.corba</groupId>
<artifactId>glassfish-corba-omgapi</artifactId>
<version>4.2.1</version>
</dependency>
