Java Plugin Framework (JPF) 1.0.0 released

After more than two years of development JPF reaches version 1.0 and production quality.

JPF is the open source, LGPL licensed library that is intended to provide standard plug-in infrastructure to existing or new Java projects. It helps greatly improve modularity and extensibility of Java systems and decrease their support and maintenance cost.

The Framework implements the runtime engine that dynamically discovers and runs plug-ins. A plug-in is a structured component that describes itself to the Framework using a manifest file. The Framework maintains a registry of available plug-ins and the function they provide (via extension points and extensions). To simplify deployment and distribution, plug-in may be packaged as "single ZIP file" that will be un-packed transparently in runtime when needed.

JPF package includes core runtime library, application boot utility and set of Ant tasks to automate common development routines (plug-ins versioning, packaging, documenting, integrity checks etc.)

The major changes since previous release are:
* Plug-in manifest DTD version number changed to 1.0 All references to previous versions are mapped to this one now.
* Previously deprecated API has been removed from code.
* Improved Splash Screen API in JPF-Boot library. It is now allows more flexible handling of splash screen behavior and configuration.
* ShadingPathResolver may now filter files to be shadowed. This is regulated by includes/excludes configuration parameters.
* Added black/white lists support to all batch plug-ins processing Ant tasks in JPF-Tools library.

Visit project home page at http://jpf.sourceforge.net for further details, documentation and tutorial.