We are delighted to announce that Lightstreamer 7 has been publicly released.
You can download it right now from https://www.lightstreamer.com/download/
The official Docker image and the Amazon EC2 AMI are available too.
Lightstreamer 7 and the client SDKs include hundreds of improvements and fixes, covering performance, features, compatibility, and licensing. This makes Lightstreamer more solid and faster than ever. Below are some highlights but you can check out the full list in the change log.
Improvements
Java 9
Lightstreamer Server now fully supports Java 9. The minimum required version is still Java 6.
Performance Improvement
Server scalability has been improved, in particular when clients are quite active in terms of subscriptions, unsubscriptions, and message sending. The scenario of massive client disconnections has been addressed too.
Automatic Session Recovery
When a client connection breaks, session recovery is automatically attempted. This means that upon a disconnection, the client lib, rather than creating a new session, re-authenticating, re-subscribing to all the items, and getting all the snapshots, will try to reattach to the existing session, seamlessly recovering the event flow. This reduces the load on the client, on the network, on the server and minimizes recovery latency. In order to take benefit from automatic session recovery, you need to upgrade both the server and the client libraries.
Reverse Heartbeats
The connections now support two-way heartbeats, as a means for quickly detecting network issues. In addition to heartbeats sent from the server to the client, the client libraries can now send heartbeats that the server uses to make sure no intermediary is artificially keeping the connection open.
Push Notifications
The MPN Module, used for sending push notifications to Android and iOS clients, has been fully revised, with improved reliability, features, and performance. Check out the Push Notifications tutorial.
New watchOS SDK
A new SDK for Apple watchOS has been released, making it easy to push live data to the Apple Watch. Check out the watchOS tutorial.
New Unity SDK
A new SDK for developing games based on the Unity engine has been released too. Check out a demo.
Other Client SDKs
The Unified Client APIs for Android and Apple devices have been aligned to version 4, with full support for WebSockets and the latest improvements in the TLCP protocol, as well as push notifications.
PKCS#11 and PKCS#12
Introduced support for keystores based on the PKCS#11 and PKCS#12 standards.
New Editions and Licensing Schemes
Previously, Lightstreamer had been organized into four different editions (Moderato, Allegro, Presto, and Vivace). With Lightstreamer 7, the editions have become Community and Enterprise, which offer maximum flexibility to our customers and users. Read all the details regarding the new editions.
A brand new license verification mechanism, the Cloud License Manager (CLM), is now available. With CLM, licensing happens online, with no more need for license files bound to the MAC address of the hosting machine and with a tremendous increase in flexibility. Read all the details of the Cloud License Manager.
How to Upgrade
Upgrading to Lightstreamer 7 is straightforward. As usual, the new server keeps compatibility with all the previous clients. This way, you can upgrade the server safely, without disrupting production. Then, you can start upgrading the client libraries at your own pace.
Detailed instructions on how to upgrade from any previous version of Lighstreamer server to version 7.0.0 are available.
The Lightstreamer configuration files can be upgraded automatically through a very handy online tool.
For paid editions, you can get your new license credentials by contacting support@lightstreamer.com.
We are eager to know your feedback on Lightstreamer 7!
Alessandro Alinone
