Frequently Asked Questions

 

Is SwitchYard an ESB?

The short answer is that many of the capabilities typically associated with an ESB will be present in SwitchYard, so if you are looking for an ESB, then you should check out how we are doing things in SwitchYard.  That said, we plan to focus much more on the complete service delivery picture (service creation to retirement) with integrated development, runtime, and management capabilities, which is an area where we feel typical ESBs have fallen short.

 

How does this project relate to JBoss ESB?

JBoss ESB is really the genesis for SwitchYard.  There are things that we would like to add/change/remove in JBoss ESB that would simply be too disruptive to our current deploy base to introduce.  The initial plan was to introduce these changes in version 5, but it is much cleaner and easier for the community to pick up if we split off the development completely.

 

Is JBoss ESB going away?

Definitely not.  JBoss ESB is an actively developed project that is a part of our Enteprise SOA Platform now and in the future.  SwitchYard will be developed in parallel and you will see releases of both projects in the community moving forward.

 

What's up with the SwitchYard name?

There are actually two types of switchyard : a power transfer station that regulates and converts electricity for electric plants and a railroad station where cars are switched and attached to different trains.  Both metaphors apply to what we are trying to do in this project, so expect to see liberal and mixed use of both in how we name stuff here.

 

Can I help?

You bet!  Check out the JIRAs, create one for something you want to do, or chat us up on the forums or IRC.

 

Do you realize how wrong you're thinking is on [insert idea here] ?

No and we need you to tell us!  Get on the forums and call us idiots.  We love the attention.