Today we released hawtio 1.2.3 - yay that is a beautify version number ;) 1-2-3 hawtio is ready for download and use.

The highlights of this new release from the changelog includes:

• New hawtio Chrome Extension for easier connection to remote JVMs from your browser without having to run a hawtio server or connect through a web proxy
• Upgraded to TypeScript 0.9.5 which is faster
• threads plugin to monitor JVM thread usage and status.
• Moved java code from hawtio-web into hawtio-system
• Clicking a line in the log plugin now shows a detail dialog with much more details.
• ActiveMQ plugin can now browse byte messages.
• Improved look and feel in the Camel route diagram.
• Breadcrumb navigation in Camel plugin to make it easier and faster to switch between CamelContext and routes in the selected view.
• Added Type Converter sub tab (requires Camel 2.13 onwards).
• Better support for older Internet Explorer browsers.
• Lots of polishing to work much better as the console for fabric8
• Fixes these 175 issues and enhancements

I will like to showcase the chrome extension a bit more.

hawtio as chrome extension

In the last 1.2.2 release we had a preview of the Google Chrome Extension which now has been improved and polished. So let's kick of this blog by installing and using hawtio 1.2.3 in your google web browser.

Just follow the instructions on the getting started page. And hawtio should be available from the web browser as shown below.


What we would do next is to connect to the remote JVM which we want to manage and gain insight what happens in the JVM. For example to connect to the upcoming Apache ActiveMQ 5.10 message broker, you connect using the details shown in the screenshot.

And when connected to the broker, you can access the server log, and as well manage the broker, such as browsing the queues and topics, and much more.

Browsing remote ActiveMQ server log using hawtio directly from your web browser.

You can also launch hawtio using the Chrome App Launcher from your operating system. For example from my OSX I can click the app launch icon which now includes hawtio.

Launch hawtio as a native application from your OS

Another highlight is the improved look and feel of the Camel plugin. Though we are not done yet, so we would like feedback on this, as finding the right colors that everybody
likes isn't so easy :)

Improved Camel Diagram look and feel

The Camel diagram which shows the routes visually now shows the various EIPs using different colors. For example the Apache Camel Servlet Tomcat example is shown below:

Camel diagram improved with more colors

Also we added a breadcrumb functionality which is known in IDEA which makes switching between routes and endpoints in the Camel plugin faster. To use that click that double arrow on the top right corner of the Camel Tree as shown below:

Double arrow accesses the breadcrumb functionality for fast switching between routes and endpoints.

And we are also ready for the upcoming Apache Camel 2.13 release, which allows hawtio to list all the registered type converters, and associated utilization statistics, as illustrated below:

Camel 2.13 can now list all the registered type converters and their utilization

Another functionality I want to highlight is the Maven plugins we included in last release.

Maven Plugin to bootup with hawtio

For example we can bootup the examples that comes out of box with Apache Camel. For example to run the management example with the hawtio web console, all we do is.

davsclaus:~/Downloads$ tar xf apache-camel-2.12.3.tar.gz
davsclaus:~/Downloads$ cd apache-camel-2.12.3
davsclaus:~/Downloads/apache-camel-2.12.3$ cd examples/
davsclaus:~/Downloads/apache-camel-2.12.3/examples$ cd camel-example-management/
davsclaus:~/Downloads/apache-camel-2.12.3/examples/camel-example-management$ mvn compile io.hawt:hawtio-maven-plugin:1.2.3:camel

And hawtio opens a web page with hawtio ready to use. With that I can gain insight into the Camel example and see real time data from the routes, and so forth.

hawtio plugin launched together with the Camel Management Example

You can find more details about the hawtio Maven plugins here.

Want to learn more

You can find more details about hawtio at the website. Its 100% open source, and licensed using the permissive Apache License. The source code is at gihub.

At the DevNation conference next month, Stan Lewis, James Strachan, and myself is demonstrating and talking more about hawtio. For example James will talk about open source integration in the cloud, where hawtio is the console for JBoss Fuse and fabric8. Stan Lewis gives two talks about hawtio, one focused how you can extend and write your custom plugins, and as well how to skin the look and feel, to create your own custom consoles.