We are pleased to announce the release of BoxLang 1.0.0-Beta 7! This latest beta version includes improvements and essential bug fixes, but more importantly it certifies the execution of ColdBox HMVC and TestBox.

What is BoxLang?

BoxLang is a modern dynamic JVM language that can be deployed on multiple runtimes: operating system (Windows/Mac/*nix/Embedded), web server, lambda, iOS, android, web assembly, and more. BoxLang combines many features from different programming languages, including Java, ColdFusion, Python, Ruby, Go, and PHP, to provide developers with a modern and expressive syntax.

It is also a drop-in replacement for Adobe ColdFusion and Lucee Engines.

How to get started?

Visit our docs at https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com and get coding today. If you want to try it out on the web then go to our online REPL at https://try.boxlang.io. You can also checkout our YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNE-ZbNnndB-40LvAbeSeT2Oi3V2gm_B8

Release Notes

Here are the latest release notes: https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/readme/release-history/1.0.0-beta-7

Improvements

BL-376 web support error template only shows details of exceptions if IN debug mode else secure by default

If you are using the MiniServer or CommandBox, then if an exception occurs, only in DEBUG MODE, will you get the exception stacktrace, details and more. This makes it secure by default of not exposing any potential data for exceptions.

BL-392 Consolidate the runtime into services without the need of getInstance()

A simple internal improvement to improve locking and instance usage.

New Features

BL-374 threadNew()

This is a new BIF for BoxLang. We have a way to create threads using the thread{} component in both script and template, and we have threadJoin(), threadTerminate() but we never had a way to create threads functionally.

Signature

threadNew( lambda/closure, [attributes={}], [threadName], [priority=normal] )

Examples

threadNew( () => {
    printLn( "thread is done!" );
    sleep( 1000 );
    result = "done";
} );

threadNew( () => calculateOrder( invoice ), {invoice:myData}, "order-builder", "high" )

Please note that the attributes is a struct of data that we will bind into the thread's local scope.

BL-388 Stream type and collector member methods

Java streams are now a native BoxLang type, which for now we don’t try to coerce, but simply match any existing instance or subclass of java.lang.Stream. This means we can now add member methods to ANY stream from BoxLang source code and make Streams also dynamic:

• .toBXArray()
• .toBXStruct( [String type] )
• .toBXQuery( [Query query] )
• .toBXList( [String delimiter] )

Examples

Collect stream of objects into BoxLang array

foods = [ 'apples', 'bananas', 'pizza', 'tacos' ];
result = foods.stream().parallel().toBXArray();

import java.util.stream.IntStream;
result = IntStream.range(1, 6).toBXArray();

Collect stream of Map entries into a struct

foods = { 'apples' : 'healthy', 'bananas' : 'healthy', 'pizza' : 'junk', 'tacos' : 'junk' };
result = foods.entrySet()
    .stream()
    .filter( e -> e.getValue() == 'healthy' )
    .toBXStruct();


data = [ 'd' : '', 'c' : '', 'b' : '', 'a' : '' ];
result = data.entrySet().stream().toBXStruct( "sorted" );

Collect an array of structs into an existing query object

qry = queryNew( "name,title", "varchar,varchar" );

[
  	{ name: "Brad", title: "Developer" },
  	{ name: "Luis", title: "CEO" },
  	{ name: "Jorge", title: "PM" }
].stream().toBXQuery( qry );

Collect a stream of objects into a list

foods = [ 'apples', 'bananas', 'pizza', true ];
foods.stream().toBXList();

[ "www", "google", "com" ].stream().toBXList( "." )

BL-390 orThrow( type, message ) for attempts

Attempts now allow you to do a custom exception type and message. Check out the attempt docs.

BL-391 ifSuccessful() alias to ifPresent() on attempts

Attempts now allow you to have an alias to ifPresent() that's fluent: ifSuccessful(). Check out the attempt docs.

Bugs

BL-373 Parser detection for unparsed tokens only works if there are 2 or more tokens left

BL-377 Declaring UDFs in function context doesn't always work

BL-378 CFConfig datasources aren't importing due to lack of support for the 'dbdriver' key

BL-379 Runtime can deadlock due to syncronized methods

BL-380 NPE calling isNumeric()

BL-381 JSONSerialize() errors when useSecureJSONPrefix not a boolean

BL-385 Cannot call getWriter(), getOutputStream() already called

BL-386 empty url vars coming through as null

Tasks

BL-372 Create tests for al valid and invalid dot and array access expressions