ARender v2026.0.0 – Release Notes

ARender 2026.0.0 is the first major version since the 2023 line — a ground-up modernization of the platform. The backend now runs on Spring Boot 4 and Java 25, with PDFOwl as the default renderer for improved stability and process isolation. Security dependencies have been upgraded across the entire stack.

This release also debuts ARender Horizon, a new React-based viewer embeddable as a Web Component. ARender Horizon shares the same Rendition Engine as the existing GWT-based viewer (now called ARender Classic) — same rendering quality, same format support — with a modern frontend and a REST connector architecture that lets you build document connectors in any language. FileNet and Alfresco providers ship out of the box as Docker images.

Docker is now the recommended deployment method, with Spring Boot standalone as an alternative. Existing ARender Classic deployments upgrade seamlessly — no feature removed from the viewer, full backward compatibility on annotations and document formats.

Breaking changes​

Review these items before upgrading. See the upgrade notes for detailed migration steps.

WAR and EAR packaging removed​

ARender UI is now exclusively a Spring Boot application. WAR and EAR artifacts are no longer produced. If you currently deploy ARender inside an application server (Tomcat, WebSphere), you must switch to running the Spring Boot JAR directly with java -jar. See the upgrade guide for migration steps.

Spring Boot property renaming​

The migration from Spring Boot 2 to 4 includes extensive property renaming across all services. The upgrade notes contain the full property mapping.

Hazelcast 4.x → 5.5 incompatibility​

Hazelcast 4.x and 5.x instances cannot coexist in the same cluster. A rolling upgrade is not possible — perform a full stop/start or blue-green deployment.

PDFOwl is now the default renderer​

The default PDF rendering engine has changed from JNIPdfEngine to PDFOwl. You may observe minor rendering differences. Test your critical documents after upgrading.

Third-party tool major version upgrades​

LibreOffice, ImageMagick, and FFmpeg have all been upgraded to new major versions. This may cause minor visual differences in document conversion output compared to v2023.x.

Legacy redaction removed​

The legacy image-based redaction feature and its redact.flattenText property have been removed. The modern text-preserving redaction remains fully supported.

ARender Classic (GWT)​

If you use ARender Classic (GWT viewer), this section covers everything relevant to your upgrade.

Security​

Security dependencies upgraded​

Security dependencies have been upgraded across all components — backend, frontend, and Docker images — to address known vulnerabilities. This includes updates to Spring Boot, Jackson, Netty, React, and OS-level packages in Docker images. For detailed information about the specific vulnerabilities addressed, please contact ARender support.

Infrastructure changes​

PDFOwl default renderer​

Changed — PDFOwl replaces JNIPdfEngine as the default PDF renderer. PDFOwl provides better stability through process isolation — rendering errors are contained in sub-processes without affecting the main application. Instance recycling has been disabled to ensure idempotent behavior across consecutive renderings. See the rendition properties reference for configuration options.

Spring Boot 2 → 4 migration​

Changed — The entire backend stack (HMI, Rendition, all microservices) has been migrated through Spring Boot 3 to Spring Boot 4. This includes property renaming, Jackson 3 migration, and Hazelcast 5 upgrade. See the upgrade notes for the full property migration guide.

Hazelcast upgraded to 5.5.0​

Changed — Distributed caching has been upgraded from Hazelcast 4.x to 5.5.0. See rendition caching for cluster configuration.

PDFBox upgraded to 3.x​

Changed — The PDF processing library has been migrated from PDFBox 2 to PDFBox 3.

Third-party tool upgrades​

Changed — The following tools have been updated:

Docker base images standardized​

Changed — All Docker images now use the standard Uxopian base image for consistency and security. See the Docker Compose quickstart for updated image references.

External configuration for connectors​

New — Connectors now support external application.properties or application.yaml files via Spring active profiles. Integrators can override ARender and Spring configurations without modifying the packaged connector JAR. See the configuration system for details on property loading and precedence.

StatsD meter registry removed​

Removed — The unused StatsD metrics exporter has been removed from all modules. The management.metrics.export.statsd.* properties (enabled, step, host, port) no longer have any effect.

PDF/A text conversion removed​

Removed — The unused PDF/A conversion based on text has been removed.

Developer notes​

REST API documented in Swagger​

New — The new REST API endpoints introduced with the connector architecture are now listed in the Swagger documentation, making it easier for integrators to discover and test them. See the Broker API reference.

WAR and EAR packaging removed​

Removed — See Breaking changes above. Migrate to the Spring Boot standalone deployment.

Bug fixes​

PDF/A document save in FileNet​

Fixed — Saving a built PDF/A document back to FileNet failed. The document is now correctly loaded after conversion.

Rendition installation on RHEL8​

Fixed — The offline installation on RHEL8 did not complete correctly.

Incorrect date in email rendering​

Fixed — Dates in certain emails were parsed incorrectly. The email processing library has been upgraded.

ARender Horizon (React)​

ARender Horizon is a lightweight, modern viewer built with React, designed to be embedded in any web application — whether you use Angular, Vue, React, or plain HTML. It connects to the same Rendition Engine that powers ARender Classic, so every format already supported keeps working out of the box.

ARender Horizon ships with a new REST-based connector architecture (named Provider) and is the foundation for all future ARender frontend development.

This first release focuses on document viewing across all supported formats, with full-text search, download, and print.

Annotations and additional features are coming fast — see the feature availability table for the current status.

If you only use ARender Classic (GWT viewer) today, you can skip this section.

Viewer​

New — ARender Horizon ships as an npm package. Embed it in any web application as a Web Component:

<arender-element></arender-element>

Try it now → Getting started guide

REST connector architecture​

New — Connectors are now standalone microservices that implement a standard REST API:

• GET /documents — retrieve documents (single or multi-document)
• GET/POST/PUT/DELETE /annotations — annotation CRUD

Two providers are shipped out of the box: FileNet and Alfresco, packaged as Docker images. Integrators can build custom providers in any language — only HTTP and JSON are required.

The service broker routes requests to the appropriate provider via the X-Provider-ID header. A rendition-provider-api module provides shared types for Java-based providers.

See the Providers guide and Provider API reference.

OAuth2 / JWT security for Rendition​

New — The Rendition Engine now supports OAuth2 bearer token security via Keycloak. This is optional — security is disabled by default and your existing setup continues to work without changes. When enabled, every request to Rendition must carry a valid JWT token.

FileNet provider secured with OAuth2​

New — The FileNet REST provider endpoints are secured with OAuth2, consistent with the Rendition Engine security model.

URL parameter whitelisting​

New — Providers can define which URL parameters participate in document ID generation via connector.registries.<name>.whitelisted-params, preventing unintended parameters from affecting document identity.

Changelog​

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