Release note: See v2026.0.0.

⚙️ Customization and Configuration​

New Properties​

• JWT / OAuth2 Security (Rendition Engine): New properties enable JWT-based authentication via OAuth2 bearer tokens.

  • arender.security.enabled: Enables the use of JWT as OAuth 2.0 bearer token.
  • spring.security.oauth2.resourceserver.jwt.issuer-uri: Specifies the URI of the trusted JWT issuer.

• REST Registry Providers (Rendition Engine): New properties for configuring REST-based document connectors as independent microservices.

  • registry.default-provider: Specifies the default registry to use if none of the defined registries match.
  • registry.providers.<name>.base-url: Defines the base URL of the provider application (e.g., FileNet, Alfresco).
  • registry.providers.<name>.whitelisted-params: Defines the query parameters authorized to build the document ID.

Renamed Properties​

Extensive property renaming has been applied across all Rendition modules (RenditionEngine, Taskconversion, JNIPdfEngine/PDFOwl, PDFBoxEngine) due to the Spring Boot 3+ migration.

Metrics endpoint access (all modules):

Metrics export namespaces (all modules) — the management.metrics.export.<provider>.* pattern has been restructured to management.<provider>.metrics.export.*:

REST client properties (RenditionEngine module) — dot-separated naming has been adopted:

For the complete list of renamed properties per module, refer to the migration documentation.

Modified Properties​

Deleted Properties​

• StatsD metrics (all modules): The management.metrics.export.statsd.* properties have been removed (enabled, step, host, port).
• Redact feature (Taskconversion module): The redact.flattenText property has been removed.
• CSV annotation download (Web UI): The topPanel.documentMenu.downloadCSVAnnotations property has been removed, along with the downloadAnnotationsCSVButton bean.

📦 Product​

Technical Stack Upgrade​

This is a major LTS release that modernizes the entire ARender technical stack:

• Spring Boot 2 → Spring Boot 4: The entire backend has been migrated through Spring Boot 3 to Spring Boot 4, requiring JDK 21 as the minimum runtime. We recommend using JDK 25 to benefit from the latest LTS JDK.
• JDK 8 → JDK 21+: All modules now require Java 21 at minimum. JDK 25 is the recommended runtime as the latest LTS release.
• Jackson 2 → Jackson 3: The JSON serialization framework has been updated across all modules.
• PDFBox 2 → PDFBox 3: The PDF processing library has been migrated to version 3.
• Hazelcast 4 → Hazelcast 5.5.0: Session management has been upgraded.

• WAR packaging removed: ARender UI is now exclusively packaged as a Spring Boot application. Deployment to external application servers (Tomcat WAR) is no longer supported.
• PDFOwl as default renderer: The default PDF renderer has changed from JNIPdfEngine to PDFOwl. Using version 1.24-26

Breaking Changes​

• 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.
• Executable JAR no longer supported: With Spring Boot 4, JARs must be run using java -jar <jar-name>.jar instead of executing the JAR directly.
• Third-Party tools upgraded (Docker): LibreOffice from 7.x to 26.x and FFmpeg from 4.x to 8.x.
• WAR deployment removed: ARender UI can no longer be deployed as a WAR file to an external application server. It must be deployed as a standalone Spring Boot application.

Third-Party Tool Upgrades (Docker)​

• LibreOffice: Version 26.2.1.2.
• FFmpeg: Version 8.0.1.
• ImageMagick: Version 7.1.2-15.
• common-mime: Version 3.0.0.

Due to the upgrade of third-party tools (LibreOffice, ImageMagick, FFmpeg), there may be minor visual differences in document rendering compared to version 2023.

Security​

• Multiple critical and high-level OS package vulnerabilities have been patched in Docker images.
• Docker base images have been updated to address known vulnerabilities.

🔧 Integrator Section​

REST Provider (New Architecture)​

ARender v2026.0.0 introduces a new REST-based provider model as an alternative to the legacy JAR-based connectors:

• Independent microservices: Providers are now standalone Spring Boot applications for FileNet and Alfresco that communicate via REST endpoints (/documents, /annotations), instead of being deployed as JARs alongside the UI.
• Language-agnostic: Any language capable of serving HTTP can implement a connector by following the Provider API contract.
• Provider routing: The Rendition Engine routes requests to the appropriate provider using the X-Provider-ID HTTP header or the registry.default-provider configuration.

For detailed architecture, API contracts, and configuration, refer to the REST Connector documentation.

Deployment Changes​

• Web UI: The WAR-based deployment is no longer available. ARender UI must be deployed as a Spring Boot application. See the Web UI migration guide.
• Helm Charts: Updated to use PDFOwl Docker images and Spring Boot-based HMI images.

javax.* Compatibility​

Despite the Spring Boot 4 migration (which moves from javax.* to jakarta.* namespaces), existing JAR-based connectors using javax.* imports do not require any changes. A javax.* → jakarta.* bridge is included, so connectors continue to work without modification.

💻 API​

New Functionality​

• REST Provider API: A new REST API contract allows integrators to build custom document provider as independent microservices. The API includes endpoints for document retrieval (GET /documents), and full annotation CRUD (GET/POST/PUT/DELETE /annotations). See the Provider API reference.

• Rendition Provider API: The Rendition Engine exposes new endpoints for the frontend to interact with REST providers: POST /registry/documents to open documents through a provider, and dedicated annotation management endpoints that apply automatic position transformation for composite documents. See the Rendition API reference.