[RELEASE] Java driver 4.16.0 and 4.17.0

[Bret McGuire]

   Greetings!  Yesterday we released version 4.17.0 of the Java driver.  I'll have more to say on that in a moment, but first I need to take a step back to talk about the prior release.

   Version 4.16.0 of the Java driver was released in early June of 2023.  There was no notice to this list about that release due to some technical issues with the list itself but we believe these issues are now resolved.  For the record I'll mention that the changelog for the 4.16.0 release is as follows:

• [improvement] JAVA-3058: Clear prepared statement cache on UDT type change event
• [improvement] JAVA-3060: Add vector type, codec + support for parsing CQL type
• [improvement] DOC-2813: Add error handling guidance linking to a helpful blog post
• [improvement] JAVA-3045: Fix GraalVM native image support for GraalVM 22.2

   Documentation (including Javadoc) for 4.16.0 is available now.

   As I mentioned above we released version 4.17.0 of the Java driver yesterday.  This version includes three significant changes you should be aware of:

• We're now testing the Java driver against our test suite on Java17
• The version of Netty used in the driver has been upgraded to address a few CVEs
• The vector support introduced in 4.16.0 has a new API which should be easier to use

   Please consult the upgrade guide for more information on these features as well as the additional fixes in this release.

   The full changelog for 4.17.0 is as follows:

• [improvement] JAVA-3070: Make CqlVector and CqlDuration serializable
• [improvement] JAVA-3085: Initialize c.d.o.d.i.core.util.Dependency at Graal native image build-time
• [improvement] JAVA-3061: CqlVector API improvements, add support for accessing vectors directly as float arrays
• [improvement] JAVA-3042: Enable automated testing for Java17
• [improvement] JAVA-3050: Upgrade Netty to 4.1.94

   Documentation (again including Javadoc) for 4.17.0 should be up in the next few days.

   As usual, both 4.16.0 and 4.17.0 are available from Maven Central.

   We're interested in making the Java driver as robust as possible on Java17 so if you find any issues on that platform please let us know.  You can report issues regarding Java17 compatibility (or any other topic) here.

   Thanks!

  - Bret -