Official Fedora 7.0.0 Release Announcement

[Arran Griffith]

As we head into the weekend, the Fedora community is excited to announce the official production release of fcrepo-7.0.0! This is the first major version release since Fedora 6.x in 2021, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to release this for the community.

Download it now:

GitHub: https://github.com/fcrepo/fcrepo/releases/tag/fcrepo-7.0.0

Docker: https://hub.docker.com/r/fcrepo/fcrepo/tags

Maven: https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/fcrepo/fcrepo/7.0.0/

This is a landmark moment for Fedora. Version 7.0.0 represents the most significant modernization of the Fedora platform in years. With its release, we have upgraded the entire dependency stack up to current, secure, and supported versions. We have expanded automated test coverage to over 80% and delivered measurable performance improvements, validated across community beta and RC testing phases. The feedback and participation from our community throughout this process has been outstanding.

Why Fedora 7.0.0 Matters

Fedora 7.0.0 is the result of a dedicated Dependency Upgrade Project that touched virtually every major library underpinning the application. The goal was clear: ensure Fedora is built on a modern, secure, and maintainable foundation. One that the community can confidently rely on and contribute to for years to come.

Over the course of the beta and RC phases, the committer team updated and hardened:

• Core framework libraries: Spring, Jersey, Jetty
• Data and serialization libraries: Jackson, JSON-LD/Jena (including the upgrade from JSON 1.0 to 1.1)
• Infrastructure libraries: AWS, Caffeine, Guava, Netty, Commons
• Database libraries and messaging (migrated to jakarta.jms)
• Servlet container compatibility (now requiring Tomcat 10+)
• Java runtime: now requires Java 21

Some of the BEST News - Upgrading to Fedora 7.0.0

One of the most important things to know about this release: there is no migration required for institutions already running Fedora 6.x.

Thanks to the OCFL-based storage model introduced in Fedora 6.x, Fedora 7.0.0 reads and writes the same standardized repository layout. To upgrade, simply download the new version, deploy it, and restart. That's it!

For institutions still in the process of migrating from older versions of Fedora, there is equally good news! All existing community migration tools and documentation continue to work and will bring you all the way to Fedora 7.0.0. If you were already planning a migration to Fedora 6.x, you can aim directly for 7.0.0. The migration path tooling, and all associated tools will work.

Special thanks to the Islandora community for jumping on the Fedora 7.x bandwagon so quickly!

The ISLE Buildkit now supports Fedora 7, making it even easier for Islandora-based institutions to upgrade their instances. We are grateful to the Islandora community for their continued collaboration and for moving so quickly to support this release.

Thank You

Fedora 7.0.0 is the result of sustained effort, careful testing, and genuine community partnership. A special thank you to our dedicated Fedora Committer team, who have driven every aspect of this work:

Fedora Committer Team:

• Ben Pennell - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Dan Field - Fedora Developer
• Demina Katz - Villanova University
• Jared Whiklo - University of Manitoba

Other Contributors:

• James Alexander - The Open University, UK
• Alex Weid
• Basil Marti - Docuteam
• Thomas Bernhart - Docuteam

And to everyone who participated testing, submitted feedback in our GitHub discussions, and engaged in the Fedora Slack workspace — this release is a reflection of your investment in the community.

If you have questions about this release, upgrading, or how to get involved, please reach out to the Fedora Program team at fed...@lyrasis.org or directly at arran.g...@lyrasis.org / dan....@lyrasis.org.

Fedora 7.0.0 is here. We hope you'll join us in celebrating this milestone and in putting it to work!

Have a great weekend!

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Arran Griffith

Program Manager, Fedora Program

Lyrasis

Book a time to meet with me