As we explained earlier, you can consider Thorntail as a runtime environment that you can build in a pluggable way. The core unit that represents the compositional aspect in Thorntail is the fraction. It's a well-defined runtime capability to add to your environment. In some cases, a fraction maps directly to a subsystem from WildFly, but in other cases, it may involve a different functionality that's described in the MicroProfile.io specifications or is needed in the cloud environment.
A fraction can do the following things:
- Directly enable a WildFly subsystem as Infinispan, which is needed to implement a data caching layer
- Integrate additional frameworks or services (for example, topology using Consul, JGroups, and OpenShift)
- Provide deployments of features like API documentation (for example, Swagger) or JMX metrics access (for example, Jolokia)
- Add API...
