Upgrade Java 6 to Java 11 with Dropwizard 2.1.12

[devin-ai-integration]

Summary

Upgrades the DropwizardEmployee application from Java 6 to Java 11, including a major Dropwizard framework upgrade from 1.0.5 to 2.1.12.

Build config (pom.xml):

• Decoupled Dropwizard BOM from ${project.version} (was 1.0.5) → pinned to 2.1.12; added dropwizard-dependencies BOM
• Compiler: <source>1.6</source>/<target>1.6</target> → <release>11</release> (plugin 3.6.0 → 3.13.0)
• Surefire: 2.19.1 → 3.2.5 (required for Java 11 module handling + JUnit 5 support)
• Shade: 2.4.3 → 3.6.0; added module-info.class exclusion to prevent conflicts in uber JAR

Source changes:

• EmployeeConfiguration.java: @NotEmpty import moved from org.hibernate.validator.constraints → javax.validation.constraints (old annotation removed in newer Hibernate Validator)
• EmployeeDAO.java: Added explicit cast of namedQuery() result to Query<Employee> — Dropwizard 2.x's namedQuery() returns Query<?> instead of raw Query, breaking the list() call
• AppTest.java: Migrated from JUnit 3 (TestCase/TestSuite) to JUnit 5 (@Test/Assertions) — JUnit 3 classes are no longer on the classpath with Dropwizard 2.x

Verified locally: mvn clean verify passes (compile + test + uber JAR) with OpenJDK 11.0.30.

Review & Testing Checklist for Human

• Run the app end-to-end on Java 11: java -jar target/DropwizardEmployee-1.0.5.jar server example.yml — verify it starts, GET /employee returns [], and POST /employee creates records. The existing test (assertTrue(true)) provides zero functional coverage.
• Verify the EmployeeDAO unchecked cast: The @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") cast from Query<?> to Query<Employee> is a pragmatic fix but suppresses type safety. Confirm the named query executes correctly at runtime.
• Dropwizard 1.x → 2.x behavioral differences: This is a major framework version jump. Transitive dependencies changed substantially (Jetty, Jersey, Hibernate, Jackson versions all bumped). Verify no runtime surprises with serialization, DB sessions, or HTTP handling.

Notes

• No removed Java EE modules (javax.xml.bind, javax.xml.ws, etc.) were used in the codebase, so no standalone replacements were needed.
• No CI config, Dockerfiles, or JVM flag scripts existed in the repo, so no updates were needed there.
• The shade plugin warnings about overlapping resources in the uber JAR are expected and benign (duplicate LICENSE/NOTICE files from transitive deps).

Link to Devin session: https://app.devin.ai/sessions/177575b9a7c647a59b27a22c9e8cd928
Requested by: @wavecreator1

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