EJB3 vs. Spring

Spring and EJB 3.0 are both reactions, in their own ways, to the complexity of EJB 2.1 and the complaints piled upon it. Both support developing with Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) and give the framework responsibility for handling transactions, security, persistence, etc. But the two use substantially different approaches. In this article, Michael Yuan puts the two frameworks up against one another to see how they stack up.

rating comment: Very good article, which points out the major differences between EJB 3.0 and Spring. Although both frameworks pursuit the same targets they use very different approaches. These differences are illustrated in this article, by brief but meaningful examples.
I really like the concept of Spring, which can be used perfectly in small enterprise applications. But I think if you want to scale, you should use a standards-based technology like EJB 3.0.

Eclipse 3.1 released

Die freie Entwicklungsumgebung Eclipse ist rund ein Jahr nach dem letzten Major-Release nun in der Version 3.1 erschienen. Die neue Version bringt zahlreiche neue Funktionen mit, soll schneller zu Werke gehen und Java 5.0 unterstützen.

Endlich!!!! ;-)

Renaming Java

Starting now, at the 2005 JavaOne Conference (June 27-30), let's all
adopt the new naming system. As future releases of the platform ship,

• J2SE 6.0 will become Java SE 6 (code name Mustang), and J2SE 7.0 will become
  Java SE 7 (code name Dolphin).
• J2EE 5.0 will become Java EE 5.
• J2ME will become Java ME, because it does not have a version number.

When you write, use the following terms at first reference:

• Java Platform, Standard Edition 6
• Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5
• Java Platform, Micro Edition

Note: That's without the "2" and without the "dot zero."

These changes in the naming scheme of Java are really annoying, and hopfully completed after Mustang was released!

rearranged rss@linsin.de

Neue feeds rein, alte feeds raus! Das war das Motto der Umgestaltung von rss@linsin.de! Ab sofort gibts folgende feeds:

• heise.de
• golem.de
• spiegel-online.de
• javamagazin.de
• theserverside.com
• java.net news

google stellt erde zum download

Die frei erhältliche Beta-Version von Google Earth verknüpft die Funktionen von Google Maps und lokaler Suche mit dreidimensionalen, frei dreh- und schwenkbaren Satellitenansichten, zahlreichen zusätzlichen Informationsquellen und einer Schnittstelle zum Keyhole-XML-Format KML.

Mir wäre es ja lieber wenn es erstmal Google Maps für Deutschland gäbe....

Why J2EE Projects Fail

- Good technology and usage doesn't guarantee success
- Bad technology usage can guarantee failure

Rod Johnson at TheServerSide Java Symposium 2005

Friday night

Decorater Pattern

The Decorator design pattern can be usefully applied to J2EE projects. In this article, Budi Kurniawan shows how to decorate Servlet request objects, and how this can be used to create more powerful servlet filters.

rating comment: Excellent illustration of the Decorater pattern, on the basis of a real world example!

J2SE 6.0

This article will detail the important core features that are coming in Mustang. We list here all the items that are currently planned. Many are already integrated, and you can try them out yourself by downloading the most recent build from the Mustang snapshot release site.

I like this feature describtion: Need way to find free disk space

TikeSwing

TikeSwing is an open source Swing framework that provides a high-level Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture and simplifies the usage of Swing components. The framework supports the plain-old-Java-object (POJO) programming model by connecting view components directly to JavaBeans. This article describes TikeSwing's features and demonstrates how to build a clear MVC architecture with the framework.

rating comment: The framework seems to be quite complicated. I might check it out, but I'm not too sure if there'll be a real benefit, considering the time you need to invest getting to know the framework.

Object Design

I recently returned from an intense, one-month marathon consulting tour to three different companies. I came away with a sense of satisfaction that everyone had benefitted significantly from the experience -- including me. The common sticking point was understanding the process of object-oriented design.

A lot of interesting thoughts about the process of developing software. Especially the comment about UML being to complicated, which I definitely agree on.

Java Modules

Java Archives (JARs) date back to the mid-1990s. However, JAR files are hard to distribute, hard to version, and hard to reference in general. Sun has submitted JSR 277: Java Module System, which defines a distribution format and a repository for collections of Java code and related resources. It also defines the discovery, loading, and integrity mechanisms at runtime.

ajax

Anyone who has used Flickr, GMail, Google Suggest, or Google Maps will realize that a new breed of dynamic web applications is emerging. These applications look and act very similar to traditional desktop applications without relying on plug-ins or browser-specific features. Web applications have traditionally been a set of HTML pages that must be reloaded to change any portion of the content. Technologies such as JavaScript programming language and cascading style sheets (CSS) have matured to the point where they can be used effectively to create very dynamic web applications that will work on all of the major browsers. This article will detail several techniques that you can use today to enable your web applications to be more rich and interactive like desktop applications.

rating comment: This article gives a very detailed and good explanation of asynchronous JavaScript technology, which in my opinion is going to emerge in the near future! It enables rich client application, only with a simple browser!

JAVA content repository API

Relational and object databases lack many data management features required by modern applications, such as versioning, rich data references, inheritence, or fine-grained security. Content repositories extend databases with such additional capabilities. The Java Content Repository API (JSR 170) defines a standard to access content repositories from Java code, and promises to greatly simplify Java database programming. This article reviews the Java Content Repository API and its open-source implementation, Apache Jackrabbit, from a developer's perspective.

rating comment: Nice explanation of the Java Content Respository API and it's concepts. I would have preferred to read more about Jackrabbit, the reference implementation of JSR 170.

Test your Web application

Looking for a way to apply automated testing techniques to Web development? Look no further. jWebUnit, which plugs easily into most Java™ IDEs, is an open source framework for creating test cases for Web applications. Software engineer Amit Tuli introduces jWebUnit by using a sample application to describe a step-by-step approach for generating concise test cases.

rating comment: Neat articel, that gives you a taste of the jWebUnit framework. Sounds like it's a helpful tool to improve quality of a web application. The only thing I don't like is the way of integrating jWebUnit into Eclipse. There should be a plug-in...well I'm sure there is one, I just don't know about it.

Pixel Pushing

Users of desktop applications are demanding--something as simple as a misplaced or misaligned pixel is unacceptable to some users. So it's up to you to get things exactly right. But is this practical, and how do you do it? Jonathan Simon shows a process for analyzing, coding, and testing your GUI for pixel perfection, demonstrating it with a pixel-accurate mimicry of a Windows-specific icon.

rating comment: This article gives an introduction to the procedure of building a graphical interface, which can be a hyper-detailed, laborious
work, if you do it the right way! The most interesting thing about this article is getting an idea of the work of an GUI designer, which I'm definitely not going for...

Making JBoss Work

In this first article of a series, you'll learn how to download and install JBoss. Tom Marrs and Scott Davis, authors of the upcoming JBoss At Work: A Practical Guide, explore the directory structure and show you how to add and remove services and how to deploy an application to JBoss.

Simple guide for beginners, to install and configure JBoss. It covers only a small part of the whole JBoss AS topic, but it's worth a look if you are new to JBoss AS.