Features

Five Years Waiting for JRE 7: Is It Justified? (Part 1)

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST

JRE 6 was released in 2006, five years after a major JRE version was released. For the past few years Java was looking stagnant, and many Java developers began to worry; this concern was amplified when Oracle purchased Sun. We will try to discover if there's a big refactoring or maybe many features were added that can explain the time span between these two releases. In this first part we will focus on design and implementation changes, and the second part will focus on added features and breaking changes. With JavaDepend we can compare two versions and detect any modifications concerning architecture, design or implementation. We can provide a summary of the changes using the following views.

Software Inventory Control Systems

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:45:00 EDT

This article will focus on Software Inventory Control Systems (SICS). Recently, I was asked by Bill Rogers (NH DoIT Commissioner) and Peter Hastings (NH DoIT Director) to take a look at SICS, investigate them and provide a recommendation. When I started this research I knew nothing about SICS. I didn’t understand their value. I ate, slept, and breathed these tools for a period of time so that I could understand their value. I got a good education from some smart folks: individuals in DoIT who were familiar with these products, research from the Internet, testimonials from other users on products, many demos and I inquired into what other states were using. Presently, I am the administrator of SCM AllFusion Harvest. SCM AllFusion Harvest is a process-based Software Configuration Management (SCM) tool for managing application source code. I manage 181 applications housed in SCM AllFusion Harvest and support 122 users using the product. The development tools we currently use are PowerBuilder PBV8, PBV11; Visual Studio 2003, 2005, 2008; Eclipse and Java.

OSGi Application Testing with Tycho

Thu, 19 May 2011 11:00:00 EDT

The OSGi framework is a popular platform for developing multifunctional desktop systems, enterprise systems and complex applications. OSGi uses a modular approach where each bundle is regarded as a relatively independent and separate unit. The framework controls maintenance-based tasks such as managing interactions between bundles, resolving dependencies, and managing lifecycles. Therefore, programmers can reallocate their time with less routine work and concentrate solely on solution development. However, testing such applications is a real problem. It is more demanding than regular Java application testing: there is a need to test interactions between the bundles, and the tests must occur within a real environment. In this case, the test must run inside the OSGi platform; thereby creating the need for specialized test frameworks.

OSGi: An Overview of Its Impact on the Software Lifecycle

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:45:00 EDT

OSGi technology brings a number of much needed benefits to the Java enterprise application market, and is disruptive in that it impacts the software development, deployment, and management practices of many organizations. OSGi impacts deployment given the shared, modular nature of OSGi, meaning application code must be written differently to capitalize on the benefits of OSGi. Equally important, application management processes need to be adjusted, given the highly shared nature of OSGi modules across many applications. This article provides a high-level overview of OSGi, and the impact this framework is having on the software lifecycle.

What's the Difference Between dataSetRow["FIELD"] and row["FIELD"]

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:38:00 EDT

One of the most common questions for people that are new to BIRT is about how to ask data from the DataSet in the report. The question is when building expressions should I use dataSetRow["FIELD"] or row["FIELD"]? So let me see if I can set the record straight. When data is acquired, it is acquired by a DataSet, so the following query in a JDBC DataSet will create a three field resultset.

Managing Persistent Entities with the JPA Persistence Entity Editor

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse allows you to view, create, and manage JPA entity relationships. The Entity Editor provides a centralized view of all entity relationships, allows you to modify entity properties, and allows you to navigate between the object model, mapping associations, and database schema layers. As described previously, the Entity Editor displays relationship diagrams for entities defined in the project.

Developing a Master-Detail View – Part 3

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:45:00 EDT

The JPA ORM Generation wizard allows modification of existing O/R mappings and the creation of new entity associations. The tasks you will complete in this step are: Create a new one-to-one association between CUSTOMER and CUSTOMERID; Review generated classes with annotations; Add annotations to an existing Java class. Create a new one-to-one association between CUSTOMER and CUSTOMERID Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse also supports the creation of new entity associations in case your database lacks foreign key definitions (such as for performance reasons). It can create Simple Associations (one to one, one to many, many to one) between two tables and Many to Many Associations through an intermediate table.

Developing a Master-Detail View

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:30:00 EST

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for creating a Web application that uses the Java Persistence API (JPA) version 2.0 with Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Release 1, Spring, EclipseLink, JavaServer Faces (JSF), and Oracle Database, Express Edition. You will develop this application using Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 11g Release 1, Patchset 1 (11.1.1.3). During the process of creating this application, you’ll also get a sneak peek at planned enhancements to the Eclipse Web Tools Platform. Application Description The Web application you will develop in this tutorial is designed for a company that sells a variety of products. The application will maintain a list of products for sale as well as a list of customers who placed orders (see Figure 1)

Reflections on Java Command Line Options

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:15:00 EST

Abstract

There are many different types of command line options that programs need to recognize. Many languages (e.g.: bash and perl) has built-in processing of command line options; Java does not. The Java Command Line Options (JCLO) package performs this task for a variety of option styles. It also uses Java's reflection capability to automatically assign values to variables in a specified class.

Current Trends in the Data Management Market

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

In an interactive general session that forms part of its Data in Action virtual conference, IBM has really hit the jackpot. It has managed to snag Donald Feinberg, VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, to talk about current trends in the Data Management market. There is a live Q&A session too, and all of it - both the general session and the Q&A - are well worth viewing.

Six Enterprise Megatrends to Watch in 2010

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:45:00 EST

Most enterprise technologists should see a continued payoff of the hard work in planning, architecture, documentation, development and configuration work that has been occurring over the last several years. Enterprise technologists were building Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) long before SOA was over-hyped. And most enterprise technologists I know were investigating constructs of scalable, elastic Cloud [...] Related posts:

Run WFE Open Source BPMS System

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST

Nice to see some initiative on a open source BPMS. Runa WFE is an OpenSource BPMS system, based on JBoss jBPM core. It is a cross-platform end user solution for business process development and execution. More information at – http://sourceforge.net/projects/runawfe

Subclipse: A Subversion Client

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST

Subversion is a stellar open source version control system initiated by CollabNet Inc. It is used in maintaining source code. There are many clients that support subversion, of which I want to introduce a simple Eclipse plugin, Subclipse. Subclipse (http://subversion.tigris.org/)is an Eclipse plugin that was released under Eclipse Public License 1.0 open source license. Subclipse provides an easy and clear technique to perform subversion repository operations. This article illustrates different features supported by Subclipse.

Using Eclipse Memory Analyzers

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:45:00 EST

The garbage collector is primarily responsible as a collector to reclaim objects that are no longer used by the application. This is an automatic memory management invented by McCarthy. The garbage collector collects unreferenced objects, objects that are not reached by the reference chain. The starting point of the analysis is the Garbage Collection Root (GCR), which are objects that are reachable by the VM.

Enterprise Cloud Computing Requires Service-Level Discipline

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST

The Enterprise Cloud Requires a real time infrastructure and a management discipline that understands and can enforce service level discipline. Organizations have become increasingly dependent on technical infrastructure to enable customer interactions. As such, the business has a vested interest in making sure its technology partners understand what constitutes good customer experience so that it’s prepared for projected volumes and rapidly knows how to resolve any impediments.

Trusting Cloud Computing

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST

Trust is an important word in the world of security, and in cloud computing it’s an even bigger deal. Cloud computing offers up the promise that an organizations will be able to run any application from anywhere at any time. But in a multi-tenant environment, a cloud application running in a virtual machine might be located on any number of hosts in a virtualized datacenter, and running next to others’ virtual machines on those hosts.

Lockdown My Tool Stack? You’re Kidding, Right?

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

When I first started asking Eclipse developers about provisioning and lockdown – do we need it, what did they think about it, etc. – several things became clear very quickly. First, there are two distinct camps – people who manage people using Eclipse and people who use Eclipse. The people who manage developers and projects using Eclipse expressed great interest in being able to manage the Eclipse tool stack running on the developers’ desktops.

Using Ext JS, Servlets, JSON, MySQL and Tomcat on Fedora

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

These days the popularity of Ext JS (a JavaScript library) is gaining momentum. One of the most popular widgets within Ext JS is the DataGrid. The reason – displaying data from a database is one of the most common tasks of a web application. “Out of the box” the DataGrid has functionality (for instance ascending or descending sorting and reordering of columns by dragging it) that otherwise would require some effort from developers.

Five Ways to Incorporate CMMI with Agile Methods

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:30:00 EDT

There is a common misconception that CMMI and Agile are polar opposites. One relies on institutionalization and documentation of processes and methodologies, while the other emphasizes interaction among workers and “working software over comprehensive documentation” (Agile Manifesto). Process documentation and institutionalization is the lifeblood of CMMI, and it is often used in critical software development life cycles. On the other hand, the Agile approach is called into action when a project features incremental changes, particularly those that have not been included in initial requirement documents.

Configuring the PHP Version of Eclipse 3.5 RC4

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Step by step instructions to configure Eclipse for PHP with the WampServer on a Windows platform. The most recent version of Eclipse, version 3.5 RC4, is used.

Java Kicks Ruby on Rails in the Butt

Sat, 16 May 2009 22:00:00 EDT

“What would you think if I told you that you can develop a web application at least ten times faster with Rails than you can with a typical Java framework?” Oops! Ten times faster! Well, after these comments I decided to learn Ruby on Rails. I need to know the true key of the productivity and programmer happiness.

JSR Watch: Here’s to Progress

Fri, 15 May 2009 15:00:00 EDT

The end of the year is an opportunity to review the past year’s activity, and to present this to our Executive Committee (EC) members, to our broader membership, and to the general public. So this month I will summarize our progress during the past year. First, in addition to the ongoing work of moving JSRs through the process (more on this later), the JCP engaged in a couple of new initiatives around transparency and agility.

Virtualization Experts in High Demand

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EDT

Those with virtualization skills are in high demand right now. That makes them just as difficult to retain as it is to find and hire them. Indeed, as virtualization becomes more important to enterprise IT, those who understand VMWare, and other virtualization technology, as well as understand virtualization in general, are commanding top salaries and they are often recruited away from current employers.

Engelbart's Usability Dilemma: Efficiency vs Ease-of-Use

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

The mouse was the original idea of Doug Engelbart who was the head of the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute. Engelbart's philosophy is best embodied, in my opinion, in the design of another device that he invented, the five-finger keyboard - with keys like a piano, used by one hand. The problem was, Engelbart's five-finger keyboard and mouse combination was very difficult to learn.

Debugging and Profiling with Eclipse, Jetty, and Tomcat

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:45:00 EDT

This article contains some settings I use for remote debugging web applications using the Jetty and Tomcat containers, and profiling web applications deployed on a remote Tomcat server, using the Eclipse IDE. By remote I mean connecting over a socket, the container can (and does in my case, unless I am connecting from home) listen on a port on the local host.

Embracing Eclipse: An Interview with Kevin Gomes

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:00:00 EDT

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) was founded in 1987 by David Packard. It's located in Moss Landing, California, where its three research ships and two remotely operated vehicles are berthed, giving them immediate access to Monterey Bay. MBARI also operates several autonomous underwater vehicles and maintains moorings offshore, equipped with ocean-monitoring instruments, as well as two moorings in the equatorial Pacific that are part of the NOAA Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array.

Zend Studio for Eclipse

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:00:00 EST

In my many years of programming, almost 20 years now, I have used countless integrated development environments (IDEs). I have used everything from a simple text editor all the way up to the high-end IDEs that Sybase, IBM, and Oracle use. More recently I have come to embrace the open source movement and development in Web environments. My programming language of choice for these days is PHP, so it stands to reason that I would be looking for an IDE. Like so many other developers I followed the path of looking for the pinnacle of IDEs for PHP. I started with basic text editors, moved into text editors with code colorizations, and then into project-based development environments, and finally to a fully robust IDE. The one that I've been using for a few years now is Zend's Studio Professional.

Using Sybase WorkSpace on Eclipse with SQL Anywhere

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:00:00 EDT

This tutorial shows you how to get started with SQL Anywhere using Sybase WorkSpace tools in an Eclipse development environment. It doesn't describe how to code with JDBC or how to code in Java; there are many resources available to assist you with these topics. Rather, this document will help you build a Java project by putting together the required components in the Eclipse IDE. More specifically, this is a step-by-step tutorial that takes you through creating a new Java project and using it with Sybase WorkSpace.

Field Report on the Development of Commercial Plug-ins for Eclipse

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 13:00:00 EDT

The Eclipse runtime underwent a paradigm change in the transition from version 2.1 to 3.0. The OSGi framework specification R3.0 was implemented. Parts of the Public API have changed in version 3.0. Version 3.0 contains a compatibility layer to give plug-ins written for the 2.1 API the ability to run. However, for better performance and extra functionality it is strongly recommended that makers of plug-ins wean themselves as soon as possible from dependency on the compatibility layer.

Commercial Plug-ins for Eclipse: A Field Report on Avoiding Development Pitfalls

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 16:15:00 EDT

As we enter 2006, there's nothing stopping the spread of Eclipse, the open source development environment. The steadily growing number of free and commercial plug-ins available attests to its success. It's now time to report on our experiences in developing the visual rules plug-in for Eclipse. We show you how to steer clear of the pitfalls in development.

SYS-CON Webcast: Eclipse IDE for Students, Useful Eclipse Tips & Tricks

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:30:00 EST

Programmers usually work in a so-called Integrated Development Environment (IDE). You can write, compile and run programs there. An IDE also has a Help thingy that describes all elements of the language, and makes it easier to find and fix errors in your programs. While some IDE programs are expensive, there is an excellent free IDE called Eclipse.

Creating Web Applications with the Eclipse Web Tools Project

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 13:00:00 EST

The Web Tools Project (WTP) by the Eclipse Foundation is a set of open source tools that substantially reduce the time required for the development of Web applications, EJBs, and Web services. The WTP's current version is 0.7.1 and version 1.0 is coming later this year. The framework provides wizards and tools to create EJBs, Web components such as servlets and JSPs, and Web services using the Axis engine. It also provides source editors for HTML, JavaScript, CSS, JSP, SQL, XML, DTD, XSD, and WSDL; graphical editors for XSD, WSDL, J2EE project builders, models, and a J2EE navigator; a Web service wizard, explorer, and WS-I Test Tools; and database access, query tools, and models.

Eclipse: The Story of Web Tools Platform 0.7

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 20:30:00 EDT

The Eclipse Open Source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) (see http://eclipse.org) is rapidly gaining popularity among Java developers primarily because of its excellent Java Development Tools (JDT) and its highly extensible plug-in architecture. Extensibility is, in fact, one of the defining characteristics of Eclipse. As the Eclipse home page says, 'Eclipse is a kind of universal tool platform - an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular.'

JDJ Archives: Eclipse vs NetBeans - "Point/Counterpoint" Special

Sat, 15 Oct 2005 17:00:00 EDT

While NetBeans ain't perfect, far from it, SWT and Eclipse aren't right for Java, says Joseph Ottinger; a position with which Henry Roswell disagrees. Read the first of a new series of 'Point/Counterpoint' discussions...and join the 80+ readers who have already weighed in on one side or other of the debate.

An Exclusive Interview With Mike Milinkovich Of Eclipse Foundation

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:00:00 EDT

First, the importance of adding companies such as BEA, Borland, and Computer Associates to our board cannot be overstated. Each of these companies competes fiercely with IBM in the marketplace. Each is making million dollar plus investments in Eclipse ($250,000 per year in dues, plus a minimum of eight developers). Each did their own analysis as to whether the Eclipse Foundation was truly independent. And each joined.

Setting a Project Based on an Existing ANT Build File

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:00:00 EDT

Two of the cool features in Eclipse 3.1, the ability to set a project based on an existing ANT build file and the ability to export a project settings to an ANT build file, attracted David Heffelfinger. But when he couldn't find any supporting information on the Eclipse web site he experimented for himself. Here he shares the results. http://eclipse.sys-con.com/read/99729.htm

Simplifying Development with Eclipse

Tue, 17 May 2005 00:00:00 EDT

Every IDE will allow you to manage files and build projects. Eclipse goes beyond that by dealing with the code you are writing on a more intimate level than the typical file-centric view embraced by most IDEs. As a developer, you can use that familiarity to your advantage by letting Eclipse do the drudgework of finding, changing, switching, moving, waiting, and just a little bit of writing.

Java Basics: Lesson 11, Java Packages and Imports (Live Video Education)

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EDT

Yakov Fain reaches Lesson 11 in his popular 'Java basics' series. This time he deals with how and why Java programmers working on large projects that have lots of classes usually organize them in different packages; and explores the new element introduced in Java 5.0 called static imports.

"Software Quality Is Finally Going Mainstream," Says Parasoft CEO

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EDT

'Compliance and security are the new Software Quality drivers,' said Dr Adam Kolawa, cofounder and CEO of Parasoft Corporation, talking live on SYS-CON.TV to Sean Rhody, editor-in-chief of Web Services Journal and Yakov Fain, Enterprise Editor of JDJ.

"Mergermania" Isn't Just Back - It's Back With a Vengeance

Sat, 09 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EDT

When in October of last year I asked the rhetorical question 'Is Mergermania Back?' (JDJ, Vol. 9, issue 10), there wasn't much doubt that it already was, but it took until last month to truly demonstrate just to what extent. It's not just back; in March we saw it's back with a vengeance.