Arun Gupta, Miles to go ...

JRuby-on-Rails deployed on GlassFish - Success Story

There are several reasons you may deploy JRuby-on-Rails application on GlassFish:

• Java EE is a long tested deployment platform and GlassFish is Java EE 5 compliant.
• GlassFish "green" deployment model - just create a WAR and dump it in autodeploy directory. Typical Rails deployment requires to spawn multiple Mongrels, front-ended by Apache and then manage them through Capistrano.
• Java EE and Ruby-on-Rails applications can be easily integrated in one container. This allows to host JRuby-on-Rails applications in organization who have already made investment in Java EE.
• GlassFish comes with out-of-the-box clustering and high-availability support. Rails applications can certainly benefit from them.
• GlassFish offers database connection pooling allowing you to reuse your database connections.
• Last, but not the least, JRuby-on-Rails can leverage the extensive set of Java libraries.

Technorati: glassfish netbeans jruby rubyonrails mediacast stories

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[2]

Travel Plans for Q1 2008 - Fairfax, Little Rock, Orlando, Hyderabad, New York, Las Vegas

Here are my tentative travel plans for the next 3 months:

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[1]

Screencast #Web11: Travel Map - Another Real-life app using jMaki & Jersey

In my role of Technology Evangelist, I get the opportunity to meet a lot of community (folks like you :) all around the world. In the year 2007, I represented GlassFish (and related technologies - Metro, jMaki and Jersey) at multiple conferences. This blog introduces a  new real-life application that plots all the places I visited this year on a jMaki-wrapped Google Map widget. Clicking on the marker shows more information about the event such as dates and the blog entry covering the event.

Play the video below to see how the application looks like.

Here is the architecture of this application:

It consists of a server-side and a client-side applications - developed as NetBeans projects.

1. Server-side project - A RESTful Web service endpoint that provides resource represenations for all the events attended and associated meta information such as date and blog URLs. This endpoint is created using Jersey.
2. Client-side project - A jMaki-enabled Web application that consumes the representations generated by the RESTful Web service and plots the information on a jMaki-wrapped Google Map widget.

Both the server-side and client-side are deployed on GlassFish.

This is only a sample application so optimizations are certainly possible and corner cases (such as no blog entry for a particular visit) are not accounted for. But the application still demonstrates the concept. The fully built application looks like as shown below:

My first presentation in this role was Sun Tech Days Atlanta (highlighted in the image). This application generates an interactive Google Map so feel free to zoom in/out and click 

And one last thing before we build the application. Here is the list of technologies and associated concepts used to build this application:

1. Jersey
1. Shows an example of how RESTful Web services can be easily generated from JPA Entity Classes.
2. Shows how all the resource representations (instead of reference to individual resources) can be returned by a Jersey endpoint.
2. jMaki
1. Shows how to consume XML data from an external service (RESTful Web service endpoint) in this case.
2. Shows how the underlying data model of a widget (Google Map in this case) can be accessed and manipulated.
3. GlassFish
1. All the applications are deployed on GlassFish - implicit in the development/deplyment process through seamless integration with NetBeans.
4. NetBeans 6
1. Used for generation of RESTful Web services from JPA Entity Classes.
2. Used for generating/deploying jMaki projects and drag-and-drop of jMaki-wrapped widgets.
5. JavaScript Closures - to persist the state for asynchronous callback functions
6. JavaScript DOM processing - to process the XML data received from Jersey endpoint.
7. Google Maps API
1. Generate meaningful markers on each location
2. Populate Google Map from a RESTful Web service endpoint
8. Java Persistence API - to retrieve data from the database.

And finally, lets build this application. Lets build the RESTful Web service endpoint project first.

1. Create and Populate the Database
1. In the NetBeans IDE, go to Services tab, and connect to the database with URL "jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sample [app on APP]" (right-click and select "Connect...").
2. Right-click on this database and select "Execute Command..." and create a table by giving the following command:
   
   create table EVENTS (id int GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
                    event_name varchar(255),
                    dates varchar(20),
                    venue varchar(255),
                    blogs varchar(2056),
                    PRIMARY KEY (id))
   
   Notice, the "id" column is marked as IDENTITY that instructs the database to auto generate the values for this column and increment by 1 (default) for each row. This column is also marked as the primary key.
3. Again right-click on the database and select "Execute Command..." to add data to the table by giving the following command:

INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('SunTech Days - Atlanta', 'Jan 16 - Jan 17', 'Cobb Galleria Center, Two Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, Georgia, 30339', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/wsit_and_web_2_0');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('jMaki Day', ' Feb 23', '4150 Network Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/sun_internal_jmaki_day_review');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Ajax World - New York', 'Mar 19 - Mar 21', 'The Roosevelt Hotel, 45 E 45th St, New York, NY 10017', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/sun_ajax_world');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('The Server Side Java Symposium - Las Vegas', 'Mar 22', '3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South Las Vegas, NV 89109', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/sun_the_server_side_java, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/tango_at_venetian_las_vegas');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('JavaOne - San Francisco', 'May 7 - May 11', 'Moscone Center, 747 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/slides_for_ts_4865, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/javaone_2007_day_1_finished, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/javaone_2007_day_1, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/javascript_everywhere_javaone_2007_demo, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/excel_using_wsit_javaone_2007, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/ts_4865_takes_two_to, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/communityone_glassfish_day_report, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/javaone_2007_backstage, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/javaone_2007_is_almost_here, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/my_javaone_2007_picks');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Rails Conf - Portland', 'May 17 - May 20', '777 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd. Portland, OR 97232', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/tim_bray_s_keynote_session, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/sun_rails_conf_2007_keep, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/getting_started_with_jruby_tutorial, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jmaki_netbeans_and_glassfish_in');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Google Developer Day - San Jose', 'May 31', '150 W San Carlos St San Jose, CA 95113', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/google_developer_day_report');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Mashup Camp - Mountain View', 'Jul 18 - Jul 19', 'Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jmaki_at_mashup_camp_report, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jmaki_mashup_camp');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('OSCON - Portland', 'Jul 23 - Jul 27', '777 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd. Portland, OR 97232', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jmaki_oscon');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('JRuby Hack Day - San Francisco', 'Aug 8', '1201 8th St, San Francisco, CA 94107', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jruby_on_rails_hackday_report, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/learn_jruby_on_rails_free');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Rich Web Experience - San Jose', 'Sep 6 - Sep 8', '170 S Market St, San Jose, CA 95113', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/the_rich_web_experience_2007, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jmaki_javafx_the_rich_web');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Rails Conf Europe - Berlin', 'Sep 17 - Sep 19', 'Maritim Pro Arte, Friedrichstrasse 151, 10117 Berlin', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/rails_conf_europe_2007_day2, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/rails_conf_europe_2007_day1, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/rails_conf_europe_2007_day, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/jmaki_netbeans_and_glassfish_in1');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Sun Tech Days - Rome', 'Sep 24 - Sep 25', 'Meliá Roma Aurelia Antica, Vía Aldobrandeschi, 223  Rome ITALY  00163', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/netbeans_day_rome_2007, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/travel_tips_to_rome, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_metro_jersey_and_jmaki');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Sun Tech Days - Milan', 'Sep 26 - Sep 28', 'ATA Hotel Quark - Via Lampedusa 11/a 20141 Milano, Italia', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_day_milan_2007');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Mid West Java Tech Days - Minneapolis', 'Oct 16', 'University of St Thomas, MPL 201, 1000 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403-2005', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/mid_west_java_tech_days, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/metro_and_jmaki_in_minneapolis');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Mid West Java Tech Days - Chicago', 'Oct 18', 'Donald E Stephens Convention Center, 9301, W Bryn Mawr Ave, Rosemont IL 60018', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/mid_west_java_tech_days1, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/crowne_plaza_chicago_o_hare, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/metro_and_jmaki_in_minneapolis');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Silicon Valley Code Camp - Los Altos', 'Oct 27', 'Foothill College, Los Altos, CA', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/silicon_valley_code_camp_trip, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/metro_jmaki_silicon_valley_code');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Sun Tech Days - Beijing', 'Nov 1 - Nov 3', 'Beijing International Convention Center, No.8 Beichendong Road Chaoyang District, Beijing', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_day_beijing_2007_by, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/wangfujing_street_authentic_china_in, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/sun_tech_days_beijing_talent, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/sun_tech_days_beijing_day, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/travel_tips_to_beijing, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_day_beijing');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Partner Preso - Toronto', 'Nov 21', 'Toronto City Center', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/metro_jmaki_jruby_glassfish_q');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Partner Preso - Montreal', 'Nov 21', 'Montreal City Center', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/metro_jmaki_jruby_glassfish_q');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('GlassFish - Delhi University', 'Dec 3', 'New Delhi', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_delhi_university');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('FOSS.IN - Bangalore', 'Dec 4', 'India Institute of Science, Bangalore', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/packaging_java_apps_for_ubuntu, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/foss_in_schedules_now_available, http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_foss_in_2007');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Partner Preso - Bangalore', 'Dec 4', 'Bangalore', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_bangalore_chennai_and_pune');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Partner Preso - Chennai', 'Dec 5', 'Chennai', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_bangalore_chennai_and_pune');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Partner Preso - Pune', 'Dec 6', 'Pune', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/glassfish_bangalore_chennai_and_pune');
INSERT INTO EVENTS (event_name, dates, venue, blogs) VALUES('Partner Preso - San Francisco', 'Dec 17', 'San Francisco', 'http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/');
   
   These SQL statements populate the database with details about my visits in 2007. If you'd like to develop a similar application highlighting your visits then you'll need to modify the VALUES clause to match accordingly.
   
2. Create and Configure RESTful Web service endpoint
1. Create a Persistence Unit as described in "Generating Entity Classes from Database" section in Getting Started with RESTful Web Services. Lets say the project name is "WebApplication3", package name is "events" and the table name to generate Entity classes is EVENTS. Take everything else as the defaults.
2. Generate a RESTful Web service as described in "Generating RESTful Web Services from Entity Classes" section in Getting Started with RESTful Web Services.
1. Add a new class EventsList in the events package as:
   
@javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement
public class EventsList {
  @javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement
  protected java.util.List<Events> events;

  public EventsList() {
    if (events == null)
      events = new java.util.ArrayList<Events>();
  }

  public void add(Events name) {
    events.add(name);
  }

  public java.util.List<Events> getValue() {
    return events;
  }
}
2. In service.EventsResource, change the method associated with GET to:
   
   public EventsList get() {
        EventsList eventsList = new EventsList();
        List<Events> list  = PersistenceService.getInstance().createQuery("SELECT e FROM Events e").getResultList();
        for (Events e : list) {
            eventsList.add(e);
        }
        return eventsList;
}

   This will ensure that all the resource representations are returned instead of a reference to the resource. Make sure to fix the imports.

1. In the NetBeans IDE, create a new Web project, enable "Ajax Framework" and choose the "Standard" layout for "index.jsp".  Lets say the project name is "WebApplication4".
2. Drag-and-drop a jMaki-wrapped Google Map widget in the 'Main Content Area' and jMaki-wrapped Yahoo Button in the 'Sidebar Content Here'.
3. Customise the widgets
1. Add id="mymap" attribute to the Google Map widget. The updated widget looks like as shown below:
   
   <a:widget  name="google.map" id="mymap"
         args="{ centerLat : 37.4041960114344,
                 centerLon : -122.008194923401 }" />

id="mymap" will allow the Map widget to be accessed by name later.
2. Add args="{label:'Plot Events'}" attribute to thes Yahoo button widget. The updated widget looks like as shown below:
   
   <a:widget name="yahoo.button" args="{label:'Plot Events'}"/>
4. In glue,js, add the following code to *onClick subscribe method:
   
   var url = jmaki.xhp + "?id=events";
var _map = jmaki.getWidget("mymap").map;
_map.setZoom(2);
_map.clearOverlays();
_map.enableInfoWindow();
   
jmaki.doAjax({method: "GET",
    url: url,
    callback: function(_req) {          
        var xmlobject = (new DOMParser()).parseFromString(_req.responseText, "text/xml");
        var root = xmlobject.getElementsByTagName('eventsList')[0];
        var events = root.getElementsByTagName('events');
        for (var i = 0 ; i < events.length ; i++) {
            var event = events[i];
            var eventName = event.getElementsByTagName('eventName')[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
            var venue = event.getElementsByTagName('venue')[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
            var blogs = event.getElementsByTagName('blogs')[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
            var dates = event.getElementsByTagName('dates')[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
            var id = event.getElementsByTagName('id')[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
               
            var encodedLocation = encodeURIComponent("location=" + venue);
            var url = jmaki.xhp + "?id=yahoogeocoder&urlparams=" + encodedLocation;
            jmaki.myHandler(url, eventName, blogs, dates, id, _map);
        }
    }
});
5. Add the following functions above the *onClick subscribe method:
   
   // "Function closure" used from http://econym.googlepages.com/basic1.htm
// Creates local copy of "marker" and "html" variables to be preserved for later use
function createMarker(point,html) {
    var marker = new GMarker(point);
    GEvent.addListener(marker, "click", function() {
        marker.openInfoWindowHtml(html);
    });
    return marker;
};

// Function closure that preserves "eventName", "blogs", "dates and "id"
// Gets the latitude/longitude from Yahoo Geocoding service and plots them on the map
// Also creates meaningful markers
jmaki.myHandler = function(_url, eventName, blogs, dates, id, _map) {
    jmaki.doAjax({url: _url,
        callback : function(req) {
            if (req.responseText.length > 0) {
                jmaki.log("name: " + eventName);
                var response = eval("(" + req.responseText + ")");
                var coordinates = response.coordinates;
                jmaki.publish("/jmaki/plotmap", coordinates);
                jmaki.log("plotting " + eventName);
                var latlng = new GLatLng(coordinates[0].latitude, coordinates[0].longitude);
               
                var blogHtml = "";
                b = blogs.split(', ');
                for (i=0; i<b.length; i++) {
                    blogHtml += '<a href="' + b[i] + '">' + (i+1) + '</a>';
                    if (i<b.length-1)
                        blogHtml += ", ";
                }
               
                var txt = '<table>' +
                '<tr><td>#' + id + ": " + eventName + '</td></tr>' +
                '<tr>Dates: ' + dates + ', 2007</td></tr>' +
                '<tr><td>Blogs: ' + blogHtml + '</td></tr>' +
                '</table>';
               
                var marker = createMarker(latlng, txt);
                _map.addOverlay(marker);
                marker.openInfoWindowHtml(txt);
            } else {
                jmaki.log("Failed to get coordinates for " + location );
            }
        }
    });   
};
6. Add the following entry in Web Pages, resources, xhp.json:
   
   ,
{"id": "events",
 "url":"http://localhost:8080/WebApplication3/resources/events/"
}
   
   assuming WebApplication3 is the project where RESTful Web service endpoint is hosted.

1. If Jersey can return all the resource representations directly, then the workaround used above may not be required.
2. Use e4x after <script type="text/javascript"> in index.jsp can be generated as <script type="text/javascript; e4x=1">.
3. Build the client-side application using Rails once issue #309 & #310 are resolved.
1. Once deployed as Rails application on WEBrick, create a WAR file and deploy on GlassFish.
2. Try this application using GlassFish v3 gem.
4. Embed Google Map in the blog entry.

Technorati: screencast conf jmaki jersey netbeans glassfish jpa javascript googlemaps restful web2.0 jmakimashups

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[9]

GlassFish @ Delhi University

I presented on GlassFish and related technologies (Metro, JRuby-on-GlassFish and jMaki) at the Department of Computer Science, Delhi University last week. The slides are available here. The talk was very well attended with approximately 120 students and 4 faculty members. The students were pretty excited and had great a interactive session.

Being an alumni of the school (many years ago ;), it was great seeing the new building of the department, meeting the faculty and interacting with the students. I reached there an hour earlier so that I can mingle with the staff and students and it was a lot of fun.

The department faculty proposed to use GlassFish instead of Tomcat for their next semester assignment. I believe this is a great move as it will allow the students to understand the simplicity and power of a great open-source and Java EE 5 compliant Application server.

I initiated the process of recruiting a Campus Ambassador from Delhi University and this will help establish a better relationship between this University and Sun Microsystems.

Here are the questions and answers that were asked during the session:

1. Amongst the different Java training courses, how do I decide which one to pick ?
   
   Sun Learning defines several Learning Paths for different Java technologies (EE, SE, ME, Web Services and Web 2.0). Pick an appropriate learning path depending upon your interest. In addition, Sun Training Catalogue (click on your country) shows different events conducted by Sun Learning in the local geogrpahy.
2. How does Sun make money with GlassFish being open sourced ?
   
   That's true, GlassFish is 100% open-source and totally free to use. The business model for Sun is that of selling support and services:
   • Support subscription starting from $4500 for 4 sockets.
   • Consulting & Training
3. What are the dis-advantages of GlassFish ?
   
   GlassFish provides an open source, production-quality and Java EE 5 compatible application server. It has world class performance ([1], [2]), .NET interoperable Web services stack, out-of-the-box clustering, load balancing and high availability support. However instead of identifying dis-advantages, here are some areas for improvement:
    
   • Feature-wise: The footprint for GlassFish v2 is higher than some non-full JavaEE containers (like Tomcat). This problem will disappear with GlassFish v3 which is small (< 100 kb), fast (starts up < 1 sec) and modular (load only required containers).
   • Ecosystem-wise
     • Community is not as well developed as Tomcat or JBoss because we have not been around as long. However the adoption is continuously increasing.
     • We are not yet as transparent as Tomcat, but we are more transparent than anybody else (including JBoss). Transparency will continue to improve in the future.
     • Our governance is still in transition.
4. Any comparison between NetBeans and Eclipse ?
   
   Why NetBeans ? explains the top reasons to use the NetBeans IDE. Some specific points are:
   • Consistent UI across all platforms where as Eclipse runs best on Windows
   • A friendlier environment for people who are new with links to sample apps and docs accessible from within the IDE.
   • An easy to use website with tons of quality docs and screencasts.

   Here are couple of more links that provide a comparison between the IDEs:

   • Move over Eclipse: NetBeans 6 rocks!
   • NetBeans vs Eclipse: this time with a attitude
5. What are the main features of Ruby as compared to Java ?
   
   A comparison of Ruby and Java is explained in this blog.
6. Why Ruby when there are many other languages ?
   • Ruby is getting popular due to Rails.
   • Ruby-on-Rails very popular among web developers.
   • JRuby is a pretty mature implementation of Ruby in Java, running on JVM and able to use existing Java libraries.
   • Complete deployment story on Solaris -- customer can chose native RoR or JRuby on Rails on GlassFish.
7. What is the difference between Tomcat and GlassFish ?
   
   Tomcat is a Servlet container that can host JSP and Servlets. GlassFish is a Java EE 5 compliant application server that includes implementation for a Web services stack (Metro), EJBs, Java Persistence and many others incuded in the Java EE 5 specification. In addition to this, GlassFish also provides out-of-the-box clustering, high availability and load balancing capabilities that are required for enterprise applications. Read more about Why use GlassFish ?
8. What does Sun offer to students ?
   
   The offerings are described in detail here.
9. What is java.net ?
   
   java.net is a premier web-based, open community created to facilitate Java™ technology collaboration in applied areas of technology and industry solutions. java.net is a central gathering place for Java technology enthusiasts and existing communities across industries, platforms, and interest groups. Read more about java.net in the FAQ.
10. How do I create a brand new jMaki widget ?
    
    This is explained in TOTD #20.
11. What are the main differences between GPL and CDDL ?
    
    A detailed difference between EULA, GPL, CDDL and BSD in terms of copyright and patent rights is explained here.
12. What are the different options of doing a collaborative research in association with Sun Microsystems ?
    
    The Collaborative Research program is explained here.
13. What is the difference between GlassFish v2 and Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 ?
    
    There are three key differences:
    • Commercial Support (more here)
    • Indemnification
    • Sun brand

    The detailed differences are highlighted here.

14. What are the different ways GlassFish can be configured in NetBeans ?
    
    Two ways:
    • If you download a full version of NetBeans IDE then GlassFish comes pre-bundled and is installed for you.
    • You can configure an existing GlassFish installation on your machine in the Services tab. If the Services tab is not visible, then select "Windows" menu item and then "Services". Right-click on "Servers", select "Add Server...", select "GlassFish V2" in the "Choose Server" dialog box. Click on "Next" and follow the instructions.

The complete album is here:

Technorati: conf glassfish webservices metro ruby jruby jmaki web2.0 delhiuniversity delhi netbeans q&a

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[3]

GlassFish @ Bangalore, Chennai and Pune - Metro, jMaki & JRuby

I presented on GlassFish and other related technologies (Metro, jMaki and JRuby) in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune last week. The slides used during the preso are here. And here is the list of questions (along with answers) for you:

1. What does WSIT offer ?
   
   WSIT stands for Web Services Interoperability Technology. It is a component of Metro - the Web services stack in GlassFish. WSIT specifically provides support for Security, Reliability, Transactions and interoperability with .NET 3.0. A number of screencasts are available to get you started with Metro and enable all the enterprise features mentioned using NetBeans IDE.

2. Is Metro plugin available for NetBeans version < 6.0 ?
   
   Yes, Metro plugin is available for NetBeans 5.5.1. This is clearly explained in screencast #ws4. NetBeans 6.0 is now released and is the recommended version of the IDE.

3. How do I use LDAP for authentication while using Metro based web service (with Security Token Service) interoperating with .NET web service?
   
   Security Token Service (STS) can be configured for LDAP authentication. STS service end can be protected with Sun Java System Access Manager web service agent (JSR 196 plugin). It can validate and authenticate the incoming user name token (username / password) against configured LDAP store at STS service side (when Access Manager is hosted as STS) and then issue the corresponding SAML token. You could also write AuthenticationValidator plugin to STS service, that can access and validate incoming username / password against Access Manager LDAP store using Access Manager Client SDK.
4. Do Metro support Kerberos?
   
   Metro 1.0 does not support Kerberos. However the latest nightly builds of Metro provide Kerberos support.
5. I want to contribute to GlassFish. Which areas can I contribute?
   
   Yes, GlassFish is 100% open source and encourage committers. Some of the ideas are available here. Please feel free to suggest any contributions at dev@glassfish.dev.java.net.
6. What Ruby features are getting into Java language?
   
   If Java closures proposal is accepted then that will be a Ruby feature.
7. Does jMaki take care of browsing history ?
   
   jMaki does not support browser history yet but this feature will be made available as an extension in the near future.
8. Is jMaki extensible ?
   
   Yes, read how jMaki framework can be extended as explained here.
9. What is the performance impact of using jMaki ?
   
   jMaki.js is the initialization script (18kb) for jMaki that is loaded when the web application is loaded. This script provides multiple features, included but not limited to:
   • support for common event model between widgets from multiple toolkits (using publish/subscribe)
   • Dynamic Container at component level - allows to resize the component within <div> and iframe
   • doAjax call (allows to asynchronously invoke services from back end)
   • JSON.serialize (serializes JavaScript objects to JSON)
   • inspect (2-level deep inspection of object)
   • logger & debugging (log all publish/subscribe events and other messages to enable debugging)
   • namespace API  (allows to namespace all the widgets for clean separation)

   The jMaki wrapper is a minimal code that needs to be written anyway to invoke the code anyway so there is no additional overhead there.

10. Is Comet supported in GlassFish/jMaki?
    
    Yes, read about Comet support in GlassFish The Grizzly Comet and Writing a Comet application using GlassFish. Also try a simple sample that demonstrates how jMaki and Comet (read the explanation) work nicely with each other.

11. Can GlassFish deploy EJB 2.0 apps ?
    
    GlassFish is Java EE 5 compliant which maintains backwards compatibility with J2EE 1.4 and so EJB 2.0 applications can be deployed.

12. Do GlassFish support Active and Passive cluster ?
    
    In GlassFish the cluster instances talk to each other for health monitoring through GMS (of Shoal). The buddy instances talk to each other for replication of the session state. When a failure is detected the LoadBalancer can failover the request to any instance in the cluster. The session in question will be fetched from a replica to this instance in order to continue the conversational state of the session. In this sense, we have an active cluster.
    
    GlassFish does not have a concept of a standby or passive cluster which will take over when an active cluster fails altogether. That is usually considered a high cost approach for redundancy and not advisable. 
    
    Read more discussion here.

13. Can we add a Metro Web service wrapper be created around EJB 2.0 ?
    
    Nope, Metro Web service wrapper can be created around EJB 3.0 only.

14. How can an application deployed on WebLogic be migrated to GlassFish ?
    
    Migrate2GlassFish helps automate the migration of J2EE/Java EE applications to GlassFish.

15. Can Entity beans be configured only as read-only beans - caching server for these beans ?
    
    Yes, read about the characteristics, good practices, how to deploy and refresh read-only beans.

16. How can jMaki applications run behind the firewall ?
    
    Add the following Servlet parameters to web.xml:
    
    <context-param>
  <param-name>proxyHost</param-name>
  <param-value>PROXY_HOST</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
  <param-name>proxyPort</param-name>
  <param-value>PROXY_PORT</param-value>
</context-param>
    
    This is described in detail at https://ajax.dev.java.net/xmlhttpproxy.html.

Technorati: conf webservices web2.0 ruby jruby projecmetro glassfish netbeans q&a

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[7]

TOTD #20: How to create a new jMaki widget ?

This TOTD explains how to create a new jMaki widget and make it available in the NetBeans palette.

In order to create a jMaki widget, it's important to understand the jMaki Widget Model.

Basically, "component.htm", "component.js" and an optional "component.css" together make a jMaki widget.

Here are the files for a Hello World widget that takes an argument, concatenates it with the string "Hello" and displays the result on the page.

component.htm

component.js

component.css

The following files are required if you like to package your component as a reusable widget library in the NetBeans IDE:

hello.jsp

Bundle.properties (top-level)

Bundle.properties (templates)

widget.json

Package these files together in the following directory structure (choose any zip file name):

And then you zip up these files together, that's it! Now this zip file can be added to the jMaki palette in the NetBeans IDE as shown here. Really simple!

After the widget is added to NetBeans palette, it looks like as shown below:

Now, just like any other jMaki widget, you can drag-and-drop "Hello" from the jMaki palette in your JSP page and the following code fragment is generated:

<a:widget name="hello" args="{name: 'Duke'}" />

After the application is deployed, the page is rendered in the browser as shown below:

Couple of points ...

1. Templates for other languages such as Ruby or PHP can be added in the templates directory. This enables drag-and-drop of your widget in those languages as well.
2. It's important to maintain the case sensitivity of the property names in Bundle.properties otherwise they will not be recognized.

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD that you'd like to see. A complete archive is available here.

Technorati: totd jmaki web2.0 widgets ajax netbeans

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[12]

Metro, jMaki & JRuby/GlassFish Q&A from a Preso - Toronto & Montreal

I presented on Metro, jMaki and JRuby-on-GlassFish at a partner meeting on Nov 21 in Toronto and Montreal (yeah, both cities in the same day). That makes it 3 cities (the first one being Seattle) total for now!

I've given multiple talks all over the world to different types of audience but this was my first experience in terms of talking for 3 hours in the morning, flying to another city and then repeating the sessions. GlassFish (both v2 and v3), NetBeans IDE and Windows Vista behaved properly through all the demos. And my talks are typically demo intensive so it was fun! I enjoyed the overall experience (talking, demos, flying) :)

As always, the fun part was interaction with the audience and I always learn something new every time. And, in order to share the knowledge with you, here is the consolidated list of questions from both the cities:

1. How much Ajax/jMaki support is available in Portal ?
   
   The Portal Pack plugin for NetBeans can support JMaki 1.0 for building JSR 168 or JSR 286 portlets that use jMaki widgets. There is no other explicit support on the Portal server for JMaki.
   
   The portlets using jMaki widgets can be deployed on the Sun Portal Server and they should work without any issues. The only catch is that a slight configuration is required to get these portlets to work with the Portal's Ajax container. This is to work around the cross-domain Ajax restrictions of the browser.
2. What is the frequency of adding wrappers of newer version of toolkits, specifically Dojo toolkit ? Can I add/create the wrappers myself ?
   
   Frequency depends on the toolkits. Dojo revs about every 6 months with the first major rev just last month. Anyone can create and add wrappers to the palette in NetBeans as explained here. Adding to Eclipse is on a per-web app basis and it will be enabled on palette-basis in the near future.
3. What level of browser support is available for jMaki, especially for the ones that are not mainstream ?
   
   Here is the list of supported browsers from jMaki's website:
   • IE 6 and 7 on Windows XP and Vista
   • Firefox 1.5 and 2.x on Solaris, Linux, Windows XP/Vista
   • Safari 2.x and Firefox 1.5 on Mac OS
   
   Unofficially jMaki runs on:
   • iPhone
   • Opera 9.2+
   • Opera Mobile
   • Older versions of Netscape

   Although the jmaki framework will work on these browsers some widgets may not work (such as those that use SVG) depending on the browser.

4. When will a .NET version of jMaki be available ?
   
   If the demand is great we will be more than happy to work to make a version available. The greater the demand the sooner we could do this. If there is interest in the developer community on starting work on a .NET version we could accelerate this process. Please file an RFE if you are interested.
5. Can the jMaki widgets be rendered to Flash ?
   
   Absolutely. We previously used some Flash Yahoo Maps and we use Flash for Sound. We are looking at having more media based widgets and it's only a matter of hours in the day that are slowing us down.
6. Does jMaki work with Ajax4J and DWR ?
    
   jMaki works fine with DWR find a sample app here:
     https://ajax.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=6977&expandFolder=6977&folderID=0
   
   As for Ajax4JSF (Ajax4J seems to not be active) we should work fine as jMaki widgets can be exposed as fully qualified JSF 1.1 or dynamic faces components. We also work with Facelets (see the jMaki samples for more).

And now for the Metro session:

1. Is there any tooling for adding Security, Reliability and Transactions for Contract-First development ?
   
   Yes, this is explained here.
2. Can the apps using JDK 1.4 as the deployment environment use any of the Metro capabilities ?
   
   Yes and No :) No because Metro programming model uses annotations heavily and that feature is available in Java SE 5 onwards. Yes because once the production environment is upgraded to Java SE 5 (it should work because of backwards compatibility, always good to check though ;) then you can develop your applications using the JDK 1.4 and deploy them on the upgraded production environment.
3. How the Web service messages generated by Metro be logged ?
   
   The different options to log Web service messages in Metro are explained here.
    

And finally for the JRuby-on-GlassFish session:

1. Other than simplicity and productivity, why should I use JRuby or Ruby at all ?
   
   Rails is the main reason for Ruby to gain popularity. And JRuby provides the simplicity of Ruby along with power of Java libraries.
2. Can the number of JRuby instances created by GlassFish be configured ?
   
   Yes, it can be configured as defined here.
3. With JRuby 1.0.2, there are significant performance differences between Ruby, Java and JRuby. What is being done to address that ?
   
   The recent releases of JRuby are much more better performing so it's recommended to use a more recent release. And with some JRuby Performance Tweaks the performance is at par with C Ruby (MRI). Also see JRuby on Rails Fast Enough for performance benchmark results.

Feel free to ask any other questions in Metro Forum and jMaki Forum or GlassFish forum or JRuby user list.

Technorati: conf webservices metro jmaki glassfish jrubyonglassfish ruby jruby netbeans web2.0 q&a

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[0]

Metro and jMaki Q&A from a Preso

I presented on Metro and jMaki in a invitation-only gathering on Nov 15. The audience in both the sessions was pretty interactive. Even though the sessions were invitation-only, I'm posting some of the questions asked during the sessions along with their answers.

1. How to build support for jMaki in other languages such as Perl ?
   
   The best option is to check out jMaki workspace and look at Jmaki.php and XmlHttpProxy.php.
   
   The basics are relatively easy but not always obvious. There is no runtime spec so it's hard to get all the little details right: Theming, API keys, and the Proxy behavior are pretty specific. Please feel free to ask a question on jMaki Forums. It would be helpful if you can help us create such a document while adding support for Perl.
2. Is it possible to point a DataTable widget to a Database table, introspect the database table and auto-generate the rows/columns ?
   
   Java Persistence API (in Java) and ActiveRecord (in Rails) already serve this purpose. There are detailed instructions for jMaki/JPA and jMaki/ActiveRecord. At this time there are no plans to tie closely to the database. Please file an RFE if you like this feature.
3. Do we have any comparisons between jMaki and Open Laszlo ?
    
   We need to understand Open Laszlo better to prepare a comparison. At this time no comparison is available.
4. How are topics implemented ? What is the data structure that implements them ?
    
   The topic name is a String / Regular expression Object. The topic names can also include wildcards (start, include, end with a *). The payload must be an object (strings are objects). https://ajax.dev.java.net/publishsubscribe.html provides some more details.
5. Do we have any performance data on large data sets - e.g. 15,000 rows in a Data Table widget ?
   
   Carla has a good sample that explains how pagination can be achieved for large data sets. The real question is "how much can you realistically cache on the client?". There are lots of algorithms and that can be more application logic. If you are going to deal with sets like this then the Dojo Grid is supposed to be good as it handles client-side caching and paging. We'll be adding it as a widget for the dojo 1.0 push.
6. Are there any widgets that support streaming video ?
   
   Not yet but it would be very easy to wrap a widget like that. For example, please look at Sound extension that is available as wrapper over Flash.
7. How to prevent scripting attack on jMaki-wrapped widgets ?
   
   jMaki wrappers are very trivial. The data from an external domain is not processed in any manner and instead passed on to the underlying toolkits. We make sure the wrappers are well tested and rely on the underlying toolkits to test their widgets.

And now for the Metro session:

1. How more recent Metro jars be installed on GlassFish ?
   
   A stand-alone build of Metro can be downloaded from metro.dev.java.net. This build comes with wsit-on-glassfish.xml script and can be used to override the jars in an existing GlassFish v2 installation.
2. Why Reliable Messaging is required if TCP/IP already provides reliability ?
   
   TCP/IP provides reliability at the network level. The Reliable Messaging support in Metro implements a transport-independent messaging protocol (defined by the WS-Reliable Messaging spec) with a SOAP Binding. This allows the SOAP message to be used in alternate transports such as JMS or SMTP. It also enables Reliability between a Client and Endpoint with multiple intermediaries in-between which is not possible with TCP/IP.
3. Is the "Test Web service" feature available outside NetBeans ?
   
   The "Test Web service" feature in NetBeans makes use of Tester application in GlassFish. It is a web application that dynamically generates the JSP pages by introspecting the WSDL. Currently it only works only for methods that have primitive types in the signature.
4. What would it take to run Metro on Embedded Jetty ?
   
   Servlet-based endpoints can be easily deployed on Jetty as explained here. The different variants of Endpoint.publish() currently runs only on Light-weight HTTP server bundled along with Java SE 6. An RFE has already been filed for this functionality and it will be fixed in a future release of Metro.
5. Does Metro Security integrate with Active Directory ?
   
   Even though Metro Security cannot be directly integrated with ActiveDirectory, Authentication can be plugged through the integration of Metro with OpenSSO.
6. What specific performance improvements have we made in Metro ?
   
   Here are some of the key performance improvements:
   • Revisited some of the key abstractions. The physical data representation was hidden from the user and yet backed by different implementations such as InputStream, JAXB objects, DOM node, Source, etc.
   • Faster, type-safe read access to commonly used properties such as Target Endpoint Address and SOAPAction. Also lazy reading.
   • Headers are made randomly accessible.
   • Filtering of data was enabled by creating an additional wrapper instead and delaying the actual filtering
   • Mostly JAXB is used to write the JAX-WS payload. There were numerous improvements made in JAXB such as:
     • Collapsing the layers and write directly to OutputStream instead of using StAX.
     • Pre-encode tag names to UTF-8
     • Numbers are converted straight to byte stream
     • Namespace prefixes encoded just once and reused
     • Lazy reading and writing of attachments (for example image is encoded in to JPEG byte stream)

   Metro team also presented a BoF 2526 on these improvements at JavaOne 2006.

7. How much traffic is bloated because of enabling Reliability or Security ?
   
   There is a definite bloating of messages that happen when either Reliability or Security or Transactions are enabled. I'll provide the exact numbers in a later blog but all the messages are clearly defined by the existing specifications.

Feel free to ask any other questions in Metro Forum and jMaki Forum.

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Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[1]

Screencast #Web10: CRUD using jMaki and JPA

This screencast shows how to create a simple jMaki application, using NetBeans IDE, that performs some of the CRUD operations on a Data Table widget. It uses Java Persistence API (JPA) to connect to the database and the application is deployed on GlassFish. The rest of the CRUD operations can be easily built using the same methodology. The steps followed in this screencast are also described in detail. Enjoy it here!

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Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[3]

Sun Tech Days Beijing - Day 1 Report

1500 developers kick started 10th anniversary Tech Day event at the Beijing International Convention Center earlier today.

Joey Shen, Angela Caicedo, Doris Chen and Chuk Munn Lee demonstrated Swing/Java2D, Sun SPOTs, jMaki and JavaFX demo respectively as part of the demo showcase. All the demos were really good and showcased different technologies from Sun. I personally liked Sun SPOT demo which showcased how Robosapiens can be easily controlled using the JVM. It very well resonated with "Internet of Things" that Lionel Kim (President Greater China and COO APAC Sun Microsystems) mentioned in his keynote earlier in the morning.

According to Lionel, there are three factors driving global innovation:

• Web.next - The key point here is that currently the major producer/consumer of content on the Internet are people. But very soon it'll be an Internet of things where different "things" are interacting on the Web fueled by all the innovations happening in Web.next.
• Age of the startups - Facebook valued at $ 15 billion has already changed the current landscape and similar companies are going to drive the needs for next generation.

• Rise of communities - Time magazine awarded YOU (community) as Person of The Year award for 2006. And that indeed is the most important factor in driving innovation.

Carla provided a great coverage of Jim Hughes keynote (during which I was busy with local translators for my upcoming session :) This is the 10th anniversary year of Tech Days and we celebrated by cutting a birthday cake. There is lot of backstage work (audio, video, rehearsal, logistics and all sort of things) that often goes unnoticed and some of the photographs below highlight that work.

Right after the keynote, I gave a talk on "Java EE5, GlassFish and Their Future" and the slides are available here. It was great talking about GlassFish to a 560 capacity room full of audience. Leon showed a demo of localized version of GlassFish and how it can be configured in a clustered environment. Jim Jiang offered to give away 10 copies of his recently published book on GlassFish. You can order it online here. Jim Jiang and Wang Yu are the primary authors with content contributed from Jason Huang, Ada Li, Liang Ye and Evrin Yan. It was great meeting most of these individuals face-to-face. If you missed being one of the lucky winners of the book, then attend GlassFish Day on Saturday, Nov 3 and there will be many more copies distributed.

I also attended Chuk's talk on Metro and REST. He really presented the concept very well and it was fun seeing somebody else present Metro :)

I spent rest of the day talking to people on the GlassFish booth. Once again, Jim Jiang helped me connect with the local audience. I'll prepare a summary of the  questions and then provide answers to them in a subsequent blog. In the meanwhile, here are some links for you to get started:

• GlassFish Multi-lingual download
• TheAquarium in Chinese
• GlassFish Forum

The evening ended with Yanjing Beer and Beijing Duck dinner. And as always, enjoy the pictures from through out the day:

Follow the complete coverage in Sun Tech Days Event blog.

Technorati: conf suntechdays metro webservices jmaki web2.0 glassfish netbeans beijing

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[0]

Silicon Valley Code Camp Trip Report

Rama and I presented on Metro and jMaki in Silicon Valley Code Camp last Saturday. Here are the pictures

It was good to meet Peter Kellner (SVCC Orgaznier, Aaron Houston (Program Coordinator for JUGs), Van Riper (Silicon Valley JUG Founder), Kevin Nelson (Silicon Valley Web JUG Founder), Juval Lowy (of iDesign) and many others.

And here is a recap of the question/answers asked during the two sessions:

• Takes 2 Tango: Java and .NET Interoperability
  • Are slides available ?
    
    Yes, very well. They are available here. A link to the demos shown in the talk is available at:
     
    • Excel 2007 (source code, screencast)
    • NetBeans 6 screencast demo (screencast)

  • There are changed signatures when using JAX-WS 2.1.3 with JDK 6. How does it work ?
    
    JDK 6 U3 contains JAX-WS 2.0 APIs. JAX-WS 2.1.x contains JAX-WS 2.1 APIs. In order to override the default APIs, the endorsed directory mechanism needs as explained here.

  • How can I send PDF files in SOAP messages ?
    
    Metro implements MTOM/XOP that allows to send any form of binary attachments (including PDF).
  • How do I achieve higher performance in Web services messages ?
    
    Metro is a high-performance stack. It can be further boosted by using FastInfoset that uses standard binary encoding for the XML Infoset.
  • How does a client know the request expects a String or Integer ?
    
    The JAXB specification defines Java-to-XML and XML-to-Java mapping. JAX-WS uses JAXB for mapping of all XML schema to Java constructs..
• jMaki: Multiple Languages, Multiple Toolkits
  • Are slides available ?
    
    Yes, very well. They are available here. A link to the demos shown in the talk is available at:
     
    • jMaki Maps mashup
    • jMaki on Rails
    • Sun Tech Days
  • How can the messages in jMaki be localized ?
    
    Client-side localization is achieved using JSON on the client and is described here. Server-side localization will use property files and will be delivered in the next release.
  • What part of Flash is supported ?
    
    Flash can be wrapped and the only example we have is jMaki sound. In general, jMaki strives to be 100% plug-in free.
  • How much support is available in Eclipse ?
    
    The jMaki plugin for Eclipse is available here. A detailed screencast showing all the steps clearly is available here.
  • Why do we use embedded JavaScript instead of keeping it in a separate .js file ?
    
    Even though jMaki does not promote embedded JavaScript, but in this case we have to use it to get the correct JavaScript parameters in. There is easy way in a platform neutral way around this to allow for multiple calls back to the server. There is a complicated alternative that requires more steps and that's why not followed.
  • Can custom layouts be used for index.jsp ?
    
    Yes, jMaki layouts are CSS-based and can be replaced with any standard CSS.
  • How much drag/drop support is available in NetBeans/PHP ?
    
    NetBeans PHP support is available in Daily Build. Once PHP support is baked, jMaki modules will be made available.
  • What are minimum browser requirements for jMaki ?
    
    jMaki runs on all current generation of browsers as mentioned here.Here is the list:
     
    • IE 6 and 7 on Windows XP and Vista
    • Firefox 1.5 and 2.x on Solaris, Linux, Windows XP/Vista
    • Safari 2.x and Firefox 1.5 on Mac OS X
  • Can jMaki CSS layouts be used instead of Rails layouts ?
    
    This functionality is not available in jMaki 1.0. However you can create a Stylized RHTML using jMaki CSS layouts.

Next stop, GlassFish Day @ Beijing.

Technorati: conf siliconvalleycodecamp metro webservices interoperability jmaki web2.0 glassfish netbeans

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[2]

Metro & jMaki @ Silicon Valley Code Camp - FREE event on Oct 27 & 28

	Metro (Takes 2 to Tango: Java Web services and .NET interoperability)	Room 4306	Saturday (10/27)	11:15am
	jMaki: Multiple Languages, Multiple Toolkits	Room 4204	Saturday (10/27)	1:45pm

Venue: Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA

In the first session (Metro), I'll show how Metro enables interoperability with .NET 3.0 platform. The talk shows how a Secure and Reliable Web service deployed on GlassFish V2 can be invoked from Excel 2007 spreadsheet. It also shows how such a Web service can be easily built using NetBeans 6 IDE.

The second talk explains how jMaki provides a light-weight framework to build Ajax-enabled applications using standard practices and using the best toolkits and libraries. Using multiple demos, it shows how this framework spans multiple languages.

Aaron promised to distribute some nice goodies if you attend these two talks :)

Technorati: conf siliconvalleycodecamp metro webservices interoperability jmaki web2.0 glassfish netbeans

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[6]

Web 2 Summit - Cool Applications on Industry-grade Operating System

Sun Microsystems is a gold sponsor of Web 2 Summit (nee Web 2.0 Conference). Registration to this conference by invitation only. If you are an attendee, here is one session that you don't want to miss: Betting on OpenSolaris for Success

In this session, Sun Chief OS Platform Strategist Ian Murdock, Joyent CTO Jason Hoffman and Director of Systems Ben Rockwood will show that the latest innovations in operating system technology are happening in OpenSolaris and will explore how even though the OS is invisible to developers much of the time, it very much still matters for writing cool "Web 2.0" applications.

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Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[1]

Dilbert: Web 2.0 or 1.0 ?

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Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[1]

Screencast #Web7: Creating Mashups with jMaki - A real-life RIA using jMaki (Sun Tech Days Event Map)

Sun Microsystems kicks off 2007-2008 Tech Days and marks the 10th anniversary of the developer event. This blog celebrates the decade by announcing "Sun Tech Days Event Map" - a real-life RIA created using jMaki. It allows you to choose the date on a web page using a rich calendar widget, shows the city where Sun Tech Days event is happening during that month and then shows that city location in a map. Play the video below to see how the application looks like:

This application shows several concepts of jMaki:

1. Widgets from different toolkits (Dojo Combobox, Yahoo Calendar and Google Map in this case) co-located on the same page
2. Multiple widgets from different toolkits communicate with each other using the publish/subscribe mechanism & Actions (and here)
3. Populate widgets by accessing services from the backend
4. Using Java Persistence API to return the data understood by jMaki widgets

This application is built using NetBeans IDE 5.5.1, jMaki 0.9.7.3 and deployed on GlassFish RC4. Let's get started.

1. In the NetBeans IDE, create a new project
   1. Right-click in Projects window, select "Web" in "Categories" and "Web application" in "Projects". Click on "Next >".
   2. Enter the project name as "SunTechDays" and choose GlassFish as the "Server" and take all other values default. Click on "Next >".
   3. Select "jMaki Ajax Framework" and choose "Two Fixed Right Sidebars" layout.
   4. Click on "Finish".
2. Add the following widgets in the generated "index.jsp"
   1. Replace "Top Right Column" by dragging-and-dropping "Dojo Combobox".
   2. Replace "Right Column" with "Yahoo Calendar".
   3. Replace "Left Column" with a "Google Map".
3. Create and populate the database
   1. In the NetBeans IDE, go to "Runtime" tab, expand "Databases", right-select the node with the value "jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/sample" and select "Connect".
   2. Enter both username and password as "app".
   3. Right-select the database and select "Execute Command...". Create the table using the following SQL
      
      create table TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE (startDate date,
                                endDate date,
                                location varchar(255),
                                PRIMARY KEY (startDate, endDate))
   4. Populate the database for Sun Tech Days 2007-2008 schedule using the following SQL
      
      INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('9/11/2007', '9/12/2007', 'Boston, United States');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('9/24/2007', '9/25/2007', 'Rome, Italy');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('9/26/2007', '9/28/2007', 'Milan, Italy');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('10/19/2007', '10/19/2007', 'Taipei, Taiwan');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('10/23/2007', '10/25/2007', 'Shanghai, China');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('11/1/2007', '11/3/2007', 'Beijing, China');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('11/6/2007', '11/8/2007', 'Tokyo, Japan');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('12/3/2007', '12/5/2007', 'Frankfurt, Germany');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('1/9/2008', '1/10/2008', 'Atlanta, United States');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('2/27/2008', '2/29/2008', 'Bangalore, India');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('3/4/2008', '3/6/2008', 'Sydney, Australia');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('3/11/2008', '3/13/2008', 'Johannesburg, South Africa');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('4/1/2008', '4/1/2008', 'St Petersburg, Russia');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('4/1/2008', '5/1/2008', 'Manila, Philippines');
INSERT INTO TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE VALUES ('5/21/2008', '5/23/2008', 'Mexico City, Mexico');
4. Create a Persistence Unit
   1. In the NetBeans IDE, right-select the project, click on "New", "Entity Classes from Database...".
   2. In the "New Entity Classes from Database" dialog window, choose "Data Source" and select "jdbc/sample" value.
   3. All the available tables are shown in "Available Tables". Select "TECHDAYS_SCHEDULE" and click on "Add >".
   4. Click on "Next >".
   5. Enter the package name as "suntech".
   6. Click on "Create Persistence Unit...".
   7. In "Create Persistence Unit..." dialog window take all the default values and click on "Create".
   8. Click on "Finish".
   9. Expand "Configuration Files", open "persistence.xml", click on "Add Class", click "Cancel", click on "Add Class" again and now select "suntech.TechdaysSchedule" and click on "OK".
   10. Expand "Source Packages", "suntech" node and open "TechdaysSchedule.java".
   11. Add the following NamedQuery to the class. Copy/paste the fragment as the first line in "@NamedQueries" annotation.
       
       @NamedQuery(name = "TechdaysSchedule.findByMonth", query = "SELECT t FROM TechdaysSchedule t WHERE t.techdaysSchedulePK.startdate >= :firstdate and t.techdaysSchedulePK.enddate <= :lastdate"),
5. Configure the widgets
   1. Expand "Web Pages", open "glue.js" and add the following code at the end of the file:
      
      jmaki.subscribe("/yahoo/calendar/onSelect", function(args) {
  var newDate;
  if (typeof args.value == "undefined") {
    var tempDate = new Date();
    newDate = (tempDate.getMonth()+1) + "/" + tempDate.getDate() + "/" + tempDate.getFullYear();
  } else {
    var str = "" + args.value;
    newDate = str.split(" ")[1] + "/" + str.split(" ")[2] + "/" + str.split(" ")[3];
  }

  jmaki.doAjax({method: "POST",
      url: "data.jsp?date=" + encodeURIComponent(newDate),
      callback: function(_req) {
        var tmp = _req.responseText;
        var obj = eval("(" + tmp + ")");
        jmaki.log("tmp "+ obj);
        jmaki.publish('/dojo/combobox/setValues', obj);
        // handle any errors
      }
  });
});

jmaki.subscribe("/dojo/combobox/onSelect", function(item) {
  var location = item.value.split(',')[0] + ", " + item.value.split(',')[1];
  var start = item.value.indexOf('(');
  var stop = item.value.lastIndexOf(')');
  var encodedLocation = encodeURIComponent("location=" + location);
  // jmaki.xhp is provided as part of jmaki and maps to the XMLHttpProxy
  var url = jmaki.xhp + "?id=yahoogeocoder&urlparams=" + encodedLocation;
  jmaki.doAjax({url: url, callback : function(req) {
    if (req.responseText.length > 0) {
      // convert the response to an object
      var response = eval("(" + req.responseText + ")");
      var coordinates = response.coordinates;
      v = {results:coordinates};
      jmaki.publish("/jmaki/plotmap", coordinates);
    } else {
      jmaki.log("Failed to get coordinates for " + location );
    }
  }
  });
});
6. Configure widgets on the page
   1. Change the Dojo Combobox generated fragment with
      
      <a:widget name="dojo.combobox" service="data.jsp"/>
   2. Right-select the project, select "New" and then "JSP..." using the name "data". Notice, the IDE automatically picks up the file extension.
   3. Replace the generated template code with the following. This code reads a parameter, parses it into a Date, queries the database using the PersistenceUnit created above and return the result in JSON format.
      
      <%@ page import="java.util.*" %>
<%@ page import="suntech.*" %>
<%@ page import="javax.persistence.*" %>
<%@ page import="java.text.SimpleDateFormat" %>

<%
  String dateParam = request.getParameter("date");
  Date date = null;
  if (dateParam == null || "".equals(dateParam))
    date = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
  else {
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM/dd/yyyy");
    date = sdf.parse(dateParam);
  }
  EntityManagerFactory emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("SunTechDaysPU");
  EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();

  Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
  cal.setTime(date);

  cal.set(Calendar.DATE, 1);
  Date firstDateOfMonth = cal.getTime();

  cal.set(Calendar.DATE, cal.getActualMaximum(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH));
  Date lastDateOfMonth = cal.getTime();

  List<TechdaysSchedule> list = em.createNamedQuery("TechdaysSchedule.findByMonth").
        setParameter("firstdate", firstDateOfMonth).
        setParameter("lastdate", lastDateOfMonth).
        getResultList();
 
  out.println("[");

  boolean first = true;
  int count = 0;
  SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy");
  for (TechdaysSchedule t : list) {
    StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();

    buf.append(sdf.format(t.getTechdaysSchedulePK().getStartdate()));
    buf.append(" - ");
    buf.append(sdf.format(t.getTechdaysSchedulePK().getEnddate()));

    String city = t.getLocation() + ", (" + buf.toString() + ")";
    out.println("{");
    out.println("name: \"" + t.getLocation() + "\", ");
    out.println("label: \"" + city + "\", ");
    out.println("value: \"" + city + "\"");
    if (first) {
      out.println(", selected: " + true);
      first = false;
    }
    out.println("}");
    if (count++ < list.size()-1)
      out.println(",");
  }

  out.println("]");
%>

And that's it!

Carla and I conceived this application together and Greg and  helped with gluing the widgets.

Here are some potential fun improvements:

1. Instead of randomly selecting a date and then using it's month for populating the combo box, tap the event published (if any) for changing month in the calendar widget.
2. The database structure can be manipulated to include hotel information and provide more meaningful information.
3. The dates may be shown in the bubble displayed in the map.
4. Restaurant recommendations may be pulled from another service and shown for the event attendees.

Technorati: jmaki netbeans glassfish suntechdays jpa screencast web2.0

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[14]