Mark A. Basler's Weblog

Monday February 06, 2006

AJAX enabled Java Server Faces (JSF) Components now available...

A new version of the early access EE5 Java Blueprints Solutions Catalog that includes numerous AJAX enabled JSF components has just been released . These components can be deployed on Glassfish, Sun's open source application server. The catalog contains some very useful components that can be used right out of the box by just including the jar (ui.jar) in your distribution.

One component that I wish was more widely used is the Popup Balloon. This component can display detailed information about an object if it is trigger from the the mouseover Javascript event. This information is retrieve asynchronously through an AJAX call and shown once retrieval is complete. For Example:



This methodology is used on some sites, but the idiom isn't used nearly as much as I would like. There are many times when I am browsing sites such as TV Guide, that I would like to just mouseover the movie title and get the description of the movie and its actors. Along the same theme, when I am browsing MorningStar, it would be great to mouseover a stock symbol and get more information about the stock, like current price, stock industry and year-to-date performance. The Popup Balloon JSF component facilitates this functionality.

Currently, the AJAX Popup Balloon retrieves information through a developed source like a custom servlet. There is detailed documentation contained in the EE5 Java Blueprints Solutions Catalog on the Popup Balloon's use and implementation as well as the other components the bundle provides. In the future, I envision users would be able to customize the information that the AJAX Popup Balloon will show. Hopefully, you will see a JSF component that enables this functionality very soon.

Hope this helps - Thanks - Mark

Posted by basler Feb 06 2006, 08:37:45 AM PST Permalink

Wednesday January 11, 2006

AJAX FileUpload using Dojo and Apache Commons FileUpload Libraries...

This week I have been working on an asynchronous file upload JSF component. I will be writing an article on the process at a later date, but to help others sooner, rather than later, here is a little relevant info.

A good blog about the process is written by Alex Russel entitled File uploading with Dojo. Alex's blog talks about using a IFrameIO to transport the formNode asynchronously without a page refresh. We are using the Dojo method on our web client and using the Apache Commons FileUpload libraries on the server. These libraries will be encapsulated into a customer JSF component to facilitate reuse and distributed in a future release of the Java BluePrints JavaEE5 BPCatalog, deployable on the Glassfish AppServer.

The purpose for this blog is to publicize an example of the Dojo FileUpload methodology. It took me a little while to get a working prototype and I found this example shortly thereafter.

Hope this helps - Mark Posted by basler Jan 11 2006, 07:05:35 PM PST Permalink

Wednesday January 04, 2006

Netbeans and Sun Java System Application Server, a winning combination...

It is nice to see that more & more outside sources are discovering how easy it is to develop using Netbeans with Sun Java System Application Server (SJSAS).

The article Netbeans as a J2EE teaching IDE represents what we have been saying all along. That Netbeans and SJSAS is one of the easiest ways to get started developing the full range of JavaEE components.

All that needs to be done to see how quickly you can get up and developing, is try the Netbeans 5.0 beta 2 bundle. Choose the "NetBeans IDE 5.0 Beta 2 + Application Server 8.1 Bundle Installer" for greatest convenience.

I have talked with many customers who go through pain staking steps so there developers don't have to get bogged down with a long procedure of installation and configuration to start developing. They want the developer to be able to stay in the IDE environment and just focus on coding, not configuration. The Netbeans/SJSAS bundle makes it extremely easy to get up and developing quickly..

If you do a side by side comparison of Eclipse with any Application Server and Netbeans with SJSAS, you will find that the Netbeans Bundles is the best & easiest way to go. Posted by basler Jan 04 2006, 09:20:57 AM PST Permalink Comments [1]

Wednesday November 02, 2005

The paper on the Remote Management of Application-Server Domains has been published on developers.sun.com

The Remote Management of Application-Server Domains paper explains the design of a web service that exported the management functions of the domain which is consumed by a Mobile Client. The application demonstrates how to remotely manage a domain including Start, Stop, Quiesce and Monitor of existing Clusters or Standalone servers. The mobile client screens shots show some of the functionality available from the web service.

Hope this helps ...

Thanks - Mark Posted by basler Nov 02 2005, 09:58:47 AM PST Permalink Comments [0]

A paper describing Adventure Builder's Supply Chain Web Service Mutual Authentication approach was published on developers.sun.com.

The paper details how to enable mutual authentication for web services that are exposed through a web module or through an EJB. The paper Mutual Authentication for Web Services: A Live Example also discusses the procedure for exchanging certificates between entities, trust domains and debugging.

Hope this helps...

Thanks - Mark Posted by basler Nov 02 2005, 09:45:18 AM PST Permalink Comments [0]

Friday October 07, 2005

The JavaONE demo for Sun's Application Server Enterprise Edition has been written up, scripted, packaged and is available on as-ras.dev.java.net.

At JavaONE we demonstrated the Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition in a highly available, clustered, load balanced environment whereby application state cannot be lost due to failures or planned upgrades of applications, operating system and hardware. We also showcased ease of management by monitoring and managing the configuration through the JMX/MBeans (JSR 77) exposed remotely as a Web Service consumed by a J2ME Client.

The J2ME client is accessing the domain's configuration using the Web Services API for a J2ME client (JSR 172) to demonstrate remote management of a domain including Start, Stop, Quiesce and Monitor of existing Clusters or Standalone servers. Here are some Screen Shots of the J2me client.

The software is available at https://as-ras.dev.java.net. The good news is that the web service should be able to be used in most SJSAS8.1 SE/EE configurations.

Hope this helps...

Thanks - Mark Posted by basler Oct 07 2005, 09:40:03 AM PDT Permalink Comments [0]