Monday August 20, 2007

Java SE for Production Environments
 
Java SE for Production Environments ( Corporate JRE revisions) will be tailored to provide high stability in JDK, quick binary relief and reduce migration risks.  Here is a brief comparison of different Java SE release types.

	Feature Release Ex:  JDK 5.0  (tiger)	Update Release Ex: JDK 5.0u12	Corporate JRE revision
Features	Yes.  It includes new features, JSRs and several enhancements.	Minor features may be included.  It includes large number of bug fixes in general.	Features are not included. It includes critical fixes only. Minimum changes in each Revisions ensured.
Frequency	18 months to 24 months	3 to 4 months, which will be reduced to 9 to 12 months.	2 weeks
EOL policy	Product will exist in the form of an Update Release.  Only the latest public update release of the JDK family is  supported. EOLs after release of  next two Feature Releases.	An Update Release Train of a Feature Release EOLs after release of next two Feature Releases.	Revision Train of an Update Release EOLs after release of next Update Release of the same JDK family.
EOSL policy	Support ends on release of next Feature Release after EOL announcement.	Support of an Update Release Train ends on release of next Feature Release after EOL announcement.	Revision Train is supported as long as Subscribers wants it.
Extended Access	Not Available. No support beyond EOSL.	Not Available. No support beyond EOSL.	Available.
Availability	Publicly available on http://java.sun.com	Publicly available on http://java.sun.com	Private Website which will be accessible only to Subscribers.
Cost	Free	Free	Subscription Required.
Migration issues.	Very well tested and stable release. However, there could be some minor issues while migrating application to use  new JDK due to large number of features and enhancement.  Refer Java Platform Migration guides; JDK 1.3 to 5 JDK 6	Each Update Release is very well tested.  Strict backward compatibility is maintained in Update Releases of the same JDK family.  Risk is very low to migrate from one Update to another Update of the same JDK family.	Each Revision will be very well tested.  Strict backward compatibility will be  maintained in each Revision of the JDK family.   Risk is almost zero to migrate from one Revision to another Revision of the JDK family.
Performance	Feature Release may include significant enhancement in Performance.	Performance is at least as same as in that of Feature Release of the same JDK. Performance enhancements are added occasionally.	Performance is at least as same as in that of Update Release of the same JDK.
Security	High.  Feature Releases may include significant enhancements  in Security API or functionality.	High. Update  Releases may include enhancements in Security  functionality.	High.  Security in a Revision will be same as that of an Update Release.

Posted by blvaidya ( Aug 20 2007, 02:20:59 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Monday August 06, 2007

New member in Java SE Release type family
 

Corporate JRE Revisions - coming soon! Corporate JRE Revision (or Revision) will be produced based on the Java SE Update Releases. Thus you may also call a Revision as a Java SE Update Release Revision.  Revisions will be released in every two week   for each Update Release train. This means,  Java SE 6 Update Release Revision, J2SE 5.0 Update Release Revision and J2SE 1.4.2 Update Release Revision will be released simultanelously in every two weeks!! Corporate JRE Revision is configured for production environment and includes scalable deployment features. Changes are minimum.  Corporate JRE Revision enables Update Releases become less frequent. More on  Revision can be found at http://blogs.sun.com/JavaInProduction/category/Revisions Java SE currently has following Release Types: Development (Feature) Releases Update Releases Exceptional Releases Development (Feature) Releases This is also known as feature releases. The development release includes  major new features and enhancements. So far we have released several Java Development Releases including Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0, J2SE 1.4, J2SE 1.3, J2SE 1.2 and Java 1.1.8.   You may access new features in those releases using following links; New features in Java SE 6: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/features.html New features in  J2SE 5.0: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/relnotes/features.html New features in J2SE 1.4: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/relnotes/features.html Current Java SE development release is JDK 7 which is also available as Open Source now. You can access JDK 7 source from http://openjdk.java.net/.  You can also contribute to development of JDK 7 and you can get details on how to contribute from http://openjdk.java.net/contribute/ Release cycle of Feature Release is 18 months to 24 months. Update Releases Update Releases follow Feature Release GA.  At present, Java SE 6 Update Releases, J2SE 5.0 Update Releases and J2SE 1.4.2 Update Releases are supported.  Update Releases  include minor features (non API),  bug fixes and bug  fixes for updating support for new OS's, browsers, as well as other platforms enhancements. You can access latest update releases from the following links; Java SE 6 update releases: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp J2SE 5.0 update releases: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp J2SE 1.4.2 update releases: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html J2SE 1.3.1 update releases: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3.1/download.html Strict compatibility ensured in all update release trains, thus update releases are easily deployable in the production application environments. Release cycle for Update Releases is 3 months to 4 months. This is about to change with the introduction of Corporate JRE revisions. Exception Releases As the name implies, exception releases are given to customers who has support contract with Sun. We do not have formal process of releasing exceptional releases.  However,  introduction of Corporate JRE revision may eliminate informal Exception Releases but may increase availability of critical fixes to large number of customers quickly.

Posted by blvaidya ( Aug 06 2007, 08:11:00 PM BST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Wednesday January 25, 2006

Java Certification:

There are several tutorials, study materials and references available on the web. However, I found following resources are very useful to study towards Java Certifications and get certified. Java Tutorial : http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/index.html. This tutorial is updated to cover tiger (J2SE 5.0) features. Page maintained by Marcus Green: http://www.jchq.net/ Mock Exams : http://www.levteck.com/ Maha Anna's Page: http://www.javaranch.com/maha/_Mock_Exams/_mock_exams.html ePractice Exams: http://www.sun.com/training/certification/resources/epractice.html JavaOne Tech Sessions: http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/ Official Java Certification page is at http://java.sun.com/learning/coursecert/index.html

Posted by blvaidya ( Jan 25 2006, 01:53:28 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Tuesday December 20, 2005

Testing in Solaris Zones:

We recently acquired a Niagara (SunFire T2000) system installed with Solaris 10.  We created 4 zones and each zone provides an isolated environment in which we are running different tests such as JCK, BigApps, regression tests, functional tests etc. In effective, we are accomplishing 4 systems tasks with one system.

This setup brings us several advantages such as

• more testings done in less time
  
• less maintenance i.e maintain one machine instead of four
• space saving in lab i.e space for one small sleek machine
• electric power saving.

I am delighted to see increased hardware usage efficiency. Solaris zones are really cool.

Posted by blvaidya ( Dec 20 2005, 10:54:49 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [3]

Thursday December 08, 2005

What testing we do for J2SE Update Releases?

I work for J2SE Quality Organization in Sun, and focused on J2SE Update Releases testing. We execute several tests to make sure J2SE update releases are compatible with the corresponding J2SE feature/major releases. JCK - JCK testing ensure that the Update Releases are still conforms to  the applicable Java platform specifications. Component Functional tests - Functional tests are developed during Feature Releases based on user scenarios to make sure the enhancement or the features for each components work fine. Functional tests in the Update Releases make sure those features still work and are not broken due to the bug fixes. Performance tests - Performance test ensure that Update Releases do not degrade as compared to the corresponding first fcs release. Also refer to David Dagastine's blogs about JDK performance. Regression tests - The purpose of the regression testing is to ensure that bug fixes in a particular Update Release do not break the original functionality. Regression tests are collection of unit tests. BigApps tests - BigApps application testing is to ensure backward compatibility and reliability of JDK by using large scale, real world Java server applications. Currently we test JDK with tomcat, volano test, volano mark and atg dynamo. Applets tests - Applet testing is to ensure backward compatibility of JDK/JRE plugin. We choose ~100 popular applets of real world for example, applets from yahoo.com. G11n tests - G11n tests ensure that no regression introduced in internationalization or localization area in Update Releases.

Posted by blvaidya ( Dec 08 2005, 07:19:47 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [0]