Ed Ort

New JDK 7 Feature: Support for Dynamically Typed Languages in the Java Virtual Machine

Over the years, the Java virtual machine (JVM) has been host to a growing number of languages. Increasingly, JVM implementations of dynamic languages are becoming available, such as JRuby, an implementation of the Ruby programming language, Jython, an implementation of the Python programming language, and the Groovy scripting language.

However, developers of these dynamic languages have faced a troublesome obstacle. When developers write engines for dynamically typed languages that run in the JVM, they have to satisfy the requirements of the Java bytecode that the JVM executes. Until now, that bytecode has been designed exclusively for statically typed languages. This design has been especially painful for developers when generating bytecodes for method invocations.

But help is on the way. JSR 292: Supporting Dynamically Typed Languages on the Java Platform, which is being implemented in JDK 7, introduces a new Java bytecode instruction for the JVM, invokedynamic, and a new method linkage mechanism based on method handles.

Learn more about this new JDK 7 feature in the article Support for Dynamically Typed Languages in the Java Virtual Machine.

Posted at 03:20PM Jul 07, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

Enterprise Tech Tip: A Common Ant Build File for Metro-Based Services and Clients

If you're like most developers, you're always looking for shortcuts that simplify developing and testing code. In this Tech Tip, Metro architect Harold Carr describes just such a helpful shortcut -- a common ant build file that simplifies the task of building and testing Metro-based services. The build file can builds a service from a WSDL description or from a Java class annotated with @WebService. It then either creates a WAR file and deploys the WAR file to a container or it invokes the Endpoint.publish() method to publish the web service endpoint using the HTTP server built into the Java platform.

Read about it in the tip A Common Ant Build File for Metro-Based Services and Clients.

Posted at 10:11AM Jun 12, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

Deep Dive: MySQL Tips For Java Developers

MySQL is the world's most popular open-source database, and there are a lot of Java developers who use MySQL databases in their applications. In this Deep Dive, Mark Matthews, architect for Enterprise Tools Team at Sun Microsystems, demonstrated some of the techniques that can help Java developers get more out of their applications that use MySQL.

Mark has a lot of experience regarding the use of MySQL and Java technologies. Aside from being an architect for MySQL tools at Sun, Mark is the original developer and maintainer of Connector/J, the MySQL JDBC driver.

Mark covered a number of MySQL tips for Java developers including some lesser known configuration options, connection pool settings, and some special MySQL language elements such as ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.

Posted at 09:55AM Jun 12, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

Notes From the 2009 JavaOne Conference

The numbers were a bit down from previous years and perhaps there was a little less buzz, but I found this year's JavaOne Conference to be as interesting and fun as ever. As always, I was part of the Sun Developer Network team that covered the general and technical sessions for the conference web site. I was also host for a number of "Man/Woman on the Street" interviews with conference attendees.

I found the sessions to be uniformly excellent. It seemed that the quality of the presenters and their demonstrations at these sessions was exceptionally high. I hope those of you who went to the conference were equally impressed with the sessions. If you didn't get a chance to attend the conference, you can view video replays of the general sessions.

You can find all of the articles covering the sessions here. I covered the following sessions:

• Intelligent Design -- The Pervasive Java Platform. What drives the evolutionary and revolutionary changes in Java and JavaFX technologies? Ultimately, it's the consumer, says Sun Distinguished Engineer and CTO Bob Brewin.
• Building Cool RIA Enterprise Applications With JavaFX. In this session, JavaFX experts Jim Weaver and Stephen Chin showed how easy it is to build a visually compelling application using JavaFX.
• RESTful Web Services Made Easy. JAX-RS makes it easy to develop RESTful web services using Java technology. This session showed why.

I also had the opportunity to cover the general session for CommunityOne West, a conference focused on communities and open source. CommunityOne West started the day before JavaOne. Cloud computing and a new release of OpenSolaris were the stars of that session. BTW, if you're into cloud computing, there are a lot of good cloud-related sessions that my SDN teammates covered during the JavaOne conference. These include:

• Continuous Integration in the Cloud With Hudson. Sun's Kohsuke Kawaguchi discussed Hudson, the open-source continuous integration system that enables developers to automate various aspects of the development process.
• A New Database for the Cloud. Learn more about the goals of the Drizzle open-source project in building an optimized database.
• Zembly: An Extensible Development Environment in the Cloud, for the Cloud. Sun's Todd Fast and Jiri Kopsa discussed zembly.com, a browser-based development environment that enables programming for web applications and social platforms, as well as web widgets.
• Cloud Computing: Show Me the Money. Panelists from six leading cloud companies talked with Rags Srinivas about the current state of cloud computing.

Also see the new Sun Cloud Developer Tools site.

You can find a great wrap-up of the conference here. As the wrap-up notes, this may be the final JavaOne Conference. I've had the pleasure to attend the last 10 of them. Covering these conferences always required a lot of preparation work and a goodly amount of toil and sweat. But I always found them educational, even exhilarating. They gave me a chance to learn, a chance to share ideas, and a chance to meet some of the most interesting folks on the planet -- the Java community.

Posted at 09:47AM Jun 12, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

Deep Dive: Sun GlassFish Web Space Server 10.0

At the 2008 JavaOne Conference, Sun made an exciting announcement regarding a collaboration agreement it reached with the Liferay open portal community. Both companies agreed to share code and release products from a common codebase. Sun GlassFish Web Space Server is an outgrowth of that common codebase, bringing together features and technologies from Liferay as well as Sun's OpenPortal communities.

In this Deep Dive video, James Falkner, Sun's Product Architect for portal technologies, demonstrates many of the features that Sun GlassFish Web Space Server offers for administrators, developers, and end users. Along the way, he demonstrates some cool features such as hooking portlet events together graphically, and changing the theme for a portal page in Adobe Dreamweaver using Web Space Server's View Designer plugin.

There's so much functionality in the Web Space Server that it was difficult to fit James's demonstrations into one short video. So instead we offer multiple videos -- or a video in multiple parts. Watch it. I think you'll see that Sun GlassaFish Web Space Server 10.0 is a fun and highly functional product.

• Part 1: Learn about the key features in Sun GlassFish Web Space Server 10.0.

• Part 2: See a demonstration of Web Space Server administration features.
• Part 3: See how easy it is to create portlets using the NetBeans Portal Pack with Web Space Server.

Posted at 09:17AM Apr 30, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

JavaFX App-O-Rama

Although the JavaFX platform is only a few months old -- its initial full release was in December 2009 -- people are already building some really cool applications with it. A new article, titled JavaFX App-O-Rama: Applications From the Community, highlights three community based projects that are producing cool, innovative JavaFX applications.

Here are some other good places to find cool JavaFX applications, sample programs, and demonstrations:

• JavaFX Sample Gallery
• JFXStudio
• Planet JFX
• The Planetarium
• Jim Weaver's JavaFX Blog
• The JavaFX Journey
• Caffeine Induced Ramblings
• JavaFX Blog

Posted at 08:58AM Apr 29, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

Two excellent JavaFX videos

There are two excellent JavaFX -related videos you ought to check out:

• JavaFX Deep Dive with Jacob Lehrbaum. In this video, Jacob Lehrbaum, the Senior Product Line Manager for JavaFX Marketing at Sun Microsystems, demonstrates some of the exciting features in the JavaFX platform.
• 15 Minutes or Less - JavaFX. Join Sun Microsystems' Robert Eckstein as he teaches you the fundamentals of the new JavaFX programming language, all in fifteen minutes or less!

Posted at 02:35PM Feb 23, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[2]

2009 JavaOne Conference, June 2-5, San Francisco, CA

Believe it or not, before you know it, it will be time for another JavaOne Conference. This year's conference promises to be bigger and better than ever. The JavaOne Conference is a great way to stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java technology. If you register by April 22, 2009, you can save $200 off a Conference Pass or Conference Plus Pass. So register now at http://java.sun.com/javaone.

Posted at 02:27PM Feb 23, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

Part 3 of the GlassFish and MySQL Series Now Available

The article GlassFish and MySQL, Part 3: Creating and Using a Web Service is now available. This article is the third in a series of articles about the use of MySQL with GlassFish. Ive collaborated on these articles with Java technology evangelist Carol McDonald. In Part 3, you'll learn how easy it is to convert the controller layer of the web application introduced in Part 2, that is, the layer of the application that performs the create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations -- into a SOAP-based web service. You'll also learn how to create a client for the web service.

Posted at 09:00AM Jan 15, 2009 by edort in article  |  Comments[0]

GlassFish and MySQL: The Series

With more than 100 million downloads, MySQL is the world's most popular open-source database. MySQL's popularity is indicative of the growing adoption of open-source software. Developers are using open-source software because it offers them a reliable and low-cost alternative for developing their applications. This adoption trend extends to middleware too. For example, open-source servers are replacing proprietary servers in many enterprises. Case in point: GlassFish, an open-source, enterprise-quality, Java EE 5-compliant application server, enjoys significant popularity. With more than seven million downloads since its release in May 2005 and more than half a million downloads a month, GlassFish has a widespread and growing community of users.

Read the article GlassFish and MySQL, Part 1: A Perfect Combination for Web Applications and learn about the advantages of using MySQL with GlassFish and why the combination is a perfect choice for developing and deploying web applications.

This article is the first in a series of articles about the use MySQL with GlassFish. The second article in the series, GlassFish and MySQL, Part 2: Building a CRUD Web Application With Data Persistence, shows you how to use the NetBeans IDE with GlassFish and MySQL to build a create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) web application that accesses persistent data.

Posted at 02:54PM Nov 05, 2008 by edort in article  |  Comments[1]