The NetBeans Profiler (features, tutorial, Flash demo, news blog) is a free, fully-featured, Java profiler. The NB team recently released version 5.5, featured below, but they are already working on 6.0. In her latest blog entry, Yamini describes how to Integrate the Profiler with Sun's Web Server. The blog is very clear and takes you through all the steps, from downloading to configuration; it also includes plenty of screenshots. Yamini is very happy with the experience and reports success on Solaris, Windows and Linux (Ubuntu).

Sun's WebServer 7.0 provides a Java Web Tier as well as good connectivity (NSAPI, Fast-CGI) with many non-Java applications. As an example of the former, Seema also shows how to run Blojsom, which follows from Blojsom on GlassFish, as did our previously reported Phobos on Web Server. As an example of the latter, Seema describes in detail how to Run Ruby On Rails. All together, the Sun WebServer is a good Web 2.0 Platform, and it will get better as one will be able to run the latest Java Web Tier by Plugging the GlassFish Web Tier.

One of my favorite quotes says: "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." (Yogi Berra or Jan_L._A._van_de_Snepscheut). In theory, we knew that we could plug in the GlassFish Web Tier into Sun's Web Server 7.0. And now Krishnamohan shows that there is practice to back it out!

This means that you will be able to run your Web Tier apps from GlassFish in your Web Server. Plus all the benefits from the Sun Web Server. Good news all along.

Thanks to CVR for the tip.

Did you know that there is a TCL interpreter in Sun's Web Server 7.0? And it is put to good use, as shown by True Blue in this collection of detailed blog entries on WADM, starting with why TCL was chosen (this was way before jRuby came into focus at Sun), going through parts II (global variables), III (ACL), IV (log analyzer), V (access to Java objects), VI (parsing httpd.config), VII (faking a file system), and the last - so far - VIII (extensions).

I could not find a concise quote for the Monty Python eurojoke, but here is one set of fly-in-the-soup jokes.

It seems quite a number of people are using GlassFish with the Apache HTTP Server, so a natural question, which Jean-Francois is asking is whether we should Formalize the Support. Your comments would be appreciated.

Added: Be sure to check the "mail thread. People are reporting success with mod_jk and mod_proxy_ajp for Apache, isapi_redirect.dll for IIS and nsapi_redirect.dll for iPlanet and Sun One web server.

Sun's Web Server 7.0 is a very important release for the product. The release includes things like Cluster Management (targetted at large sites like MLB.com) but the Java Web Tier is Closely Related to GlassFish and pretty much all the Web Tier-based applications that run on GlassFish should run on the Web Server, modulo configurations (or relying on the latest Web Tier specs, but that will get fixed).

CVR's latest blog reviews a number of Web 2.0 Applications running on SJS WS. For the details, check these blogs: Deploying JSPWiki by Sriram (and see the Companion Arcticle); JAAS Login Configuration for JSPWiki) by Joe; and Running jMaki, by Sabada.

Phobos (overview) is a lightweight framework for writing Web Applications using dynamic languages (JavaScript so far) exploiting the Java platform. Phobos builds can run either with GlassFish or with a plain Web Container, and in his latest blog, Mukesh shows in detail how to Run Phobos on Sun WebServer 7.0. Sun's WebServer uses the Web Container from Sun Java System 8.2 (GlassFish's Ancestor), but the contract between the Web Server and the Java Web Tier is clearly defined followed by the GlassFish web tier and I'll ask if they can to publish the steps needed to try this out.

There is now a NetBeans 5.0 Plug-In to develop, deploy and debug WebApps onto Sun's WebServer 7.0 Technology Preview. Mukesh and Marina's article shows How to Use the Plug-In , just note that the article was posted two weeks ago and it refers to the original TP, but TP2 was released yesterday.

The Java Web-Tier implementation used in Sun's WebServer 7.0 is from SJS AS 8.2 (based on J2EE 1.4) to match the rest of the Java Enterprise System, but WS 7.x has been designed to allow a quick rev into the Java EE 5 versions of these specifications (In contrast, WS 7.0 already includes JAX-WS 2.0).

For more information, check: Product Page, the Web Server hub at SDN, NetBeans' Web Server home page and the WS Forum.

ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) is a new, cryptographic protocol that is very appealing when security needs are high or computational power is limited (like mobile devices) and is gaining backing in the industry. The latest Sun WebServer (7.0 Technology Preview) has Support for ECC, and so do GlassFish - experimental so far -, and Java. In his latest blog, Jyri reports on actual measurements of the connection cost for different security protocols on Sun's WebServer and shows Big Improvements for ECC. Check it out!

The team of Sun's WebServer is a close relative of Project GlassFish and I feel a bit guilty I've not been able to keep up with all their interesting blogs in the last couple of months - maybe I'll be able to do some about it next week during Sun's USA shutdown...

Do you want security with the purchase you just did through your mobile? If so, learn about Elliptic Curve Cryptography (Wikipedia, Overview@Sun, ECC and IETF, SunLabs) as it significantly reduces the computational requirements needed to encrypt content. The latest news on ECC are Shing Wai's detailed instructions on How to Enable ECC in GlassFish / SJS AS 9.0. Do not miss this brief comment at the end: A preliminary benchmark of HTTPS with ECC in GlassFish on the Windows XP platform shows that the performance of ECC is double that of RSA... Also see ECC support in Sun's Web Server and ECC support in Java.

PS. I had missed an interesting entry by Shing Wai: Using SSL for EJB; you may want to also check that one out.