Groovy on Rails (Grails) 0.1 Released

Groovy on Rails (Grails) 0.1 Released: "Groovy on Rails (Grails) 0.1 Released
Posted by: Floyd Marinescu on March 30, 2006 @ 11:58 AM

Grails, which could be the Java community's answer to Ruby on Rails has had its first public release with Grails 0.1. Grails is built on open source technology such as Spring, Hibernate and SiteMesh and offers a Rails-like environment that integrates seamlessly with the Java platform allowing developers to utilise their existing investment in Java and the JDK."

Also links to RIFE and Trails projects

Grails - Home

Grails - Home: "What is Grails

Grails aims to bring the 'coding by convention' paradigm to Groovy. It's an open-source web application framework that leverages the Groovy language and complements Java Web development. You can use Grails as a standalone development environment that hides all configuration details or integrate your Java business logic."

Aka Groovy on Rails

Realtime Form Validation Using AJAX

Realtime Form Validation Using AJAX: "Article
Realtime Form Validation Using AJAX

By Greg Murray, April 2006

Articles Index

Editor's Note: This article is taken from the The Java BluePrints Solutions Catalog, a new project from the Java BluePrints program. The Java BluePrints program consists of a set of guidelines and best practices, as well as small applications to illustrate these guidelines on both the J2EE 1.4 and 1.5 platforms.

If you've ever entered form data on the Internet, you've likely encountered cases where server-side processing is used to validate that the data meets a specified set of criteria. JavaScript may be used on the client-side to validate the format of simple data such as email addresses, phone numbers, dates, or credit card numbers. However, client-side processing is limited in that it cannot apply business rules or access server-side data sources to perform that validation."

Enterprise Java Community: Building on Struts for Java 5 Users

Enterprise Java Community: Building on Struts for Java 5 Users: "April 2006

Struts is undoubtedly the most successful Java web development framework. It is the first widely adopted Model View Controller (MVC) framework, and has proven itself in thousands of projects. Struts was ground-breaking when it was introduced, but the web development landscape has changed a lot in the last few years. It is also fair to say that Struts is not universally popular, and has in many ways been overtaken by other frameworks.

Developers not satisfied with Struts have tended to embrace other frameworks, or even create their own. This is even the case within the Struts community. The two major initiatives - the integration with WebWork and the JSF-based Shale - are producing frameworks quite different from the Struts to which most users are accustomed.

A less well known fact is that the increasing adoption of Java 5 has brought in a third way forward for Struts. In this article I introduce Strecks, a set of Java 5 based extensions which offer a greatly streamlined programming model for Struts applications, without introducing any new compatibility issues. If you're confused about the name, think of it as a shortened, misspelled version of 'Struts Extensions for Java 5'.

Strecks is built on the existing Struts 1.2 code base, adding a range of productivity enhancing features"

Mentawai Web Framework - Mentawai Overview

Mentawai Web Framework - Mentawai Overview: "Mentawai's programmatic approach to configuration, gives you total freedom, flexibility and power inside your configuration files. You can refactor, create new methods, static variables, loops, use inheritance to extends ApplicationManager, etc. From that freedom, two configuration styles have emerged from Mentawai, and are now fully supported in version 1.2."


This framework has some interesting ideas - such as programmatic configuration instead of using XML files, because although it can be beneficial to be able to quickly change a property file or xml file, often a full deploy is used to ensure that live application is in a known state, so as long as your build scripts compile all your code, you can gain the benefits of using purely Java in your IDE, and maybe someday I will learn to use a full stop

Filter your feeds with Feed Rinse - Lifehacker

Filter your feeds with Feed Rinse - Lifehacker: "Feed Rinse is a new online service that will take your feeds and filter them for you based on keyword, tag, author and more. You can ever filter out profanity-laden feeds! It works by setting up filters."

Maybe I need to switch to this. Reading about a hundred feeds in Sage has become impractical - especially when working 60 hours a week! Hence the recent absence from blogging and tonight's late night / early morning blogfest.

DailyTech - Dell Buys Alienware

DailyTech - Dell Buys Alienware: "Dell Buys Alienware
Tuan Nguyen - March 22, 2006 6:38 PM

Alienware says it will be unaffected by the acquisition but at the same time seeks to embrace Dell's methodologies

Alienware and Dell have announced an agreement to merge, with Dell buying the Miami company. Alienware has long been a very independent company with a strong focus on highly tuned customer support and customization. Alienware pioneered the custom PC business by doing such things as: customizing the manual in the customer's name; including benchmarks of the system, installing and tweaking drivers, and installing whatever games the customer wanted. Long story short, Alienware gave great individualized attention to its patrons. "

The rumor mill had been circulating - and this is one rumor that came true.

AGEIA PhysX Launch - GDC Event Coverage - Hot Hardware

AGEIA PhysX Launch - GDC Event Coverage - Hot Hardware: "In 2002, AGEIA's founders broke into the gaming industry with the intention of revolutionizing the way PC games would be played. Focusing their attention on the notion of in-game physics, the ultimate goal was to bring a new level of realism to the latest and greatest titles on the horizon. In short, the company has developed the world's first Physics Processing Unit (PPU) and is aiming to use this new hardware to blur the line between virtual worlds and reality."

It's been talked up for along time - let's see what the new Physics Processor do for games now it has finally been released. Will it catch in in hte same way that 3D graphics cards have?

Character Conversions from Browser to Database

Character Conversions from Browser to Database: "Character Conversions from Browser to Database

By John O'Conner, January 2006

In route to their final storage destination on the World Wide Web, characters move through various layers of programming interfaces and can cross software and hardware boundaries. This article provides helpful hints and best practices for accurately transporting character data from browser to database … and back again."

Seeing Shouldn't Be Believing: Solving Java Puzzlers With Google's Joshua Bloch

Seeing Shouldn't Be Believing: Solving Java Puzzlers With Google's Joshua Bloch: "Seeing Shouldn't Be Believing: Solving Java Puzzlers With Google's Joshua Bloch

By Janice J. Heiss, March 2006

Java Puzzlers: Traps, Pitfalls, and Corner Cases - Book Cover Java Puzzlers, a new book by Joshua Bloch, Google's chief Java architect, and Neal Gafter, Google software engineer and Java technology evangelist, contains some 95 'puzzlers' and is designed to amuse, tantalize, challenge, and educate Java developers. Bloch and Gafter model puzzlers on optical illusions: In each puzzler, initial appearances are deceiving, and things are not what they seem. As such, puzzlers tease developers into confronting some of the spontaneous assumptions that their minds generate when they read Java platform code - - an experience that Bloch believes can lead to more flexible and astute programming. Journals such as ACM Computing Reviews, Software Development Magazine, Slashdot, and JavaRanch have lauded the book, as have such respected authors of books on Java technology as Guy Steele, Gilad Bracha, Jeff Langr, and Ian Darwin."

Web Tier to Go With Java EE 5: Summary of New Features in JSP 2.1 Technology

Web Tier to Go With Java EE 5: Summary of New Features in JSP 2.1 Technology: "Web Tier to Go With Java EE 5: Summary of New Features in JSP 2.1 Technology

By Pierre Delisle and Jennifer Ball, February 2006

The main theme for the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 is ease of development. The platform's web tier contributes significantly to ease of development in two ways. First, the platform now includes the Java Standard Tag Library (JSTL) and JavaServer Faces technology. Second, all the web-tier technologies offer a set of features that make development of web applications on Java EE much easier. Some of these features are the following:

* A new expression language (EL) syntax that allows deferred evaluation of expressions, enables using expressions to both get and set data and to invoke methods, and facilitates customizing the resolution of a variable or property referenced by an expression
* Support for resource injection through annotations to simplify configuring access to resources and environment data
* Complete alignment of JavaServer Faces technology tags and JavaServer Pages (JSP) software code

In this series of articles, web-tier proponents at Sun introduce the new concepts that every web-application developer should be familiar with to get the most out of the Java EE 5 web-tier technologies. This first article in the series gives an overview of the new features introduced in version 2.1 of JSP technology."

ONJava.com -- Advanced Configuration of the Spring MVC Framework

ONJava.com -- Advanced Configuration of the Spring MVC Framework: "Advanced Configuration of the Spring MVC Framework
by Dejan Bosanac
03/22/2006

In this article I will present some configuration tips for the Spring MVC framework that could help you manage multiple instances of your Spring-based web application. The configuration management topic is often neglected in the literature, but as we will see, it is very important for real-life web development. It is not directly related to any particular technology, so we will start by explaining the basic concepts of the problem. Next, we will focus on the Spring MVC framework and offer a few solutions for projects developed using this technology."

ONJava.com -- Zero Configuration Networking: Using the Java APIs, Part 2

ONJava.com -- Zero Configuration Networking: Using the Java APIs, Part 2: "Zero Configuration Networking: Using the Java APIs, Part 2
by Daniel H. Steinberg, Stuart Cheshire
Browsing for Services

Browsing to discover our advertised service using the dns-sd tool is very easy, and doing so using Java code is barely any harder. To browse, you need to perform two steps similar to those you just used to register your service:

*

Call DNSSD.browse( ) using one of the two available signatures.
*

Provide a class that implements the BrowseListener interface."

ONJava.com -- Zero Configuration Networking: Using the Java APIs, Part 1

ONJava.com -- Zero Configuration Networking: Using the Java APIs, Part 1: "Zero Configuration Networking: Using the Java APIs, Part 1
by Daniel H. Steinberg, Stuart Cheshire

Editor's Note: Zeroconf, also known by Apple's trade name of Bonjour, and previously as Rendezvous, offers interesting solutions to the problems of self-networking, in the potential absence of host naming and address assignment. Zeroconf applications can advertise themselves on the network and discover available services. Zero Configuration Networking: The Definitive Guide, by Stuart Cheshire and Daniel H. Steinberg, introduces the concepts and the many implementations of Zeroconf, including its Java API. In this first of a two-part introduction, the authors look at registering a service with Java."

Using Flex as a Cross-Browser Solution

Using Flex as a Cross-Browser Solution: "Using Flex as a Cross-Browser Solution
The wide variety of available Web browsers is great for the end-user, but often not so great for developers. See how Flex, Flash, ActionScript, and Ajax work together to create a terrific cross-browser solution.

by Shari Nakano,
Steve Samson
March 17, 2006

The last time we checked with Google, there were 34 different Web browsers to choose from. Admittedly, many were highly specialized or out of date, but even after excluding those, we still had an extensive list that included Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, Konqueror, IceBrowser, Camino, and more. From an end-user standpoint, it's great that there are so many different browsers available. From a developer standpoint, however, a lot of different browsers means a lot of extra time spent learning how to write code for each browser, plus a lot of extra time testing and debugging your code in each browser. And the last thing developers have a lot of is extra time."

XML support in Flash has been around for years - it is mature and works well.

Comparing XML Documents with Oracle's XDK 10g for Java

Comparing XML Documents with Oracle's XDK 10g for Java: "Comparing XML Documents with Oracle's XDK 10g for Java
Using Oracle's XDK 10g, you can reduce the process of comparing XML documents to a simple set of library calls that let you determine if the documents are the same, see what the differences are, or use the compare information to generate other documents.

by Deepak Vohra
March 22, 2006

As a J2EE developer you might sometimes be interested in comparing a modified XML document with the pre-modified version of that document. Or you might want to compare two XML documents that are both based on the same DTD or XML schema. This article is designed to give you the information you need to answer two questions:

* Is one XML document the same as another?
* What are the differences between two XML documents?"

Against the Browser's Will: Make Mashups Talk Across Domains

Against the Browser's Will: Make Mashups Talk Across Domains: "Against the Browser's Will: Make Mashups Talk Across Domains
With all the great Web service APIs out there today, making mashups to extend public Web-based apps is a new passion for many developers. But cross-domain restrictions, built into all major browsers, are an aggravating foe. Learn to use a PHP proxy or JSON to eliminate your mashup frustrations.

by Dan Theurer
March 14, 2006

Maps are not only very useful, but they are also cool! In recent months, we have seen a lot of innovation in the area of online maps. Today we are far beyond the time when Photoshop was the most efficient way to overlay data onto a map within your homepage. There are a couple of different new solutions to choose from if you want to embed interactive maps. The 'oldest' developer product is Google Maps. Microsoft offers Virtual Earth. And my employer, Yahoo!, offers Yahoo! Maps! This is all really good stuff!"

Three forms of AJAX: solid, liquid and gas.

Three forms of AJAX: solid, liquid and gas.: "Three forms of AJAX: solid, liquid and gas.
Posted by: Vitaliy Shevchuk on October 14, 2005 @ 10:01 AM

Looks like today AJAX concept have several different interpretations. According to the way applications use XMLHttpRequest, we can distinguish three main strategies of AJAX integration:

- Application-specific JavaScript that play a role of presentation controller on the client-side.
- Component oriented form
- Sub-page oriented form."

Enterprise Java Community: Java and the Empowered Database

Enterprise Java Community: Java and the Empowered Database: "February 2006
Discussion
Introducing R/O Mapping - A concept to have more business logic in the database and reduce the amount of Java code that deals with database issues

The connection between object-oriented systems and relational databases is commonly solved by employing a so-called O/R mapping (ORM) framework whose goal it is to map object-oriented models to entity relationship models which are used, often generated, in relational databases. The bridging between two entirely different modelling techniques results in a so-called impedance mismatch, that needs to be overcome."

The Pro's and Cons section is especially interesting.

JGA 0.7 (Generic algorithms for Java) released

JGA 0.7 (Generic algorithms for Java) released: "JGA 0.7 (Generic algorithms for Java) released
Posted by: Hazem Saleh on March 19, 2006 @ 01:47 PM

Generic Algorithms for Java (jga)"

Posting gets debunked in comments

Mastering Ajax, Part 4: Exploiting DOM for Web response

Mastering Ajax, Part 4: Exploiting DOM for Web response: "Level: Introductory

Brett McLaughlin (brett@newInstance.com), Author and Editor, O'Reilly Media Inc.

14 Mar 2006

The great divide between programmers (who work with back-end applications) and Web programmers (who spend their time writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) is long standing. However, the Document Object Model (DOM) bridges the chasm and makes working with both XML on the back end and HTML on the front end possible and an effective tool. In this article, Brett McLaughlin introduces the Document Object Model, explains its use in Web pages, and starts to explore its usage from JavaScript."

Crossing borders: Exploring Active Record

Crossing borders: Exploring Active Record: "Bruce Tate (bruce.tate@j2life.com), President, J2Life, LLC

07 Mar 2006

The Java™ programming language has had an unprecedented run of success for vendors, customers, and the industry at large. But no programming language is a perfect fit for every job. This article launches a new series by Bruce Tate that looks at ways other languages solve major problems and what those solutions mean to Java developers. He first explores Active Record, the persistence engine behind Ruby on Rails. Active Record bucks many Java conventions, from the typical configuration mechanisms to fundamental architectural choices. The result is a framework that embraces radical compromises and fosters radical productivity."

Enterprise Java Community: Clustering JSR-168 Portlet Applications in Tomcat

Enterprise Java Community: Clustering JSR-168 Portlet Applications in Tomcat: "March 2006

(By John A. Lewis)

Introduction

JSR-168 Portlet applications represent a special challenge when it comes to clustering within Tomcat (or any other servlet container, for that matter). In order to effectively cluster web applications, session data must be replicated or shared between the nodes in the cluster. Otherwise, the user experiences a complete loss of context during a node failover. While Tomcat has provided session replication for quite some time, it has not supported replication of session changes resulting from a cross-context call from one webapp to another."

Implement Logging as an Aspect Using Spring's AOP Framework

Implement Logging as an Aspect Using Spring's AOP Framework: "Implement Logging as an Aspect Using Spring's AOP Framework
Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) enables you to write code for a crosscutting functionality and then apply it declaratively to existing code. Logging is a prime candidate for implementation as an aspect, and Spring offers the AOP framework to get it done.

by Gopal Sharma
March 6, 2006"

Viewing actual HTML source when creating AJAX applications

Viewing actual HTML source when creating AJAX applications: "Viewing actual HTML source when creating AJAX applications

I posted a couple of days ago about my problems debugging HTML source code when working with AJAX and also how I planned to solved it with Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar. It worked, it allowed me to inspect the actual DOM and see how it changed my original source... but it was too slow to debug it that way.

Fortunately, my brother posted a comment pointing me to this post by Rumen Stankov where he shows a trick to view and save the actual source in Internet Explorer. Just paste the following in your address bar:

javascript:'' + window.document.body.outerHTML + ''

Hope you find it as useful as I do. Why doesn't the Developer Toolbar includes something like this feature?
posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 12:26 AM"

Make Your ASP.NET Applications Talk with Text-to-Speech

Make Your ASP.NET Applications Talk with Text-to-Speech: "Make Your ASP.NET Applications Talk with Text-to-Speech
Silence may be golden, but increasingly, applications, appliances, and other automated systems are acquiring the ability to speak. You can take advantage of text-to-speech technology to voice-enable your .NET applications.

by Sara Morgan Rea
February 13, 2006

You may have noticed that synthesized voices are becoming more commonplace. Hundreds, if not thousands of electronic toys and gadgets speak to their owners in robotic voices. Whether it is a talking baby doll, a talking pedometer, or a new automated telephone system, several products that use text to speech are released every day."

GoXML Simplifies File Transformations: A Functional Product Review

GoXML Simplifies File Transformations: A Functional Product Review: "GoXML Simplifies File Transformations: A Functional Product Review
Converting files between flat-file, PDF, EDI, XML and other formats no longer has to be a complex manual programming chore. GoXML lets you create mappings visually to simplify all your transformation tasks.

by Michael Sanchez
January 11, 2006

A few years ago Kurt Cagle wrote an article discussing how to convert fixed-width text records to XML, a more malleable format, making it possible to use XSL and XSLT to further transform those records into almost any format needed. Kurt's article was educational, an excellent solution, and a fun project to play with, but in the long run, writing tedious and repetitive data transformations manually is a poor business solution. This is where GoXML Transform Designer steps in."

Sam Ruby: NWalsh on Rails

Sam Ruby: NWalsh on Rails: "Fri, 24 Feb 2006
NWalsh on Rails

Norman Walsh: Considering that I started knowing nothing about Ruby, essentially nothing about SQL, and with only the most meager experience with any sort of framework at all, the fact that I got from zero to working prototype in half a day, give or take, strikes me as pretty remarkable. (I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that I still know almost nothing about Ruby even after successfully building a working “application”. :-)"

I've yet to really get into Ruby on Rails. Must try harder.

Sam Ruby: Lucene Web Service API

Sam Ruby: Lucene Web Service API: "Fri, 24 Feb 2006
Lucene Web Service API

Joe Gregorio: APP, OpenSearch and Microformats. Get used to seeing them; those small pieces loosely joined are the future of web services"

Java Technology 2005: A Year in Review

Java Technology 2005: A Year in Review: "Article
Java Technology 2005: A Year in Review

By Jon Byous, January 2006
Java Technology 2005: A Year in Review

It would be impossible to know everything that's happened with the Java platform and community over the last year, but here's a look at some of the highlights."

XML.com: Errors and AJAX

XML.com: Errors and AJAX: "Errors and AJAX
by Joshua Gitlin
May 11, 2005

In case you haven't heard by now, the hottest buzzword in the realm of web technology is AJAX (as coined in an Adaptive Path essay). The crux of the AJAX framework is the XMLHttpRequest JavaScript object which allows client-side developers to send and receive XML documents over HTTP without interrupting the user, and without hacking around with hidden frames. Now, some might shudder at the notion of allowing client-side developers who might be more used to validating forms and animating rollover images to suddenly be responsible for traversing XML documents and negotiating HTTP headers, but without risk, there is no reward. And just to soothe any lingering trepidation, I will demonstrate how to use XMLHttpRequest to not only add previously impossible or infeasible features, but also to reduce errors and improve quality."

An old article as far as AJAX goes - but still VERY relevant.

ONLamp.com -- Using REST with Ajax

ONLamp.com -- Using REST with Ajax: "Using REST with Ajax
by Nic Ferrier
02/23/2006

This article shows how to use Ajax techniques to make web apps with REST APIs.

Everyone's talking about REST these days. Lots of people are still struggling with it, and there's good reason for that--REST is actually quite difficult to fit into the browser-based HTML Web, for two reasons:

1. Current HTML forms support only GET and POST, not PUT or DELETE
2. HTML forms always involve a page change"

ONJava.com -- Asynchronous Messaging Made Easy With Spring JMS

ONJava.com -- Asynchronous Messaging Made Easy With Spring JMS: "Asynchronous Messaging Made Easy With Spring JMS
by Srini Penchikala
02/22/2006

Asynchronous process communication is an important part of a service-oriented architecture (SOA), since many system communications in an enterprise, especially those with external organizations, are asynchronous in nature. Java Message Service (JMS) is the API used to write JEE applications using asynchronous messaging. A traditional messaging implementation using the JMS API involves steps like JNDI lookups for the queue connection factory and Queue resources and creating a JMS session before actually sending or receiving a message."

Introduction to SQLJ

Introduction to SQLJ: "Introduction to SQLJ
By Serge Bornow

Want to write less code within your Java applications that deal with SQL calls to a database? Would you like your SQL statements to be checked during compilation and not runtime? Then SQLJ just may be what you need! SQLJ gives exactly what you need for quick development, with less code, ease of debugging, and automatic performance improvement."

Look out Eclipse, NetBeans 5 is Here

Look out Eclipse, NetBeans 5 is Here: "Developer
February 3, 2006
Look out Eclipse, NetBeans 5 is Here
By Sean Michael Kerner

In scientific terms an eclipse is defined as an event that blocks the sun. For a number of years, the Eclipse IDE(define)has in some respects 'eclipsed' Sun Microsystems' IDE as well; that may no longer necessarily be the case."

XML-based Code Generation with CodeSmith

XML-based Code Generation with CodeSmith: "XML-based Code Generation with CodeSmith
By Mike Gunderloy

As you undoubtedly know, XML has become ubiquitous as a data storage and transmission format. It's possible to build an entire computing infrastructure on top of XML files, and many development shops have done just that. XML-aware tools are an important part of the picture, and in this article I'll demonstrate how one such tool, the CodeSmith code generator, can use XML files as input. Because CodeSmith templates can contain as much programming logic as you need, this opens up possibilities for transforming XML in ways that would be difficult or impossible using conventional XML tools."

XML Queries and Indexing in SQL Server 2005

XML Queries and Indexing in SQL Server 2005: "XML Queries and Indexing in SQL Server 2005
By Mike Gunderloy

SQL Server 2005 is the first version of Microsoft's flagship database to truly embrace XML. True, SQL Server 2000 has some bolt-on XML functionality, but in SQL Server 2005 XML is pervasive. In particular, you can use the new XML columns to actually store XML documents as part of a table. In this article, I'll dig into another part of the XML story: indexing those columns for faster searching."

Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Advanced RSS Ticker (Ajax invocation)

Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Advanced RSS Ticker (Ajax invocation): "Advanced RSS Ticker (Ajax invocation) Description: RSS is a popular format for syndicating and displaying external content on your site, such as the latest headlines from CNN. Well, with this powerful RSS ticker script, you can now easily display any RSS content on your site in a ticker fashion! This script uses a simple PHP based RSS parser called LastRSS for retrieving a RSS feed, then Ajax and DHTML to display the feed dynamically and with flare. As a pre-requisite then, your site itself must support PHP, though the page using this ticker can be any regular HTML file."

Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Basic Ajax Routine (get & post)

Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Basic Ajax Routine (get & post): "Description: Regardless of what you do using Ajax, they all rely on the same basic functions. This is a very small Ajax routine (less than 3 Kb) that enables you to easily use Ajax on your site to send 'GET' or 'POST' requests asynchronously. Some examples include getting the contents of an external HTML file, getting the contents of a XML file and return it as a DOM object, and sending information via PoST to a receiving PHP script (with the information being from either a form or any element on the page)."

DailyTech - Everyone's Favorite Search Engine Releases Google Page Creator

DailyTech - Everyone's Favorite Search Engine Releases Google Page Creator: "Everyone's Favorite Search Engine Releases Google Page Creator
Brandon Hill - February 23, 2006 12:00 PM"

It's been speculated about for long enough and now it is here (well almost).

DailyTech - Say Hello To The World's Largest Windows Error Message

DailyTech - Say Hello To The World's Largest Windows Error Message: "Say Hello To The World's Largest Windows Error Message
Brandon Hill - February 22, 2006 7:05 PM"

Another one in the comments.

Is it really geeky to find this stuff funny?

SeaMonkey News

SeaMonkey News: "January 30th, 2006
SeaMonkey 1.0 Released

The SeaMonkey Council is proud to announce SeaMonkey 1.0, the first end-user release of their internet suite. This open source application, available as a free download from its mozilla.org-hosted website, features a state-of-the-art web browser and powerful email client, as well as a WYSIWYG web page composer and a feature-rich IRC chat client. For web developers, mozilla.org's DOM inspector and JavaScript debugger tools are included as well. SeaMonkey 1.0 is one of the most complete, powerful, and secure internet software packages available today. "

ONLamp.com -- Introducing Lua

ONLamp.com -- Introducing Lua: "Introducing Lua
by Keith Fieldhouse
02/16/2006

There's no reason that web developers should have all the fun. Web 2.0 APIs enable fascinating collaborations between developers and an extended community of developer-users. Extension and configuration APIs added to traditional applications can generate the same benefits."

Mastering Ajax, Part 3: Advanced requests and responses in Ajax

Mastering Ajax, Part 3: Advanced requests and responses in Ajax: "Mastering Ajax, Part 3: Advanced requests and responses in Ajax

Gain a complete understanding of HTTP status codes, ready states, and the XMLHttpRequest object
developerWorks

Level: Introductory

Brett McLaughlin (brett@newInstance.com), Author and Editor, O'Reilly Media Inc.

14 Feb 2006

For many Web developers, making simple requests and receiving simple responses is all they'll ever need, but for developers who want to master Ajax, a complete understanding of HTTP status codes, ready states, and the XMLHttpRequest object is required. In this article, Brett McLaughlin will show you the different status codes and demonstrate how browsers handle each and he will showcase the lesser-used HTTP requests that you can make with Ajax.

In the last article in this series, I provided a solid introduction to the XMLHttpRequest object, the centerpiece of an Ajax application that handles requests to a server-side application or script, and also deals with return data from that server-side component. Every Ajax application uses the XMLHttpRequest object, so you'll want to be intimately familiar with it to make your Ajax applications perform and perform well.

In this article, I move beyond the basics in the last article and concentrate on more detail about three key parts of this request object:

* The HTTP ready state
* The HTTP status code
* The types of requests that you can make"

EclipseZone - Standards based alternative to AJAX -- more complete solution

EclipseZone - Standards based alternative to AJAX -- more complete solution: "Standards based alternative to AJAX -- more complete solution
URL: http://www.insitechinc.com
At 1:40 PM on Feb 1, 2006, Jim Villano Javalobby Newcomers wrote:
XTT - Smart Web Clients for Java ... is a standards based Java Swing Web Application framework that can do what AJAX does and so much more-- simply because it uses a real programming language (Java) on the client rather than JavaScript.

XTT based applications really do behave as thick-client solutions but because of the XTT Framework they can be deployed in a Zero footprint or ultra-thin client depending on your needs. The XTT Framework provides data-binding to both relational databases and objects (EJB's, POJO's, Java Classes, etc.) which abstracts away the pain of complex development and enables developers to focus on implementing business logic.
"

Brave New Word: When not to use AJAX for Dummies

Brave New Word: When not to use AJAX for Dummies: "February 14, 2006
When not to use AJAX for Dummies

Somehow, AJAX became synonymous with rich UI, and that is the same thing as saying that HDTV signals will result in better TV content.

Some sites are using AJAX in the wrong place.

IMHO, Ajax works great if you have a dynamic UI that can't load all data to do its job at once, or, the data is dynamic and refreshing the page costs a lot more than the AJAX overhead."

JSourcery - Javadocs & Source Code

JSourcery - Javadocs & Source Code: "JSourcery is here! This website is the ultimate marriage of Javadocs and open source source code. You can browse Javadoc APIs and check out the associated source code by clicking on the [Source] links. Further, you can trace program execution by following the embedded links in the source code."

Eric's weblog - Ajax: Session Warning to Developers

Eric's weblog - Ajax: Session Warning to Developers: "Ajax: Session Warning to Developers

One thing that you have to think about when developing an Ajax application is the user's session. Now there are two ways it can bite you in the butt. With first hand experience, I have seen these in other people’s applications and mine. Why it is a warning? They can cause some major problems if we do not account for them. Problem 1 can lead to security issues with a long lunch break and Problem 2 can just leave a user hanging wondering why the clicking the button 20 times did nothing!"

Looks Good Works Well: Yahoo! Libraries Released - Ajax & Patterns

Looks Good Works Well: Yahoo! Libraries Released - Ajax & Patterns: "Monday, February 13, 2006
Yahoo! Libraries Released - Ajax & Patterns

I am excited to announce that just a little while ago, we (Yahoo!) released two new (previously internal) libraries to the public.

The Yahoo! Design Pattern Library is being released under a friendly Creative Commons License. The goal is to share common patterns we see emerging on Yahoo! We hope that by opening up our design patterns that we can both share our thinking and garner your feedback."

AJAX and Unit Testing - it's time to mingle - Jim Plush's Programming Paradise

AJAX and Unit Testing - it's time to mingle - Jim Plush's Programming Paradise: "AJAX and Unit Testing - it's time to mingle
February 13, 2006

I've decided to write a little two part introduction into unit testing your AJAX applications with JSUnit. AJAX applications now are adding a new complexity into our development lives. Introducing business logic into our presentation tier. It is now not enough to write some adhoc javascript form validation functions that work most of the time. You now need to take accountability for your javascript code as it can affect your business logic on the server side. "

TECH BLOG

TECH BLOG: "Tuesday, February 14, 2006
10 Things a Web Developer should do for the Client
Author: abs
Category: General

10 Things (in no particular order) that a web developer should do for the client (or their own website), as part of the job. Of course, you all know this stuff and I’m just putting it out there to be found by those not in-the-know."

Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax

Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax: "Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax

Use XMLHttpRequest for Web requests
developerWorks

Level: Intermediate

Brett McLaughlin (brett@newInstance.com), Author and Editor, O'Reilly Media Inc.

17 Jan 2006

Most Web applications use a request/response model that gets an entire HTML page from the server. The result is a back-and-forth that usually involves clicking a button, waiting for the server, clicking another button, and then waiting some more. With Ajax and the XMLHttpRequest object, you can use a request/response model that never leaves users waiting for a server to respond. In this article, Brett McLaughlin shows you how to create XMLHttpRequest instances in a cross-browser way, construct and send requests, and respond to the server."

More on Flash 2

Wanted to let everyone know that we are releasing the Flash Lite Player 2 “early” to enable developers and enthusiasts to begin playing with Flash Lite 2 over the holidays.This is in anticipation of releasing more "preview release" developer materials in January via Adobe Labs to support Flash Lite 2 development. These other materials will include: * an updated publishing profile for Flash Lite 2 content * an update to the mobile emulator in Flash Professional 8 for testing Flash Lite 2 content * documentation (APIs) * sample files * other resources and benefitsYou can purchase an IMEI locked version of the player through the Adobe online store for $10 USD for the following supported Nokia handsets: 3230, 6260, 6620, 6630, 6670, 6680, 6681, 6682, 7610, N70, and N90.

Flash Devices

Requires a license fee if you need to embed the player - rather than running on an existing player.

Flash Lite 2

New Flash Technology From Adobe Enables High-Impact User Experiences For Consumer DevicesFlash Lite 2 and Flash Player SDK 7 Power Development of Customizable Interfaces, Content and Web Browsing For Major Handset and Electronics ManufacturersSAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 3, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Macromedia® Flash® Lite™ 2 software and Macromedia Flash Player SDK 7, essential technologies for building rich, engaging mobile and device experiences based on Flash technology. Flash Lite 2 is a major new release of the Flash Player for non-PC devices, bringing rich user interfaces to mobile phones and consumer electronics devices worldwide. Flash Player SDK 7 is the Flash Player optimized for consumer electronic devices, enabling consumer electronics manufacturers, system integrators and browser companies to create high impact products and services, with full web browsing capabilities, that leverage the vast number of Internet sites featuring Flash content.

Adobe Press Room: For immediate release

Open Source Testing: About

Open Source Testing: About: "Opensourcetesting.org aims to boost the profile of open source testing tools within the testing industry, principally by giving users easy access from one central location to the wide range of open source testing tools available."

Excellent!!!

ONJava.com -- What Is a Portlet

ONJava.com -- What Is a Portlet: "What Is a Portlet
by Sunil Patil
09/14/2005

Portlets
'Portlets are web components--like servlets--specifically designed to be aggregated in the context of a composite page. Usually, many portlets are invoked to in the single request of a portal page. Each portlet produces a fragment of markup that is combined with the markup of other portlets, all within the portal page markup.' (from the Portlet Specification, JSR 168)"

ONJava.com -- Unit Test Your Struts Application

ONJava.com -- Unit Test Your Struts Application: "Unit Test Your Struts Application
by Lu Jian
09/22/2004

Unit testing is an important part of a good development process. Although there are many unit testing frameworks and technologies, such as JUnit, Cactus, EasyMock, HttpUnit, and so on, developers often find that it is difficult to unit test their Struts applications.

This article introduces StrutsUT, a simple extension to the Cactus framework, to help solve this problem. It provides two solutions to unit test Struts applications: a 'traditional' solution and one based on AspectJ. Developers can choose either for their convenience.

This article explains the initial idea of Cactus from a developer's point of view and extends this idea further into the Struts domain, which is the core of StrutsUT. The reader should have some knowledge of and experience in Struts framework, JUnit, Cactus, and/or AspectJ."

ONJava.com -- Advanced SiteMesh

ONJava.com -- Advanced SiteMesh: "Advanced SiteMesh Advanced SiteMesh
by Sunil Patil
09/22/2004

Suppose you're creating an enterprise-level web site and you have to use more than one technology for building it. For example, you want to add some new content to your web site using J2EE, but parts of your system have already been created using CGI or Microsoft IIS server.

In this case, how do you make sure that you have a consistent look and feel across your site? One option would be to rewrite everything in J2EE and then use a framework such as Struts-Tiles, but this option is not feasible because of the development costs associated with this approach. A second option could be to implement the same look and feel in every web application that is part of your system. This approach becomes a nightmare for anyone maintaining the web site, since any time there is look and feel change in one application, you'll have to make similar changes to the other web applications in the system."

Project portletUnit

Project portletUnit: "PortletUnit is a jUnit Java Unit Testing Framework for testing JSR-168 portlets. It is built on ServletUnit and Pluto. It provides a mock portlet container as ServletUnit provides a mock servlet container."

JTestCase - Introduction

JTestCase - Introduction: "JUnit test framework provides an excellent way to formalize your test code. But due to its 'none-input-param, none-return' design, generally you need to hard-code all test data for each testing method. And for each test cases of one unit test, you need to change test code, recompile it, and run it.

JTestCase that helps you in seperating test data from test code. You can organize all your test cases of multiple unit tests into one data file - an XML file, and bulk-load them into memory via sets of easy-to-use APIs that JTestCase provides. In a word, JTestCase provides a way for java unit tests to be test-case-oriented and full-test-automatable."

Projects:testgen4j - Spike Developer Zone

Projects:testgen4j - Spike Developer Zone: "TestGen is a collection of open-source tools that automatically generates unit test cases. The first released component of TestGen is TestGen4J. TestGen4J automatically generates JUnit test cases from your own Java class files, or source files. Its primary focus is to exercise boundary value testing of the arguments passed to the method. It uses rules, written in a user-configurable XML file, that defines boundary conditions for the data types. The test code is separated from test data with the help of JTestCase."

jMock - A Lightweight Mock Object Library for Java

jMock - A Lightweight Mock Object Library for Java: "jMock is a library for testing Java code using mock objects1.

Mock objects help you design and test the interactions between the objects in your programs."

Jakarta Cactus

Jakarta Cactus: "Cactus implements an in-container strategy, meaning that tests are executed inside the container."

Don't seem to have blogged Cactus before - so here it is - just for completeness.

Selenium: Selenium

Selenium: Selenium: "Selenium is a test tool for web applications. Selenium tests run directly in a browser, just as real users do. And they run in Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. No other test tool covers such a wide array of platforms."

MemeStorm » Refreshable log4j configuration files

MemeStorm » Refreshable log4j configuration files: "Refreshable log4j configuration files
Posted in All by Jon on the February 4th, 2006

Sometimes its nice to have a log4j configuration that you can change, particularly during development: when you find an error, you can change the error level without redeploying."

(When using Spring).

DDSteps ("Data Driven Sanity") for JUnit

DDSteps ("Data Driven Sanity") for JUnit: "DDSteps ('Data Driven Sanity') for JUnit
Posted by: Bjorn Granvik on February 10, 2006 @ 09:23 AM

DDSteps is a JUnit extension for building data driven test cases. It separates the input and expected output test data from the test code. The data is kept in an Excel file for easy editing. The test code is divided into test steps, which makes for good reuse. Function testing can now easily be extended with new combinations of input by just adding rows in Excel and new test cases can be created using existing test steps."

Comments include posting by Cedric Beust about how data-driven testing works in TestNG.

Announcing TestNG 4.5

Announcing TestNG 4.5: "Announcing TestNG 4.5
Posted by: Cedric Beust on February 08, 2006 @ 05:23 PM

The TestNG team is happy to announce the immediate availability of TestNG 4.5.

This release contains a lot of bug fixes and a few new features (JAAS support, for example). It also includes the first phase of Distributed TestNG, a work in progress designed to transparently distribute tests on many machines and collect their results."

BeanShell - Introduction

BeanShell - Introduction: "BeanShell is a small, free, embeddable Java source interpreter with object scripting language features, written in Java. BeanShell dynamically executes standard Java syntax and extends it with common scripting conveniences such as loose types, commands, and method closures like those in Perl and JavaScript."

Often touted as being superior to Groovy, see also JavaOne 2005: Wrap Up

An Approach to a Multi-Boot Windows Solution @ .NET DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL

An Approach to a Multi-Boot Windows Solution @ .NET DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL: "

Best Practices
An Approach to a Multi-Boot Windows Solution
When virtualization just isn't an option

By: Pat Piccolo
Feb. 11, 2006 10:00 AM

I've been a big fan of boot loaders for the past decade; whether its lilo or grub or BootMagic, the ability to have multiple bootable copies of Windows has always been a necessity to anyone who works with beta software. The great thing is that with Windows XP Professional and Windows 2003, the NTLDR has finally come of age and can hold its own against the Linux boot loaders."

JAAS in the Enterprise @ JAVA DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL

JAAS in the Enterprise @ JAVA DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL: "JAAS in the Enterprise
An integration proposal

By: Raymond K. Ng; Ganesh Kirti
Jan. 30, 2006 12:00 PM

Since 2001 when Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) was formally included in the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.3 platform specification, the J2EE community has been grappling with the issue of JAAS/J2EE integration. On the surface, JAAS seems to be an excellent complement to J2EE: JAAS defines a pluggable Application Programming Interface (API) for authentication modules and a fine-grained Subject-based authorization model, which are both lacking in the existing J2EE security model. Since JAAS is officially part of the J2EE platform specification, it's not unreasonable to expect that you can now leverage the JAAS framework to build portable enterprise applications that have advanced authentication and authorization requirements. Unfortunately, any Java architects or developers who go down this path for their applications will soon be confronted with the harsh reality: Instead of finding a landscape defined by an unified integration architecture, they'll discover a landscape littered with incompatible vendor-specific APIs and frameworks."

ASP.NET Web: The Official Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Site : Home Page

ASP.NET Web: The Official Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Site : Home Page: "ASP.NET “Atlas” is a package of new Web development technologies that integrates an extensive set of client script libraries with the rich, server-based development platform of ASP.NET 2.0. “Atlas” enables you to develop Web applications that can update data on a Web page by making direct calls to a Web server — without needing to round trip the page. With “Atlas”, you can take advantage of the best of ASP.NET and server-side code while doing much of the work in the browser, enabling a richer user experience."

For further info try: Nikhil Kothar's Blog or ScottGu's Blog

Windows Live Local

Windows Live Local

Windows Live Local combines mapping and local search to put the answers to your search questions in a geographical context. To do this, Windows Live Local combines MSN Search with the latest in mapping to create a new Web application built on Microsoft technology.

Microsoft's version of google maps.

See also: Yahoo maps:

Oracle updates application server, Java tool | Tech News on ZDNet

Oracle updates application server, Java tool | Tech News on ZDNet: "For front-end development, Oracle has built components to ease the process of writing AJAX-style Web applications to its Java development tool, JDeveloper 10g release 3. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript plus XML) lets developers create interactive Web pages that can automatically refresh data from a Web server."

Zimbra™ - February 1, 2006 Press Release

Zimbra™ - February 1, 2006 Press Release: "Armonk, NY, February 1, 2006 - Prominent computer industry vendors and Internet-based businesses today announced that they are making it easier for an open-source community to form and popularize Ajax. Ajax is a fast-growing open client technology that businesses are incorporating into their external and internal Web sites to simplify the browsing experience, and make it easier for users to shop, work, plan, correspond and navigate online."

YAAF

Dojo - DojoToolkit.org

Dojo - DojoToolkit.org: "Dojo 0.2.2 delivers all the professional JavaScript tools you'll need in one easy-to-use package. Engineered and tested for the real world, Dojo lets you build great user experiences with confidence."

This is YAAF (Yet Another AJAX Framework).

The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0

The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0: "The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0

Examining the W3C's approach to improving HTML
developerWorks


Level: Introductory

Edd Dumbill (edd@usefulinc.com), Chair, XTech Conference

25 Jan 2006

In this two-part series, Edd Dumbill examines the various ways forward for HTML that Web authors, browser developers, and standards bodies propose. This series covers the incremental approach embodied by the WHATWG specifications and the radical cleanup of XHTML proposed by the W3C. Additionally, the author gives an overview of the W3C's new Rich Client Activity. Here in Part 2, Edd focuses on the work in process at the W3C to specify the future of Web markup.

In the previous article in this series, I described why HTML is due for an update, both to fix past problems and to meet the growing requirements of the tasks to which Web pages and applications are put. I explained the work of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), a loose collaboration of browser vendors, in creating their Web Applications 1.0 and Web Forms 2.0 specifications.

In this article, I'll examine the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in creating the next-generation version of their XHTML specification, and also their response to the demand for 'rich client' behavior exemplified by Ajax applications."

Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance

Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance: "6 Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance"

6.1 Specified, computed, and actual values

Once a user agent has parsed a document and constructed a document tree, it must assign, for every element in the tree, a value to every property that applies to the target media type.

The final value of a property is the result of a four-step calculation: the value is determined through specification (the "specified value"), then resolved into a value that is used for inheritance (the "computed value"), then converted into an absolute value if necessary (the "used value"), and finally transformed according to the limitations of the local environment (the "actual value").

Having not used CSS for a while, it is important to go back and jog the memory about specificity.

Simon Willison: Maintainability, a.k.a. the CSS elephant

Simon Willison: Maintainability, a.k.a. the CSS elephant: "Maintainability, a.k.a. the CSS elephant

Now that even Slashdot has made the move to CSS it's safe to say that the CSS advocacy battle is slowly being won. It's time to talk about the elephant in the corner of the room: stylesheet maintainability."

Some useful advice in the comments section on this post.

Programmers get their own search engine

Programmers get their own search engine: "Programmers get their own search engine
Feb. 06, 2006

Developers can use Google and other search engines to find source code, but it's not easy. A Silicon Valley startup claims to have come up with a better alternative -- a search engine for source code and code-related information.

The tool, known as Krugle, is designed to deliver easy access to source code and other highly relevant technical information in a single, convenient, clean, easy-to-use interface, according to the company. Krugle works by crawling, parsing, and indexing code found in open source repositories and code that exists in archives, mailing lists, blogs, and Web pages."

See also: Linux-Watch Article

Note: Koders isn't bad

Kratia: About

Kratia: About: "About Kratia
demos(Greek): people
kratia(Greek): to rule

The idea is simple: to make a democratic search engine, in which the order of the results are democratically elected by the users.

By voting in the results, thus giving us feedback about the ones you like and don't like, we can maintain a better listing and get rid of those spam-filled, illegal, and poor quality websites.

This is the power of democracy."

Not Bad - one to keep an eye on

PXN8: "What is PXN8 ?

Every Photo web service is different but they all need integrated seamless editing software that's easy to use and doesn't require their users to download and install software.

This is where PXN8 (pronounced pix-en-ate) comes in. PXN8 is an online image editor with a user interface developed with standard web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) which are available by default on all modern web browsers."

This is rather cool.

Virtual Karma: Complete List of Web 2.0 Applications | Rian's blog

Virtual Karma: Complete List of Web 2.0 Applications | Rian's blog: "Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Complete List of Web 2.0 Applications

Following is an alphabetically sorted list of popular Web 2.0 applications. The description for each of the application is taken from their own About or FAQ pages."

Ace - now I can stop :)

Web 2.0 Innovation Map

Web 2.0 Innovation Map: "About the Web 2.0 Innovation Map

The Web 2.0 Innovation Map grew out of an interest in how Web 2.0 development is distributed geographically. Using the lists of Web 2.0 applications from various sources (see listings) and a bit of elbow grease to locate addresses, the Innovation Map was born. The locations listed here have come either from a WHOIS lookup or the contact information from the web site itself. Locations are not guaranteed to be accurate."

Getting Started with TIBCO General Interface

Getting Started with TIBCO General Interface: "Accelerate your ability to deliver AJAX-based web applications that look, feel and perform like desktop software.

Go to the TIBCO General Interface Developer Community to:

* Download the next version of TIBCO General Interface now
* Get tips, tricks, and tutorials on AJAX development with TIBCO General Interface
* View product documentation and APIs
* Access exclusive AJAX briefings and educational seminars

Start now and download the software
Check out this 8 minute webcast preview with Jon Udell of InfoWorld Labs, then get started"

Commercial Offering - John Udell's webcast is worth watching:
Webcast

Eric Pascarello dissects Ajax security vulnerabilities

Eric Pascarello dissects Ajax security vulnerabilities: "Eric Pascarello dissects Ajax security vulnerabilities
By Colleen Frye, News Writer
07 Feb 2006 | SearchWebServices.com"

Pascarello's Rules of Thumb for Ajax Security:

1. If you use user authentication, make sure you check for it on the request page!
2. Check for SQL injections.
3. Check for JavaScript injections.
4. Keep the business logic on the server!
5. Don't assume every request is real!
6. Check the data with validation!
7. Look at the request's header information and make sure it is correct.

QuirksBlog - XMLHTTP

QuirksBlog - XMLHTTP: "About XMLHTTP problems and bugs.
Part of Coding techniques."

Thic could become a very useful resource

Scuttle

Scuttle: "Scuttle

* Store all your favourite links in one place, accessible from anywhere.
* Share your bookmarks with everyone, with friends on your watchlist or just keep them private.
* Tag your bookmarks with as many labels as you want, instead of wrestling with folders."

This can also be hosted locally.

My Top Ten CSS Tricks [CSS Tutorials]

My Top Ten CSS Tricks [CSS Tutorials]: "My Top Ten CSS Tricks
By Trenton Moss
September 27th 2005
Reader Rating: 9.1

CSS can be complex, and as each new browser version is released, you may well find yourself struggling to keep up with the latest tips and hacks. But those tips and hacks will save your sanity! Here, I've put together the ten tips that I find most helpful, to save you the hassle of scrounging around the Web for solutions when time is tight."


Missed this first time round - so here we go.

Previewseek

Previewseek Received some surprisingly good search results using this service. Don't know where it's suddenly appeared from - but bay be a good backup search engine.

TechCrunch » Songbird to Launch Tonight

TechCrunch » Songbird to Launch Tonight: "Songbird to Launch Tonight
Posted by Michael Arrington

Songbird, the eagerly anticipated new media browser and web player built on the Mozilla (Firefox) engine, will launch (for Windows) later tonight or this morning (unless it doesn’t, CEO Rob Lord tells me :-) ). Mac and linux will come later."

Using CruiseControl with Eclipse

Using CruiseControl with Eclipse: "Using CruiseControl with Eclipse

developerWorks

Level: Intermediate

Nathan Good (mail@nathanagood.com), Consultant, Alliance of Computer Professionals

31 Jan 2006

Get a high-level overview of how to use CruiseControl, Luntbuild, and Anthill with Eclipse. Use these applications for implementing continuous-integration builds that provide quick feedback whenever something changes with a project's source."

DailyTech - Opera 9.0 Preview Coming Today, FireFox 2.0 Alpha Friday

DailyTech - Opera 9.0 Preview Coming Today, FireFox 2.0 Alpha Friday: "The latest version of the Opera Internet browser will have several new features that should grab the attention of users

Opera will be releasing a second preview of Opera 9.0 sometime today, with support for 'widgets,' BitTorrent downloads, and other modifications that will hopefully keep Opera competitive with the popular Mozilla Firefox browser. Widgets are something like small browser windows that take information from the Internet to display it on the user's desktop. And the company hopes that by adding BitTorrent support, users will have an easier and more efficient way to download large files.

The final version is set to be launched sometime in June 2006. Mozilla Foundation also anticipates to release FireFox 2.0 Alpha 1 this Friday, according to the project Wiki. "

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | It's all in the mix

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | It's all in the mix: "It's all in the mix

What do you get if you combine, say, the tagging system from one site with the RSS feed of another? A software mashup, one of the hits of Web 2.0, reports Jack Schofield

Thursday February 2, 2006
The Guardian

Dan Catt grabbed his digital camera, went for a walk in the country near where he lives in Stoke on Trent, and ended up being hired by Yahoo. Well, quite a lot happened in between. Such as Catt launching a website called Geobloggers.com to display his pictures, which also enabled other people to put Flickr photos on Google Maps.

'I put up 17 photos to start,' says Catt, 'and they were dotted around my local area. At the end of the first day there was about 150, and at the end of the first week, just under a thousand. I think there's over 100,000 geotagged photos now - probably a lot more! The idea spoke to people.'"

Solution Watch - Your descriptive source of solutions

Solution Watch - Your descriptive source of solutions: "Comment Tracking with coComment
Sunday February 05th 2006, 2:42 am , Filed under: Internet, Blogging

(Update: Look at the end of the review for a Greasemonkey script for coComment)

Tracking comments that you make at a blog has always been a hassle. The way I usually do it is by making a comment and then bookmark the article with a tag of “comment.” It has worked for me, but obviously does not provide much information and does not notify me of replies. But now there is a new service that has been causing quite a stir in the blogosphere called, coComment. Robert Scoble seems love it and TechCrunch likes the core idea of it. coComment is a free service, currently in private beta, that lets you track comments that you or others leave on blogs that you have commented on."

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: 30 Boxes, Best... Calender... EVER!

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: 30 Boxes, Best... Calender... EVER!: "Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection

Thursday, February 02, 2006
30 Boxes, Best... Calender... EVER!

30 Boxes, View by Day

Let the ajaxification of your life continue! Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with a group of bloggers and technologists for a discussion about how we use calendaring as well as view a preview of 83 Degree's latest project 30 Boxes (you can't get into the site now, but will be able to when they launch their public beta on Sunday). In attendance at yesterday's meeting, in addition to myself, were Matt Mullenweg from WordPress, Mike Tatum from CNET, Niall Kennedy from Technorati, Lane Becker from Adaptive Path and Andy Baio and Gordon Luk from Upcoming.org. From 83 Degrees (the company bringing you 30 Boxes) were Julie Davidson, Narendra Rocherolle and Nick Widler."

Ajax Link Tracker

Ajax Link Tracker: "Take a look at the next generation, MapSurface a modular JSON/On-Demand JavaScript interface that inculdes link tracking."

webpedia: A dual-screen hack for Windows

webpedia: A dual-screen hack for Windows: "Wednesday, January 11, 2006
A dual-screen hack for Windows
Win2VNC will open a small (one pixel wide) window on the edge of your screen. Moving the pointer into this window will trigger the program to take over your mouse and send mouse movements and keystrokes though the RFB protocol to a VNC server running on another machine. When the pointer is moved back towards the opposite edge on the other screen, the mouse is returned to your primary display."

BitTorrent Client Shootout

BitTorrent Client Shootout: "BitTorrent Client Shootout
by Michael Calore 1 Feb 2006"

I don't really follow BitTorrent news - but this article caught my eye - particularly the final article about possible forthcoming firefox extensions for downloading torrents, and even a standalone client built from the Mozilla core (watermonkey).

FireAnt looks VERY interesting too.

Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Preview checklists

Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Preview checklists: "Evaluation of Internet Explorer 7 should start now, but the software should not be used on production systems in mission-critical environments. Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview will only run on Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) systems, but will ultimately be available for Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003."

Once you have seen that site you REALLY need to go to http://www.ie7.com/ for something even better!


If you have looked at the tour in the first link you will have seen see the features below - now shown with their firefox counterparts (Opera also has many of these features but as Firefox is the browser that I use day to day at the moment* that is what I have concentrated on) *I may switch to Flock for general browsing in the near future and leave firefox for development work.

IE7 Feature list
[+ Firefox counterparts]

Optimized Design
The new design, including consolidated menu items, smaller icons, and an overall decrease in toolbar height, optimizes the space on your screen so you see more of the websites you're visiting.

[There are plenty of Firefox themes to facilitate this]

Favorites Center
The new Favorites Center makes it even easier to manage your favorite websites, your browsing history, and your RSS feeds with just a few clicks.

[Bookmarks and browser history are also found in firefox - there is a firefox extension that allows you to view your browsing trail too].

Tabbed Browsing
Whether you're searching the web, comparing prices, or just staying on top of your favorite topic, Internet Explorer 7 lets you view many different websites at one time — all within one organized window.
[Firefox - in default build]

How to Use Tabbed Browsing
Launch Internet Explorer 7 and your home page opens in the first tab. To view other sites at the same time, just click the new tab button New Tab icon in the toolbar and then type the address of the site you want to visit in the address bar. Your home page stays open in the first tab.

[Right click on the toolbar, click customise and drag the tew tab icon onto the toolbar - but clicking on tabs is slow - use CTRL+T as the keyboard shortcut instead. You can also right click on a tab and select new tab].

Close Tabs
Closing tabs is as easy as opening them. Just click the close button Close Tab icon that appears on the right side of the selected tab.

[Firefox has a single close button on the right - but the Deerpark 2 builds (Firefox 1.6a) have close buttons on each individual tab, I'm sure there are tab extensions that would provide this functionality in Frirefox 1.5 - but I find it unncessary - if you are viewing a tab - CTRL+W will close it for you].

Quick Tabs
When you have several tabs open, use Quick Tabs Quick Tabs icon to find the site you want to view or to close sites you're no longer interested in viewing.
[The firefox extension FoXpose will fo this for you. Just like Expose on the Mac].

Search
Internet Explorer 7 brings your favorite web search providers to you. With the built-in search box, you can search the web at any time without having to open a search provider page. You can display search results in a separate tab, and then open the results in other tabs to quickly compare sites and find the information you want. You can even customize your search by setting your favorite search provider as the default.
[Firefox - in default build]

Search
Just type your search terms at any time and press Alt-Enter — Internet Explorer 7 displays your results in a new tab so you don't lose the site you're currently viewing.
[Firefox - identical functionality in default build]

The Power of Multiple Search Providers
You can choose which search provider you want to use as your default and then compare its results with those of other search providers by choosing another search provider from the list. You can also add search providers by selecting "Get Search Provider" from the dropdown list.
[Firefox - you can also select providers in firefox by default].

RSS Feeds
Don't waste time checking many different sites and blogs for updates. Just select the sites or topics you care about and Internet Explorer 7 delivers all the new headlines and updates to your Favorites Center.
[Firefox has had the live bookmearks feature fora while now]

RSS Feeds
News agencies and other dynamic sites now offer a service called RSS Feeds or RSS. With RSS Feeds the website can feed or download information such as top headlines, current travel discounts, sports scores, and other timely content throughout the day to subscribers.
If the RSS Feed icon RSS Feed icon on Internet Explorer 7 is illuminated, it means the site offers a feed. You can subscribe by clicking the Add/Subscribe button Add/Subscribe icon. Come back to the page later by opening your Favorites Center. Now you can read news when it arrives and click headline links to get the complete webpage.
[Firefox has many additional RSS feed readers - Sage being my particular favourite]

Security
Internet Explorer 7 helps keep your information safe by alerting you to potential phishing sites — sites that look legitimate but actually are designed to capture your personal information. It's also easier to see which sites provide secure data exchange, so you can shop and bank online with confidence.
[Only time will tell with this one - no browser has or will ever have an unblemished security record - Historically IE6 had an aweful record - but it was the most popular and therefore most targeted browser]


For more articles see:
MonkeyBites links to ZDNET and Slashdot

Having said all that - IE7 is certainly an improvement on IE6 - which is definitely a good thing... many of the features and indeed the interface resemble that of Firefox... this includes the well documented standardisation of the RSS feed icon as well as the addition of a tools icon that is very similar to that used in Firefox

Funny things - non-secure content is not displayed by default - this includes Microsoft's own passport service (i.e Hotmail login). Interestingly though - Hotmail links can be opened in new tabs - firefox requires an extension to accomplish this.

ONJava.com: What Is a Portlet, Part 2

ONJava.com: What Is a Portlet, Part 2: "What Is a Portlet, Part 2
by Sunil Patil
02/01/2006

Portlets
'Portlets are web components--like servlets--specifically designed to be aggregated in the context of a composite page. Usually, many portlets are invoked to in the single request of a portal page. Each portlet produces a fragment of markup that is combined with the markup of other portlets, all within the portal page markup.' (from the Portlet Specification, JSR 168)"