Real-Time Java; Java ME Web Services; and More!

Did you catch the slot car challenge at JavaOne last week? The goal was to guide a slot car around a large track equipped with sensors without falling off the track. The person who could control the car using real-time Java, and navigate the track in the shortest amount of time, won a Sun Ultra 20 workstation.

The Java Real-Time System is the first conformant commercial implementation of JSR-001, the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ). Java Real-Time System (Java RTS or RTSJ) enables developers of real-time applications to take full advantage of the Java language ecosystem while maintaining the predictability of current real-time development platforms, delivering a very predictable, low-latency, modern software architecture for Java.

Some really cool RTSJ demos were given to those who attended CMP's Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose in April, including an inverted pendulum and a flying helicopter--both controlled with RTSJ running on embedded Solaris.

Greg Bolella and James Gosling enjoy the slot car challenge at JavaOne.

For more information about RTSJ, the JavaOne slot car challenge, and the future of the Java Realtime system, read the interview with RTSJ's creator, Greg Bollella.

Sun's Applet Deployment Guide for IE

A recent update to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 included a change that alters the way users interact with applets in the browser. With this change, users can no longer directly interact with applets by default. Users are first required to manually activate the applet's user interface, before interacting with the applets. If the page has multiple applets, users have to activate each applet's user interface individually. Read the following Sun guide to learn how to work around this issue.

A Conversation with Sun's Bill Shannon

Version 5 of the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE, formerly referred to as J2EE), has arrived. Its streamlined features offer added convenience, improved performance, and reduced development time, all of which enable developers to bring products to market faster.

To get an update on the Java EE 5 platform, read the Sun-posted interview with Java EE specification lead Bill Shannon, a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems.

JBoss releases Transactions, Web Server, and Messaging

JBoss has recently announced new releases to both its Java messaging and Java transactions software products. In addition, JBoss has partnered with Apache to offer a special version of the Apache-Jakarta Tomcat Java Servlet engine, integrated with the JBoss application server.

Web Services for Java ME

Interested in bringing the world of SOA and Web services to your mobile Java applications? Sun offers the Java ME edition of JAX-RPC, which allows Java ME-based software to serve or consume SOAP-based Web services. Read more in this article made available on Sun's Web site.

Open Source

Open source vendors, such as LogicBlaze , now offer entire suites of software to enable low-cost Java SOA-based software development.

This article discusses how LogicBlaze has launched an integrated suite of open source code that's designed to get businesses started with service-oriented architecture.

Project Open ESB

Sun has updated its sites around JBI and Open ESB to include new software, samples, and documentation. Project Open ESB implements an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) runtime with sample service engines and binding components. Open ESB allows you to easily integrate enterprise applications and web services as loosely coupled composite applications. This allows you to seamlessly compose and recompose your composite applications, realizing the benefits of a true Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

JUnit Provides Java Unit-test Framework

JUnit.org is a Web site for the XUnit open-source testing framework for Java. JUnit is a regression testing framework written by Erich Gamma and Kent Beck, to write repeatable and automated tests. It is used by the developer who implements unit tests in Java. You can get more information, or download the latest framework, at junit.org.

Java Posse Interviews Tim Cramer (Sun's Director if Java Tools)

Listen to the Java Posse interview Podcast with Tim Cramer, who discusses why NetBeans is being chosen by more and more developers to build mobile Java applications, as well as Java Swing applications.

NetBeans 5.0/Motorola J2ME SDK

This technical article by the Motorola MotoCoder team shows how to develop Java ME applications for Motorola devices, such as the cool Motorola RAZR phone. It concludes "NetBeans enables developers to set up a UI-based application very quickly. It is especially useful for newcomers to J2ME development." Read the full article in PDF form here.

The NetBeans Partner Program

The NetBeans community has developed a partner program aimed at promoting awareness for the products and solutions that leverage NetBeans technology. The continuing support of these partners and their development with the NetBeans IDE and platform has helped build an ecosystem which includes market leaders and technology innovators. Learn how to become a NetBeans partner at http://www.netbeans.org/community/partners/howto.html

Eclipse Projects for Embedded Devices

In April, the Eclipse Foundation announced new project initiatives and releases for the Device Software Development Platform (DSDP) and C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) Projects, both increasingly popular with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and vendors of real-time operating systems (RTOSs), software development tools, and electronic design automation (EDA) tools. These new initiatives further extend the Eclipse ecosystem into the embedded and device software markets.

Flux 7.1 Released

Flux, a Java job scheduler, workflow engine, and BPM engine, has released version 7.1 of its flagship product. Flux 7.1 has added Ajax to its web-based Operations Console for graphically monitoring jobs and workflows in near-real-time. Read the full press-release at http://www.fluxcorp.com/news

Various Apache Software Releases

There have been several Apache and Apache-Jakarta project release over the past month. Below is a list of the most popular, along with brief descriptions:

• Apache Jackrabbit 1.0 - The Apache Jackrabbit project is an effort to build and maintain an open source implementation of the Content Repository for Java Technology API (JCR) specified in the Java Specification Request 170 (JSR-170).


• Apache MINA 0.9.3 - MINA (Multipurpose Infrastructure for Network Applications) is a network application framework which helps users develop high performance and high scalability network applications easily.


• Apache Maven 2.0.4 - contains bug fixes for:


-[MNG-2054] - Multiple Inheritance Exceptions

-[MNG-2186] - POM interpolation problem

-[MNG-2196] - Fails when parent module is not located a level above

-[MNG-2207] - Infinite Recursion problem

Book Reviews

• Wicked Cool Java, Brian D. Eubanks, No Starch Press


This book covers many areas of Java development, and offers tons of tips on how to use Java effectively. For example, if you want to know how to use the new features of Java 5 correctly, with excellent examples on the right ways to use them, this book is for you. There are tips on how to format strings, use the String class to perform regular expression parsing, process XML with DOM and SAX parsers, process newsfeeds with Java, build scientific and mathematical applications, create GUIs using XML, make music with Java, and even build Java-controlled robots with LEGO robot kits. The books offers hundreds of cool tips to do all sorts of things with Java that are somewhat out of the norm, yet useful. The writing is concise and to the point, and the code is accurate. Although I do advise you look through the table of contents to be sure the book covers topics you're interested in, I found that this book caused me to think about Java development in a new light, and gave me a lot of new ideas with which to use Java.



• Java Enterprise in a Nutshell (3rd edition), Farley, et al, O'Reilly


This is an update to an excellent book that every Java developer should have. If you don't own it, you should get it; if you own an older version, you should think about getting this updated version. Although the book is an excellent, thorough, resource for J2EE development (JSP, JSF, Servlets, EJBs, JMS, JavaMail), there is excellent coverage of Web service development topics (JAX-RPC, SAAJ, Java IDL) and other Java development topics (XML, JNDI, RMI, JDBC, Transactions). Added is coverage of open-source frameworks such as Ant, JUnit, Struts, Hibernate, and Java annotations. Again, this book is a requirement for all Java developers who need a thorough source of information on a wide-range of common Java development topics, with excellent examples that illustrate usage. This book is definitely one of my favorites.




• Java Testing and Design, Frank Cohen, Prentice Hall PTR


Visit TheServerSide.com for an online review this book, along with a free download offer for TheServerSide.com members.

Posted by Eric Bruno at 10:31 AM  Permalink