More on Java SE 6 Management and Desktop Features

In three recently published articles on Java SE 6, Sun describes, in detail, how to use the new desktop integration and VM management/monitoring features.

Java Management/Monitoring

Java ships with many command-line utilities that offer monitoring and management facilities that are crucial to mission-critical application developers. In many cases, the utilities can dynamically attach to running Java applications. When this happens, probe points are dynamically inserted into the running process, and then are removed when the monitoring tool exits. As a result, you can monitor applications running in production, in their production environment. There are absolutely no performance penalties when the application is not be monitored or diagnosed, and no special compiler options are needed.

To read more about these features, check out the following:
Managing Applications With Java SE 6
Java SE 6 Monitoring, Management, Diagnosability
Java SE 6 Troubleshooting Guide

Additionally, with each release of Java, more DTrace probe-points have been built into the Java VM. DTrace is a utility for Solaris that allows you to trace an application call from the beginning application code, through the application and system libraries that are used, through the OS and kernel, device drivers, and eventually right down into the hardware itself. Soalris’ DTrace is such a powerful tool that developers are adopting it for other operating systems as well. Specific Java VM DTrace probe-points allow you to perform this comprehensive application debugging from your Java applications as well.

Java SE 6 Desktop Integration

A two-part article published this week on java.sun.com details the many desktop integration features that were introduced with Java SE 6. The article shows screen shots as well as sample code to describe exactly what each feature does.

For instance, there are features to do the following:

-Splash screens: build application start-up splash screens that are displayed immediately when a Java application is executed.
-System tray: access the system tray of Windows or Linux to add icons, pop-up menus, or floating tip bubbles.
-LCD monitor tuning: optimizations and anti-aliasing for LCD displays to increase resolution and text readability.
-Improved Swing and OpenGL graphic rendering: performance-relating improvements
-Native look and feel: better integration with the host OS look and feel, such as following the system theme.
-Image rendering: performance improvements in the Image IO APIs.
-Window Modality: the ability to display a dialog box that blocks input from other application windows (or all windows in a single VM) until the user answers a critical question, or inputs a required value.
-The Desktop API: interact with the host system to open web browser instances, launch the default email client, open the application associated with a particular file type, and print to system printers.

For details, read the two-article on java.sun.com:
New and Updated Desktop Features in Java SE 6, Part 1
New and Updated Desktop Features in Java SE 6, Part 2

Happy coding,
EJB

Posted by Eric Bruno at 09:28 AM  Permalink