The Java BluePrints team has just released an early access code download of the Blueprints Solutions Catalog. The catalog is the BluePrints team latest educational effort after the Java Petstore and J2EE 1.4 Adventure Builder sample applications. The catalog consists of a set of guidelines, best practices and small applications to illustrate these guidelines on the J2EE 1.4 platform.

The latest early access release includes AJAX code samples and articles illustrating form auto-completion, updating progress bars, real time form validation, and automatic background page refreshing.

Other areas of the catalog include:
  - Web services in a service-oriented architecture (SOA)
  - Web Tier Design with JavaServer Faces
  - Business tier Design

Each entry follows a problem-solution format with strategies, design patterns, and sample code. The live samples and documentation can be viewed after building and deploying the examples to the Sun AppServer in the J2EE SDK.

An online version without the code samples is also available.

I thought I saw this post already about a month ago here.
Or is the content of the Blueprints catalog updated hence merited a re-post?

F.

I thought I saw this post already about a month ago here.Or is the content of the Blueprints catalog updated hence merited a re-post?F.

Yes, this is an updated version. The new things in this catalog are: AJAX writeups and sample applications, buildable source-code for all applications, updated versions of most writeups and applications.

For easy Java Ajax it's worth looking at DWR.

See also JSP-JavaScript integration taglib:
http://www.servletsuite.com/servlets/jscalltag.htm

There is an alternative way to refresh parts of html pages. WebOnSwing Application Framework (http://webonswing.sf.net) provides a component refresh feature (or partial updates), with the following advantages:

* It's totally object oriented, you work with gui components!
* The refresh mechanism is automatic, you only have to specify
the component's data that will be compared in future requests to let the framework know if the component have to be updated.
* No need a special browser feature or protocol, it works with pure javascript routines and DHTML.

I had downloaded the demo from http://webonswing.sf.net and it was so horrible that i wasted 1 hour and still no success. Once we deploy the war file, we will not be in any position to know which URL to be called.

Release notes is not available.

Pathetic experience..........

Although the idea of Rich Internet Applications as a whole definitely appeals to me, the current phase of the development of supporting technologies doesn't deserve to be named anything else but 'experimental'.

The important drawback to me is testability. Being an addict of completely automated blackbox testing for applications as a way to provide higher quality with lesser efforts, I just can't understand how on Earth could I write a true automated blackbox test for JavaScript-laden application which loads parts of forms dynamically? Or for something with Flash frontend? Anyone out there with browser/Flash UI simulator?

I'd better off with good old HTTP-based web interfaces (with some JS for client-side form validation as well) where applicable. And with full-flegded Swing GUI applets for all the rest. These two I know how to test automatically.

And I'd better wait some time until XAML or something equally mature appears there. It should be testable, I hope.

Although the idea of Rich Internet Applications as a whole definitely appeals to me, the current phase of the development of supporting technologies doesn't deserve to be named anything else but 'experimental'.

Perhaps, but not for much longer. We are at the tail end of an experimental phase that has already stretched over 7 years (when the 4.0 browsers provided a workable foundation for AJAX style applications). I can personally claim deployment of global enterprise apps using this approach since 2000, and I know of many others who have been using this approach strategically for the past 3-5 years.

It is precisely because the supporting technologies are exiting the experimental phase that many developers are beginning their own application experiments. There are still a few issues to nut out, but the technologies are mature enough for most applications and organizations now.

Being an addict of completely automated blackbox testing for applications as a way to provide higher quality with lesser efforts, I just can't understand how on Earth could I write a true automated blackbox test for JavaScript-laden application which loads parts of forms dynamically?

In most cases, this is very simple - just continue to treat the browser rendering as a black box. Record HTTP requests, and play them back for testing. The finer granularity of AJAX round-trip interactivity may make your applications more chatty, but from a blackbox testing perspective this is just a quantitative difference.

When you progress beyond the atomic AJAX interactions (eg field-level validation, real-time autocomplete, etc) to full-blown VB-style GUIs, you may want a different class of automated testing for client-side GUI interactivity. The tools and approaches here are intimately linked to the AJAX engine and components you choose for your rich GUI layer. Very few organizations will build their own cross-browser stack at this level. Even the major application ISVs have been licensing this stack rather than building their own.

I'd better off with good old HTTP-based web interfaces

Aha. This is the core of the misunderstanding.

AJAX interfaces are "good old HTTP-based web interfaces". They just look and feel better, because the request/response happen behind the scenes.

Cheers-

Jeff Dill
Isomorphic Software
www.ajaxclient.com

CyberXP.NET has announced the first release of AjaxFaces (http://www.ajaxfaces.com). The CyberXP.NET AjaxFaces offers an easy, general and complete integration solution (http://www.ajaxfaces.com/products/overview.htm) for JavaServer Faces and Ajax. The solution uses AjaxFaces components (HtmlAjaxScript, UIAjaxData and UIAjaxItem) and Servlet AjaxServlet technology. The solution makes any JavaServer Faces UI component Ajaxable: either trigger Ajax process or change user interface using the output from Ajax process.

The CyberXP.NET AjaxFaces Components (http://www.ajaxfaces.com/products/componentoverview.htm) also offer a rich set of user interface components. Some UI components from the CyberXP.NET AjaxFaces, like tree and calendar, are built with Ajax functionality, and also can be customized with user's renderer component.