Tales From TheServerSide
 o TheServerSide.com Reloads with new UI and Slogan
 o The Middleware Company announces the launch of TheServerSide.NET

New Articles
 o Testing Java Classes with JUnit
 o Back End Code Generation Techniques for Java

Tech Talks
 o Kito Mann on JavaServer Faces

Application Server Reviews
 o A Review of JRun 4.0

Key J2EE Industry News Headlines
 Some key headlines:
 o Sun posts Q4 loss of $125 million
 o Middlegen 2.0 VO released

This newsletter is transmitted twice a month. It is printer-friendly and available online

TheServerSide.com Reloads with new UI and Slogan

At last year's TheServerSide Symposium we asked the audience how many people liked TSS' UI. Floyd was the only one who could be seen puting up his hand. :) The other major take away point was that everyone agreed that TSS is not just about J2EE, it's about everything an Enterprise Java developer cares about. We are now pleased to bring you a new TSS UI as well as a welcome to "Your Enterprise Java Community"!

The Middleware Company announces the launch of TheServerSide.NET

TMC has launched TheServerSide.NET, an enterprise .NET architecture and development community. The launch is part of a vision aimed at building communities (online sites, conferences, user groups, etc) to serve all technology practitioners in the middleware industry. TSS.NET will be similar to TSS.com in style and quality, but both communities will be operated independently.

Testing Java Classes with JUnit

By Wellie Chao

In this second part of the "Testing series" Wellie Chao looks at the advantages of JUnit as a testing framework, overviews essential testing concepts and terminology, and walks you through writing a sample JUnit test case. Upcoming articles in the series include: Unit Testing of EJB components, Black Box and In-Container Testing of Servlets and JSPs, and In-Container Testing of Struts Web Applications.

Back End Code Generation Techniques for Java

By Jack Herrington

Jack Herrington looks at the general characteristics that any high quality code generator should have. He compares code generation tools for both traditional and extreme programming approaches such as ModelJ and XDoclet, and gives a synopsis of various MDA generators such as AndroMDA, ArcStyler and OptimalJ. He also provides tips'n'tools on how to build custom generators.

Kito Mann - Author, JavaServer Faces In Action

Topic: JavaServer Faces

Kito compares UI-oriented and foundation-oriented frameworks, and what JavaServer Faces (JSF) will mean to users of frameworks such as Struts, Webwork and Tapestry. He talks about what's new in the beta release, the state of vendor tool support for JSF, and lists various tools and apps making use of JSF today. He compares JSF to ASP.NET WebForms and outlines the challenges for industry-wide adoption of JSF.

A Review of JRun 4.0

By David Thielen

David recounts his experiences working with JRun 4.0; he looks at installation, configuration, how the server handled transaction boundaries, and performance. He comments on JRun's documentation and support, and in his opinion, JRun 4.0 "could easily be the best J2EE server out there for small and medium sites [but] is instead a productivity sinkhole."

Sun posts Q4 loss of $125 million

Sun has posted its financial results for Q4 2003. The results show a net loss of $125 million, or $0.04 per share. The revenue number was down 1% from last year at $2.89 billion. Despite the numbers, this isn't as bad as the $2.28 billion loss for the same period in 2002, so Scott McNealy came out stating that it was "a quarter of progress".

---

Middlegen 2.0 VO released

Middlegen 2.0 VO has been released. It is a free general-purpose database-driven code generation engine based on JDBC, Velocity, Ant and XDoclet. If you already have a database, you can use Middlegen to generate code for a number of target platforms, including EJB and Hibernate ORM.

---

New Open Source Web Framework Released: Verge

The Verge Web Framework is now open source under the GNU Lesser General Public license. New features include the ability to have multiple JavaBeans available on any form, long transaction support and a newly redesigned ActionFlow system that includes support for forms and model objects.

---

XA Exposed: How 2 Phase Commit works in J2EE

Mike Spille has spilled his guts out on distributed transactions. He starts off by looking at the history of 2 Phase Commit / XA and then delves into some of the innards of 2PC. He finishes up his discussion with claiming, "The real cost in XA is disk forcing the transaction logs at critical points in the protocol".

---

If you are receiving this newsletter it is because you signed up as a member of TheServerSide.com and elected to receive our newsletters. To unsubscribe from TheServerSide.com's bi-weekly newsletter, log on to TheServerSide and edit your user profile. Email webmaster@theserverside.com if you are having problems editing your profile.

This newsletter and contents are Copyright (c) 2002 The Middleware Company