TheServerSide.com Newsletter #34

This newsletter sponsored in part by ORACLE

Looking for High Performance J2EE? All developers know the importance ofhigh performance when building Web applications. Check out how Oracle's experts optimize J2EE applications using Oracle9i Application Server and Edge Side Includes (ESI). Click here for your ESI Best Practices guide.

IN THIS ISSUE

Featured Technical Articles
o Understanding J2EE Application Server Class Loading Architectures
o Introducing The JSP Standard Tag Library

Hard Core Tech Talks
o Rick Saletta - J2EE Group Marketing Manager

Enterprise Java Education Strategies
o EJB For Architects: One more chance to Tune In with Your Free TiVo

New Public Review Book Chapters
o Struts Chapter 5: Struts Controller Components
o Struts Chapter 6: Struts Model Components

Upcoming Conferences
o Lone Star Software Symposium 2002 - Dallas, Houston

Key J2EE Industry News Headlines
Some key headlines:
o Microsoft Ploy to Block Sun from WS-I Exposed
o Oracle 9i AppServer Release 2 Production Launched

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

FEATURED TECHNICAL ARTICLES

Understanding J2EE Application Server Class Loading Architectures
By Brett Peterson

This article helps J2EE developers better understand the class loading architectures of a variety of application servers and how the components of a particular J2EE application are loaded. Armed with this information, J2EE developers can design portable J2EE packaging structures or at least understand the tradeoffs when using proprietary techniques. This is particularly important for J2EE component and framework providers who must take on the extra task of shipping their components in the most portable manner.
Read the article here

Introducing The JSP Standard Tag Library
By Shawn Bayern

An exciting, upcoming offering of the Java Community Process, the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) combines the simplicity of HTML with the power of Java. For programmers and nonprogrammers alike, JSTL provides simple and reusable tools for common web-development tasks: loops, conditions, database access, XML manipulation, internationalization (i18n), text formatting, and more. In this article, we look at JSTL's basics -- its history, goals, and schedule.
Read the article here

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This newsletter sponsored in part by BEA

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UPCOMING HARD CORE TECH TALKS

Get leading edge information on current J2EE issues and trends from those who know it best, the gurus and grandmasters, in Hard Core Tech Talks! Videos Hosted on HostJ2EE.com. Featured this week is Rick Saletta, who will talk about the benefits of J2EE.

Rick Saletta - J2EE Group Marketing Manager
In this interview Rick talks about the benefits of J2EE to developers and IT managers, the inherent benefits J2EE has over .NET, calculating ROI on reusable J2EE components, and looks at the history and evolution of J2EE.

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ENTERPRISE JAVA EDUCATION STRATEGIES

ONE MORE CHANCE to Fine-Tune Your Skills and Tune in with Your FREE TiVo^TM!

We've extended our special FREE TiVO^TM offer until May 31, 2002! Take any of our famous EJB for Architects training courses, and get a FREE Philips TiVO machine (valued at hundreds of dollars)!

With your free Philips TiVO, you will...

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Never miss a TV show again. It automatically records all episodes of your favorite shows forever. Imagine being able to watch every episode of Star Trek, or The Simpsons... it is a reality with TiVO!

Always have something good on TV. TiVO is always recording good stuff for you, all day and all night. Whenever you turn the TV on, there's tons of favorite shows for you to watch right away!

With EJB for Architects, you will...

Increase your value as a Java developer in today's economy
Become a better Enterprise Java programmer
Succeed on that upcoming project.

This Special Extended Offer expires May 31, 2002 • Remaining seats are going FAST, So ACT NOW!

Click here to find out more or visit http://www.middleware-company.com/tivo.shtml!

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NEW BOOK CHAPTERS FOR PUBLIC REVIEW

TheServerSide is pleased to announce that it will be hosting a book review process for the upcoming book on Struts, an O'Reilly book by Chuck Cavaness. Chapters from the book will be posted to TSS as they are written for public feedback.

Chapter 5 - Struts Controller Components
First Public Review Posting
The Struts framework uses a servlet to process incoming requests, however it relies on many other components that are part of the controller domain, to help it carry out its responsibilities. The Struts controller components have been briefly mentioned in previous chapters, but it's time to take in-depth look at what components have responsibility for the controller functionality in the framework.
Read/Review the chapter here.

Chapter 6 - Struts Model Components
First Public Review Posting
This chapter introduces the components that make up the model portion of a Struts application. The model represents the business data for an application and should closely resemble the real-world entities and business processes for the organization. We will explore the roles and responsibilities of the model components within the Struts framework and focus on building an architecturally correct implementation for the storefront application. Special attention will be given to using a persistence framework that can be easily and effortlessly integrated into a Struts application.
Read/Review the chapter here.

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UPCOMING CONFERENCES

Lone Star Software Symposium 2002
May 17 - 19, Dallas
June 21 - 23, Houston

A three day J2EE/XML/Web Services conference for Java developers, Architects and Technical Project Managers with over thirty-five presentations to select from and features Craig Larman, author of Applying UML and Patterns, James Duncan Davidson, author of Apache Tomcat, and The Middleware Company's own Dion Almaer presenting on EJB Architecture Issues.

For more information on the Dallas Edition, go to www.completeprogrammer.net/dallas

For the Houston Edition, go to www.completeprogrammer.net/houston

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KEY J2EE INDUSTRY HEADLINES

Microsoft Ploy to Block Sun from WS-I Exposed

Microsoft executives apparently attempted to steer the direction of the Web Services Interoperability Organization away from rival Sun Microsystems, according to evidence and testimony introduced during Microsoft's ongoing antitrust trial. Bill Gates indicated that he approved of Microsoft's involvement with the WS-I, as long as Sun's role was minimized.
Click here to read more.

Log4J 1.2 Released

Log4j 1.2, the open source logging toolkit (also used by TheServerSide) is now finally released (RC1). Log4j 1.2 adds JMX support, Mapped Diagnostic Contexts, JDBC logging, graphical log viewer (chainsaw), buffered IO capability, and other changes to facilitate migration from the JDK 1.4 logging API to log4j.
Click here to read more.

Oracle 9i AppServer Release 2 Production Launched

A couple of weeks ago, Oracle quietly began shipping the production version of Release 2 (v 9.0.2) of the 9i AppServer. The new version features partial J2EE 1.3, Web Services support (the usual WS generation tools as well as a complete UDDI registry), improved clustering capabilities, and better security features.
Click here to read more.

IBM Unveils New Websphere Platform Products

At its DeveloperWorks Live conference in San Francisco, IBM outlined its plans for its family of business software. Topping the list was J2EE 1.3 IBM's WebSphere AppServer 5 (available in Q3). IBM also introduced introduced MQ Event Broker, Business Integration Server 4.1, and Portal 4.1. Numerous companies have also announced product support for Websphere.
Click here to read more.

Tibco Launches ActiveExchange 3.0 Integration Platform

Messaging and Integration vendor Tibco today launched ActiveExchange 3.0, their latest version of their mature integration platform - now providing built-in support for Web-services specs including SOAP, WSDL, XML Signature, and ebXML Messaging 2.0. Unlike many of the new WS integration products, Tibco also supports RosettaNet, EDI, and more.
Click here to read more.

Interesting Recent Developments in Java Data Objects (JDO)

There have been some interesting developments in the JDO world recently. Sun's Forte 4 IDE is dropping its JDO support (which was written by the JDO Spec Lead Craig Russell and Sun's JDO team) while recommending that Forte customers use Cocobase as an alternative. Ironically, Craig and the JDO team at Sun has been re-assigned to implement the Sun One AppServer's CMP engine. Earlier last week, JDO 1.0 spec and RI were released.
Click here to read more.

Oracle9i JDeveloper IDE Released

Oracle has released the production version of Oracle9i JDeveloper. The complete version is free, you only need to pay if you want official support. JDeveloper supports UML based code generation, a code profiler, JSP editor, wizards for EJB development, integrated J2EE container for local testing/debugging and more.
Click here to read more.

AMR: App-Server Market To Boil Down To Four Survivors

AMR Research has said that application-server vendors had for the most part reached feature parity, and predicted the $3 billion market would come down to four significant players: BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. The report also mentions that existing infrastructure and IT skills will influence platform choice - not application server features and functionality.
Click here to read more.

Java Pro Salary Survey: Java Still Hot in the US

What recession? An annual survey conducted by Java Pro found that top Java skills are paying more than ever. The career survey sampled Java programmers' work and compensation and compared it against geography and gender, education and training. Check out this salary survey to see how we can still bring in the dough (as long as we have a job?).
Click here to read more.

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