Venkat's Techno Blog

Renaissance of Programming Languages

2011-04-21T09:12:00.003+05:30

Really good talk by Venkat Subramaniam on Progamming language Renaissance.

Some of the key points

* We are in the middle of programming language renaissance
* Nice analogy between history and Progamming Languages

Day 1 Last session : Javascript powerful language out there

2011-04-20T17:20:00.005+05:30

Last session of the day by Venkat on the power of Javascript

Javascript

Feels like Java & C
Similar to perl in some ways
Untyped Language

Rules

1) Case sensitive
2) goo idea to use ;
3) commenting style is same as Java/C++
4) null and undefined are used to indicated null
5) Strings are single or doule quotes and are immutable

Functional in nature : Functions are first class citizens

Pass and return functions. Everything should be object oriented is a wrong notion.

Variables are typeless. but you need to declare variables with var

Global and local scoping for variables. No block level.

Control structures are like C : statements, expressions, for loops

var sayHello = function(name) {
print('hi');
}

sayHello is now a handle to a function.Its powerful since, you can now register them as event handlers.

IN Javascript everything is an expression. there is no statement as such.

Functions are Objects

function Car(year) {
this.year=year;
}

var myCar = new Car(2011);

print (myCar.year);

myCar is an instance of Car.

Encapsulation is not really about security. Its for code maintainence.

prototype is like a backpack. Any method not defined on object is routed to prototype.

Car.prototype.drive = function(dist) {
print('driving..);
this.miles += dist;
}
Car.prototype.tune = function() {print ('tune')};

print (myCar["year"]); --> you can use this instead of dot notation. You can dynamically recieve the parameter since its in a double quote.

Object is nothing but a collection (property holder).
It can be a function, object or a collection of properties

for (var prop in myCar.__proto__) {
print(prop + '\n');
}

Inheritance in Javascript

Composition is better than Inheritance. Ruby and Groovy have delegation (@delegate).

Javascript supports inheritance through method composition.

function Base() {
}

function Dervied() {
}

Derived.prototype = new Base();

Code Quality

jslint is a nice tool to check code quality.

You need to separate the logic from HTML page.

Overall it was an amazing session with good insights on JS

GIDS Session 6- Microformats and semantic web

2011-04-20T16:34:00.005+05:30

Scott Davis on Microformats for the web.

He explains the significance of metadata.

meta name="description" content=""

meta name="keywords" content=""

SEO : Search Engine optimization

RDFa : Microformats http://rdfa.info

Sites like flickr , facebook are using RDFa

www.alistapart.com

www.yelp.com

Article on How Best Buy is using the Semantic Web.

Tools on Semantic Web
GoodRelations Annotator tool
Semantics Radar
Operator

Microformats

e.g. hcalendar,hcard

Mircoformats made Simple.

http://ablognotlimited.com

Social Graph API : Google code

Microformats are not meant to replace webservices. They are meant to augument them.

Session 5 : JQuery at work

2011-04-20T15:23:00.003+05:30

Tom Marrs is giving a session on JQuery at work.

How to get started with JQuery :

JQuery/Javascript Basics --> AJAX --> JQUERY UI --> Jquery Plugins

3 layers of web --> Behaviour (Javascript), Presentation (CSS), Content (HTML)

http://www.sitepoint.com/ : WebDesign for developers.

Some Caveats :
1) Javascript should be unobtrusive
2) Prefer External Styles
3) Just enough CSS --> Tag , Class & ID selectors, Descendent/combination selectors

Demos on javascript with Java and Javascript.

How to iterate, How to navigate the dom, utility methods.

Ajax : $.ajax

JSON : Lightweight $.getJSON

JQuery Widgets : DatePicker, Accordion, Tabs, Dialog Box, Auto complete,Tool tip, JGrowl

GIDS Award ceremony

2011-04-20T14:13:00.005+05:30

Best .NET productivity tool : Code rush

Best Collobaration tool : Adobe acrobat connecct

Best Content Management and Document Managment tool :Microsoft sharepoint 2010

Best Modeling tool : IBM Rational rose

Change and Configuration Management : Telerik

Testing category : Junit testing framework.

Security Category : Microsoft security essentials.

Web Development : Adobe Flash Platform

Mobile development : Nokia symbian platform

Frameworks : .NET framework

Databases : Dev Express Analytics

Session 4 : HOw to create a beautiful web

2011-04-20T13:52:00.004+05:30

Harish Vaidyanathan from MIcrosoft is giving a quick session on HTML 5, IE 9.

Demo on Native HTML 5

Installing websites as applications. If you have IE 9 installed, you can PIN applications.

Graphical capabilities in IE 9

Browser scales across multiple cores.

All of graphics is offloaded to GPU. Leverage native capabilities in IE. the aquarium demo rocked in IE9 whereas it sucked in chrome.

There is also another fishbowl demo where IE9 wins hands down against Chrome.

IE 9 Patterns

html5labs.com

Microsoft is also annoucing an early look at Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10). It moves the web forward by being 100% compatible with Html 5. and supports css gradients, multi column Layout , ECMA script 5 .

ie6countdown.com : Microsoft website to initiate people to move away from IE 6. If people come to your website from IE6, send a message to them buy copying the piece of code.

Good to know that Microsoft too is joining the HTML5 bandawagon.

HTML 5 Deep dive

2011-04-20T12:24:00.005+05:30

Venkat subramaniam is giving a deep dive into HTML 5 features.

Presenatation is a todo list in textmate instead of a presentation, which is quite cool.

New HTML 5 tags like section,article,aside,header,footer

CSS 3 Pseudo- classes
nth-of-type(even) and nth-of-type(odd) are new things for changing background for alternate colours.

last-child is special for last row. can be applied for tr and td.

No more classes through each element

Targeted input types
email : input type=email
placeholders :get a clue for placeholders in grayed out manner
placeholder="email@example.com"
autofocus : set focus on field
turning off autocomplete
required
pattern
url
search
number
range min 1 max 10 value
date , datetime,color

Inplace editing : contenteditable

border-radius:10px; ( oval box)

moz-tranform,webkit-transform,transform --> for rotating sections : rotate(degree)

transparencey

box-shadow

dragdrop

Audio and video

Client side data
localStorage is par of window object. its part of a hashMap.
Benefits
local storage,session
offline web apps

GIDS Session 3 - HTML 5

2011-04-20T11:04:00.006+05:30

Scott Davis : I really loved his sessions last year. He is a real expert on Grails. He has a website on thirstyhead.com.

Starts of with a quip on his new shirt.

HTML 5 enhancements

1) Form enhancements, mobile support

Biggest new feature. --> Semantics over markup. Currently pages are cluttered with Divs currently. You can provide separate tags for various page sections like nav, header , footer and sections.

Screen readers can parse the code and act accordingly.

Desktop Browser support for HTML 5
Google already uses HTML 5 and provides outstanding support in their chrome browser.
Apple Safari already supports HTML 5
Mozilla Firefox and Opera supports HTML 5 as well.

IE 9 supports HTML 5 specification even though its not available on windows xp.

Good that everyone is now meeting the specifications.

Support for Mobile in HTML 5

All applications are HTML 5 with a thin app wrapper like NYTImes. Javascript is the write once run anyware platform finally :).

RIM Playbook has outstanding HTML 5 support.

Cost to implement technology is very high initially, and the value is very low. Dont wait for final standard. You need to wait for Oreilly book on that technology then its here to be used :)

HTML 5 is here to stay and start now instead of waiting .

http://diveintohtml5.org by Mark Pilgrim . Entirely free online book.

New Elements

Doctype is amazingly simple :

New semantic elements: header, nav, footer,section, article, aside.

HTML 5 Reset Stylesheet : Include all these to use display:block;

http://html5shiv.google.com/svn/trunk/html5.js

Form Enhancements

INput elements support following new values : tel,search, url, email, dateime, date, month, week, time, email .

Any browser that doesnt support the new values, will present a text instead. this is true only for desktop browsers. But mobile browses have issues.

Modernizr
Checks for html features support. New idea is to program to the most mordern browser and pollyfill for the others using Modernizr.

Mobile support : Smart phones and Tablets are selling really fast.

www.html5rocks.com

App Cache : explicitly cache js, css, images.

Cache Manifest can explicity cache resources.

Cache,Network and fallback sections.

typical application could be an twitter client in html5 that can switch between online and offline mode. Full control of the cache through javascript.

Data Storage : Allows you to storage as a hashmap.Upto 5 MB of local storage is available per domain per url.

Web SQL database : supported by all browsers except firefox and IE.

Video support

Youtube html5 video player. Use video with object tags combination.

Some more websites to checkout :
http://html5doctor.com
http://html5demos.com/

ON the whole it was an awesome session , that really opened up the world of HTML 5.

HTML 5 Cross browser Polyfills is the way to go

GIDS Session 2 : Demo on Blackberry playbook

2011-04-20T10:41:00.005+05:30

Next up is a session on playbook that was launched in US yesterday

What is a Tablet?

Combines best of both worlds : smartphone and Laptop

Features of Blackberry playbook

features are amazing : dual core 1ghz processor , 7 inch touch screen , front and rear cameras.

multitasking --> this is not currently possible in ipad

full support for adobe flash sites.

support for HTML 5

HDMI PORT

ultra convenient and less than a pound

sales force integration

lots of enterprise features : securely pair Blackberry, document viewing and editing over 2000 apps available.

Developing for playbook

Browser : Flash 10.x + html5

RIA : Adobe AIR + blackberry web works

www.blackberry.com/playbook

GIDS Session 2 : Demo on Blackberry playbook

2011-04-20T10:41:00.003+05:30

GIDS 2011 - .Web day Session 1

2011-04-20T09:33:00.006+05:30

Arijit Chatterjee from Adobe is giving an excellent session on Building Next Generation of Experiences.

His presentation is full of interesting images. I like the fact that there is less content in the presentation and more of verbal communication.

The main message behind the presentation is to how to make the user experience better - Understand your users, how to make beautiful websites, understanding local sentiments and speaking in local language.

Some key things to keep in mind

1) Build trust
2) Maintain Focus on workflows --> move from one task to another
Create in context help - if necesary
3) Involve all Senses - the more sensory organs are involved, the more you will be able to retain users.
for web app Visual,Touch,Sound are the key .

4) do not build something Jazzy - it might drive people away from your site

5) Acknowledge Status clearly once you are done with something irrespective of Victory or Failure.

6) 3 D display wherever relavant

7) Use sound - Judiciously

8) use of high definition haptics

Wrapping up with a few stunning images . Aquarium Sink, Bubble Cosmos , Interactive multi modal workspace.

Post Lunch session -OSGI

2009-07-18T14:26:00.006+05:30

Lunch was extremely good and felt good after eating. Had only less though so as to keep in make.

Now the topic is on OSGI by Sameera Jayasoma . WSO2 is an open source company hased in Srilanka. Their main product is WSO2 carbon,Which is a fully componentized SOA platform based on OSGI. Then there was some PR on their company.

Modular Systems
Break large system into more smaller,understandable units called modules.Benefits of modular systems are reuse,abstraction,division of labour and ease of repair.

Module should be self contained,highly cohesive and loosely coupled.

Java for building Modular systems
--> provides class level modularity(public, non public methods)
--> we need somthing like external packages, internal packages in a jar

ClassLoader hierarchy : Bootstrap classloader (rt.jar) --> extension classloader (ext.jar) --> application classloader (a.jar,b.jar)

Problems with JARs

--> Jar is unit of deployment in Java and typical java app consists of set of jar files

--> no runtime representation for a JAR.

when java loads a class, it tries to load class one by one in the classpath.

--> multiple version of jar files cannot be loaded simultaneoulsy
--> Jar files cannot declare their dependencies on other jars

Java lacks true modularism and dynamism. Java has given flexibility to build system on top of it. This is called OSGI (dynamic module system for java)

OSGI

--> Bundle is a unit of modularization of OSGi. OSGI app is a collection of Bundle.
Bundle is similar to jar and contains additional metada in Manifest.mf file. In osgi , java package is the unit of information hiding. unlike in jar when class is the
unit of information hiding.

--> bundle can share and hide packages from other bundles.

sample manifest.mf file

Bundle-MainfestVersion:2
Bunle-Name :
Bundle-SymbolicName:
Bundle-Version:1.0.0 (major,minor,micro version)
Export-Package
Import-package:

symbolic name and version are unique for a bundle. default value for version is 1.0.0
all packages in bundle are hidden from other bundle by default. if we need to share package explicitly mention the name.

Bundles & Class Loaders
OSGI gives separate classloaders per bundle,thereby eliminating hierarchial classloading in java

System bundle is a special bundle that represents the framework and registers system services

Tooling for osgi : eclipse pde is the best of the lot

osgi provides command line interface

ss -> lists all the bundles in the system

b/bundles - gives the list of informaiton about the bundle.export information.

b 0 --> gives system bundl information

export-hundle and import-bundle
require-bundle : import all exported packages from another bundle. but this is discouraged.

Issues with require bundle
Split packages,bundle changes over time,require bundles chain can occur.

fragment bundles : attached to a host bundle by the framework.Shares parent classloader.

runtime class loading in osgi: order of loadin

1) call parent clas loader (only for java.*)
2)imported packages
3)required bundles
4)load from its own internal classpath
5)Load from fragment classpath

Usage of fragment bundle 1) provide translation files to different locales

OSGI specifications --specifies framework and specificaions

osgi alliance

current version is 4.1

osgi can be considered as a layer on top of java.can also use jni to talk to OS. functionality of framework is deivided into several layers

1)module 2)lifecycle 3(

Lifecyce layer : manage lifecyle of api.
bundle starts --> installed,resolved,starting,active,stopping,uninstalled.

Register a service using bundle service using registerservice on bundlecontext

Using a service --> find a serviceReference,get the object,cast it to a proper type and use the service

Events and Listeners

framework fires serviceevents during registering a service,unregistering a service

services are dynamic. monitor services using service listeners,service trackers,declarative service,iPOJO and blueprint services.

Service Tracker

declarative service

SCR (service component runtime)

Powerful Reporting with BIRT

2009-07-18T10:48:00.012+05:30

This is the sesison that i hope to get the maximum benefits from especially since we have started using BIRT for our projects. The session is by Krishna Venktraman from Actuate, who is the director

Background

--> Most applications have some kind of data visualization need. Real world applications don't consider reporting when they design the application. BIRT provides a framework that manages all the reporting requirements.

Traditional approach :

Buy closed source commercial products or build custom developed solution
With open source based products things become much easier.

Emergence of BIRT Project
BIRT was initiated in 2004 as a top level eclipse project. IBM,Innovent and Actuate are the key members.
Focus was BIRT was to make report development easy.Its open and standards based and provides for rich programmatic control. It has both simplicity and well as Power to create complex reports. BIRT supports of concept of reporting libraries that promotes reuse and reduces changes.

The main audience for BIRT was report developers,advanced report developers who use scripting, runtime integration developers who use birt viewer and engine apis, report design integrator who use design engine apis, extension developers who develop extention points and finally core development who do eclipse development itself.

There were five major releases since project launch with 1.0 ,2.0,2.1,2.2,2.3,2.5 as the versions. It was built from ground up and lot of community feedback was take into account

Key capabilities
--> Simple to complex layouts
--> Comprehensive data access
--> Output formats
--> Reuse and developer productivity
--> Interactivity and linking
--> Multiple usage and productivity aids

Some key features added in 2.x versions
--> ability to join datasets
--> enhanced chart activity
--> multiple master page support
--> Dynamic crosstab support
--> CSS files can be linked
--> Emitters for XLS,Word , PPT and Postscript
--> Webservices can act as datasource
--> Javascript/Java Debugger

BIRT design gallery : some of the displays llok really good.

High level BIRT acrhitecture

Two key components
1) Report Design Engine
2) Report runtime Engine

at the end of design process we get a .rptdesign. report engine then looks at the file, interprets it, fetches the data and goes about the generation process. we get an .rptdocument. Key services of report engine are generation services,data services,charting engine and presentation services.

BIRT exchange is a community site for posting all BIRT related issues.

Key API
a) Design Engine API b) Report Engine API c) Chart Engine API

Extension points
--> data source extensibility
--> custom business logic extensibility using scripting and acess java code
--> Visualization extensibility
--> Rendering content for output (emitters)

Deployment options

--> Commercial Report Server
--> J2EE Application server
--> Java application

Actuate provides Actuate BIRT report designer,BIRT report studio, BIRT Viewer,BIRT Interactive Viewer,deployment kits, iServer Express,iServer Enterprise.

Now for the actual report designs...

Just had an overview of the birt tool. Going through the series of demos on basic report, now basic charts, then crosstab/matrix report.

Book Marks and hyper links

Click the element and then pickup bookmark from properties . Now go to the place where you want to place hyperlink and link up the bookmark.

Filters
Limit what to display . You can limit at dataset level or at table level.

Sub Reports

Main Report --> Outer table
Sub Report --> nested table
Pass data value from outer table to nested table

In BIRT we need to nest tables in order to create sub reports.
Use Dataset parameter binding on the child set to get the data from parent dataset

BIRT Scripting

Mozilla Rhino script engine is embedded in BIRT.
Scripting = Expressions + Events
It users server side scripting. All the export options will get the same output.

Event Handling
Initialization Report level events (-initalize,-beforeFactory) --> Data source Open (-beforeOpen,-open) --> Data Set Generation (--beforeOpen,--open,fetch) --> Dataset Generation

Generation phase : Report level,datasource level, element level
Render : report level,element level

can implement powerful logic using scripting

Report Libaries
Just use export library by right clicking on the rptdesign file. Then click on use library and say use library.It has all the data sources, data sets and report items.
Library is a container of reporting items.
Can do local overrides on things imported from libraries

Templates
File --> New Template.Serves as starting points for speedy report development.
Display a visual image. then register this template with the new wizard.

Last piece was a demo on how to deploy the reports.

One big disappointment was i couldn't get any idea on how to integrate report engine and birt viewer with the custom applications.

On the whole it was a good session.

Keynote II

2009-07-18T10:23:00.003+05:30

Enhancing the developer productivity using RAD for websphere

--> Interesting the two main competitors give the keynotes one after the other

IBM Rational Architecture and construction
--> for solution,software and enterprise architects : Rational Data Architect,Rational Software modeler
--> for architects and designers who code in java,c++,xml --> Rational software architect Standard edition
--> Rational application developer --> for developers

IBM RAtional Applicaiton Developer for websphere

--> accelerates development
--> do even traceablity matrix
--> support for jpa and code generation

Comprehensive JEE5 tools

Unit testing is provided out of box
Visually layout JPA and EJB 3.0 classes
Convert UML to WSDL using RSA product
Provides excellent AJAX support

Enhanced support for Web 2.0
Declare POJOs and make it as REST service. Call Rest service as JSPs.
Javascript editor and debugger

JSF support
visual development of JSF pages
Data abstraction objects for easy data connectivity - SDO
Automatic code generation for data validation,formatting
Integration of third party JSF libraries

Portal development support is also excellent.

One of the very key features is to Automate performance and memory testing . This is built on top of eclipse TPTP.

Automates azpplication testing using WebSphere Application Server 6.0,6.1 and 7.0

IBMs strategy is to deliver high quality solutions by moving towards flexible architecture,automation layer,reduce onboarding

JAZZ platform : is meant for open community.

Mail id of the presenter is :bhrengen@in.ibm.com

Keynote address for the day

2009-07-18T10:22:00.001+05:30

First again a PR from SaltMarch :) .

The topic will be Plug-in to rapid development on Weblogic with Eclipse by Dhiraj Bandari

Dhiraj Bandari is as sales consultant from Oracle, moved on from BEA with the acquisition.

Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse (OEPE) is a plugin that is really useful when we used weblogic application server integration. Provides the following features

--> Weblogic server (start,stop)
--> web services
--> spring
--. JSF + facelets
--> DB tools
--> ORM workbench

ORM workbench

--> creates the entity classes and helps to run all db functionalities
--> supports eclipselink,kodo,openjpa
--> has database schema broswer similar to TOAD

--> provides spring support

Tools for JAX-WS web services
--> New facets for weblogic web service development

Weblogic Server Tools
--> Run/deploy/debug locally or remotely
--> FastSwap ,shared libraries,Deployment plans
--> Migration support

Weblogic deployment descriptor editors

Oracle's strategy is to stop development on weblogic workshop. They will develop & enhance only JDeveloper and Enterprise pack for eclipse.

FastSwap Feature -- for iterative development

Traditional JEE Development cycle is Edit --> Build --> Deploy --> Test

Using Modern IDES it becomes Edit --> Deploy --> Test

FastSwap's goal is to eliminate the Deploy step Edit --> Test

FastSwap detects changes to class files,redfined changed classes,Non invasive and development mode only

Demo on FastSwap operation

How to enable fast swap feature --> go to weblogic application deployment descriptor and ebale fast swap. Then instant chagnes to ejb classes,web classes can be seen.

Day 2 live blogging - EclipseSummit India

2009-07-18T10:21:00.000+05:30

Participants are quiely settling in. Strength has considerably dwindled compared to yesterday. There was unexpected drizzle in Bangalore , causing me to get partly wet and making me feel miserable in an AC room.

Wireless Internet connection does not seem to work as expected :(. Hope to post all these one by one when i am back in the network.

Expectations for today
Today I am eagerly looking forward to attend BIRT workshop in the morning followed by a sumptuous lunch and then another workshop on OSGI.

JPA 2.0 New Features

2009-07-17T15:00:00.010+05:30

JPA 2.0 is releasing 2009 fall. (JSR 317)

Goal

--> Fil in ORM mapping gaps
--> Make object modeling more flexible
--> offer simple cache control abstraction
--> allow advanced locking settings
--> JPQL enhancements

More standardized properties
--> some properties are used by each and every driver

Persistent unit properties like javax.persistence.jdbc.driver, javax.persistence.jdbc.url

JPA 2.0 supports join table as well as f key relationships.
Collections of embeddables or basic values.

This is made possible using elementcollection annotation

OrderedLists
order is maintained even if you move things around by using an index.

More Map flexibility
Map Keys and values can be : Basic objects,embeddables, entities

Enahcned embedded support
Embeddables can be nested and can have relationships

Access Type options
--> mix access modes in a hierarchy (field or properties)
@Access annotation

Derived Identities
JPA 1.0 relationship field cannot be part of the id

JPA 2.0 @Id + @OneToOne

Second Level Cache
API for operating on entity cache which is accessible from EntityManagerFactory
Supports only ver basic cache operations , which can be extended by vendors

@Cacheable annotation on entity (default is true)

There is also a property by the name shared-cache-mode to denote per PersistenceUnit whether to cache.
--no entities
--only cacheable entities
-- all entities

Properties cacheRetreiveMode and cacheStoreMode per EM method call whether to
read from cache

Locking
1.0 allows only for optimistic locking
2.0 provides for optimistinc locking by default
pessimistic locking can be used per entity or query

Lock mode values introducted
Optimistic (=READ)
optimistic_force_increment(=write)
pessimistic_read
pessimistric_write

API Additions
Lockmode parameter added to find,refresh
Properties parameter added tofind,refresh,lock
Other useful additions
void detach(Object entity)
unwrap
Query API addition
getFirstResult
getHints
Enhanced JP QL
Timestamp literals
Non-polymorphic queries
IN expression may include collection parameter --> IN (:param)
Ordered List indexing
CASE statement

Criteria API
Similar to eclipselink expressions,hibernate criteria
Criteria API - Canonical Metamodel
--> For every managed class , there is a metamodel class

Load State Detection
JPA can integrate with Bean validation (JSR 303) : Hibernate Validator is an implentation

JPA 2.0 shpped as part of Java EE6 release

JOptimizer

2009-07-17T14:31:00.004+05:30

Back after a sumptuous lunch

Tool by Embarcadero technogies : http://www.embarcadero.com/products/j_optimizer/

Available standalone as well as eclipse plugin

Uses
--> Detecting excessive object allocation

--> memory leaks

--> detecting bottle necks

--> code coverage/code quality

--> thread debugging

--> Breakdown JEE requests

--> request analyzer

remotely connect and find which layer is causing problems. Can go into any level of detail.

code coverage

how to analyze and find out threading issues ?

--> Detecting deadlocks and visually analyze the deadlocks.

richard.davies@embarcadero.com

Patterns in eclipse

2009-07-17T12:27:00.005+05:30

Three rules of eclipse

plugin may not change screen,task and create objects unless user asks for it

1) User owns the screen

2) User owns the CPU

3) User owns the memory

--> Do not use singleton pattern.Memory allocation never goes away

Building the UI withoug loading plugins

Decoupling using adapters
--> dynamic implementation of an interface
--> class can be adapted to any interface
--> best example is the properties view

4) most of the items are implemented as services
Located,Scoped and Destroyed

5) Separation of concerns
same class should not do a,b,c,d,e
use handlers
6) scalable UI
browse instead of combo
filters instead of presenting a large set of info
always use group data in relevant sections
provide deselect /select all buttons
differentiate and place common buttons appropriately

Eclipse and Building Data Centric RIA

2009-07-17T11:20:00.012+05:30

Demo of portal type application using flex
Interactive charts --> looked really good with nice drilldowns

Rich Internet Applicaions
1) REal time data push
2) resizable
3) Rich Data entry
4) Chat
5) Data Synchronization
6) Audio and Video
7) Offline

Open Screen platform : Adbobe flash platform

clients --> AIR and flash player

Servers/services --> Blazeds,data services

Flex framework

tools to design and develop : flex builder

Understanding flex

written in mxml markup

flex sdk is free and opensources

flash builder : eclipse based professional IDE

benefits :

UI goes to client only once . after that only data changes..

Approach for Developing RIAs

Design focused
Data focused

Coding

Testing and Deployment

Demo

Model Driven development

Steps

1) Create a new project

2) Create a data model (fml file)

3) Deploy model to LCDS (Live cycle data services)

4) import fml file

5) create mxml and add datagrid.

6) Dnd datamodel to data grid

7) Run application.

Business logic can be written in custom assembler. Normal one is fiber assembler.

Even tomcat is fine. Internally fml creates java classes at runtime during startup.

Data Centric Development using Flash Builder

1) Define Service (CF,php,java,soap,rest)

2) Model Service (flash builder examines service, builds design-time model)

3) Bind Operations to Flex UI Components (data binding,UI generation,Paging,Data-management)

AMF : Action script messaging format used for sending and reciving data , more efficient than json and xml.

Testing and deployment

Network monitor
unit testing framework
Command line builds ( coming soon)

Demo of Ruby service plugin

Data Centric Development Extensibility

Extension points
Key interfaces and classes for custom service
IServiceWizard,IServiceIntrospector,IServiceProperties
FlexService,FlexServiceOperation,FlexServiceConfig
Key interfaces and classes for componentConfigurator

Flash Catalyst

Imports photoshop files and analyzes it. Based on eclipse platform. takes mockups and creates flex application based on them. Generates flex code behind the scenes.

Wow.. thats too good

Require flash builder license and run time license for LCDS

Resource

www.flex.org
Tour de flex : www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/tourdeflex/

EclipseLink : High Performance Persistence

2009-07-17T10:18:00.016+05:30

I have used eclipselink on one of the key projects lastyear. It was donated by Oracle to Eclipse foundation. Toplink became eclipselink. I was really impressed by its implementation of JPA and customizations such as Criteria Queries. Hoping to learn more from this session.

EclipseLink Architecture

Supports JavaSE,EE,OSGi and Spring

Eclipselink solution comprises JPA implentation,Moxy,EIS,SDO(service data objects),DBWS (database webservice --> want xml from relational data ).

JPA
--> supports JPA 1.0 with many advanced features
--> simplified configuration of using annotations and/or xml.
--> Best ORM for Oracle database

Tool Support
-->EclipseLink is a runtime project supported by IDEs.
-->Eclipselink supported by Dali
-->MyEclipse
-->Oracle Jdeveloper 11g,Enterprise Pack for eclipse
--> Netbeans
--> Standalone workbench(Swing project)

Eclipselink distributions
--> Eclipse,Oracle toplink,weblogic,glassfish,spring framework,JOnAS

JPA persistence Provider(eclipselink) sits between Java SE/EE and rdbms

Core JPA Mappings

ID (primary key)
Basic (field mappings)
Relationships
OneToOne,ManytoOne,OneToMany,ManyToMany

Configurations
Persistence.xml
Mapping Annotations
Query hints
Advanced Mappings
Eclipselink orm.xml

Examples of Advanced Mappings
class level --> @Converter(name="",converterClass="")
field level --> @Convert(name="")

@PrivateOwned (coming in JPA 2.0) : doesnt exist without parent

Caching :
@Cache(type=SOFT_WEAK,coordinationType=SEND_OBJECT_CHANGES)

Optimistic locking :
@OptimisticLocking(type=CHANGED_COLUMNS)

Custom Data type conversions:
@Converter,@TypeConverter,@ObjectTypeConverter
@StructConverter

Query Framework

5 different ways

Entity Model : JPQL
Expressions
QBE
Native : SQL
Stored Procedures

Customizations in queries
--> Locking,Cache usage
--> Optimizations (batching,joining)
--> Result shaping/conversions
--> Stored Proc support

SQL and Stored Procedure directly hit db.

For other 3 query framework is used. Checks for Cache hit,Cache result is used using Object builder)

Annotations for stored procedures
@NamedStoredProcedureQuery and @NamedStoredProcedureQueries

e.g. @NamedStoredProcedureQuery(name="",procedureName="",parameters={})

Hints
eclipselink.read-only : useful in read only screens

Lazy loading & Fetch Groups
Two fetch groups defined automatically --> eagerly loaded fields and lazily loaded fields.Enabled by byte code weaving

Create your own fetch groups and added to query as hint. Overrides default fetch groups.

Caching Advantage :

Shared L2 and persistence context caching
--> Entity cache and not data cache like ehacache that comes with hibernate

Cache Invalidation --> time to live,fixed times, programmable

Cache Coordination --> Messaging,Type specific configuration (invalidate,sync,sync + new,none)

Invalidate is the most used and cheapest one

Annotations for caching : @Cache,@TimeofDay,@ExistenceChecking

Concurrency Protection :
@OptimisticLocking : Numeric,Timestamp,All Fields,Selected fields,Changed field

Pessimistic locking : using hit eclipselink.pessimistic-lock

Dealing with DB Triggers

@ReturnInsert and @ReturnUpdate : efficiently reread modified data in Oracle db.

Change Tracking
@ChangeTracking annotation to configure the way changes to Entities are computed
Attribute level ,object level, deferred ,auto

Performance Options summary
--> ChangeTracking
--> Read only queries
--> parameter binding
--> joining
--> inheritance
--> concurrency
--> dynamic expressions

Moxy : Object XML Binding

JavaApp --> Objects --> EclipselinkOXM --> xml

Rich set of mappings provides complete control to map objects to any XSD.

Eclipselink JAXB2 Annotations , Moxy XML

twice as fast as sun ri and xml beans.

API steps
1) Create factory,context
2) Marshal and UnMarshal

SDO : Xml Centric

Wow.. too fast session .. but left me lots to explore in JPA.

Eclipselink 1.1.2 released as part of Galileo

Eclipselink 2.0 --> Fall 2009 ; implements JPA 2.0

DBWS : Generated JAX-WS from DB

Keynote address - Day 1

2009-07-17T09:36:00.007+05:30

First PR on Saltmarch going on :).

Sponsors : Platinum --> Oracle,IBM and Microsoft
Gold : Actuate,Adobe etc

Key note speaker will be Ramkumar Kothandaram from Microsoft

What is microsoft doing in an eclipse conference !!!

Topic will be interoperability.

Agenda

--> Microsoft's approach to interoperability
--> Open source & Microsoft platform

Need for interoperability

We have diversified client applications (firefox,ms office,Open office , IE8) and server applications (Jboss,.NEt etc..) , storage(EMC2,netapp) , multiple databases, processors(intel,ibm,sun).

Customers buy heterogeneous hardware/sofware. Painful EAI projects used to take a long time. This resulted in interoperability evolution.

Microsofts approach to Interoperatbility
--> Products : All products natively interoperability
--> Colloboration : with Partners,competitors and open source community
--> Standards : Promote interoperability through new and existing standards
--> Developer resources : msdn,codeplex etc

Products

All products like Windows Vista,.net ,Win server 2008,office 2007 support interoperability.

Can consume and expose webservice endpoints.

Colloboration

Apache stonehenge : Project to test for interoperability between various vendors.

MS part of interoperability alliance. Took leadership in webservices interop.

Standards

Participates in over 150 standards bodies

Developer Perspective

PHP on Windows --> PHP FastCGI on IIS

Seems that PHP on windows scales as fast as Apache ..

Then there was introduction to Microsoft Azure which is microsofts cloud computing platform.

Eclipse tools for sliverlight (eclipse4SL) : eclipse plugin for silverlight from soyatech. Looks good to me :). Can build RIA and embed in Html.

Java API for open XML : standard for storing documents. Create a document for server side. http://poi.apache.org

Links to remember

http://www.microsoft.com/web

Codeplex : 80000 open source apps on MIcrosoft application.

On the whole it was a good eye opener on microsoft and its contribution to interoperability.

Live Blogging from Eclipse summit - Bangalore

2009-07-17T09:27:00.001+05:30

Here I am back again with live blogging from Eclipse summit Bangalore.

We are minutes away from launch and there seems to be a lot of Java/Eclipse lovers. The ballroom is really full.

The keynote address is set to begin

proto.in product vs service startups

2009-01-23T17:50:00.000+05:30

Should a startup focus on product or services

By suresh, orangescape

Product

Sell ip
Entry barrier high
Team

Service
Total soln providers - tcs wipro
Game changers - provide answers to customers directly
Vendors
Specialists

Buying strategy

Vendors shop
Specialists investigate
Total solutions negotiate
Game changers partner

proto.in to brand or not to brand

2009-01-23T17:06:00.000+05:30

Start internally
Stationery
Visiting cards
Brand language
Passive branding
Email footers
Have attractive footer msg
Attractive title
Employee tshirts

Active branding
Newsletters
Use online templates
Youtube
HUmor with cartoons
Sites like glasbergern
Calendar with half a dosen chicks ;)

Setup billboard in ur office premises
Online ads

Active branding

proto.in conversations

2009-01-23T16:51:00.000+05:30

Branding

Desolve.co.in

Branding is the visual look of the company

Understand the user"s desired experience

Product doesn't need to have 'all' the features
Macbook air

Keep in mind the product echosystem e.g. Cleartrip.com

Design product service relationships eg ipod

Deliver ur brands promise eg 37signals

Cuwtomers are clever .give them some credit eg cleartrip

Take the burden off the user eg google

Doesn't have always be highly functional eg cooliris

Associate ur brand with unique feature facebook

Don't follow the crowd . Eg cleartrip week starts from monday

Start with user insight from ur research

Design an experience and not a technology system

Keep going back 2 user to verify the concept

proto.in conversations

2009-01-23T16:21:00.000+05:30

Summary from previous learnings

Monetization strategy
10 miles
Shareware give a trial

Slideshare
Premium model
Laws of economics ; no free lunch

Oversupply of products in teCh space

Learning to price a product

Paid model is good for startups

Experiment early

Word free helps in penetration

Check if it is tewlly free

Bandwidth cost
Support cost
Innovation
Opportunity cost

Amazon webservices

Google adwords can get only 10 per cost

Vc model

For entrpreneurs acceptance is more important than monetizaion initially

proto.in conversations

2009-01-23T16:12:00.000+05:30

Back after lunch

Now the conversations thread has started

Currently in conversation with pagalguy founder allwin.

Topic is do we really need a cofounder

proto.in live blogging

2009-01-23T12:40:00.000+05:30

Now for the final Q and A for all teams . One final shot before lunch. Hands tired blogging all the time.

proto.in showcase liveblogging

2009-01-23T12:16:00.000+05:30

Finally up is Indiakhelo

Each startup seems to have their own tshirt

Skit in progress now. Their motto is to change the way india plays sports.

Idea is to have sports profile on web.

Video on indiakhelo . Schools can upload results in the portal.

Portal demo under progress now.

Upload results through web,ivrs.

2 models : one is for schools and colleges. Another for galli players. Honesty ratings for them.

Have representatives on all schools. Geez is that possible?

Profiles are public by default. Can be made private also.

16 sports are supported.

proto.in live blgging contd

2009-01-23T12:07:00.000+05:30

Next up is Noddler

Ivr system that is human and intelligent

Can personalise it very much

Noddler sandbox launched. Mainly b2b product.targeted at web businesses who need mobile support.

Comapny incubated out of iit chennai

proto.in live blogging

2009-01-23T11:48:00.000+05:30

Paper plane making fun activity ;)

Here comes the next showcase

Lords automotives
Green and economic fuel kit for two wheelers
By rajesh

First non it presentation ;)

Two wheeler LPG kit
Some features

Dual fuel operation
UN approved
Fulfills all safety norms

Amazing stats ; still 71 percent is on two wheeler in india

Tested with honda activa hey. That's my vehicle

Still test results are yet to be published

proto.in live blogging

2009-01-23T11:35:00.000+05:30

Third up is Iflapp

Adi and vipin

Provide smart solutions for usb to make them smart devices

Use cases
Launch itunes from iflapp for e.g.

Share project without expecting mpp to be there

Carry mails,tasks anywhere and sync them up later.

Patented this technology already

Sell it through oem, distribution channels

proto.in showcase contd

2009-01-23T11:19:00.000+05:30

Next up is yoplr
By raja and dipankar

Plan your trip

Travel site that addresses customers context

Options for holiday theme, age profile of the travelling group, itinerary builder, route helper ( shows fastest route). Multiple destinations are supported. Email, pdf of itierary supported. Have tieup with holiday makers to send quotes.

Revenue model
Started with b2c model
Content covers karnatka and goa. Plan to make it all india

proto.in showcase

2009-01-23T11:00:00.000+05:30

Proto.in for dummies

Kiruba telling the rules

6 comapnies 6 minutes each

Each company present their busiess model

First up is lifemojo

Himanshu introduces his company with a story based inspiration on weight loss. Found value in nutrionist words. Problem was how to interact with doctors and patients remotely.

Time to deploy 2 months

From b2b expanded to b2c

Allows to set weight loss goal, track ur diet,track ur calories.

B2c monetization
Providre a platform where all nutrionists can come together

Also plans to sell fitness products . Mobile app is also there.

proto.in more info

2009-01-23T10:23:00.000+05:30

Atul chitnis continues with his 5 lessons learnt in his 20+ years of experiencing

Assumptions for todays world

Assume connectivity
Local storage no longer matters
Advertising dosent pay unless u are google or yahoo

Biggest sellers are mobile products
Don't build productd for vcs

Vc funding is not a viable business model unless u area vc :)

Proto.in - Bangalore Edition

2009-01-23T09:44:00.002+05:30

Registrations just completed.

Auditoriums are filled up.

All set for the event.

First up is The World is Changing by Atul Chitnis

Following Proto.in

2009-01-22T10:54:00.000+05:30

I will be attending proto.in @ Bangalore tomorrow and the day after . Will be updating live all the action straight from there :)

External Configuration With JBoss

2009-01-13T15:44:00.000+05:30

Often we need to keep properties outside the war file / ear file.

Jboss has an interesting way of doing this. Check this out.

http://java.dzone.com/tips/external-configuration-with-jb

Find an ASCII code

2007-02-21T16:46:00.000+05:30

Often web developers , who use javascript for validations are not able to recollect ascii codes for keys from the top of their head.

http://www.whatasciicode.com/

This site lists the keys and corresponding ascii codes in tabular form. Whenver, you get stuck , just go ahead load the site and refer it at your will. Hope this helps

Logwatcher plugin for eclipse

2007-02-05T10:33:00.000+05:30

I found this plugin while surfing. This plugin is similar to "tail" command in Unix that helps to see the log file contents in real time if you give a -f switch.

You can get the plugin from : http://graysky.sourceforge.net/

Really useful plugin. Now I don't have to go to command line at all for watching log files.

Oracle Application Server Administration Made Easy

2007-01-30T10:40:00.000+05:30

Opmnctl utility:
Opmnctl is a command line utility provided for starting, stopping,restarting and getting status of various ias components.

options available :

1) opmnctl start : Starts the opmn daemon without starting opmn managed instances

2) opmnctl startall : Starts both the daemon and managed server processes

3) opmnctl stopall : stops all the managed instances

4) To start a specific component
opmnctl startproc ias-component=OC4J process-type=

5) To stop a specific component
opmnctl stopproc ias-component=OC4J process-type=

6) To validate opmn.xml : opmnctl validate opmn.xml

7) To shutdown forcefully opmn managed processes and daemon :
opmnctl shutdown

All ias-components will have an entry in opmn.xml . This is located in $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/conf/opmn.xml

for a OC4J component entry will be like :


ias-component id="OC4J"
process-type id="" module-id="OC4J"
module-data
category id="start-parameters"
data id="java-options" value=""
data id="oc4j-options" value=""
category

category id="stop-parameters"
 data id="java-options" value=""
category

module-data
process-type
ias-component

All ias-component specific logs are located in $ORACLE_HOME/oasmt/opmn/logs/ directory . If any component refuses to start or shuts down abnormally, go to that directory and have a look.

Deploying J2EE Application using OC4J in 10gAS

Step 1 : Create OC4J Component
a) cd $ORACLE_HOME/oasmt/dcm/bin
b) dcmctl createComponent -ct -co

Step 2: Deploy new component
a) FTP Ear file that you have created to the server .
b) dcmctl deployApplication - file -a -co

Step 3 : Start new component
a) dcmctl start -co -d -v

To restart component :

dcmctl restart -co -d -v

To stop component :

dcmctl stop -co -d -v

To undeploy component

dcmctl undeployApplication -a -co

To remove component
dcmctl removeComponent -co

Back from Vacation

2006-05-10T09:42:00.000+05:30

I am back from 1 week Vacation . Yesterday , When I was working on writing JDBC code, i found that returning auto generated keys is supported by JDBC 3.0 . So I went ahead and downloaded the latest ojdbc14.jar and deployed my war in tomcat. Worked without any issues. However, when i deployed the same in 10g AS it gave an abstract method error. Then , when I printed out the driver version property to my utter dismay i found that it was printing 9 and not 10 . After further investigations i found that you need to force 10g AS to use the new jdbc driver.
I went to Java Options for the oc4j instance and added the following as suggested by Oracle forums :
-Xbootclasspath/a:/0gAS home/jdbc/lib/ojdbc14.jar

Then after restarting the oc4j instance, it started working as expected. I am still left wondering though why it did not use the ojdbc14.jar that is in my web-inf/lib directory of the project. Any suggestions/comments are welcome

2006-04-28T18:20:00.000+05:30

I have changed the look and feel of my blog, courtesy a nice template provided by Blogspot.

Learnings for Today

I was creating a map and using the key as a java.sql.Date object. I created a sql Date by the valueof builtin which accepts the yyyy-mm-dd format. When I tried to retrieve the value using the key, it failed some times. I was really surprised. It also stores the time along with the date in the object. When i try to get it , by using map.get the time is different, of course and it fails. So , i realised that it is not good to keep a date object as the key. Then i changed the code to an integer by appending yyyymmdd . Voila ! , now it works like a charm.

Rest of the day, i spent mostly on debugging jdbc code. There is a new stuff in JDBC 3.0 that allows you to return autogenerated keys. I downloaded the latest ojdbc14.jar , put it in my web-inf/lib in tomcat and it worked fine. However, when i deployed my EAR in 10g AS, for some reason it gives me an abstract method error in the preparedstatement class. I was breaking my head on that. Still to come up with a solution for that issue.

Hope to update my blog more frequently in future.

After a huge gap...

2006-04-18T15:06:00.000+05:30

Started blogging after a huge gap. I created a presentation on "Introduction to AJAX " . Reply with your feedback on that .

Hope to blog regulary from now on

Thanks

Reports 10g New features

2005-10-07T09:19:00.000+05:30

Here is an excellent article on Reports 10g R2 new features. I think it was presented in oracle open world . New features like SPREADSHEET format and HMTL inline tags look cool . Just check it out
username: cboracle
password: oraclec6

Presentation of new features

Document on New Features

Thanks ,
Venkat

Strange error in Forms 10g

2005-10-03T15:42:00.000+05:30

Recently when i was working on a project, we were passing a parameter of the form (xxx,xxxx,xx) to the report . When the destype was preview , the parameters got passed flawlessly. However, when it was changed to printer to allow direct printing, the report got the parameter as xxx. It skipped anything after the first comma. Forms version was 9.0.4.0.19

When the same thing was executed in 10g patch 1, 9.0.4.1 it worked fine. Looks like this bug was fixed in that version.

Since we couldn't apply the patch for now, we did a workaround. Since all the comma seperated variables that we were passing were numbers, we encoded ',' to 'a' and passed it as (xxxaxxxxaxx) . In the report we decoded the 'a' back into ','. Voila!! It works like a charm now.

Hope to keep posting continuously in future.

FRM-40654 error

2005-08-11T10:31:00.000+05:30

All Forms Devlopers must be aware of the infamous error
FRM-40654 : Record has been updated by another user. Re-query to see change.

This happens under the following conditions :

1) Developer does not understand the forms SQL processing logic and tries to issue his own insert, update,delete and query statements

2) Another user has Updated the records and committed , that the first user is trying to update now. The first user's data is now stale. so forms issues the error message.

3) This reason is very unknown but quite common. You use a pre-insert or pre-update trigger at the database level to change values to database columns. But these are not passed back to the forms after commit is made. So you get the error this time too, eventhough you are the only user. In this case best way is to "Set the DML Returning Value at the Data Block level to Yes" .

Note : This property is available forms 6 and above only.
In case of previous versions, you need to requery the data.

Thanks,
Hope to comeup with something more interesting ,

Venkat

First Technical Blog!!

2005-08-11T10:10:00.000+05:30

Hi,
I work as an Oracle Developer . I am from Bangalore, India. I will be blogging on the following
> Oracle Database PL/SQL
> Oracle Forms
> Oracle Reports

Hopefully I will be posting something almost everyday

Thanks
venkat