theJavaJar.com

At the January 2008 Tampa JUG meeting, presenter James Ward demonstrated the power and flexibility of Adobe Flex. As a Java developer, it is difficult to detach from JSP and JSF and to head down a heterogeneous approach to Web development. Why would I want to walk away from Java on the front-end and integrate a new markup language and configuration set to my Internet application? One simple answer; because Flex is doing what most current front-end Web technologies only dream about.

Flex is doing for developers what Flash did for designers some time ago; it is inspiring people to take the Internet to a new level. It is taking what is expected on the desktop and putting that experience into a browser while being somewhat simple to implement as compared to traditional desktop programming. James knew his stuff and that was key to bringing across what Flex can do for Java developers. We only had about an hour or so to discuss what Flex could do and for James to do some on the spot coding, but I could have sat there for hours absorbing what Flex is all about. If you get a chance, try to catch him presenting at an event in the future. I believe he will be in Orlando at JBoss World in February 2008. Some of the Internet applications he showed us were more on the consumer side of the Web, but it is just a matter of time before Flex and similar technologies are bringing their features to internal Web applications.

With all that being said, after the presentation, I wanted to start a project that night when I got home at 12:30am. Now, I cannot say whether or not Flex is the answer for everyone or if it is a good choice for large enterprise Web applications, but I know that I need to work on something using Flex as soon as I can. All I need to do now is find some time.

After I read on Slashdot last week that Sun had announced that they had bought MySQL, I scurried around the Web looking for reactions from the community. I knew that I would find comments that were positive and negative about the merger and I certainly found comments and posts that were basically blasting Sun and/or MySQL. Some of us have stronger opinions than others and there is nothing wrong with that.

I can easily admit that I have a dependency on Open Source technology and I think that it is great to see the community growing larger. I think that the Sun, MySQL merger is, if anything, a great benchmark for Open Source technology. For me, it is just another confirmation of a shift in software/technology momentum. I cannot say whether or not this is going to have negative repercussions in the future for either party or a 3rd party, but the community will benefit either way because the shift is not standing still.

Are Geronimo’s days numbered? After reading this article, I am not really sure that IBM’s involvement with Geronimo will be beneficial, but why wait and find out? Well, I do not want to get into a big debate about what was said in the article, but I do want to know if I am working with Open Source technology that is being driven by a major company or by a user/developer community.

I know that GlassFish is out there to fill my JEE 5 needs so why head down the Geronimo path with so much in the air about its demise? I have JBoss running on my machine right now, but recently, because I have been using Grails and Google Web Toolkit, I have just been working in development mode without a need for a full JEE container. So the other day I downloaded Geronimo to give it a whirl and I am now thinking that I should just move on and install GlassFish.

I am not saying anything bad about Geronimo, I have heard great things about the project and Apache is usually the first place I turn to download something that I know has already been written. I am just going to stand back a bit and run GlassFish and see what comes out in the wash.

Passed. My study and prep time is over and I couldn’t be more excited. I don’t know if I am more excited about passing the exam or more excited about not having to study for it. It was a tough test, and there were a few turns and curves that I wasn’t really prepared for. I mostly got stuck on some code examples that I did not recognize or did not know how to interpret.

I studied a solid 8 days total, 7 evenings after work and one Sunday. I am horrible at taking tests so maybe my prep and study time was a bit too much. I don’t know, if you are Java Web developer doing CRUD work, you may not have a true understanding of all what Java has to offer, especially if you are always tied to a framework that hides most of the Java code implementation. I love frameworks like Spring, Hibernate, iBatis, and Struts because I do not want to do all the work someone has already done. I see a need for frameworks, especially when you are always repeating the same set of tasks. But if you are doing something new in a new “space”, then you really need to know where Java can help you.

I have decided to take the SCJP 5.0 Exam. From I what I have been told and what I have read online, the test is not necessarily hard but rather tricky and populated with deceitful code. We’ll see. I have been wanting to take the exam for quite some time, but I have never found (or made) time to study.

I have been working with Java for quite some time and I think I am moderately proficient with the language but with some dependency on an IDE for most of my development. Most of my development experience has existed in the enterprise world; EJB’s, Web Services, and Web Development. I have rarely paid attention to Threads or File I/O when working with Java, so those are some areas that I need to focus on.

I have created a small study guide that coincides with chapters from an exam preparation book and the objectives of the exam. It is basically some notes and code samples that are the center of topic for each subsection of each chapter. I will work on a few online sample tests and a few sample questions from the book once I am done with my study guide and hopefully this will be enough preparation for the exam.