In the article 'Creating Web Applications with the Eclipse WTP' (http://jdj.sys-con.com/read/152270.htm ), we created a Web application using Eclipse Web Tools Project, the Tomcat application server, and the MySQL database server. That application (DBTest) was good, however, it had som...

A typical Java developer knows that when you need to develop a GUI for a Java application, Swing is the tool. Eclipse SWT also has a number of followers, but the majority of people use Java Swing. For the past 10 years, it was a given that Swing development wouldn't be easy; you have t...

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a hot topic among analysts, CIOs, and technology marketers, but the path from high-level architectural principles to programming a functioning, real-world service isn't always clear, especially since, in the end, you still need to create a clean u...

In concurrent programming, exclusion refers to any technique that dynamically locks certain blocks of code so multiple threads can't corrupt their shared resources in ways that can cause integrity problems. In Java, exclusion has meant using the synchronized keyword against a method or...

Open Source Business Intelligence software is finally coming into its own, with three major players coming to the fore: JasperReports, Pentaho, and BIRT (Business Intelligence and reporting tools). Business Intelligence technology comprises solutions for delivering enterprise data in t...

JavaServer Faces (JSF) standardizes the server-side component model for Web application development but doesn't standardize the presentation layer at the browser. In a series of articles we are going to look at how JSF can fulfill new presentation requirements without sacrificing appli...

Jakarta Struts provides a standard framework for Web applications, and JavaServer Faces offers a component-based framework for user interfaces. At the user interface, a common task in both frameworks is selecting items from lists. Over the years, standard design patterns have been deve...

Today's trend is to integrate existing systems in a standard way to make disparate implementations interoperate. Web Services and XML came along with the ability to provide a standard communication interface between these systems, as well as the standard description language - WSDL - t...

Browser-based applications are widely used and we like the fact that we can access them from anywhere. But from the users' perspective, the productivity level of Web applications still doesn't approximate the productivity of desktop programs. The good news is the gap is closing: the ac...

Web sites were originally static. Later dynamic content came about through CGI scripts paving the way for the first true Web applications. Since HTTP was entirely stateless, it became necessary to invent ways for requests to be linked together in a sequence. At first state was added to...

This article aims to illustrate how loose coupling of a Model in an MVC-based framework can be achieved by describing a real example - developing a framework for a Web-based XSD-XML generator, which is part of the Event Web research at the Infospheres Lab at Caltech. Why this is import...

During the beta period for JDK 1.5, we worked on a 1.5 Java compiler for BEA's Java IDE. As we implemented various new features, people would begin exploiting them in new ways, some clever, some clearly candidates for a list of what not to do. The compiler itself used 1.5 features, so ...

Whether writing code for a small, single-platform environment or contributing to a sophisticated cross-platform, multi-language application, one truth remains consistent: a disorganized or poorly implemented build management strategy will adversely affect a developer's workflow.

In this month's article I introduce TableLayout, a robust but easy-to-use LayoutManager for use in any Java Swing application. It's based very loosely on the HTML TABLE paradigm, where components are placed in table cells in row-major order. Vertical and horizontal alignment for the co...

AJAX and JMX are at opposite ends of the Systems Management stack. However, the emerging ubiquity of the AJAX model for rich browser clients has obscured the benefits the model provides in the architectural space for enhancing support patterns within the problem resolution pipeline.

While creational patterns decouple a client from the objects it instantiates, behavioral patterns dictate the object interaction. If not carefully planned, coupling and cohesion can pose major design issues. My previous article, 'Java GoF Creational Design Patterns' (JDJ, Vol. 9, issue...

Like most other self-respecting developers I had also read the GoF book 'Design Patterns,' including the section on the visitor pattern. However, when a colleague came over to me with a question, I could not initially justify the complexity of the example code I saw in the book. What f...