Want my job?
My current client has posted my position on the Rocky Mountain Internet User Group Mailing List. If you live in the Denver area (commute from Boulder is better), this is a fun gig.
The Angular Mini-Book is a
guide to getting started with Angular. You'll learn how to develop a bare-bones application, test it, and
deploy it. Then you'll move on to adding Bootstrap, Angular Material, continuous integration, and authentication.
Spring Boot is a popular framework for building REST APIs. You'll learn how to integrate Angular with Spring Boot and use security best practices like HTTPS and a content security policy.
For book updates, follow @angular_book on Twitter.
The JHipster Mini-Book is a
guide to getting started with hip technologies today: Angular, Bootstrap, and Spring
Boot. All of these frameworks are wrapped up in an easy-to-use project called JHipster.
This book shows you how to build an app with JHipster, and guides you through the plethora of tools, techniques and options you can use. Furthermore, it explains the UI and API building blocks so you understand the underpinnings of your great application.
For book updates, follow @jhipster-book on Twitter.
10+ YEARS
Over 10 years ago, I wrote my first blog post. Since then, I've authored books, had kids, traveled the world, found Trish and blogged about it all.
RECENT ENTRIES
Why Macs rule (they don't run Windows)!
I'm working at my local library today. I'm working from home, but an electrician is working on our house, so now power there. I'm working in the "laptop workstations" area - which just happens to be where a lot of students come for laptop support (incoming freshman are required to have a laptop). They wave a campus-wide Wi-Fi network, but I'm not a student, so alas - no access (that's why I'm plugged in). Since I've been here (approx. 4 hours), a number of students have come by to get their laptops fixed. All have been Windows XP machines, all have had Virus or Spyware issues. What a maintenance nightmare from a tech support perspective. It's good to be a Mac user - no viruses on my laptop!
Upgrading from Struts 1.1 to Nightly build
I'm upgrading our application at work to the nightly build (20031020) of Struts in order to use the validwhen Validator. I found a few deprecations and errors in the process, so I thought I'd share to help others upgrade easier:
- ActionError has been deprecated in favor of ActionMessage. Likewise, ActionMessages.GLOBAL_MESSAGE replaces ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR.
- Methods in ResponseUtils have been deprecated in favor of TagUtils' methods.
- RequestUtils.message has been deprecated in favor of TagUtils.message. Other methods include RequestUtils.lookup.
- Many of the methods in TagUtils aren't static (they where were in Request/ResponseUtils), so you have to create an instance of TagUtils. Anyone know the logic here?
- ValidatorResources.get deprecated in favor of ValidatorResources.getForm.
- ValidatorForm.getFieldMap() is gone, which no apparent replacement method (at least not in the JavaDocs).
- The Tiles' Controller interface's perform method has been deprecated in favor of execute. You gotta love this one - while perform has been deprecated, you must use it or you will get a compile error saying you must implement it (or declare your class abstract). Same goes for execute. So to upgrade, I had to implement both methods - where my perform method calls my execute method.
- org.apache.commons.lang.NumberUtils moved to org.apache.commons.lang.math.NumberUtils
- org.apache.commons.validator.ValidatorUtil moved to org.apache.commons.validator.util.ValidatorUtils
- stringToInt(java.lang.String) in org.apache.commons.lang.math.NumberUtils has been deprecated. Not according to the its JavaDoc.
Final tally - two deprecation errors that don't seem to have replacements (yet):
[javac] .../src/web/org/appfuse/webapp/filter/BreadCrumbFilter.java:182:
warning: stringToInt(java.lang.String) in
org.apache.commons.lang.math.NumberUtils has been deprecated
[javac] int mSS = NumberUtils.stringToInt(temp);
[javac] ^
[javac] .../src/web/org/appfuse/webapp/taglib/LabelTag.java:71: warning:
getFieldMap() in org.apache.commons.validator.Form has been deprecated
[javac] Field field = (Field) form.getFieldMap().get(fieldName);
Later: Thanks to Steve Raeburn (via the struts-dev mailing list), I now have no deprecation errors. NumberUtils.stringToInt(String) is now NumberUtils.toInt(String) and Form.getFieldMap().get(String) is now Form.getField(String). Thanks Steve!
My IDEA Evaluation - Eclipse is better
I've been trying to use IDEA (on OS X) for the past few weeks and I keep reverting back to Eclipse for features that seem to be missing. I know the features must be there, but I just can't find them. Why else would everyone like it so much? Sidenote: I've never used IDEA for a feature that doesn't exist in Eclipse - I'm sure there are some, I'm just not using them. It sure would be cool if someone created a HowTo explaining how to migrate from Eclipse to IDEA. In the meantime, I'll settle for posting my questions here:
- Debugging in Tomcat - I'm currently using Sysdeo's Tomcat Plugin in Eclipse for Tomcat 4.1.27. It's super easy to setup and use - I expect the same ease-of-use from IDEA. I haven't looked much, but I'd love to hear feedback on IDEA's Tomcat debugging support.
- Renaming a variable in a JavaBean renames getter and setter methods. Sounds simple enough, in my 10 second search, I couldn't find it. In Eclipse, right-click -> Refactor -> Rename.
- Override/Implement methods (from parent classes and interfaces). Right click -> Source -> Override/Implement methods in Eclipse.
I'll add more as I think of them throughout the day. So far, I like IDEA, but to be honest - it's not saving me any time over Eclipse. It also locks up as much as Eclipse and it's responsiveness is still a big sluggish on OS X (10.2.8) with 1 GB of RAM (1.33 MHz processor). Hopefully Panther will make both IDEs faster. Two weeks ago, I was thinking of buying it (as well as Dreamweaver) - now I'm frustrated with IDEA's lack of features and Dreamweaver's slowness. I'll probably pass on shelling out the cash since Eclipse and BBEdit are giving me all the features I need in IDEA and Dreamweaver.
Last year on this weekend
Last year on this Saturday, I had just finished Erik's Java Development with Ant - and I was struggling with OS X. It's disappointing to think that I haven't read any inspirational tech books this year - not because the books aren't good, but because I don't read much. Abbie and coding are just more fun.
Wireless Speakers
Now that we have a a personal jukebox (and 802.11b) on all our computers, all we need is a set of 802.11b speakers that we can broadcast to. I just want to plug them in, no other setup needed. To broadcast from iTunes to the speakers - that's my dream. Is this possible? I've seen the 900 MHz stuff, but you need a receiver for those don't you?
Why iTunes for Windows Rocks
Because now everyone in the office (regardless of PC or Mac) can listen to each others music libraries. Can you say 100 GB of music?!
Web Frameworks - which one should I learn?
I've seen a lot of talk about Web Frameworks these last couple of weeks - particularly JavaServer Faces, WebWork and Spring. There's also been great articles posted comparing Spring and WebWork as well as an Introduction to Spring from TSS. Spring, WebWork and JSF all look like excellent frameworks to me, but I also continue to believe that Struts is a great framework. And I would go so far as to say that it's the best web application framework. Yep, I said it - Struts is the best web application framework to learn if you are a web developer wondering what to learn. Why? Because it will get you a job.
I've continued to receive a fair amount of calls and e-mails over the last couple of weeks - and they're all calling because of my Struts experience. Good luck in finding a company that wants you to build their web application using WebWork or Spring. Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to hire employees for Raible Designs and build web applications in my own office with my own employees. Then we'll get to choose whatever technology we want to build customers' apps. Until then, I'll stick with Struts and continue to be an employed developer.
I strongly believe the best way to learn anything is to get paid to do it. I've learned Struts over the past couple of years, not because I wanted to, but because someone else wanted me to - and they paid me to do it. Of course, there are some companies that will probably pay you to learn WebWork or Spring, but most would rather not.
Another thing to consider is that WW and Spring will probably someday develop "migrating from Struts" documentation. Sounds like a good idea to me - until then, and until someone pays me to learn the others, Struts is #1 for me.
Now it's your turn to tell me why my logic is flawed... if you can. ;-)