Raible Designs

Moving from CVS to SVN at java.net

I like java.net. Ever since I moved AppFuse to java.net from SourceForge (in February 2004), I've been very happy with their service. I can't recall having an issue with CVS, and if I did, it was during a scheduled outage. The only thing that's ever made me consider moving AppFuse to another site was java.net's lack of Subversion.

A lot has changed in the last year, and now java.net does support Subversion. However, if you want a project converted from CVS to SVN, you have three options:

• Drop and re-create your project, losing all of your mailing-list/forum history
• Create an entirely new project, which gives you similar results to the first option
• Pay to have your repository converted

Since I like being at java.net (uptime being the major factor here), I've decided to go with option #3. It's costing $750 to convert AppFuse from CVS to SVN, and Virtuas has agreed to sponsor the move. I like that we'll be using SVN soon, but it does seem odd that we actually have to pay for it. AFAIK, moving a SourceForge project from CVS to SVN doesn't cost anything.

In recent days, I've thought about moving AppFuse to Google Code, but it looks like they might be having some early growing pains.

Heading back to Denver

Today is only day 3 of Raible Road Trip #10, but it's likely to be the most stressful one. I'm at Portland's Airport (on their free wireless) getting ready to hop on a plane back to Denver. The Max worked great this morning. I caught it outside the Convention Center around 4:30 a.m. and was checked in before 6:00.

I land in Denver in a few hours, pick up the kids, and fly back - arriving back in Portland around 2:00 this afternoon. Abbie is 3 and 1/2 and Jack is almost 2. Jack will surely impress me with his deviant and defiant behavior. There's nothing like flying with a 2-year old. They won't sit still for more than 5 seconds, and they love to kick the seat in front of them. Should be interesting for sure - wish me luck!

10:30 a.m. Update: Arrived in Denver at 9:30. The CowBoy Bar on Terminal A is the best place to get power at DIA. There's 3 outlets in the corner on the left when you walk in. The kids should be here in an hour, our flight to Portland leaves at 12:30.

Update 2: We arrived in Portland virtually stress free at 2:00. The kids were great on the plane. Jack slept half the time and Abbie colored Dora pictures. The only hard part was carting two backpacks, 2 car seats and 2 kids through the Portland airport.

AppFuse Videos updated for 1.9.3

I've created new AppFuse demo videos that are up-to-date with version 1.9.3. The setup video is around 3 minutes, and the AppGen one is around 3:30.

New Project and Feature Tour


Code Generation with AppGen

If you have any suggestions on making the above movies more effective, please let me know. I used SnapZ Pro X to shoot them and QuickTime Pro to compress.

In other AppFuse news, a couple of new tutorials have been written:

• Integrating Compass with Spring MVC by Chris Barham
• Integrating Compass with JSF by Matt Stine
• Integrating AppFuse and AjaxTags autocomplete by Luciano Fiandesio

Props go out to Chris, Matt and Luciano for taking the time to write these detailed tutorials. Well done gents!

Driving to OSCON: Day 2

This morning, Jim and I slept in a bit and hit the road around 11. The time zone changed on us after an hour and all of a sudden, we were destined for Portland in good time. It was an enjoyable drive through the Columbia Gorge with some beautiful scenery.

We arrived in Portland around 4:15 p.m. and checked into our hotel across the street from the Oregon Convention Center. It didn't take us long to realize the wireless sucked (b/c it's trying to suck off the free wireless next door).

We hopped on "the Max" and headed into downtown Portland. We found the local Rock Bottom Brewery, found out they didn't have wireless, and ended up at Jax Bar. They have free wireless and cold Guinness. You couldn't ask for much more.

Driving to OSCON: Day 1

Today, Jim and I began our road trip to OSCON. We got up early and were able to get out of Denver around 5 a.m. We stopped at 5 p.m. in Boise, Idaho. We drove around town, found some swanky hotel, and settled in for the night. We've been enjoying free wireless and Deschutes Mirror Pond Ale in our hotel bar for the last couple of hours.

Wyoming was definitely lacking scenery, as was Utah and most of Idaho. We made the Wyoming border by 11 and Idaho by 2. It's been a great trip so far. It looks like we have 7 hours left until we arrive in Portland. Below is a nice picture of Boise I found on Flickr.

Glacier Park

James Duncan Davidson recently took a road trip through Montana. In particular, he journeyed through Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It's a similar trip to the one I'm about to embark upon. Pictures from his trip are available on Flickr.

I especially like his photos of Glacier Park. It's been far too long since I've visited this incredible place. Since it's a mere 2 hours from the cabin, I hope to add it to our list of "fun things we did in Montana."

Article on Equinox in Das Java Magazin

In AppFuse's IRC, I learned of a German article on Equinox. It sure looks cool - too bad I can't read it.

OSCON: A beautiful time of year in Portland

It's that time of year again for the excellent OSCON conference. Last year's show was great, but I spent far too much time in the conference, and not enough time enjoying summertime in Portland. I have a fondness for Oregon in the summer. I spent my last two years of high school in Salem (40 miles south of Portland) and remember loving life in August. This was likely due to the fact that it rained most of the rest of the year.

This year, I'm determined to enjoy Oregon more, and attend the conference less. I have a pass, and I'm doing a short 20-minute talk on "7 Simple Reasons to use AppFuse" (2:00 Wednesday in the Expo Hall). But that's about it. The rest of the week, I hope to enjoy myself and not be pummeled with any new technology or buzzwords. I might end up getting sucked into a session or two, but I'm hoping I don't. With any luck, I hope to visit both Edgefield and the Oregon Brewers Festival. Edgefield on Wednesday, Brewers Festival on Friday.

On Thursday, we're throwing another party at the Red Lion along with a host of other companies. Last year, we had a SourceBeat/Virtuas party at the Red Lion on the patio. The views of Portland were spectacular and it was definitely a good time. This year, it's a Geronimo Live! party. To register, please click on the image below.

Thanks to the many sponsors of this event - we appreciate your support.

Raible Road Trip #10 begins this Sunday. With any luck, I'll be able to snap some pics along the way and blog about our trip as we go.

Julie's House

For the last 3 months, Julie has been doing the "flip this house" thing. Today, it went on the market. Click on the image below to see the listing and pictures. She thinks the pictures look best in the 2D mode.

Nice work darlin!

Update: Believe it or not, it's now under contract. Sold in under 8 hours!

Validation Framework Consolidation

Looks like Jason Carreira has stepped up to the plate to try and consolidate the validation frameworks we have in Java. I'm sure it was a joint effort among many, but Jason's name is the only one I see on the JSR. I applaud this effort - it's definitely needed.

I've used Commons Validator, the XWork Validation Framework as well as Hibernate's Validator. While Commons and XWork work, the ability to annotate a class and validate it anywhere/anyhow is pretty cool. I reviewed an article a couple months ago that hooked Hibernate Validator into Spring MVC and Prototype for client-side validation. There's a lot of good stuff in this space - let's hope this JSR creates something even better. More than anything, let's hope it doesn't brush off client-side validation like JSF did.

In an ideal world, the RIFE, Spring MVC, Stripes, Struts, Tapestry and Wicket developers will all participate and allow JSR-303's result to be used as their framework's validation engine. I think it's a given that this will be usable with JSF.