Raible Designs

MyFaces + Facelets vs. Shale

At some point, I plan on replacing the JSF+JSP combination in AppFuse with JSF+Facelets. However, I'm wondering if this is just an interim step to a more full-featured framework like Shale and its Clay templates. Has anyone out there tried both Shale and MyFaces+Facelets? If so, which one worked best for you?

Should we use Shale for the JSF framework in AppFuse or is MyFaces + Facelets good enough?

Can JSP-based components (particularly Ajax ones) be used with Clay and/or Facelets? What's the best Ajax-enabled component library available for JSF? I know there's more everyday, so I'm looking for first-hand, real-world experience here. Thanks in advance for any advice or stories you'd like to share!

RE: Five things I hate about AppFuse

Karsten Voges has written a nice critique of AppFuse titled Five things I hate about AppFuse. I started a new JSF+Hibernate project with AppFuse yesterday, so I definitely feel some of his pain. Let's examine his points one-by-one:

1. It's nice to choose between the usage of JSP 2.0 or before, but making the changes (to all jsps and the web.xml) every time I build my app sucks.

I absolutely agree. I spent a good hour modifying build.xml, web.xml, etc. to switch my app from JSP 1.2 to JSP 2.0 yesterday. You can modify your build.xml to permanently switch to JSP 2.0, but it doesn't get everything. I'll create a separate script for 1.9.3 and the upcoming 1.9.4 to make this cleaner.

2. Seperating the classes in web, services and dao is good, but I hate the building of jar-Files for the different layers. Just take the classes under dao and service and copy them into the war or move them over to the webapps folder as it is done with the web classes!

Yeah, I've proposed doing this a couple of times on the user mailing list. It always gets shot down by existing users. I'm sure it'd be possible to write a script to do this, but it'd be no fun to write.

3. Eclipse crashed with OutOfMemory errors. Always when trying to open the build file. The build file is really, really long, with lots of stuff in there. IMO 50% of it could be deleted.

Hmmm, I rarely have OOM errors with Eclipse, but I also used Bruce's tip for increasing Eclipse's available memory. If you're using Windows, here's how to bump up Eclipse's memory.

4. Generation of Hibernate-Mapping files. I really hate it to look within a jarfile how the Hibernate mapping file looks like. It is nice to get it generated, but I prefer to be able make adjustments to it by hand to try out things quickly. And it is quite hard to enter special SQL statements in an Hibernate file, if it gets overwritten all the time.

You can create/modify the Hibernate mapping files by hand if you prefer. From the FAQ:

If you have an @hibernate.class tag on a POJO - hibernatedoclet will generate the mapping file into build/dao/gen. If you have a mapping file (*.hbm.xml) file for your POJO in the src/dao/**/model/* directory, it will overwrite the generated version. If you don't want to worry about the two conflicting - just remove the @ sign from @hibernate.class in your POJO and put your hbm.xml file in the model directory.

No build.xml modification are need for this to work. The "package-dao" target will include these mapping files. If you want to get rid of the hibernatedoclet process, you can do that- but make sure and run it first - and then copy all of the generated hbm.xml files into your model directory.

5. I don't like to get my struts.xml merged from many sources. I like to have one struts-config file holding all my struts configuration.

I agree this is kinda painful, but so is developing with Struts. You should be able to move the generated struts-config.xml into web/WEB-INF and remove the <strutsconfigxml> from build.xml to get the behavior you're looking for.

As far as throwing out the build.xml, I'm actually planning on doing that with my current project. I will keep it in place for the development phase, but I hope to move the application into a large build system once I'm done. Since it's all Java code and XML in the end, this shouldn't be hard to do. I did it when migrating to Maven 2, so I know it's possible. As far as Karsten's opinion of Maven 2, he may be right - but I hope to make a strong effort to make it very useable when using AppFuse. In fact, I hope to make it possible for users to use their IDE their entire time, with no need to run any Maven commands. Of course, that could be a pipe dream - only time will tell.

As far as sounding like the BileBlog, the more you rag on AppFuse, the better. Remember, screaming users are a good thing.

Spring 2.0, AppFuse and Equinox

Spring 2.0 was released today. I hope to do an AppFuse 1.9.4 and Equinox 1.7 release in the near future - both containing the latest and greatest stuff from Spring 2.0. Hopefully the 2.0 release shows up in the Maven repo (here or here) in the near future.

Thanks to Interface21 and all the Spring Developers for such a stellar product.

Update: More Spring-related releases - Spring Web Flow 1.0 RC4 and Acegi Security 1.0.2.

AppFuse used in Rails for Java Developers book

I received an interesting e-mail from Stuart Halloway this afternoon:

Subject: AppFuse rocks! and ...

Hi Matt,

I have been using AppFuse to generate many of the Java examples we use for comparison in the new book. Thanks for AppFuse -- I'd be miserable without it. I'd be happy to get you a comp copy of the book if you want it. (And delighted if you have any feedback on my use of AppFuse... :-) ).

Cheers,
Stuart

Hopefully Stuart and Justin don't make AppFuse and Java look too bad.

If you're familiar with AppFuse (or the frameworks it leverages) and want to learn Ruby on Rails, Rails for Java Developers should treat you well. I've never read one of Stuart or Justin's books, but I've heard them speak. They're both incredibly enjoyable to listen to.

Posted with permission from Stuart.

New weather.com site built using AppFuse

From Jeff C (a Sr Developer for forgetaway.com, a new unit of weather.com) in Lightweight Java Development with Webwork, Spring, and iBatis:

Our new site, ForGetaway.com, launched 2 weeks ago, and its built on WebWork, Spring, and iBatis. Using those 3 frameworks as the backbone of the site was a great experience. I think that combination of frameworks can be considered lightweight, especially from a development standpoint.
...
Even the development/testing process is quick. Thanks to Matt Raible's AppFuse (which was used to get this app started), we have a sweet build.xml file that allows us (on our dev machines) to reload our app by having the build script talk to tomcat. So, even when a properties file or java class or static field changes, its just a matter of running the reload task in the build.xml file and tomcat reloads the app with all changes in under 5 seconds. Yeah, rails is probably quicker, but i can spare 5 seconds of my time to let my changes get reloaded by tomcat.

Reloading your application in Tomcat to see your changes sucks. However, AppFuse 2.0 will allow you to use the Maven 2 Jetty Plugin, which aims to eliminate the whole deploy cycle. This plugin is powered by Jetty 6, which has been rewritten for Continuations, NIO, Servlet 2.5. Hopefully we'll start to see more appserver plugins written for Maven 2.

I love hearing success stories like Jeff's. That's why I (and many others) work on AppFuse - to simplify Java web development. We know that it's more painful to develop web applications in Java than in scripting languages, but we continue to do it because tools like AppFuse make it enjoyable. Even though tools and languages are important for simplification, I believe that most project's success is determined by people. If you have good people, effective processes and a lack of politics - a project should have no problem being successful, regardless of the tools.

Did you know the new SourceBeat site is also powered by AppFuse? We chose the WebWork+Spring+Hibernate combination and were quite pleased at how easy it was to develop everything. We had 90% of the site done in the first two weeks of development.

In other AppFuse-related news, the demos have been running solid for 70 days straight. I'll admit that's not a very log time, but it does prove there's no memory or connection leaks in the software. The number of currently active sessions is as follows:

• /appfuse (Struts): 456
• /appfuse-jsf: 206
• /appfuse-spring: 105
• /appfuse-tapestry: 94
• /appfuse-webwork: 178
• /spring-kickstart: 17
• /struts-resume: 36
• /wiki: 256

The default session timeout is set to 10 minutes in AppFuse.

Maven, Cargo, Struts 2 and working outside

Life is pretty good today. I'm currently working outside - in a courtyard area near the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. There's 4 restaurants in the courtyard, all with outside seating. It's 72°F and beautiful. I plan to work for a few hours, then hop on the 5:00 train to NYC.

The reason I'm writing this post is to point out a few useful tidbits I've picked up today. First of all, Andrew Glover has written a developerWorks article on Cargo titled In pursuit of code quality: Repeatable system tests. In this article, he shows how to use jWebUnit as well as DbUnit. While the article uses Ant, Andrew mentions that Cargo also works with Maven (and has a Java API too).

Equinox uses jWebUnit, Maven and Cargo, but it doesn't currently support running Cargo from Maven. The major reason for this is I tried to automate running jWebUnit tests from the antrun-plugin and couldn't get it to work (I only tried for 10 minutes). Does anyone have any insight for including jWebUnit tests alongside your regular tests, excluding them from Maven's "test" phase, and running them in the "integration-test" phase? The good news is AppFuse 2.0 uses Maven as well, and we have Cargo + Canoo WebTest working just fine. BTW, did you know that Mergere’s Maestro (a free product) includes Equinox? If you're looking to learn Continuum and you're familiar with Equinox, downloading Maestro is probably a good start.

Speaking of web testing, I've been playing with Selenium lately. I was able to easily integrate it into Thomas and I's Spring 2.0 Kickstart application thanks to these Maven and Selenium integration instructions. The only issues I've run into so far are specifying an initial URL that works in Selenium core as well as Selenium IDE and integrating Selenium with CruiseControl. If you're interested in learning more about Selenium checkout Catching up with Selenium on InfoQ.

Last, but certainly not least, Struts 2.0 was released today. I've already integrated this into the Struts version of AppFuse 2.0. If you like living on the bleeding, you could dig in and try it out today. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to put a whole lot of documentation together yet. I hope to install Confluence on appfuse.org sometime this week to start documenting how bad-ass AppFuse 2.0 will be .

Speaking of 2.0 releases, wasn't Spring 2.0 Final supposed to be released yesterday?

Comparing Web Frameworks Presentation

I've uploaded my Comparing Web Frameworks presentation I delivered today. This presentation is still somewhat outdated - all the stats I have in it are from February of this year (2006). I've also updated the Equinox framework-comparison page to have links to some more readable papers.

Lessons learned from using VMWare, Ubuntu and Maven 2 in a Training class

Last week I taught a Spring 2.0 training class in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This class was different from previous classes because I made a VMWare image of Ubuntu for students to use when doing the labs. They also used Maven 2 and all the computers were without an internet or network connection (yikes!). Eclipse was used for the IDE and Maven's Jetty plugin was used for any web development activities. I'm pleased to say it worked out pretty well, but there were a couple of things I thought I'd write down for others trying this approach.

First of all, this was my first experience using VMWare in a classroom setting. In the past, I've had students setup their own environments. I've also built machines at the training facilities - and had their staff ghost the image for students. I think having students setup their own environments is a good idea, but I've had mixed results. There's always some folks in class that have no interest in knowing how things are setup and would rather everything "just works". These folks are usually disappointed when they have to spend 20 minutes installing a bunch of software. There's always a couple who don't read the instructions thoroughly and install things in the wrong locations. And then you have the folks that want to work on their Linux or OS X laptops. I can generally work it all out b/c I know Windows, Linux and OS X - but this is generally not a good avenue for instructors unfamiliar with multiple operating systems.

The second method - building a machine at the training facility (or client site) and having it replicated - works very well. However, it's often difficult to get private courses (at client sites) to use this method, and students don't get to walk away with anything. The VMWare option, however, allows you to burn the image to a DVD and give students everything from the course, including the computer they worked on.

I've thought of using the VMWare earlier this year, but never seriously considered it until I spoke with Howard Lewis Ship at this year's OSCON. He said he'd used it for a couple classes, and it worked great. He gave me a sample DVD and I used it to start creating my DVD (thanks Howard!). The nicest thing about using this DVD was we were able to brand it for students, as well as setup all 18 machines in the classroom in less than an hour.

Here is a list of issues I found with using a VMWare setup in the classroom:

• I downloaded the Ubuntu 5.10 image to begin with. After upgrading to 6.06 and installing all the standard Java development software (less than 100MB), my image was 8GB. I was able to shrink it to 4GB and zip it to 2GB, but it's still quite large. Maybe installing 6.06 from scratch would slim things down.
• On my home machine (dual core AMD with 3GB RAM), the VMWare image ran very fast, with no noticeable performance issues. I used VMWare Server at home, and VMWare Player during the class because it didn't require a (free) serial number. I had it set to 768MB of RAM at both locations, but the machines were noticeably slower (and close to unusable) in the classroom. The classroom machines were 2.5GHz with 1.5GB of RAM.
• Since I knew most developers would be Windows users, I gave students the option to have me build their Windows environment. One student took me up on the offer and the only painful part was getting the Maven repo to the students machines. I had the Windows setup software on the DVD, so I was able to use that, but then needed to copy my local Maven repo to a thumb drive to transfer that. In the future, I'll put the Maven repo (only 36.5 MB) on the DVD.

All in all, using VMWare in the classroom turned out to be a good experience. It's likely we'll use it for most of our classes, but we'll also fall back to setting up a Windows environment for those students who don't like Ubuntu. As far as using Maven 2, it's been working great too - most of the students didn't even know it was used b/c they did everything in their IDE.

Integrating Compass with AppFuse and the Display Tag

ChenRanHow has written up a detailed tutorial on how to integrate Compass with AppFuse and the Display Tag. From his mailing list post:

• Part 0. Overview of the practice
• Part 1. Setup env, add Compass and related library to AppFuse
• Part 2. Create ant tasks for create and delete index
• Part 3. Use annotation to make Compass resource mapping
• Part 4. Create Struts action to perform search
• Part 5. Make DisplayTag work with Compass

Thanks ChenRanHow!

Another great tutorial was recently written by Luciano Fiandesio. If you're looking to use Quartz, checkout Luciano's (well styled) AppFuse and Quartz tutorial.

In other AppFuse news, FanYang has started translating the documentation to Japanese, Mike McMahon has converted the appfuse-hibernate module to annotations, CruiseControl is continually testing, Mike Horwitz has solved most of the "Maven doesn't read a WARs dependencies" issue, and Scott Ryan is still hard at work on the code generation plugin. Even better - we've asked Scott to come aboard as a committer and he's accepted. Welcome aboard Scott - we appreciate all the work you're doing.

As far as progress on AppFuse 2.0, we're almost done with the Maven 2 conversion. The only thing left is figuring out how to get Mike's maven-warpath-plugin to hook into the Eclipse and IDEA plugins to they generate project files correctly. After that, it's time to start on documentation. I'm still torn on if we should use Confluence or DocBook. However, after looking at Spring's documentation for the past week, I think DocBook is probably the better choice. Then again, Stripes' Confluence Wiki looks nice and organized.

What do you think? What's the best way to write documentation for an open source project? Which system do you prefer to read? From experience, I prefer reading Spring's documentation over trying to find stuff in WebWork's wiki.

We've had great success with AppFuse users contributing to the documentation via a wiki, and I'd hate to create a documentation system that gets away from that. Maybe a DocBook/Confluence combination is the way to go? It looks like the CeltiXFire folks are having a similar debate.

GlassFish Numbers Fudging

Remember when I thought Sun/java.net was trying to make GlassFish look more popular than it is? It looks like they took it up a notch in August. Not only do they have the top spot in "most accesses", but they have the top 2 spots!

Isn't it possible to automate these stats instead of using a spreadsheet?