Raible Designs

New Gig?

There's a possibility that I'll be looking for new gig starting in January. If you're looking for some help, let me know.

[ANN] AppFuse 1.7 Released

This release adds support for JSF/MyFaces and Tapestry as web framework options. AppGen has been updated to work with both of these frameworks and I added new tutorials as well. You can read about my integration experience in a previous post.

After I released AppFuse 1.6.1, I knew the only way I was going to get Tapestry and JSF support done was if I stayed close to the code and started the next release. I never envisioned developing the Tapestry and JSF versions of AppFuse at the same time, but it turned out to be very efficient. If you want a comparison of all the different web frameworks in AppFuse (and AppFuse Light) - you can checkout my Comparing Web Frameworks presentation. If you want more in-depth coverage - it'll be in the next Chapter of Spring Live.

• Download
• Release Notes
• Learn more about AppFuse
• Live Demos:
  • Struts + Spring + Hibernate
  • Spring + iBATIS
  • WebWork + Spring + Hibernate
  • JSF + Spring + Hibernate
  • Tapestry + Spring + Hibernate

If you find any issues, let us know.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating today. It's been a great week at the Raible Household. I've managed to squeeze in a few hours for AppFuse/Tapestry/JSF, but mostly I've been building a garage workbench with my Dad. We also setup a "beer fridge" so the garage is now a nice place to hang out. Should be even better when I start disassembling the bus.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year - the new bus, new baby, new house and new book. Abbie is a ton of fun these days, so I owe her a big thanks for all the smiles and laughs. I owe Julie a huge thanks for being so supportive of my "burning the midnight oil" and allowing me to write another book. To my Mom, Dad, and Kalin - you guys rock for always reminding me who I am and where I came from.

I owe my readers a note of thanks for visiting this site and listening to me ramble on about Java and the kick-ass open source tools that make our lives easier. You guys are responsible for the popularity of this site. Finally, I thank Dave Johnson for Roller (which started this site) - which lead to meeting Lance, which led to my first authoring opportunity. A lot of good fortune these days come from this site - I'm still astounded that a simple blog can open so many doors.

Moving Talks Suspended

Over the last couple of years, Julie has tried to get me to move to both Florida and Southern California. I've made attempts to find jobs in both places. However, the flow of work has been pretty good in Denver, so I've been a bit reluctant to leave. Couple that with awesome weather (300 days of sunshine per year!) and great skiing - and the truth is I love this place. I never want to leave. Someday we'll probably move because Julie hates the cold with a passion. This is understandable since she grew up and lived in S. Florida and never left until she met me.

As of today, the moving talks have been suspended. Her sister, Holly, made the leap and moved to Denver. Since she's a nurse, finding a job should be a piece of cake. She's even put an offer on a house already, so she probably won't even be living with us for that long. Not only are moving talks suspended, but now we have family (a.k.a. a babysitter) in town! For those of you with kids - you know this this *huge*. Life just got a little bit easier for the Raibles. Thanks Holly!

The only downside is I'm once again outnumbered by the girls.

Java Developers - let's take over the MySQL Conference!

Last April, I attended the MySQL Conference in Orlando. It was a good time, but the number of Java Developers there was pitiful. I had a good time hanging out with Mark (Matthews) and Anthony, but it was still a poor showing. Now MySQL is gearing up for this year's conference (April in Santa Clara) and I'm thinking about submitting a proposal. Anyone interested in joining me? Let's bombard them with proposals and see if we can take over the sucker! If nothing else, it'd be cool to hang with more Java Developers in California.

The conference actually ends the day before Julie and I's 5th year anniversary (April 22nd). If my proposal gets accepted - I think we're going to have Julie's sister babysit and Julie will fly out to spend the weekend touring around wine country. Sounds like fun, eh? Now I just need to find some sort of limo so we can do lots of tasting.

The New Gig

I started a new gig on Monday. For the next 6 weeks or so I'll be helping Oak Grove Systems enhance their Reactor products. I'm excited about the opportunity. I was going to use Equinox to build the prototype (due Monday), but since the final product requires security and user management - AppFuse is a more logical choice. I'd like to use WebWork or Spring, but since Oak Grove's reference implementation of their portal framework uses Struts, it's probably wise that I do the same so they can maintain it easier.

I almost went to work full-time and in an office - but now that I've chosen to take a gig with 100% work-from-home, I'm pretty glad I did. It would be tough to give up the musing-blaring, 23" monitor environment I've grown to know and love. The new office later this month will make it even nicer. BTW, the house is coming along and we should move in in a couple of weeks. Here's some pics: view from front, view from back and inside view.

Damn

It's 8:20 a.m. and I still haven't gone to bed yet. The good news is I got a lot done on Spring Live and AppFuse in the last 10 hours. I guess I just lost track of time...

Sick

Julie and I had an agreement worked out. I was going to work this week on Spring Live and hopefully finish off the last chapter for 1.0. My plan was to wake up at 6:00 a.m. every morning and work until 2 p.m.

Then I caught Abbie's cold (or maybe I got it from Dion via e-mail). That was Saturday. Jack caught it on Sunday. Julie doesn't have it yet, but the rest of us are sick and I've lost all motivation to work on anything. Sleep is my new best friend.

Damn, I was almost done with the WebWork version of AppFuse too. Tomorrow I have an interview, so I'll probably rally and take a bunch of DayQuil or something. Hopefully that'll inspire me to get back in the groove and get some work done.

The Job Hunt

Now seems like the time to be unemployed. Everyone is doing it. I myself have been unemployed since the Julie went into labor on August 27th. Those were the terms of my last contract - when the baby is born I'm done. Once again, I'm glad I'm a contractor b/c this unemployed thing is a just a phase I go through a few times a year.

So far, the hunt for the next gig is going pretty well. I have a couple of leads. I've done the whole interview thing and now I'm just waiting to hear back about budgets and such. So nothing is confirmed and all opportunities could fall through. Since I'd like to start working again one week from Monday (September 27th), it's time to put my nose to the grindstone and see if I can find something soon. My usual process for this is to respond to job postings on the DJUG Jobs and RMIUG Jobs mailing lists. If that doesn't work, I'll start searching on Dice and Monster next week. I've actually gotten a few jobs off the mailing lists and one off Monster - so I know most of these avenues work. I've always found looking for and accepting a new gig quite fun. If I can finish Spring Live, AppFuse 1.6 and find a new gig all in the next 2 weeks - I'll be a very happy man. Actually, I'll be happy if I can just land a new gig.

I've created a monster

This past week has been a lot of fun. In order to survive our new life with two kids, we've split up the responsibilities. Abbie is now my kid and Jack is Julie's. This means that I'm in charge of Abbie 24 hours a day, and Julie takes care of Jack. Julie's definitely got the easier deal as Jack sleeps most of the time. Abbie and I are having a blast though. We've been out and about every day - whether it's at the park, riding bikes or in the mountains hiking. Now when she wakes up she yells "Daddy" instead of "Mommy".

I think I've created a monster though. Today I went the local Starbucks during her nap in order to try and get a little Spring Live writing done. Julie called me when she woke up from her nap to tell me that I had to come home right away b/c Abbie wouldn't come out of her room. She was screaming for Daddy and wanted nothing to do with Mommy. Uh oh, this little girl is going to be awfully upset when Daddy goes back to work at the end of the month. Since I don't have a new gig yet, maybe I won't be going back to work so soon.

This week I realized why I like being a consultant so much. I've taken 9 weeks off so far this year - and after this month, it'll be 13! When I told my Dad this he made a good point, "then why haven't I seen you more?" Unfortunately, out of the 9 weeks I took off earlier this year, I went to conferences for 4 of them, and worked on Spring Live for 4 of them. The other week I was sick. Ugh, I've got to start taking more vacations like this one - they're awesome.