Raible Designs

If you're planning on using Spring...

If you're planning on using Spring with Hibernate, Data Access with the Spring Framework is a must read. This article makes it look easy (and simpler) to use Spring's Hibernate helper classes than the regular Hibernate API. Good stuff - this kind of stuff makes integrating Spring into AppFuse look like fun. Deleting code is always fun. I wonder if MyEclipse will roll in some support for the Spring Framework? What about IDEA? Yeah, I broke down and bought a copy. I could use some "get to know your IDE" tutorials though. One thing I learned from Open Source Programming (and originally from The Pragmatic Programmer) is get to know your IDE. I could certainly use some more expertise on Eclipse and IDEA. I'm going to buy MyEclipse, a good Eclipse book and go read some IDEA documentation. Ambitious plans right before bed - sure sounds good though. Links appreciated - I want to make my IDE-life easier.

Mock Shmocks!

Let me start this post by saying that I've never used Mock Objects in my JUnit tests. Simon digs it, crazybob is an advocate and so is the gang that wrote Open Source Programming. In fact, the OSP book says that your unit tests should only take a couple of seconds to run! A couple of seconds!? Mine aren't that fast, which definitely makes me think I should look at Mocks to try to speed things up.

However, there is a method to my madness. Almost all my tests depend on a database connection and use DBUnit to populate the database before running. This can be time consuming, but it's not too bad for what I'm getting: real tests that verify the environment, not just the code. I just ran all tests in the application - 8 minutes 7 seconds - for 165 JUnit/Cactus tests and ~25 WebTest (JSP) tests.

If I did use Mocks, I wouldn't have discovered all the bugs in my code this week. When migrating from MySQL to DB2, I found that some things worked on MySQL, but they didn't on DB2. I modified the code, doing some tweaks to make Hibernate happy, and voila - now everything works on DB2 and MySQL. Furthermore, all my errors occurred when running my app in the container, and when I used simple JUnit tests (on my Managers) to test the same logic, it worked.

Who knows, I'm definitely learning new stuff everyday. Maybe it's possible that Mocks could do all this, but testing the production environment seems pretty important to me.

Coldtags - I dig the product and the support

I noticed from reading JavaLobby's Weekly News that Coldtags has a new version:

Coldbeans Software announced the major new release of Coldtags suite. This suite provides 160+ custom JSP tags for common programming tasks faced by JSP developers. And now this suite includes custom tags similar to web controls in .NET framework.

Find out more here: http://www.servletsuite.com/jsp.htm

I currently use the Country tag and the State tag and they're awesome (simple, but still something I needed). One feature I'd like to see is XHTML compliance for these tags, so I send them an e-mail.

Any chance of making this (and statetag) XHTML compliant? It would basically involve allow assigning an "id" attribute ("style" would be great too) and changing SELECTED to selected="selected".

Lo and behold, I got a quick reply less than an hour later:

Hello Matt,

it will be done.

Best regards,
Coldbeans support

P.S. I would like to note that the wish list for any component is open. So, feel free to suggest new features/options etc. you or your clients need and we will add them to upcoming release. Your suggestions for new components are more than welcome also.

Sweet! Note the P.S. - send your suggestions if you have any.

One Hour Later: Both tags have been updated with new attributes, and it's now XHTML-compliant. ;-D

AppFuse vs. Spring

I received an interesting e-mail this morning. The writer said his team is comparing AppFuse and Spring in terms of kick starting a project. This struck me as odd, especially since these two applications are quite different. Here's my response:

I think AppFuse and Spring are two completely different animals. IMO, Spring is excellent for wiring components together (i.e. Interfaces and Implementations) as well as simplifying J2EE's APIs. Of course, it has its own web framework too, but it also integrates nicely with Struts, WebWork and Tapestry. AppFuse is designed to be an application that helps you get *up and running* with your J2EE web application in the minimal amount of time. Its power is in the directory structure, Ant integration (build.xml) and testability. Also, XDoclet is heavily leveraged for code generation and maximizing developer's productivity. In essence, it's really just a packaging of other open source projects, including: Ant, XDoclet, Hibernate, JUnit, Cactus, StrutsTestCase, Canoo's WebTest, Struts Menu, Display Tag Library, JSTL and Struts (including Validator and Tiles). But rather than just packaging these together, it's also got Security and User Management built-in and contains tutorials on how to develop and test the different layers.

Here are some links on integrating Spring with other Java-based web frameworks:

Struts: http://struts.sourceforge.net/struts-spring/
WebWork: http://wiki.opensymphony.com/space/Spring+Framework+Integration
Tapestry: http://www.springframework.org/docs/integration/tapestry.html

And here are a couple of good simple descriptions of Spring:

http://test.javaranch.com/wiki/view?SpringFramework
http://barracudamvc.org/lists/archives/barracuda/2003-December/007156.html

I do plan on integrating Spring into AppFuse in the next release - so it might be awhile until I release 1.4. I basically plan on using it to wire my Managers together, as well as my DAOs. Currently, I don't think I'll use its web framework, but who knows. In the latter half of this year, I hope to add support for WebWork and Tapestry as web frameworks.

[Review] J2EE Design and Development

I finished reading Rod Johnson's J2EE Design and Development today. 700 pages took me a little over 2 weeks to knock out. This book is definitely targeted at experienced J2EE developers, which is nice. I tried to do the same with my Struts chapter in Pro JSP and I wish books would do more of it. However, the problem with targeting a more experienced audience is you lose a lot of potential buyers. Rod is definitely one sharp fellow and it shows throughout this book. Either that, or he's just got a lot of experience working with the J2EE stack in his career.

The framework described in this book eventually became Spring - and it's really just a culmination of all the things that Rod has used on his previous projects. In that respect, it's similar to AppFuse, which I created to assist me with my Java webapp projects. Like Spring, AppFuse contains all my learnings and choices over the last couple of years. Just to be clear, I don't mean to imply that AppFuse is anything close to Spring as far as functionality - but I do believe they're similar in their goals. Spring is designed to make J2EE easier, while AppFuse is designed to make project setup and testing easier. Hopefully, when I start using some Spring features in AppFuse, developing with AppFuse will become even simpler.

Back to the book. I found the first few chapters somewhat boring since they covered a lot of the stuff I already knew about J2EE applications. The middle part of the book was on Spring's simplified JDBC approach and it also covered EJBs. I tend to shy away from writing JDBC these days, especially since Hibernate suits my needs so nicely. If I'm working with an existing database and there's a lot of SQL code already, I'll use iBatis. And EJBs, blech - I've never had a need for them. Admittedly, a lot of my projects are small and don't require container-managed transactions. I've also heard rumors of CMT being a part of Spring - so who knows if there's any good argument for EJBs anymore. Anyway, I found the middle part of the book quite boring as well since I don't much care about JDBC or EJB.

The last part of the book, however, peaked my interest. It discussed MVC design, View Technologies (i.e. JSP, Velocity, XSLT, XMLC, PDF) and basically a lot of stuff related to the web tier. In this area, I was most impressed with XMLC, which allows you to write HTML pages - then use Java to manipulate it's contents. Very slick stuff for having a static prototype that also serves as the code for your app. I don't see myself switching from JSP to XMLC, but I dig the option. In the Performance Testing and Tuning chapter - great examples where given and seemingly real-world optimizations where made. This chapter could prove to be a handy reference for enhancing performance with simple caching.

Overall, I thought this was a great book, although a bit heavy on the EJB stuff for me. Now I'm motivated to learn more about Spring. In the process, hopefully I'll figure out how it makes iBatis and Hibernate easier to work with (links are most welcome). Next up is Java Open Source Programming(500 pages), which I expect to take another two weeks to polish off.

Alternative web frameworks for AppFuse

I've was thinking about the AppFuse Roadmap for a bit today - and it hit me. The hardest part of supporting frameworks like WebWork and Tapestry is going to be replacing the Struts features I'm confortable with. For WebWork, it should be fairly easy to replace Tiles with SiteMesh, but for Tapestry - does a templating framework even exist? Other things that might be hard to implement in Tapestry are the DisplayTag (although Erik Hatcher did mention it's easy to implement in Tapestry) and Struts Menu. I imagine doing something like implementing a menu with CSS/JavaScript isn't too hard in Tapesty - but can it be configured from an XML file and a Velocity template? Implementing these components into WebWork should be easy since it supports JSP, but Tapesty is a whole different animal. I've also heard that JSF already has a grid component - and the struts-faces library should allow me to use Struts Menu easily with JSF.

I guess the good news in all of this is that I will discover if this stuff is possible or not - instead of just wondering. If you do happen to know the answers off the top of your head - please let me know. The real question is - after all of this - which framework will I choose as my favorite. Stick around and read about my journey into these other frameworks from the perspective of a hardcore Struts developer and enthusiast. I don't plan on trying to prove that Struts is better - I just want to find the beauty of these other frameworks and report if it's all hype or actually true.

Inversion of Control - what the heck is it?

I really didn't know what Inversion of Control meant, until I started reading Rod Johnson's book. Today, on the spring-user mailing list, and article was posted about Inversion of Control. The article is by Martin Fowler and is titled Inversion of Control Containers and the Dependency Injection pattern. If you don't understand all this IoC stuff, or just want to learn why Spring and PicoContainer are the talk of the town, you should read this article.

On a side note, the guys at TheServerSide shouldn't feel bad about not setting their background color - Martin Fowler is no HTML genius either.

The Verge Web Framework

After reading this post on the Server Side, I'd hate to be the guy who invented Verge. He's getting pounded like a rabbit during mating season!

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with another web framework. Competition is good. The funny thing is that I've never had a need to migrate away from Struts. I do admit that the IoC (Inversion of Control) in WebWork looks cool, but I don't have a need. After reading most of Rod Johnson's J2EE Design and Development, I do understand IoC (I didn't have a clue before), but I still don't see how I need it. I've never run into a problem with Struts that I couldn't solve. Maybe it helps that I've written my own app to make Struts development simpler.

Even though I do like Struts, and I do find it easy to develop with, I also plan on stuffing my head in a couple of books and learning all about Spring, Tapestry and WebWork. Why? Mainly because I'm a fool and I can't be happy just sitting on the couch and watching TV (which would probably help my blood pressure and make my family happier). I'm a fool because I'd rather learn than relax. Back to the point - why do I want to learn these "big 3?" To be honest, it's primarily because some big names (and folks I'd consider friends) are saying they're cool and they'll make my job easier. If only I wasn't so easily influenced...

What I hate about all of this is that as soon as I decide to integrate Spring into AppFuse, it becomes more complicated. Yes, an XML BeanFactory file is more complicated than Interface i = new InterfaceImpl(), especially for newbies.

Furthermore, I'm willing to bet that I'll end up writing workarounds for issues I encounter in Tapestry and WebWork. I'll even put my money where my mouth is - if your framework doesn't require me to write any workarounds, I'll donate $100 to the project. Heck, if it really is that cool - I'll donate money regardless of workarounds.

The worst part is that there's really no reason to convert my Struts webapp to these newer, cooler frameworks. About the only good reason is so I can say "I know the XXX Framework." I doubt XXX Framework will make anything easier, but it certainly might make my webapp a whole lot cooler.

What should I learn next?

I received an e-mail a few minutes ago from an old friend. We used to work together at eDeploy, which has finally gone out of business, 2.5 years after they closed their doors. This was my last full time job and was also my favorite job of all time. I rode my bike to work, got to learn Java, wore shorts all the time, and thoroughly enjoyed our Friday lunches.

His questions were fairly simple:

• What is the best way to find a Java job/contract in Denver?
• Since you've had a lot more exposure to what technologies are being used more than others, is there somethings that I should brush up on while I've got the time off (i.e. struts, xslt, EJBs, . . .)?

I wrote a long answer and thought others might be able to benefit from it - so here it is (please add your own advice as you see fit):

What I'd recommend is to subscribe to the following local mailing lists:

RMIUG Jobs: RMIUG Jobs: http://rmiug.org/html/email_lists.html
DJUG Jobs: http://www.denverjug.org/resources/mailinglist.html

They get a fair amount of jobs that come across the wire, and I actually got 2 gigs last year through the RMIUG list. Struts is definitely one of the hottest skills, but I continue to get a lot of calls as a UI/Java Developer. Having the ability to write clean and pretty HTML as well write Java seems to be rare. To complement Struts, I'd focus on JSTL and JSP 2.0. You can't go wrong learning more about Ant and JUnit - I think a lot of people know JUnit, but not many put it on their resume.

You could check out my AppFuse application which uses all of these, as well as Hibernate (another hot one) for the persistence layer.

I started writing AppFuse when I wrote a couple chapters for Pro JSP last year. I use it on all my projects and it really helps accelerate the whole JSP/Struts/JUnit/Tomcat development cycle.

I'd also recommend reading a couple of really great books:

Java Development with Ant: a truly awesome book
Pro JSP: of course ;-)
J2EE Design and Development: I'm reading it right now

EJBs are a thing of the past - you might be able to get a gig doing them, but they're definitely waning. Rod Johnson (author of the 3rd book) wrote the Spring Framework as part of the book, and it's a pretty slick framework for taking the ugly out of J2EE. The project is getting a lot of press, and I hope to use Spring pretty soon to bind all my components together in AppFuse.

Above all else, I recommend starting to read weblogs (a.k.a. blogs), and if you like it, start your own. The best place to start reading them is JavaBlogs, JRoller and Java.net. I'm a committer on the open source project (Roller Weblogger) that runs JRoller. It's some damn slick blogging software. I host my site at KGBInternet for a measly $20/month and I get my own instance of Tomcat to screw up. Reading blogs is definitely the best way to stay on the bleeding edge of Java (and any other industry for that matter).

The Battle of the GZip Filters

When I first added a Compression/GZip filter to AppFuse, I used the one from Roller, which I believe Lance found in this book. This has worked fairly well since I added it in July last year. When I discovered that there were issues with it on Resin, I chaulked it up as "no big deal" since I don't use Resin anyway. But yesterday, when I discovered that it stopped my apps from displaying my 403 <error-code> page, that was the last straw. I remembered seeing the "Two Servlet Filters Every Web Application Should Have" article on ONJava.com about a different implementation, so decided to download the source and try it out.

I quickly discovered that this Filter does work on Resin, so that's quite a bonus. I've had issues getting Roller to work on Resin with the Filter enabled, so I might have to replace Roller's CompressionFilter. However, I did still have to change a few things to convince this Filter to satisfy my needs.

Here are a few things I discovered about this GZIPFilter vs. Roller's CompressionFilter:

• Don't download the GZIPFilter from the article. There is a newer version of the code. Not much has changed, save for an almost completely re-written GZipResponseStream.java file. This one supposedly does better handling of large files.
• This Filter has the same problem I experienced with Roller's CompressionFilter: JSP pages don't finish rendering when running my Canoo WebTests. I'm assuming that this is because the buffer hasn't finished spitting out HTML. I ended up writing a new isGZIPSupported() method (in GZIPFilter.java) to do the check for GZip support. This allows my webtests to run smoothly by disabling the filter for HttpUnit.
• This Filter shares another issue that I found in the CompressionFilter yesterday. When my webapp returns an HttpServletResponse.SC_FORBIDDEN error code (from trying to access a method that denies the users role), the Filter suppresses the error and the user is not served up the 403 error page defined in my web.xml. To fix this, I overrode sendError() in GZIPResponseWrapper.java and added a check for this error code in the getWriter() method.

Overall, I'm pleased with this code because I love the concept of GZip Filtering, and now it's not causing any conflicts in my app or targeted appservers.

GZIPFilter.isGZIPSupported(HttpServletRequest):

GZIPResponseWrapper.sendError(int, java.lang.String):

GZIPResponseWrapper.getWriter():