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JSP Buzz: Vol. IV Issue #1

JSPBuzz -- January 14th, 2003

01.14.2003

Table of Contents
  1. New Database War Shapes Up
  2. Tomcat4 and JSP Bug
  3. Sun Opens Wallet for Software Push
  4. Apple Snub Stings Mozilla
  5. WS-Reliability Specification Proposed
  1. Java, Money and Perceptions
  1. Servlet Best Practices, Part 2
  2. Servlet Best Practices, Part 3
  3. Building A Sample Web App With Struts
  4. JSP Security
  5. Using JAX-RPC Parameter Modes With Apache Axis
  6. A first look at JavaServer Faces, Part 2
  7. Named Character Elements for XML
  8. Experts Predict Advances In Processes.
  9. The JAXB API
  10. Data Binding, Part 1: Code Generation Approaches
  11. Bob's Predictions for 2003
  12. Tricks And Traps With Floating Point And Decimal Numbers
  13. J2EE and XML Development
  14. Open Source Yields Savings...
  15. The Functional Programming Language XSLT - A proof through examples
  1. GNOME 2.2 Desktop RC 1
  2. Sun Releases Liberty-Enabled Software
  3. Struts 1.1 Beta 3 Released
  4. WebMacro 1.1 Final Has Been Released
  5. Proguard Version 1.5
  6. Cold Fusion Integration with J2EE servers
News
New Database War Shapes Up
Globe Technology January 13th, 2003 
The new buzz word is "federated databases". IBM is releasing in June Xperanto, an XML based federated data management system. The federated model uses a virtual database to link data across many sources rather than use a central database or data warehouse for storage. Likewise Microsoft should be releasing Yukon a SQL Server database which permits similar types of interaction. Overall, all of this is still in the early phases of release. This means of course it will take years to digest.
Tomcat4 and JSP Bug
Security Focus January 9th, 2003 
A variant of an older 4.0 Tomcat bug which can expose the code to a JSP page. This is not a problem for the current 4.1 version of Tomcat but only for Tomcat 4.0.
Sun Opens Wallet for Software Push
CNET January 9th, 2003 
Sun is shifting focus to selling software over hardware.
Apple Snub Stings Mozilla
CNet January 14th, 2003 
Interesting story on the browser politics behind Apple's latest browser. More telling are the statements from the Mozilla developers.
WS-Reliability Specification Proposed
Java Skyline January 13th, 2002 
WS-Reliability is a specification for Web services messaging-including guaranteed delivery, duplicate message elimination and message ordering-enabling reliable communication between Web services. These reliability features are based on extensions to SOAP.
Rambles
Java, Money and Perceptions
Casey Kochmer 
This ramble is inspired by the following posting
Why Java is Better
The author lists many facts on why Java is better than .Net. The reason this posting grabs my eye, is for an entirely opposite reaction over the intention of the post. The fact is: it doesn't make a difference that Java is better than .Net. For many people .Net is good enough to get the job done. For the record: my opinion and experience is that Java/J2EE is indeed superior over .Net for many reasons, some of which are listed in the posting. As an example: it doesn't make any difference if Java is better on small devices if your project doesn't need to port to small devices. The real debate on .Net vs Java isn't one of how good the products are, its one of simple economics. Don't ever forget, it is an issue of money. I could say its an issue of resources, infrastructure and ease of use. However, in the end resources, infrastructure and ease of use boil down to money also.
Now one might argue if money is the main factor then many times Java is cheaper than .Net. Well the other factor that comes into play is perception of costs. So I need to modify my last statement, the debate of .Net and Java is one of money and perception of costs.
Java will survive, that much I know for sure. The bigger question is how and where will it survive. For most of us this question becomes: will Java be used to build business systems? That is harder to answer. Most of the time it boils down to either existing infrastructure and/or the perception of ease of use / cash required to create a project. Now the problem comes in because determining costs is an art at best. Also comparing the two products in costs is harder to do than imagined, since the two products don't line up side by side. For example Java projects can cost more because Java can do more. The temptation is to build bigger better systems and Java permits this to happen. The problem is when looking at Java you see the more expensive price tag since you can build and do more. So in the end, yes Java can do more, yes Java is more robust, yes we can build huge systems in Java. However, in the end, this can be a fatal flaw for business systems, especially for smaller companies.
If we want to make a difference, the best way to make a difference is not by showing how much better Java is than .Net. Rather it is time to show, and implement Java based solutions which are both simple and quick and most importantly, inexpensive to build.
Another article which touches upon the Java / .Net debate can be found at JavaWorld:
The past and future impact of Java's rival
As a side note, here is some community feedback on the why Java is better list:
Java Lobby
Links
Servlet Best Practices, Part 2
Jason Hunter December 23rd, 2002 
Some Servlet hints to help speed up page response time. Jason focuses in on how to pregenerate content offline and also covers some cache tips.
Servlet Best Practices, Part 3
The O'Reilly Java Authors January 2003 
This excerpt on servlets from Java Enterprise Best Practices, examines how to effectively send files for download.
Building A Sample Web App With Struts
Harshal Deo  
A quick tutorial showing how to start in Struts. Only for new users.
JSP Security
Jordan Dimov January 2003 
A basic article reviewing some security tips when building JSP pages. The sad thing is many programmers don't implement many the basic validation steps covered in the article.
Using JAX-RPC Parameter Modes With Apache Axis
Aravilli Srinivasa Rao January 2003 
A simple article showing how to use Apache Axis. More specifically it looks at how to pass parameters within a Web service call within Axis.
A first look at JavaServer Faces, Part 2
David Geary  December 27th, 2002 
A continued look at JavaServer Faces. If you build Java based Web sites and haven't looked at JavaServer Faces yet, then you should read this article.
JavaWorld Policy
Please note JavaWorld is changing their viewing policy, so this link may not be freely available soon.
Named Character Elements for XML
Anthony Coates, Zarella Rendon January 02, 2003 
This is cute. The article discusses how to use named character entities (such as &nbsp) within your XML document. More specifically, the article shows an example of using a StyleSheet to perform named character translation within an XML document to produce an HTML style document.
Experts Predict Advances In Processes.
SearchWebServices December 30th, 2002 
In building this issue of the Buzz I came across several look ahead articles for Web Services. This one seem to have the best overview of the 2003 playing field.
The JAXB API
Kohsuke Kawaguchi January 8th, 2003 
I have been waiting for over a year now for JAXB to reach maturity. So this article is a welcome sign as JAXB gets closer to the 1.0 release. What is JAXB? The goal of JAXB is to take an XML Schema and automatically generate a Java class based upon that XML Schema (XML Data Binding). What's the big deal you might ask? Ah, that is an article in itself, in fact see the next link someone began to write it. This article reviews part of the JAXB API.
Data Binding, Part 1: Code Generation Approaches
Dennis M. Sosnoski January 2003 
While on the subject of JAXB, here is an article which looks at XML data binding and JAXB in greater detail.
Bob's Predictions for 2003
Robert X. Cringely December 26, 2002 
Some predictions of what to expect in 2003. Most of the predictions seem sound and should come to pass.
Tricks And Traps With Floating Point And Decimal Numbers
Brian Goetz January 2003 
This is a look at some of the traps and "gotchas" often encountered when using non-integral numeric types in Java programs.
J2EE and XML Development
The Server Side January 8th, 2003 
This is a free pdf download of the J2EE and XML Development Book.
Open Source Yields Savings...
Tom Smith January 7th, 2003 
Oh I admit it is a fluffy story. However, it does point out both the strength and diversity of open source.
The Functional Programming Language XSLT - A proof through examples
Dimitre Novatchev November, 2001 
Some examples on using XSLT in twisted manners. I mean how often will you have to perform the square root function in XSLT? I don't know why, I just like XSLT and XPATH. That doesn't mean I can program in it very well still. I mean how many decent XSLT programmers do you know? But I like it and so I will continue to sneak in XSLT, XPATH and XQuery links. Most likely this is due my having a twisted sense of humor that leads to my liking XSLT. Oh well, enjoy.
Products
GNOME 2.2 Desktop RC 1
GNOME January 12th, 2003 
If you're a big fan of GNOME, but haven't had the courage to install one of the 2.1.x unstable releases, now is the time to give it a try! This release candidate is very stable for daily use, with no horrible, time-wasting bugs to distract you (though it does have its fair share of niggles).
Sun Releases Liberty-Enabled Software
Globe Technology  January 13th, 2002 
Sun releases the Identity Server 6.0 software product. This product uses the Liberty technology for simplifying the process of signing on to multiple Web sites. It has a price tag that is relative to the number of users you have. Hmmm Liberty but at what cost?
Struts 1.1 Beta 3 Released
Jakarta December 30th, 2002 
The Struts team is proud to announce the release of Struts 1.1 Beta 3. This release includes significant new functionality, while retaining full backwards compatibility with earlier versions of Struts. It also incorporates fixes for a number of bugs which were reported against earlier versions.
WebMacro 1.1 Final Has Been Released
WebMacro January 4th, 2003 
WebMacro is a 100% Java open-source servlet framework that enables programmers and designers to work together while promoting the ModelViewController pattern.
Proguard Version 1.5
Source Forge January 13th, 2003 
ProGuard is a free Java class file shrinker and obfuscator. It can detect and remove unused classes, fields, methods, and attributes. It can then rename the remaining classes, fields, and methods using short meaningless names. The resulting jars are smaller and harder to reverse-engineer.
Cold Fusion Integration with J2EE servers
Eweek January 7th, 2003 
Macromedia made several announcements, stating that their Coldfusion MX platform was ready to roll into app servers such as BEA, IBM, and Sun ONE. Cold Fusion continues to march into the land of Java with existing JSP integration, and a large community already in place. Its a tool that will be around for a while more.

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