JSF and AJAX - Still no Good

AJAX is the way of life for web developers. If you are a Java Enterprise developer, more specifically a JSF developer, you will find loads of AJAX/JSF libraries. But if you decide to use one of them, you will not be able to use components from any of the other libraries (in most cases). In other words your application will be locked into the library you choose to use.

I found a good article today on JDJ "JavaServer Faces: The Importance of Components" by Jim Cook. The following paragraph was interesting:

AJAX fits in with the JSF framework very naturally. However, the early JSF specifications (1.0, 1.1, and 1.2) don't address AJAX. One of the consequences is that each vendor of JSF components has built its own AJAX engine and the various engines aren't always compatible. Although this issue is being addressed in the upcoming 2.0 specification, for the time being, component users are basically forced to choose components from only one vendor if they want to use AJAX.

According to this, until the 2.0 JSF specification has been implemented by all the major JSF libraries, its probably better to stay away from them if you want to prevent a lock-in. Look at it this way. If you do use one these AJAX/JSF libraries today, tomorrow when they come up with the new JSF 2.0 compatible version of their library, your application will not be able to use it.

So what can Java developers who need AJAX do today?

You can use a pure Javascript based AJAX library like Dojo or YUI along with Spring and Hibernate. At least you know that tomorrow when Dojo and YUI come out with their new versions, your application can make use of them. Yes, your application will be locked into YUI or Dojo. Life is not perfect.

Which Java Techs are HOT today?

I have been working recently with some SEO experts and was amazed at how they search for information on the net using various analytics and statistics tools. It made me think, why not search the net to get some REAL facts on which Java technologies are hot today. The goal is to help outsourcing companies and developers to focus more towards technologies that are in more use in the industry.

I started with regular Google Insights and Adwords Keyword Tool searches. But when Google Insights showed me that majority of these searches have been performed in India, I realized that these results signify what developers are searching for. But my goal is to find what customers are searching for.

Then it came to me. If I search Jobs websites in the markets that are best known for outsourcing IT projects, using Java specific keywords, that should give me a good idea of which technologies are more in use in those markets. I chose to search monster.com for USA and itjobswatch.co.uk for UK. Following are my findings.

	Jobs on Monster.com	Jobs on ITJobsWatch (avg last 3 months)
Application Server Platforms
Websphere	825	463
WebLogic	664	303
JBoss	474	86
Backend GLUE Frameworks
Spring	546	434
Struts	527	173
Seam	15	4
Other Backend Frameworks
Hibernate	551	334
EJB	372	143
DWR	13	3
Client-side Frameworks
JSF	882	45
RichFaces	7	No Data
IceFaces	9	No Data
ADF	2	1

Now this is by no means a very extensive list of technologies but I searched the most common ones I knew of. Technologies like JUnit, XML, Webservices etc. do not have to be researched. Everyone knows that its a must to know them just like HTML, Javascript CSS etc.

I was hoping to find something more conclusive for the client-side frameworks. I do know JSF is the choice for Java Programmers but which ONE JSF library is most widely being used??

Make your Java run 2X faster than C/C++ - without any coding for FREE

Looking around for Java and C/C++ comparisons I came across the Java Server runtime. I guess this has been around for a while now but just missed it for some reason. When running your Java apps, if you use the -server argument, your app runs and performs almost twice as fast as C/C++ applications of the same nature.



The server argument does take up a lot more RAM then the default client argument, but the performance boost is huge. I would not mind having all my Java apps set to run in server mode by default on newer Core2 with 4 GB machines.

The original article for C++ can be found here. The C benchmark is in Word doc format and can be downloaded here.

Market Statistics for Software Outsourcing Companies and Developers

The IT Jobs Watch website gives very detailed statistics on jobs in the UK with average salaries, No. of job postings, comparisons to last year's stats, various graphs etc. Although it does not represent the whole world, it can help outsourcing companies and developers to evaluate the current requirements in the software development market and thus develop their skill sets accordingly.

Developers confused about which new tech to get into next can search
for their own specific fields and see whats in demand in the market. Viewing the details of "Senior Java Architect", I noticed that J2EE, Spring, Hibernate, AJAX, JBoss and Eclipse have been mentioned by name in the job requirements. I am already working on a new project using Spring, Hibernate, AJAX and Eclipse so it seems I am on the right path. I might just add in JBoss to it.

2 Must Read articles for ALL smartphone developers

I came across 2 really awesome articles today regarding development for smartphones:

• A developer's-eye view of smartphone platforms
• The cross-platform option: Web apps for smartphones

The first article covers ALL the development platforms currently available for application development for smartphones, e.g. iPhone, RIM, Symbian. The second one covers an alternative to native and interpreted applications, using Web Apps. Both are a must read.

Run your application on a 100+ servers simultaneously using Terracotta

Imagine running a server application which has to be used by thousands of users simultaneously. Now imagine having a database with millions of records which when accessed by even 1 single user ends up killing your server. Now imagine having both these situations together. This will be called the mother of all software implementations. But this is what servers in the field E-Government (think NADRA), Banking and pretty much all big Multi-National companies go through on a daily basis.

To deal with this problem companies invest in expensive solutions in the form Application Clustering, Server Clustering and Database Clustering where multiple servers work together to get the job done. The solution providers charge on the basis of number of servers/applications/databases being used. The cost runs into hundreds and thousands of dollars. Needless to say, this is not everyone's cup of tea.

But if your application was made using Java, you can use Terracotta to cluster your application for FREE. Taken from their site:

Terracotta is open source infrastructure software that makes it
inexpensive and easy to scale a Java application to as many computers
as needed, without the usual custom application code and databases used
to share data in a cluster.

Terracotta manages mission critical data using Network-Attached
Memory (NAM) technology. NAM enables Terracotta to cluster Java Virtual
Machines (JVMs) directly underneath applications, and is a proven
runtime approach to providing Java applications both high availability
and scalability.

Just another reason why beating Java in the Enterprise world can only be a dream for other technologies.

OpenID - One login to rule them all

Imagine logging to your GMail and then browsing to your Facebook, Hotmail, MySpace, Wordpress, personal Blog etc. without needing to login at all. We are not there yet but the OpenID technology will be getting us there hopefully by the end of 2009.

No longer will you have to remember multiple usernames/passwords. You will have the freedom to use any 1 website to actually have your 1 username/password. Other sites will merely ask that 1 site to authenticate you. Lets say you really don't want to trust the likes of Google to have your username/password. No problem, you can run your own OpenID server by just installing a simple Php script (or this) and have Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo etc. ask YOUR server for authenticating you.

Already big names like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM are on board. But they still have to integrate OpenID into their own websites.

Similar solutions like Microsoft Passport and Single Sign-On solutions from various vendors like IBM, Oracle and Sun did not pick up any momentum due to their propriety and single vendor only nature.

For web developers, you will have to allow users to register and login themselves to your sites using OpenID. Since OpenID also allows for the server to send you profile information once the user registers on your site, this will also mean that your website registration will be a 1-click action. This equates to more users for your site.