Four harmful Java idioms, and how to fix them
John O'Hanley reveals the fault lines of four widespread Java idioms, then tickles our brains with new ideas about optimizing
Java code for maintainability.
John O'Hanley,
July 2008
Save the JMS for last
Don't spend time configuring JMS when you need to be coding business logic. A decoupled application architecture lets you
switch from synchronous to asynchronous processing at runtime.
Di Wang,
July 2008
Exceptions for action
Is your code overloaded with exceptions? Get some guidelines for writing efficient, reusable exceptions that minimize processing
overhead without leaving users or sysadmins in the dark.
Jean-Pierre Norguet,
November 2007
REST easy with the JavaBeans Activation Framework
Find out what makes the JavaBeans Activation Framework a perfect vehicle for RESTful data transmission, then put JAF to work
in a sample Web application that tracks requests and responses through a Java Servlet-based system.
Jeff Hanson,
October 2007
XML data interchange in Java ME applications
Get a primer on the Data Transfer Object design pattern and learn how using XML-based DTOs with a simple tool can speed up
the development of
Java mobile client-server applications.
Mario La Menza,
October 2007
Sidebar: Get started with MockMe
Mario La Menza,
October 2007
Acegi Security in one hour
If you've been itching to try Acegi Security, here's your chance for a hands-on introduction. Learn how to set up Acegi's
authentication and authorization services for any Java-based Web application, using both standard components and custom implementations.
ShriKant Vashishtha,
October 2007
The AjaxCommand strategy for JSF
A new take on the Gang of Four Command pattern lets you handle Ajax requests without duplicating code across multiple JSF
components.
Matthew Tyson,
October 2007
JSON creator slams Ajax, Web
Rich Web Experience keynoter Douglas Crockford points out the deficiencies of Ajax and the Web, calls for standardization
and uniformity in browsers.
Paul Krill,
September 2007
Add dynamic Java code to your application
Did you ever wish your Java code could be dynamic like JavaServer
Pages? That it could be modified and recompiled at runtime, with
your application updating itself on the fly? This article shows you
how to make your code dynamic. As such, some of your source code
will be deployed, instead of compiled binary code. Any changes to
the source code will cause it to be recompiled and the class to be
reloaded. Your application will then run on the new class, and
users will see the change immediately. This article covers not only
runtime source compilation and class reloading, but also a design
that separates the dynamic code from its caller. The caller holds a
static reference to the dynamic code, and no matter how the dynamic
code reloads at runtime, the caller can always access the
up-to-date class without updating the reference. In this way,
dynamic code changes are transparent to the client.
Li Yang,
June 2006
Plug memory leaks in enterprise Java applications
Because Java uses automatic garbage collection, developers think
Java programs are free from possible memory leaks. Although
automatic garbage collection solves the main cause of memory leaks,
they can remain in a Java program. Specifically, such memory leaks
in complex multitiered applications can be extremely daunting to
detect and plug. This article analyzes the main causes of memory
leaks in Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications, and
suggests strategies for detecting them.
Ambily Pankajakshan,
March 2006
J2EE design decisions
In this article, an excerpt from POJOs in
Action (Manning Publications, January 2006), Chris
Richardson presents five questions developers must ask themselves
when designing enterprise applications.
Chris Richardson,
January 2006
Generically chain dynamic proxies
Most developers already know how to decorate a business object and
add additional behavior to it at runtime. The Gang of Four (GoF)
Decorator pattern helps developers achieve this functionality.
Under the reflection package, J2SE 1.3 introduced the dynamic
proxy, which dynamically decorates business objects. Additionally,
chaining dynamic proxies can add multiple behaviors to business
objects dynamically at runtime. More specifically, these types of
additional behaviors are addressed by aspect-oriented programming
(AOP). This article is not intended as an in-depth discussion on
AOP; rather, it focuses on generically chaining the dynamic proxies
so that the developer can implement some AOP concepts in a
framework-driven way. If a project is already using some existing
AOP framework, then the developer does not need to worry about
implementing a custom framework. But developers who, for whatever
reason, do not use these frameworks in their projects can still get
the advantage of chaining dynamic proxies in an effective way with
little effort.
Srijeeb Roy,
January 2006
Design an MVC framework using annotations
Model-View-Controller (MVC) is a software architecture that
separates an application's data model, user interface, and control
logic into distinct components so that modifications to one of the
components can be made with minimal impact to the others. In this
article, you learn how to design a framework that extends MVC and
uses annotations to achieve an (almost) complete decoupling between
the model and view.
Riccardo Govoni,
October 2005
Hook on to Jakarta Commons Chain
The Jakarta Commons Chain framework is a fairly new framework that
implements the Chain of Responsibility pattern. In this article,
the basics of the framework are discussed, starting with the
interfaces Command, Chain, and
Catalog. In addition, the reader is introduced to some
packages designed for use in Web applications and learns how
Commons Chain will be applied in an upcoming version of Struts.
Finally, some imperfections are mentioned that are still present at
the time of this writing.
Eric Gunnewegh,
July 2005
Recent top five:
Let's talk about exceptions ...
How do you handle exceptions? Do you think upfront about the type of exceptions that you want to catch or do you just let
the outside world handle it?
-- Jeroen van Bergen in JW Blogs
