Gosling's guerrilla posts - Make me feel sick! What about you?

Ok. We all know, he left Oracle on April 2nd. And to be honest it was something that really does not feel good. I am talking about James A. Gosling aka as the father of Java.
With his dismissal he also moved his blog to a non Sun / Oracle place. And that's where I really started getting problems with his posts.
The blog is called "On a New Road" and James is publishing things from his new unemployed life.
Seeing the first post back from Friday April 9, 2010 I was still shure, that this will be a silent resignment.

[...] Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good.
(Source: On a New Road)

Far wrong! As James started over, you find him giving broad hints about what he thinks about Oracle in nearly every post.

[...] resigning has been a full time job (before I quit, several friends said I'd need a lawyer because "this is Oracle we're talking about"... sadly, they were right).
(Source: On a New Road)

[...] Pretty soon, all Larry will have left is an IP portfolio. Perhaps that's all he wanted: there's precious little evidence that he was interested in any of the people.
(Source: On a New Road)

I only quoted the more or less known parts. Reading along, you find some more. Related to products, to persons. This is his blog, an he can post whatever he wants? Yes: Of course he can. But what realy disturb me is, that he makes me feel sick.

James, we know nothing
- about your deal with Oracle.
- about the true reasons you left Oracle.
- about your personal conversations with Larry

According to a saying you obviously finally decided not to love it, not to change it but to leave it. You are doing what everybody is told not to do. You express unconstructive criticism over and over again.
You, the father of Java should be aware what you are doing. As a parent you should be a caretaker of your offspring (Source: wikipedia). Read this:

Most fathers are naturally protective, supportive, and responsible and are able to provide a number of significant benefits to themselves, their communities, and their children.
(Source: Wikipedia)

You are betraying the community these days! To be honest, your children have a hard time at the moment. Life is not all guns and roses. And beeing with Oracle, beeing expected to sell and gain revenue is obviously something else it was at Sun. But there are still options for those willing to change and influence things. You could, for example work with the Oracle community on different levels. There are strong user groups out there. We have great individuals, we have great spokesman. There are ways of constructive criticism. At last for those still willing to change and still having love.

Hm. Reading everything again it feels if this has become some kind of an open letter. Was not intended to be this way. What I really like to know is how you, the readers, are feeling about all this. Let me know. Post your comments. I am happy to read them.
And James: I really do not expect an answer. I am happy if you simply think about this.

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 - preparations and sessions

Roughly two weeks to go now. ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 is ahead and the excitement is rising. Flights are booked. Waiting for some more information about hotel and transfer, but they will arrive in time. I am shure :) More than 170 technical sessions make it hard to choose. About 60 ACE Directors are presenting, too. Before they ran out of seats, I took the chance to collect  my favorite sessions today.

As expected, I will mostly attend the Middle Tier and Client-Side Development track. And this is the plan up to now:

• BPM in 2010 - Myths and Reality (Hajo Normann)
• Cutting Edge, AJAX Web UIs without the Headache (Juan Ruiz)
• Attention Oracle Developers: Find those Java Memory Leaks Fast! (Mark Prichard)
• Java EE Development with Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse (Greg Stachnick)
• What Makes a Service a Good Service? (Torsten Winterberg)
• Just Get it Written: Deploying Applications to WebLogic Server Using JDeveloper and WLS Console      (Peter Koletzke copresenter: Duncan Mills, Oracle)
• What’s Hot and What’s Not – An Overview of Oracle Development Tools (Sten Vesterli)
• Oracle JDeveloper 11g JAX-WS Web Services - As Easy As 1-2-3 - XSD, WSDL, Generate! (Chris Muir)
• It's Happening! On Event-Driven SOA, Part I-III (Lucas Jellema)

I will be an ambassador for fellow ACE Directors Hajo and Torsten. Hopefully they don't mind that I am doing the job :)

As usual, I will twitter and blog about the few days in Washington, D.C. You can follow me on twitter (@myfear) and please don't forget to follow the official ODTUG twitter account (@ODTUG).
If this still is not enough, you can also search for the #ODTUG hashtag and listen, what others have to say about the conference.

DOAG News 02/10: GlassFish and Java EE 6 at Oracle

Some self promotion again. The latest DOAG News, which is the quarterly magazin from the German Oracle users Group DOAG e.V. published an article of mine. This is about GlassFish and Java EE 6 at Oracle and is ment as a guide to Java EE 6 and the "new" Oracle product. Beside this I wrote about some things seen along the road from Sun to Oracle.

All DOAG members get the magazin as part of their membership for free. You can also have it, if you like. Check the german DOAG publications website for more details.

Java EE 5 or 6 - which to choose today

Companys are starting new Java EE projects over and over again these days. It still is one of the widely used enterprise technologies today. If you find youself in the situation of having to kick off a new project you keep asking yourself the question for the right technology and product. The time between the launch of a new specification and the first commercial implementations could be hard, cause you have to decide what you are going to do. Stick to whatever spec is available through your current vendors implementation or move on with a new product or choose from the already available parts of the new spec and mix them up with old versions. The basic question behind this is: What Java EE version should I start over with today?
I was asked this frequently since the new specification came out. And I always find it difficult to answer. Today I will try to summarize my thoughts on this and post a decision helper for you to find your own answers.

Status quo
Java EE 6 is out since December 2009. Up to now the GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 3 is available as the reference implementation. The Oracle GlassFish Server 3 offers a supported distribution. The Other vendors are missing support for Java EE 6. You may rest assured that first vendors come out with complying versions earliest in Q4/10. Some milestone builds for first servers are already out there (e.g. JBoss). You also can find implementations of separate specifications (JSF 2.0, JPA 2.0) but most of them miss commercial vendors support in current Java EE 5 servers up to now.

The basic decision
The basic decision you have to make ist, whether you are going to give the current GlassFish v3 a timely try or not. This seems easy at first. But if you try to make this decision from an enterprise point of view you have to keep some things in mind. This is what the following flowchart is trying to demonstrate. You basically have three options:
- Stick to Java EE 5 on whatever platform or server you are using
- Use Java EE 6 with one of the GlassFish 3 distributions
- Develop for Java EE 6 with GlassFish 3 and switch to your vendors distribution later

Things misfiting the chart
Of course, this is a simple black and white approach. As usual there are some greys in it, too. If you already are a "GlassFish company" this is much simpler, as the chart indicates. You probably even would stick to the version 3 if you need (some kind of) clustering or failover.
- and if you are running JBoss you could think about using the latest milestone builds.
- and you can also give the recently released WebLogic Server 10.3.3.0 a try if you are only interested in JSF 2.0.
- and you can try to use EclipseLink 2.0 or Hibernate 3.5 for JPA 2.0 support
- and you could decide that it's worth doing some educational projects to skill up your developers
- and ... and ... and

Your development project and the future
Nothing prevents you from thinking about the future of your development project. But you should keep in mind, that it is always some kind of risk, if you mix development and productive platforms. If you are striving for a GlassFish 3 development environment and planning to run on any other vendor's server, you should respect this in your plans. The most safe way here could come true for the interaction between GlassFish and Oracle WebLogic. Not knowing in detail what the future holds for both but I am still expecting some kind of utilities that support transition from one to the other.

Links and readings
GlassFish.org
hibernate.org
EclipseLink
JPA 2.0
JSF 2.0
JBoss AS 6.0.0.M3
Oracle WebLogic

Oracle WebLogic Development-Only Installer

One of the biggest issues I always had with WebLogic was the installation. Even if the installer iteself was very straight forward and easy, the installation took longer with every new release containing new features. This was already adressed in the past with the possibility to select from some of the most common components. But it still took some time to setup the basic installation.
Starting with WebLogic Server 10.3.3.0 Oracle now provides a Development-Only Installer as a ZIP file. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X systems. It contains all necessary artifacts for development of applications on WebLogic Server. The following parts are NOT included in the distribution:

• Samples
• Derby database
• WebServer plug-ins
• Native JNI libraries for unsupported platforms
• Sun SDK and Oracle JRockit SDK
• Coherence
• Oracle Enterprise pack for Eclipse

Download and extract
Get the 423 MB ZIP File from the offical OTN download page.
And extract it's contents to a folder of your choice. This will become your "Middleware home directory". Please do not use any existing one. Make shure you place it seperate from any existing fusion middleware (FMW) installations.
You can see, another ZIP file and a simple readme.txt with nothing but a link to the FMW documentation was extracted. Extract this one, too.

Install and configure the JDK
As the installer comes without any JDK, you should have either the Sun jdk 160_18 or the Oracle JRockit 160_17_R28 in place. If not: Install one of them. The following examples I assume that you have a Windows system running.
Next is to setup JAVA_HOME and MW_HOME variables in your command shell. Open one and type:
set JAVA_HOME=C:\jrockit_160_17_R28.0.0-679
set MW_HOME=C:\myfmwhome

Configure your installation
Now you have to run the installation configuration script in the %MW_HOME% directory. You need to do this only only once. Again only if you move the installation to another location/machine.
configure.cmd
Now you have setup your WLS environment in the current shell by typing:
%MW_HOME%\wlserver\server\bin\setWLSEnv.cmd

Create a domain and start it
A domain is automatically created if you create a domain directory with any name you like and simply start your WLS.
mkdir C:\myfmwhome\mydomain
%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m weblogic.Server
Once the domain is created, you can shutdown WLS and restart it with the scripts provided in the newly created domain.
If you want some additional control, you can also use the GUI based configuration wizzard:
%MW_HOME%/wlserver/common/bin/config.cmd
But you can also do this using WLST or the unpack command. WebLogic Server domain and extension templates are available in the %MW_HOME%/wlserver/common/templates/domains and %MW_HOME%/wlserver/common/templates/applications directories to help you get started with domain creation. For further details refer to the WLS product documentation.

Note: It is recommended that you create the domains outside the %MW_HOME%. This example does not follow this recommendation for simplicity ;)

Applying patches
As the smart update tool is not supported, patching has to be done manually. You have to get the needed patch jars from Oracle Support and apply it manually to the classpath.

Upgrading
In-place upgrade of installation is not supported in the zip distribution. If needed, you have to re-download the zip distribution and extract it again to a new location. Of course you could keep the already generated domains.

Deleting
simply delete the %MW_HOME% directory. Ensure that you don't delete any of your domains. Keeping them in a separate directory makes this easier.


Further readings:
Complete WebLogic Server Documentation

Oracle Introduces Java Virtualization Solution for Oracle WebLogic Suite

As seen in a press anouncement a few days ago, Oracle is revealing parts of the future for it's WebLogic Suite.

It includes two new products:
- Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder and
- Oracle WebLogic Suite Virtualization Option

Oracle Virtual Assembly

The Virtual Assembly Builder is a new product designed to help organizations deploy multi-tier enterprise applications in virtualized environments. It also enables administrators to configure and provision these applications. This is done by using the frameworks capabilities for
(a) automatically capturing the configuration of an existing reference application environment and packaging all its components into a collection of customized software appliances, or
(b) starting with pre-created, general purpose software appliances representing the various components in an application topology.
See the datasheet online (PDF, ~300kb)

Oracle WebLogic Suite Virtualization Option

The Virtualization Option brings together Oracle WebLogic Server with JRockit Virtual Edition. It is optimized for virtualized environments and able to deliver higher application performance and increased hardware utilization. By adding essential system functions to the JRockit JVM, WLS on Oracle JRockit Virtual Edition can now execute directly on the hypervisor, eliminating the need to deploy and administer a guest operating system.
See the datasheet online (PDF, ~300kb)

Oracle ACE Directors and Java Champions

One aspect of the Sun/Oracle merger was slightly underrepresented the last weeks. As you might know, there are now two developer programs running which are dedicated to passionate Java/Oracle technology and community leaders.
The one I am a proud member of is the Oracle ACE Program. A simliar one exists at Sun since a few years and is called the The Java Champions Program.
Both developer programs are now united within Oracle. To make it short: This is the only change to both. They are NOT going to be united under a common name. And they are NOT going to change in any other way.
Fact is, that the Java Champions will receive better support from the Oracle Technology Network Team in the future. Victoria Lira and her Team do the best to support all program members with all needed information.
Most notably both programs have roughly the same size. About 100 ACE Directors and 100 Java Champions are around. Most working in the USA and EMEA. There is no single ACED Champion :) Completely distict groups.

If you want to take a more detailed look at the ACE Program, read through my blog entry about it. Written back in november 2009 but still up to date. I did not compile something similar about the Java Champions because all you need is on their Program Homepage.

You can follow @oracletechnet/oracle-ace list on twitter if you like to read more from the ACEs.
I created a list for the Java Champions I know. You can subscribe to it @myfear/java-champion

GlassFish Product Roadmap Updates - Versions 2.1.2, 3.0.1, 3.1, 3.2, 4.0

As announced a few days ago, EclipseCon delivers details about the future directions of GlassFish. After the first details came up yesterday, there was a more detailed session today. As always, this is only second hand information, as I am not affiliated to Oracle. If you are looking for authoritative answers there are other places to look at (see links and readings below). You will find the following information there too in the next few days ;)

Changes to GlassFish in general
First: It's easy to talk about the changes, because most things will not change. GlassFish will stay Open Source (mostly GPL/CDDL). It will have non-Oracle commiters and a (more) transparent development process in general. And you will be able to download the GlassFish Open Source Binaries from the places you are used to.
The available AddOns will remain closed source. And this is the future way of delivering any integration works for other Oracle products. In short: You will not have to care of any Oracle specific middleware or features if your are staying with the Open Source distribution.
The glassfish.org environment will stay the same. You will have all the mailinglists, forums and wikis in place, as you are used to. Same for the source and binary distributions.
There will be an additional oracle.com site about Oracle GlassFish where your will find additional information about the commercial offerings. This includes the formal documentation, support and the licensed versions you can use for production.
UPDATE (3/28/10)
The Oracle GlassFish (commercial distribution) licenses WILL change. It will be available under the Oracle Technology Network Developer License and under a productive deployment license. Pricing will change, too. As usual for Oracle this will be a per processor pricing. Details will become available during the next weeks. If you are unshure what to do, contact your sales rep.

Naming changes
You have to adjust the names you were used to. The two basic offerings will be called:
- Oracle GlassFish Server (this is the commercial distribution)
- GlassFish Server Open Source Edition (the OSS licensed version)
No v2 or v3 anymore. Just the numbers.

Upcomming Releases
We are going to see two kind of releases in the next time. First are the so called 100day Releases. They will basically cover the products as they are and put a new branding in place. I also expect the supported environments to extend to at last the popular ones for Oracle. There will be a 100day release for GlassFish 2.x and 3.x. The 2.1.2 will contain patches and the new branding, and will be released this summer. The 3.0.1 also contains the new branding, patches but will also deliver a multi-language release and provides basic interoperability features with WebLogic Server. It will be available this year summer, too.

Those two will be followed by the normal feature releases; at last for GlassFish 3.x. All 2.x will go to maintainance mode after the 100day release.
Actually the following represents the basic timeline that is know up to now:

GlassFish 3.1 (2010 H2)
- Centralized Administration / Clustering
- High Availability / State Replication
- More value added features (e.g. Coherence support)

GlassFish 3.2 (2011 H1)
- Improved Cluster / High Availability administration
- Integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware
- Virtualization Support
- Some Java EE 6 spec updates
- Some Java EE 7 EA

GlassFish 4 (2012 H2)
- Common Server Plattform - sharing best of breed components with WebLogic Server
- Java EE 7 RI

Comments
After the first rumors around this is not a big surprise at all. GlassFish will stay the reference implementation for Java EE and will survive. But much more beyond this we will see both Oracle Java EE Servers growing together. There are no further details around about the plans for GlassFish 4.x and up to now this is only speculation again. But it seems to me that "sharing components" between both could mean more than simply running the same codebase for selected features. I believe this could lead to a general server platform which allows for only a few components/services to be different from each other. I am very excited to see both systems moving into a common direction.
The provided roadmap only applies to the GlassFish server. There are a couple of things around it. One to mention is the GlassFish Tools Bundle For Eclipse. Nothing special has been announced for it so far. But Oracle also has the Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse (OEPE) in place. The situation seems quite similar to the two servers. But I expect a near-term solution here.


Further Links and Readings
https://glassfish.dev.java.net/roadmap/
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/glassfish/

UPDATE 3/25/10
The first link refers to the PDF slides of the presentation done by the GlassFish gang yesterday evening at EclipseCon.

Your Firefox, your Oracle style!

FireFox 3.6.2 is available. This was my start to play around with a new feature available since some time. It is called Personas. Personas are easy-to-install, easy-to-use themes that change the look of your Firefox web browser. There are thousands of Personas to choose from, with more added every day. Click here to visit the Personas gallery and start looking for designs that fit your style.
All you have to do is to install the personas add-on and restart your FF.
Now you can choose different styles from the growing gallery or even create your own.

I tried this today. And this is, what I came up with. Hope, you like it :)
And no: This is not available for Download. I don't want to get in trouble with Oracle at all. I think it would be good idea to ask @oracletechnet (Justin Kestelyn) if you would like to have an official OTN/Oracle FireFox persona :)

Featured ACE on Arch2Arch

This nearly slipped though my inbox ;) I was featured in the March 2010 edition of the Oracle Arch2Arch newsletter.



This newsletter is driven by the famous and always listening Bob Rhubart (@brhubart). He is the Manager of the Architect Community at OTN. Thanks Bob :)

What is OTN?
Oracle Technology Network is the world's largest community of developers, DBAs/sysadmins, and architects using Oracle products with industry-standard technologies. Millions of members collaborate via OTN every day to share real-world expertise and best practices about how to best design, build, deploy, manage, and optimize applications.
Not already a member? Join! it's free :)

Resources:
Subscribe to the OTN Arch2Arch Newsletter.
Subscribe to more Oracle Newsletters.

JavaFX Platform the Official Rich Client Technology for 2010 Winter Games

Oracle announced on February 9, 2010 that JavaFX(TM) and Java(TM) platforms are being used as the Official Rich Client Technology by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).

Sport fans around the globe can now explore the historical Winter Games medal results through an innovative JavaFX application, Medal Wheel, available at http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/geo-view/.

This are awesome news for the JavaFX community. Oracle is actively pushing it and to be honest, I like the fast UI :)

BUT: Even JavaFX does not prevent you from making mistakes. As a German, I had to look after our own statistics. And did not find them. Looking deeper at this shows, that there is a functional error in it :)
Look at the following screens and compare reality to the geo-view.

GlassFish vs. WebLogic - 10 visions for the future

The Sun/Oracle merger raised some questions about the future of different components. One of interest to me is the GlassFish Application Server. Beside the Oracle WebLogic it is the next Java EE Application Server in Oracle's portfolio.
Not really much concrete has been said about the future coexistence of both. But some postings, slides and webcasts are around. Time to summarize them and draw some conclustions. To be honest: Non of the thoughts here are confirmed by anybody. Especially not by Oracle! I don't know if the described things will happen and I don't have any detailed insights in both products timelines or roadmaps. Happy to discuss everything and read about your thoughts.

1) "GlassFish continues as the Java EE reference implementation and as an open source project"
This is a statement, that is totally clear. Nothing will change. It will continue as an Open Source project and you will have a new RI for any of the comming Java EE versions.

2) GlassFish software licensing
Most of the components of the GlassFish plattform are available under a Dual License consisting of the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) v1.0 and GNU Public License (GPL) v2. Details for GFv2 kann be found on the GF Wiki. This will stay the same for most of the modules. Except for those, making the way into WebLogic Server. I expect this to be at least the following three: Metro, Jersey, Grizzly

3) Equinox will NOT be the OSGI platform for the Weblogic DM Server
As presented on last years OOW (WebLogic Server Architecture, OSGi and Java Enterprise Edition, Adam Leftik and Jeff Trent), the Equinix Platform has some drawbacks (Lacks a Generic Application Framework, Application Isolation, RFC-133 Context Class Loader). Therefore I expect the Weblogic DM server to use something else. I don't know if this will have any effect on GF. It is possible that the OSGI platform of GF will change, too.

4) There will be NO GlassFish v3 with clustering capabilities
The slide #15 of the Oracle + Sun: Application Server webcast states, that GF will be for productive and agile development. WLS is the availabillity and scalability solution. Therefore the v2 was the last GF with clustering facilities.

5) Metro, Jersey and Grizzly will make it to the WebLogic 11g
As mentioned by Thomas Kurian in the strategy webcast. These are great assets from the GF family and I believe that those three projects will make it to WLS.

6) There will be tool support for migrating GF Apps to WLS
The complete development to production staging process will be adressed by upcomming Oracle solutions. JDeveloper and/or OEPE will have plugins/support for automatic migration of GF apps to WLS. The WLS split deployment directory structure will also be enhanced with staging features. There will probably also be new maven plugins supporting dev and productive builds with GF and WLS.

7) Embedded GlassFish will be bundled with the OEPE
Beeing the development platform of the future, it is obvious that OEPE will bundle an embedded GF in the future.

8) JDeveloper will get support for GF
Beeing the development platform of Oracle could lead to having build in support for GF development in JDeveloper.

9) NetBeans will become the Java ME IDE
Having more and more GF support in JDeveloper and OEPE leads to a further specialization of NetBeans. It will become the Java ME IDE of the Future.

10) There will be a complete ADF implementation for GF
ADF will become available on GF, too.

Oracle + Sun: Java Strategy (SE+EE+JavaOne)

The facts from the java strategy webcast (15:59 minutes):

0) Innovate and Collaborate

0.1) Java is Critical for the Industry and Critical for Oracle
It is the foundation for Middleware and Applications. Working in/on Java since 1995.
Oracle is participating in over 80 JSRs, leading nearly 20. Executive Committee member of the JCP.

0.2) JCP continues to be the process with which Java evolves

0.3) Continiu driving the Java technology and platform to be the most ... widly used, productive, reliable and performant, innovative and pervasive software foundation in the world.

1) Java SE (transcript)

• HotSpot and JRockit continue as strategic JVMs
• Java SE 7 continues toward target release in 2010 with many new features (modularization, productivity, dynamic languages, higher performance)

2) Java EE (transcript)

• GlassFIsh continues as the Java EE reference implementation (RI)
• GlassFish continues as an open source project
• Oracle plans to offer GlassFish as part of multiple commercial Java EE application server offerings

3) Engaging with Oracle (transcript)

• Developers: java.sun.com, java.net, java.com, javafx.com, otn.oracle.com/java
• Customers: oracle.com/java
• Partners: partners.oracle.com

4) JavaOne (transcript)

• Continues as the premier open community event for Java. Co-located with Oracle OpenWorld, SFO, Sep 19-23 2010
• Expanding to other countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China)

Oracle + Sun: Application Server Strategy

The facts from the software strategy application server webcast (12:55 minutes):

0) Complete.Open.Integrated. set of products
From Hardware, to Database, to Middleware up to Applications.

0.1) Application Grid is the relevant part of Fusion Middleware
It's the plattform that powers the Oracle Applications.
Supports all your application environments.
Contains: Weblogic, Coherence, JRockit, Tuxedo, Enterprise Manager

0.2) Sun portfolio:
GlassFish Enterprise Server, Java System WebServer, GlassFish Web Space Server, GlassFish Web Stack

1) Combined Oracle-Sun Solution Focus (transcript)

• GlassFish continues as the Java EE reference implementation and as an open source project
Oracle's strategic application server Oracle WebLogic Server, together with GlassFish, provide world class Java EE infrastructure
• GlassFish Enterprise Server and WebLogic Server expected to share core components
• Oracle plans to add GlassFish Enterprise Server to all WebLogic offerings
• HotSpot and JRockit become OracleÄs strategic JVMs
• Java System Web Server part of new Oracle Web Tier offering
• GlassFish Web Stack maintained for existing customers
• GlassFish Message Queue remains as the GlassFIsh messaging infrastructure

2) Licensing, Support and Maintenance (transcript)

• Oracle plans to license GlassFish Server and Java System Web Server with all WebLogic Server offerings
• GlassFIsh also available as standalone offering
• GlassFish will continue to be supported and maintained for an extended time period for customers current on support
• GlassFish v2.1 Premier Support up to Jan 2013, Extended support up to Jan 2015)
  
• GlassFish v3.0 Premier Support up to Jan 2014, Extended support up to Jan 2017)
  
• Full details for support will be published next weeks.

3) Engaging with Oracle

• GlassFish open source projects thrive. Ongoing commitment by Oracle to java.net and other open source projects that make-up GlassFish
• Continued collaboration, Blogs (The Aquarium), Enhancements (java.net) and the GlassFish Wiki
• More information: Oracle.com/AppServer
  

News and announcements from todays Oracle / Sun Webcast

I am going to update this posting during/after the webcast and try to collect the relevant information (even the ones, that are relevant to me about java, GF, JEE:))

5:19 PM (via Jason Lee) twitter

JavaOne 2010 WILL happen. Yea. :) No CommunityOne, though :|

5:29 PM (via Arun Gupta) twitter

"JavaOne is an incredible brand and experience", co-located with Oracle Open World in 3rd week of Sep this, no Community One.

5:32 PM (via Arun Gupta) twitter

java.net will continue to live, logo will be updated, love Java Champions program, invest more in infrastructure/community

5:52 (via Eddie Awad) twitter

Ellison said that he expected Sun’s chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, to resign

many more news and updates came up during the webcast.
Most of the Java relevant ones were collected on a Oracle FaQ page.

Sun Developer Network, java.sun.com
For the near future, all these sites will remain in their current form.

JavaOne in 2010
JavaOne will be co-located with Oracle Develop during Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco from September 19-23, 2010.

Project Kenai
Project Kenai, will be discontinued for public use.

NetBeans.org
NetBeans.org will continue to be available at the usual URL.

Slides from the Java relevant part of Thomas Kurian:
The Appserver Slide


The Development Slide:


The Java EE Slide:


The Java FX Slide:


The Java ME Slide:


The Java SE Slide:


Java in the world:

SOFTWARE. HARDWARE. COMPLETE. (Oracle + Sun Strategy Update Webcast)

It is known since a few days. Today is the day, where the internet has to proof that it is able to handle big loads. Apple announces his new toy and Larry and his team are going to talk about the Oracle/Sun future. The live webcast takes place
today, Wednesday, January 27, 2010 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. PT
I am going to tweet about this. Follow me on twitter.com/myfear.

The following agenda will be covered:

9:00 a.m.
Safra Catz: Welcome
Charles Phillips: Oracle + Sun: Transforming the Industry
John Fowler: Hardware Strategy
Thomas Kurian: Software Strategy
Edward Screven: Operating Systems and Virtualization Strategy
Juergen Rottler: Customer Service & Support Strategy
Safra Catz: Software. Hardware. Complete.

12:30 p.m.
Lunch break

1:00 p.m.
Larry Ellison

EC approves Oracle and Sun merger

Only one hour before this post, it was finaly done :)
The EC approves the Oracle/Sun merger.
Oracle announced today that it had received regulatory approval from the European Commission for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Oracle expects unconditional approval from China and Russia and intends to close the transaction shortly.

Here are some links:

techcrunch.com
oracle.com
europa.eu
online.wsj.com

A warm welcome to all of the Sun people around! Happy to have you on board! Looking forward to a great new Java World!! See you on OOW10!

Update (22/01/10):
The _official_ page:
http://blogs.sun.com/jag/entry/so_long_old_friend

JPA 2.0 and Oracle Weblogic 10.3.2.0 (11g)

Everything is about JEE 6 these days. And believe me, I really love the new spec. What I am really missing is the JEE 6 version of a Weblogic server. Anyway, I am still giving parts of the spec some tries on the latest version. Up to now, this was not too successfull. JSF 2.0 is not working. Next was to give JPA 2.0 a try. The guys from the EclipseLink project already did this for me. There is a complete analysis about the possible solutions online in the EclipseLink wiki space. You basically have two differnt options available at the moment to use even parts of the new JPA 2.0.

Change your server/domain install to use new versions of javax.persistence.* and org.eclipse.persistence.* or bundle the related libraries with your application. Both cases have some drawbacks at the moment.

I decided to give it a try anyway and just wanted to give you a more detailed explanation, of what to do to make the second approach work.

First is to get the latest EclipseLink 2.x and the JPA 2.0 API libraries. I was using javax.persistence_2.0.0.v200911041116.jar and eclipselink.jar both taken from the eclipselink-2.0.0.v20091127-r5931.zip download.

Now you have to setup an EAR and a WAR project within your favorite IDE. I am using the Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse (OEPE) for this. Add both jars to the APP-INF/lib folder of your EAR project and change the weblogic-application.xml descriptor by adding the following lines to it:

<wls:prefer-application-packages>
<wls:package-name>org.eclipse.persistence.*</wls:package-name>
<wls:package-name>javax.persistence.*</wls:package-name>
/wls:prefer-application-packages>

Now you have to add a src/META-INF folder to your WAR project. Create a MANIFEST.MF file with the following two lines:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Class-Path: javax.persistence_2.0.0.v200911041116.jar eclipselink.jar

Place your persistence.xml in the same place. Mine looks like this:

<persistence version="1.0" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_1_0.xsd">
<persistence-unit name="example" transaction-type="JTA">
<provider>org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.PersistenceProvider</provider>
<jta-data-source>ds/localJTA</jta-data-source>
<class>...</class>
<properties>
<property name="eclipselink.target-server" value="WebLogic_10"/>
<property name="eclipselink.logging.level" value="FINEST"/>
<property name="eclipselink.ddl-generation" value="drop-and-create-tables" />
</properties>
</persistence-unit>
</persistence>

This is basically everything. Now you can start to put your Entities and business in your webapplication. But remeber to:
- add every Entity as a <class>...</class> entry to your persistence.xml as dynamic class weaving will not work with this approach.
- Reorder the Java Build Path of your IDE to have the EAR libraries in front of any server libraries. Only this way, you will be able to use the new API features.
- As the schema of the persistence.xml states, you are only able to use JPA 1.0 declarations in it.
- Injecting the EntityManager will not work. You have to get it manually from javax.persistence.Persistence like this:

EntityManagerFactory emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("example");
EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();


After all, this is not a full blown approach to JPA 2.0. But better than nothing. Let's hope for a early preview of EclipseLink 2.0 on Weblogic Server.

Oracle Season's Greetings - Peace, Hope, Joy and Happy Holidays

Got a very nice eCard today. It contained a link to a small flash movie. And there were more to discover on Oracle.com. Just wanted to share them with you, cause I do love them soo much. Great art!

Have a perfect holiday and I wish you all the best for 2010!


View movie


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Enterprise Modules Project (Gemini), oracle, springsource and weblogic server

This happened three days ago. SpringSource and Oracle proposed the Enterprise Modules Project (Gemini) to the Eclipse community, whose primary goal is to provide access to standard enterprise technology implementations within a modular framework. The project will include important OSGi EEG implementations (Blueprint Service Implementation and Web Container Integration) contributed by SpringSource as well as contributed code by Oracle. All sub projects will be consumable as modules (or OSGi bundles) and will provide implementations for important and popular enterprise standards.

Up to now, there is no official feedback available in the community forums. Even if the announcement did fire up some press comments (google.com. You can find the SpringSource press release here.

The overall lead for the project is Mike Keith. The project mentors are Wayne Beaton, Doug Clarke and Adrian Colyer.

Gemini is organized under 6 subprojects:
* RFC 66 — Web Container
* RFC 98 — Transactions
* RFC 122 — Database Access
* RFC 124 — Blueprint Services
* RFC 139 — JMX Integration
* RFC 142 — JNDI Integration
* RFC 143 — JPA Integration
* RFC 146 — JCA Connector Integration

As you can see, some important JEE specs are still missing (e.g. EJB & JMS).

Most notably, this project would continue the recently presented invests taken by Oracle in OSGi and a WebLogic DM server. It could lead to a defined standard ways of building and running enterprise technologies (such as Java EE) in OSGi. The EEG has a wide participation: beside Oracle and SpringSource you can find IBM, IONA/Progress, Tibco, ProSyst, Siemens and LinkedIn on the list.

On a midrange timeframe both technologies could grow together. While Java EE defines a suite of application-level APIs, OSGi specifies the infrastructure obligations, needed running them. With the power of OSGi some of the many existing Java EE issues could be solved:
* Application versioning
* Facilitates application module reuse
* Hot upgrades/patches

So OSGi could be the enabler for the next generation of Java server infrastructure.