It Makes You Love Being A Java Developer

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Once in a blue moon you come across a package that reminds you how exciting it can be to work with really great development tools, something that is so darned good you're truly excited to be using it and learning more about how it functions. This was the exact experience Matt and I had this week as we began working with the incredible JIDE Docking Framework from the team at JIDE Software. It is unquestionably one of the best conceived and best implemented Java class library products I have seen in years, and I am not exaggerating.

The JIDE Docking Framework provides a versatile, easy to use solution for supporting tearable, dockable, auto-hiding windows and panels to help your Swing application feel as configurable as the latest IDE products from the big guns like Microsoft, IBM/Rational, Sun and Oracle. It also comes with some solid Swing Look and Feel classes to provide even more professional polish, and it only costs $399. It is an amazing value, and you should go buy your copy right now before these guys realize they should raise their prices by about $1000 or more. This code provides powerful plumbing that will make your application look great, and with this selling for $399 you'd be crazy to think you were saving money by trying to code this yourself.

We integrated the JIDE Docking Framework into a Swing application we're working on in just a little over an hour, and you should have heard the "oohs" and "aahs" as everyone played with the docking windows interface it provided. The JIDE Docking Framework is especially useful when your application employs a lot of different tool windows and non-modal dialogs but also needs to make the most of the available screen real estate. Windows can be docked on every edge of your main window or frame, auto-hidden so they appear only when you hover over them, clustered in tabbed groups, or floated out onto the desktop, and complex arrangements of windows can be saved and loaded at will.

Best of all, you barely have to write any code at all to support this powerhouse set of features. You just add derive your tool windows from the DockableFrame class, add them to the DefaultDockingManager, and you're off to the races. It is drop-dead simple. The JIDE Developer Guides are well-written, concise and useful documents that explain everything you need to know to make the most of the framework. I'd like to see more documentation of this style and quality, which is all too rare in a world where too many developers seem to think that packaging javadocs along with their library is sufficient.

Check out their demo, which shows off the JIDE Docking Framework managing an insanely populated frame full of floating, docking, hiding, tabbing windows that feels amazingly like the latest developer tools package from a certain convicted monopolist in the northwestern United States. I have long respected the work of the teams that produce the major Java-powered IDE's like IntelliJ and Oracle JDeveloper, but this JIDE Docking Framework gives you a heck of a start if you want to incorporate that kind of look into your own Swing application. I also have a lot of respect for the achievements of the Eclipse team, but the JIDE Software product proves that all of us can have great-looking, performant interfaces in pure Java without having to resort to controversial libraries like the SWT.

JIDE Docking Framework takes a place right near JGoodies SwingSuite on my short list of must-have tools for great Java client application development. We're using both of them together now, and the result is shaping up quickly as an application that feels crisply professional and has an ultra-polished interface that looks like we put a lot more effort into it than we actually had to. What more could you ask for from your developer tools and class libraries?

Until next time,
Rick Ross
rick@javalobby.org

Hey guys, there has been a lot of talk lately about java xul engines, and I have had a look at the luxor@sf and xul@sf sites. What I am interested in is how many actual JAVA applications have been developed using xul? If you have developed a real world app (not just a 1 screen wonder), could you post your opinions of the framework? I would really be interested to know what you think of the state of the engines, and the pros and cons vs swing development. Joe Cole

Fred reports back on his endavor to join the Java Cartel Process (JCP) to push for change from within that he kicked off during the heated Open Source Java debates in the Java Lobby. Now the judgement is in as Fred reports from the frontline. Join the discussion of the final report and help to work out some policy recommendations.

IBM has launched a counterstrike against SCO Group's attack on Linux users, arguing that SCO's demands for Unix license payments are undermined by its earlier shipment of an open-source Linux product.

Yahoo! just released SiteBuilder, a Java application bundled with JRE 1.4.1

Appears that Random House and Infusion Development is stabbing the Java community in the back by presenting a completely ludicrous case study of porting from Java to .NET.

I've added a code generation library/toolkit chapter to the Viva! Open Source Java site sporting open source Java bytecode libraries, open source JavaDoc toolkits, open source AOP (Aspect-Oriented Programming) toolkits and more.

Features improved interoperability with other C/C++ libraries, such as ANSI C++ STL, Win32 API, and MFC.

The latest version (1.1) of the Award Winning JPhotoBrush Pro ...

Coldbeans Software announced the important milestone in JSOS (servlets office suite) development. This largest collection of Java(tm) servlets and filters provides 65+ "out of the box" components ready for building web-pages.

The wait is over. jConfig 2.2 is now a reality. What's new? Basically everything we promised to bring out now exists. We've fixed what bugs that were reported. The EventListener has been extended. There are multiple ChangedEvents within. This has been a topic of discussion. As usual we ask those faithful to jConfig, to download it, and provide any reports of bugs and/or feature requests. See the Features section to check out the major changes within this release.

Pramati DesignViewer is now available for download. "Pramati DesignViewer" is a unique tool that greatly enhances visualization and understanding of the existing J2EE™ applications. Pramati DesignViewer is a free product. It is the first tool in the market that can visually render all components of an existing J2EE application, even when no documented design or model exists. A model generated from deployment ready code will greatly assist developers, architects and team managers to understand the design and work further on the application.

UploadBean is an API + JavaBean allowing to upload files in folder, ZIP or database. The provided API is over multipart parsers APIs : In addition to COS and Struts multipart parsers, it now supports Commons-FileUpload parser. It also fixes a few minor bugs and supports more servlet engines such as ServletExec 4.1 and Tomcat 5.0.3alpha.

This release accepts png files via drag and drop, and contains minor bug fixes for tooltips, menu shortcuts, and the overview panel. Visit http://www.jgraph.com/ for more information!

About:Visual Information Broker Enterprise (VIBE) is an IDE that enables developers to automate design and development of infrastructure components through Java code generation for Relational/XML-to-Object mapping. The RDBMS supported are Sy...

Tangosol is pleased to announce the General Availability (GA) of Tangosol Coherence™ Release 2.2.

Coherence 2.2 and JavaDoc API documentation are available for review and download. The first two chapters of the Coherence 2.2 User Guide are also now available for review; any and all customer feedback is requested and very much appreciated.

Release 2.2 contains a number of improvements, including:

• XML Driven cache configurability. The new cache configuration descriptor can now be used to specify the caching strategies for all the caches without writing any code. All cache types are supported from the simple Replicated cache to the multi-tier VersionedNearCache read-through and write-behind.

• Multi-threaded Services. Using a thread pool with a configurable number of threads, Coherence services are now capable of processing a large number of service requests simultaneously, further enhancing Coherence's scalable performance under heavy loads.

• Overflow Map. The new Overflow Map feature allows data that doesn't fit in memory to simply 'overflow' onto disk when the maximum specified size of the in-memory cache is exceeded, thus limiting the amount of memory the cache consumes and allowing for the 'overflowed' items to be reloaded from disk as necessary.

• Additional eviction policies support. In addition to Coherence's standard hybrid eviction policy (based on an LRU/LFU combination), Coherence now also supports pure LRU, pure LFU and custom eviction policies.

• Serialization performance improvements. Significant optimizations both for performance and memory utilization are now supported by the Tangosol XML and XML Bean frameworks, as well as for many common Java classes.

Download a free evaluation copy today!

JAlbum 3.5, the popular* free customizable web photo album generator released. Now with custom image and directory ordering, smarter page generation, new image filters, simplified scripting and more. Check it out on http://www.datadosen.se/jalbum *153,000 Google references

JDistro is a jvm-based swing desktop and software distribution system.

Biker's Log is a training log for a cycling enthusiast.

*** Online Demo Applications Available ***

NextApp is now hosting online versions of several Echo applications, including:

* The Sierra Intranet Applications Demonstrator, which shows a suite of intranet applications built using ...

JForm provides an infrastructure for form based data entry in desktop applications. It supports focus handling, databinding and validation.

The NetBeans.org open source project announces the immediate availability of the NetBeans IDE 3.5.1 and the first official NetBeans release in the Japanese language (download here).

IDE tool - JawaBeginner has a good editor and many useful functionalities to help develop Java programs.

I've added a scripting language chapter to the Viva! Open Source Java site using three sections, that is, Major Scripting Languages; More Scripting Languages; More Open-Source Scripting Languages for the Java Runtime Links

JToolkit is a Java component library that consists of JTKEvaluator, JTKSortSuite and JTKDateTimeHelper.