Pieter Humphrey's Blog

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Pieter Humphrey has been at BEA for 7 years, working in technical sales and product marketing to help customers understand and apply our technology. In his current role, Pieter focuses on application development tools, Eclipse, and the general concept of blended source at BEA: the intersection of open source and commercial software.

Adobe Flex & Livecycle, WebLogic Portal, WebLogic Integration, BEA Workshop and AquaLogic Service Bus at Dev2Dev Tech Days

Register now to Join the Java2SOA Revolution

http://dev2dev.bea.com/techdays/register.html

The explosion of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has sparked a revolution in the Java community. Today's IT environments demand that developers master both best-of-breed Java development and, increasingly, the ability to leverage new services-focused tools. Using an adaptable, proven foundation for your services is more significant than ever: creating rich presentation and elegant back-end services is faster when using tools and servers that are pre-integrated by design. Extending Java2SOA is radically changing the developer's relationship with business and the way they work together on a day-to-day basis.

Learn how to take advantage of the Java2SOA revolution by joining fellow developers for this complimentary, half-day seminar brought to you by BEA's Dev2Dev program.

Key Benefits

• Discover how a pre-integrated suite can quickly extend Java to SOA
• Use Java and SOA at the presentation, integration, business logic, and service bus levels
• Extend your Eclipse knowledge into new and updated BEA technologies
• Watch live demos in a no-fluff-just-stuff atmosphere

Agenda

All content presented at the Dev2Dev TechDays, including presentations and live demonstrations, is designed by developers to help you enhance your understanding of all the tools necessary to extend Java2SOA.

Below is an overview schedule for the day:

Continue the Revolution at home

• Get Hands On after the event at your own pace, using a complete tutorial that incorporates the demo from the seminar. You will have access to the complete source & documentation on dev2dev.bea.com!

• Win free BEA / Adobe software: We'll be raffling off 5 copies of BEA Workshop Studio + Adobe Flex Builder 2 bundle per event!

• Access to free online education: BEA is pleased to offer attendees a complimentary online self-study to help you get the most out of the Dev2Dev TechDays events. When you register for a TechDays event, you will receive registration information in your confirmation e-mail. Select a course from the menu and follow the instructions from the link, choosing one of the following:

  • BEA Workshop 10: Core Features
  • BEA AquaLogic Service Bus 3: Essential Concepts
  • SOA: Strategic Concepts and Principles!

Join the BEA Dev2Dev Community today!

Bi-Annual Framework Survey

It’s that time of the year again, folks. Twice a year, the Workshop Group does a Framework survey to gauge the popularity of frameworks within the Java community. Could you please help us out by participating in this study? Below is the link:  

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5AQ4VAbYWzrZzGiXBAf4FQ_3d_3d

By giving us your feedback, you can enter into a drawing for a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate AND get a free discount for purchasing Workshop Studio!

Technorati Tags: developer, framework, java, survey, technologies

New, developer - oriented features in BEA WebLogic Portal 10.2

BEA just released BEA WebLogic Portal 10.2 which has a richer integration with Eclipse 3.2.2. We’ve created a bundled together build of our development capabilities that come with WebLogic Portal called WorkSpace Studio 1.1 . Highlights include the Disc API based on Dojo toolkit for developing Web-2.0 interactions in portals. Disc has special namespacing so it won’t interfere with your native code. It also allows client side interportlet communication and the ability to manipulate the portal framework from the client.

Highlights for WebLogic Portal 10.2 developers:

- Integration of the WebLogic Portal taglibs into the Studio JSP editor will improve product consistency, enhanced grouping, filtering, animation, palette commands

·         WLP tags appear in Studio palette under “Tag Libraries” group

·         Custom dialog editors when dropping WLP tag onto JSP design/source views

·         Tag integration with JSP editor source/design views.

·         Tag code completion in JSP editor source view.

·         Tag integration with Smart Editors in Properties view.

·         Ctrl-Click tag navigation support in JSP editor source view.

·         Tag validation in JSP editor source view and Problems view.

·         F1 help available for tags in JSP editor source view.

- New “Clipper” portlet type supported in portlet wizard.

·         The clipper portlet clips a portion of web content returned by a URL.

·         The clipper portlet will have an initial portlet preference definition for “remoteUrl”.

Enhanced content querying

·         Cm_value property now supported in content search query when creating content selectors and placeholders.

- Improved Proxy Portlet Registration

- Proxy Portlet Registration dialog now contains a checkbox for storing registration properties locally on consumer in wsrp-producer-registry.xml file. This has the following benefits:

·         In case the producer is unable to provide registration properties. This can happen if producer is not 10.2+ or does not support WSRP registration property extension.

·         When modifying a registration, the previous registration properties/values will be listed.

- IDE support for encrypted User property sets

·         User Property Set wizard and Property Editor now support the “Enable Encryption” property. When “true”, the user property set is encrypted in the user profile database when the property set is published. This option is irreversible once the property set is published

- Portal Desktops can be enabled with JavaScript

·         “Disc Enabled” - Enables the desktop with the BEA Disc (Dynamic Interface Scripting) JavaScript environment. This environment makes some JavaScript libraries available for use (i.e. the XML Interaction Engine and client-side portal contextual objects). If DVT is enabled, then Disc is implicitly enabled by default (and non-editable); otherwise, Disc is disabled by default.

·         “DVT Enabled” - Enables the desktop with the ability to dynamically move placeables from one placeholder to another. Implicitly enables the BEA Disc JavaScript environment. Default = false.

- Portlet re-factoring

·         Supported when copying portlets to same/different folder using the Project Explorer or Package Explorer. All portlet types supported.

- New Content Display Template Wizard

·         makes it easier for users to create display templates for use with the Content Presenter portlet.

·         The wizard dynamically allows user to choose content types/properties defined in a content repository and then prepares a display template/jsp file that displays these property/value pairs in tabular format.

·         The user can then customize the generated jsp to achieve the desired final presentation

- Improved ANT build script generation

·         Previously, in 10.0 the wlp-antlib.jar would reside in the deploy directory. The SystemClasspathScriptCustomizer  eclipse ext. pt. was used to customize the classpath references of the generated ant script to point to the library.

·         In 10.2, the wlp-antlib.jar must reside within one of our eclipse plugins (com.bea.wlp.eclipse.project) and is copied out to the local directory wherever the ANT script is generated. The ANT script references all libraries from that local \workshop-lib directory.

 We look forward to your feedback on this release!

Technorati Tags: BEA WebLogic Portal, BEA Workshop, BEA Workshop for WebLogic, Eclipse, EJB3, Hibernate, Java Debugging, Java IDE, Java Server Faces, JRockit, JSP, JSP Debugging, openJPA, Struts, WebLogic Portal, Web Sevices, Web Tools Platform, WebLogic, WebLogic Server, Workspace Studio, Workspace360

The fastest Workshop release ever - BEA Workshop 10.2 is now available

BEA Workshop 10.2 is here and it’s faster than ever.  Developers will experience noticeable speed improvements in server start, deployment, incremental & clean build, and the stability of 885+ resolved software defects.

This release updates BEA Workshop for WebLogic, BEA Workshop Studio with Adobe Flex Builder 2, and BEA Workshop for JSP.

Download your free trial or free copy and give it a try!

Also, the tuxedo control is back, and is shipping with this release.

For anyone unfamiliar with the WorkSpace Studio Laucher initiative, please visit the FAQ on edocs to understand this change that BEA has implemented as a step on the road towards Workspace 360.

Here are some highlights of what you’ll experience in terms of improved performance:

Performance vs. BEA Workshop 10.1

      Operations with SUN JVM:

     Server Start

      24%, 22%, 40% improved across sml, med, lrg app

     Deployment

      From a fresh project deploy a non-trivial application for the first time.

     8%, 42%, 73% improved across sml, med, lrg app

      Add method to and deploy web service

     38% improved for large app

      Add an action to a Page Flow then Run on Server.

     2%, 22% improved for med, large app

      Edit Page Flow by adding reference to a Service Control in a utility project then Run on Server.

     2%, 30% improved for med - large app

      With SUN JVM doing incremental build

      Add action to a Page Flow

     29%, 41%, 56% improved across sml, med, lrg app

      Add method to Web Service

     33%, 51%, 55% improved across sml, med, lrg app

      Edit XMLBean by adding two complex types to schema that reference each other

     18%, 43%, 65% improved across sml, med, lrg app

       Add callback to Web Service

     25%, 47%, 65% improved across sml, med, lrg app

     Clean Build

      20.23% improved with large application

      Operations with JROCKIT JVM:

     Server Start

      15%, 23%, 25% improved across sml, med, lrg app

     Deployment

      From a fresh project deploy a non-trivial application for the first time.

     9%, 56%, 93% improved across sml, med, lrg app

      Add method to and deploy web service

     7%, 71% improved for med, large app

      Add an action to a Page Flow then Run on Server.

     66% improved for large app

      Edit Page Flow by adding reference to a Service Control in a utility project then Run on Server.

     1%, 64% improved for med - large app

      With JROCKIT JVM doing incremental build

      Add action to a Page Flow

     38%,90% improved across med, lrg app

      Add method to Web Service

     11%, 50%, 96% improved across med, lrg app

      Edit XMLBean by adding two complex types to schema that reference each other

     33%, 48%, 93% improved across sml, med, lrg app

       Add callback to Web Service

     26%, 40%, 90% improved across sml, med, lrg app

Technorati Tags: Adobe Flex Builder, BEA Tuxedo, BEA Workshop, BEA Workshop for JSP, BEA Workshop for WebLogic, BEA Workshop Studio, Eclipse, EJB3, Flex, Flex Charting, Hibernate, Java Debugging, Java IDE, Java Server Faces, JRockit, JSP, JSP Debugging, openJPA, Struts, Workspace Studio, Web Sevices, Web Tools Platform, WebLogic, WebLogic Server, Workspace360

BEA at EclipseCon 2008

So we're sponsoring GOLD this year!  We're also bringing back Robert M. Lefkowitz, a.k.a the R0ML!  He will be speaking on:

How to Write Video Games and Create Shareholder Value in Enterprise IT

Information doesn't want to be free; information wants to be *timely*. And the more timely you can make it, the more valuable it is. The opportunity for an enterprise IT department is to provide access to all information as close to instantly as possible -- to make the "user experience" of corporate information approach that of a video game. This is a series of strategies for defining a project, getting it funded, designing it, and deploying it -- and in the process, creating that video game experience.

BEA Session Overview @ EclipseCon 2008

• Scott Lewis - Using ECF for Lightweight Distributed Team Collaboration
• Markus Hirt - JRockit + Eclipse = True
• Jess Garms and Walter Harley - Java annotations
• Konstantin Komissarchik -
• Faceted Project Framework
• Faceted Project Framework Outside Web Tools
• Facets vs. Natures
• Rob Frost - Java EE Module Dependencies and the Java Build Path
• Ji-Hye Rhim - SIP Programming tool Based on template

BEA Staff will be showcasing technology in the BEA booth:

1:  WebLogic Event Server

2:  BEA Workshop / Workspace 360 (workshop GA = 2/29)

3:  AquaLogic Data Services Platform

4:  AquaLogic Service Bus

5:  BEA WebLogic Portal

6.  BEA WebLogic Integration (GA = 2/29)

7.  BEA Guardian

8.  jRockit Mission Control

Check the conference tracker page for further updates.

See you at EclipseCon!

Technorati Tags: Eclipse, EclipseCon

Silicon Valley User Group Meeting

For all those in the bay area, you are all welcome to attend the Silicon Valley BEA User Group meeting.

Join us to learn more about extending Eclipse :

* across popular open source projects, BEA and Adobe technologies

* with WYSIWYG designers for Struts, Tiles, JSF, and Adobe Flex

* building JPA applications using Hibernate and Kodo

* automatic dependency analysis and visualization using AppXRay

You can register for this event here

Technorati Tags: java user group, JUG

Workshop and Flex Builder: Better Together (cheaper too)

BEA - Adobe Momentum continues

Be the first to check out James Ward's article on Adobe DevNet "Using BEA Workshop Studio and Java to create Flex-based RIAs".

Flex applications can be fully integrated with other WebLogic® and AquaLogic® products, using the technology like Adobe Livecycle Data Services, and the new open source blazeDS.
James discusses how to use the bundled BEA Workshop Studio and Flex Builder 2 with BlazeDS, an Adobe open-source Java remoting technology for Flex that facilitates communication.  He also walks you through the steps to creating an RIA using Java for the back-end business logic and Flex for the front-end view of the application. BEA Workshop Studio and Flex Builder 2 are used to create a simple Java mid-tier and a simple Flex front-end for that mid-tier. 

You can learn more about Flex, Java and Workshop at http://www.bea.com/flex, as well as find promotional codes that discount the bundle to as low as $399.00 until Jan 31, 2008.

Stay on the lookout at both Adobe DevNet and BEA Dev2Dev for related content!

Reorganization to forums.bea.com Hierarchy

Do you UML? Let us know in 5 questions for a chance at a 100.00 gift certificate

BEA is looking to learn more about how developers consider UML during their efforts.   It's a short, 5 question survey, and if you like, you can enter your contact information below to qualify for a free drawing for a $100 Amazon gift certificate! Thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Y_2fTLOgBDvunNj_2fXYqezsGA_3d_3d

Technorati Tags:

Technorati Tags: eclipse, UML

Dev2Dev Group on Facebook

Dev2Dev and Arch2Arch now have groups on facebook!  The groups are intented to be a social venue for BEA architects and developers alike who'd like to connect, share experiences, network with peers.

Simply logon to facebook and search for either "bea dev2dev" or "bea arch2arch" and join the group! 

User reaction to Adobe Flex and Workshop Studio bundle

I love the blogsphere, it's great to see the reaction of the end user to the new Adobe Flex Builder + BEA Workshop Studio 10.1 bundle.  I found a great blog that picked up on our current promotional efforts as well as some great comments about his experience versus MyEclipse and some comments about Adobe LiveCycle.

http://bambarbiakirkudu.blogspot.com/

The potential for Flex and Flash technology to transform the way Web UI user interface is delivered is incredible, and can co-exist with other AJAX approaches.  

The benefit that I see to enterprise developers is that Adobe is squarely focused on building and maintaining a incredibly rich feature set, where AJAX is a little more of a Do-It-Yourself approach and many things must be built from scratch.  While AJAX is certainly no less valid of an approach to RIA, it's more difficult for developer teams who are chartered to building applications, and have less flexibility to build and maintain their own RIA infrastructure.     I've seen some interesting applications built with this technology..  they've got a good site located at www.flex.org/showcase, but it only begins to show off what the charting and UI widgets can do.

Regarding AJAX, while it's true that you get much more out of the box with Adobe, you can bridge the two technologies.  I found something interesting on the Adobe Labs site in this regard, and I'll quote from Ely Greenfield:

"The Flex™ AJAX Bridge (FABridge) is a small, unobtrusive code library that you can insert into an Adobe® Flex™ application, a Flex component, or even an empty SWF file to expose it to scripting in the browser.

To humbly borrow a page from the Ruby on Rails community, FABridge is built with the “don’t repeat yourself” principle in mind. Rather than having to define new, simplified APIs to expose a graph of ActionScript objects to JavaScript, with FABridge you can make your ActionScript classes available to JavaScript without any additional coding. After you insert the library, essentially anything you can do with ActionScript, you can do with JavaScript.

Adobe® Flash® Player has the native ability, through the External API (the ExternalInterface class), to call JavaScript from ActionScript, and vice versa. But ExternalInterface has some limitations:

• The ExternalInterface class requires you, the developer, to write a library of extra code in both ActionScript and JavaScript, to expose the functionality of your Flex application to JavaScript, and vice versa.
• The ExternalInterface class also limits what you can pass across the gap – primitive types, arrays, and simple objects are legal, but user-defined classes, with associated properties and methods, are off-limits.
• The ExternalInterface class enables you to define an interface so your JavaScript can call your ActionScript – FABridge essentially lets you write JavaScript instead of ActionScript. "

Ely's article is published here:

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flex_Framework:FABridge

Hope you enjoy the new release, and keep the feedback coming!  Feel free to post comments to my blog here, or post your own blogs and let us know!

BEA Workshop Studio with Adobe Flex Builder 2 is GA

	Adobe and BEA are bringing together world-class development for Rich Internet Applications, BEA WebLogic® Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) enablement, as well as browser and server portable Java™ and Flex™ applications. Flex is a way to develop applications that get delivered via the Adobe Flash® Player software. These applications can be fully integrated with other BEA products, such as those from the company’s WebLogic® and AquaLogic® product families, to help developers realize the benefits of Web 2.0 and SOA at the enterprise level. The Workshop Studio / Flex programming model includes: •  An optional Eclipse™ based IDE called Adobe Flex Builder™ •  Flex 2 SDK •  Flex Charting 2 •  A Flex visual component library •  A free Flex debugger and compiler that works on Windows® •  Server plug-ins for all major servers servlet runtimes •  Visual Web Service IDE for WebLogic SOA enablement •  Server portable web and presentation tier tools •  Object – Relational mapping workbench and database tools •  Apache Beehive Pageflow and Controls IDE •  AppXRay support for the above components •  Spring IDE Project and Spring code generation wizards •  Enhancements to core Eclipse / Web Tools Platform •  Browser based unit test harness for WebLogic Web Services Check out the Flex showcase to see what talented developers have built with Flex, then download the free Flex SDK to start building rich Internet applications. Check out the Dev2Dev media center for screencast demos of BEA Workshop Studio 10.1 and learn how to connect inspiring user interface with everything from enterprise class commercial servers to and open source servlet engines.	Eclipse Conventional User Interface. See what talented Java developers have built with Flex by visiting the Flex showcase. Learn how Workshop Studio handles SOA, Java, JavaEE and the Web at the Dev2Dev media center. Build your own Flex based rich Internet application using the free Flex SDK for Java developers. Use Workshop Studio to deploy, debug and AppXRay™ on lots of different servers. Download trial software  Installer for Windows   Flex Builder and Workshop Studio provide a rich set of tools to speed application development. Try the Eclipse based Workshop Studio 10.1 with Flex Builder 2 free for 30 days.   Join us at BEA World 2007 and learn new Workshop Studio and Flex skills. Register here.

Adobe and BEA announce bundle of Workshop Studio 10.1 + Adobe Flex Builder 2

Please sign up here to be notified via email when BEA Workshop Studio 10.1 + Adobe Flex Builder 2 is generally available. Under the agreement, Workshop Studio with Adobe Flex Builder 2 is scheduled to be available as a bundled product by the end of the year.  We are currently targeting a Sept 28th release date.

BEA Workshop™ Studio 10.1 with