Technology WebLog of Teleox

2009-07-27T03:06:00.000+05:30

The Teleox website is under re-construction and all updated information will be available shortly.

We appreciate your patience and continual support in this regards.

Thanking you,
Team Teleox

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Selecting a Content Management System (CMS)

2009-04-27T01:21:00.006+05:30

Selecting a Content Management System (of a Web CMS, if you like! - is not everything in the web now?), though not a difficult task, it is not a cake-walk either considering the plethora of choices available in the market. Before you go for selecting a CMS, you need to ask yourself a set of questions.

Like in our case, it was to build a website as Yahoo! truly could not match to its reputation of a good provider and techno company, in this space.

Our case was to build a website. And we asked ourselves these questions:

1. How quickly we want to build and host a website?

2. How much investment (time, cost, resource) we want to have on this website (up, running, and running!)?

3. What is learning curve? (for us, shorter the better)

4. What are the features being provided in the CMS? (we wanted payment, calendar, news, blogs at minimal)

5. If someone has to debug, does the person has to be a top notch debugger? (I did not want that as technology has advanced much now in website building)

6. Do we need a great programmer to make some new changes?

7. To what extent, the hierarchy goes? (1 level or nth level)

8. How easy is the code to read and maintain? (the generated ones)

9. Which one provides more flexibility in terms of various plugins and other software support?

10. Which one of them is the market leader so that it will help us later on in bidding on CMS?

11. And of course, finally what is the initial cost and time of doing it?

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There are many in the market, who provide CMS and we zeroed in on 3 of them:[v.i.z] Joomla!, Plone and Prudal. Wordpress is good, but I still count it more of a blogging platform than a CMS.

Joomla! did really score well in many front. It is easy to build, host, make changes, code changes, ease of learning etc.

Idealware rates Joomla! as the market leader in CMS category. And we tend to agree as well.

Data Credit - Idealware

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Is Sun going to set permanently in the west now?

2009-04-21T21:25:00.009+05:30

Today morning when I woke up and checked the mailbox, I could not believe the news. Oracle has acquired Sun (almost). First it was disbelief, then panic (I have Java background), then uncertainty of what is going to happen next.

First of all, though Oracle and Sun's business may overlap in many areas such as Database, Development Platform, App Server Platform etc., but the internals of the companies are very different. Sun is very engineering focused and R&D company, where as Oracle is more business focused and superb player on how to stay on top of the market.

Java, one of the most popular languages of our age (for people who are born in late seventies or early eighties) was able to churn in many developers and strong community as it is free. A number of products coming from Sun's stable are actually free, and for this sheer openness, I have tremendous respect for Sun Microsystems.

However, I am not sure how the game is going to be changed in the near future. Here are again the some of the similar questions that are being raised in my mind as I had raised while looking at Sun-IBM deal.

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Above all, the most important questions are:

1. Will Java be free now?

Java is one of the best languages to learn as it is free. The beauty lies in opening up source code and changing it the way you want or seeing a reference implementation.

2. Will MySQL come with a free edition?

I learned the basics of SQL with MySQL. MySQL when acquired by Sun was fine as still we have that free option. But now...

3. Can I use NetBeans for Free?

4. Can I use the various technologies provided by the Sun, i.e., J2EE and Co. will be
free?

Granted that J2EE is heavy, a lot of memory issues, not much developer friendly etc. But then, even the hardcore adapters of framework like Hibernate or Spring can not deny the importance of J2EE. In fact, I am sure, it inspired them and guided them to write a better and simpler application.

5. What will happen to the brand value of Sun and its various educational programs?

Here I am having a direct hit. We propagate Sun Certification from the bottom of the pyramid (SCJP, not exactly bottom though) to the pinnacle, i.e., SCEA. How they are going to be evaluated now?

6. Can I used the Sun App Server with a free trial?

7. Will the brand value of Sun is going to nonexistent - say in next 6 months?

BEA systems developed WebLogic and IFlex develoed FlexCube. But now they are part and parcel of Oracle (and in a way rightfully so). But the brand value has vanished. Personally, I would like to see Sun continue the way it was.

8. What will happen to all the community work that has been develoepd so far on Java?

Java is a 12/13 year language and a lot of community websites, development, discussions have come on top it. Oracle is not known to give freeware (liteware != freeware) and how Java is going fare in this?

9. What will happen to the all the framework that have been developed on Java?

Java is not only free, but it also allowed a lot of tools and technologies to come top it which are free, like Tomcat (and Co.), ECS, JMeter and many more. What will happen to them?

10. Will all the Java developed migrate to PHP now?

PHP is pretty much server side and simpler than JSP. Looking at the way PHP is evolving and being adopted by various XAMP frameworks (LAMP, WAMP, MAMP etc), I think PHP will be the next best choice if not Java. But a lot of capabilities in Java/J2EE based APIs are not part of any robust framework so far (Transaction, Messaging, Connector, Persistence etc)

11. What will happen to the open source phenomenon?

Opensource are the true friends of a new high tech company with minimal money. It helps and lets the world know that if you can design, architect and produce a solution which solves real problem, people will buy from you.

Overall, I am a bit paranoid, a bit sad and truly hope Sun continues in the same vein as it was earlier. But will it hold good? I am doubtful.

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Yahoo! WebHosting – Long way to go Before Yahoo! Sleeps

2009-04-15T20:12:00.008+05:30

I tried Yahoo! WebHosting (WH) to develop my Website initially as the cost of developing a Website from an Indian company has become prohibitively high when so much technologies are available.

I tried some companies in Bangalore who ask for payment in terms of dollar rates. The rates are almost of international standard (read developed countries). However, in India, it is not going to work. Even Yahoo! quotes now in INR and Star TV goes for a serial like KSVKBT. MNCs who are not from India have realized pretty soon.

So, I decided to develop the complete website from scratch and did it in one night (here companies in Bangalore quoted me around 2/3 weeks of development and cost wise it would have been around 25K INR) and nobody knows how much slippage would have occurred till you see the final one.

Below is a feed-back on Yahoo! WH, if anyone is trying to have it for a WH.

What you need to know?

1. Basic knowledge on HTML, JavaScript, XML, FTP, Mail Forms, Feedback Forms (an Offshoot of HTML)

2. Basic knowledge on search engine crawler and how to put your website in the rankings

3. Basic knowledge on Cloud Computing based document loading, formatting etc.

What is good about Yahoo! WH?

1. It provides Online Document creation and formatting for your pages – removes the pain of doing FTP again and again

2. A number of templates to choose from and you can modify them as well

3. Views, Unique views per page of your Website

4. Other standard functionalities which any WH provide – FTP, Perl Script, HTML editor, SSL etc.

5. Unlimited Storage Area

Where Yahoo! WH Can improve?

1. The support team sucks. I hate strong words, but they suck. I operate from Bangalore and every time I make a call a support staff will say that “I may not be correct person to answer”. One of the prime reasons of selecting Yahoo! in place is to get a professional response. Here Yahoo has to improve a lot and recruit people who are genuine, know the technology on which they support, speak accent neutral English and ready to help.

2. The mail is integrated with existing Yahoo! Mail. The L&F is that of old Yahoo! and they do not provide any customization ability to change.

3. You do not have any control over certain Yahoo! APIs. Even some of the images are linked to some websites at Yahoo! No control over some pages even created by you as they put it into a Cache folder (automatically) and you can not open them. Support team is still working for over a month now.

4. The code after creating with Yahoo! site solutions, looks like spaghetti code and hence you just can not do anything properly

5. You do not have any control on the home page editing. You can not change the name itself!

6. Dynamic content such as Flash can not be added easily.

So, I decided to move to Joomla! and so far my experience has been smooth. Next post will be on Joomla!. Stay tuned . . .

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Startup Deregulation in India!

2009-04-11T23:41:00.012+05:30

Here is one brilliant and beautiful idea from Paul Graham and I think India needs it the most.

Here is one excerpt:

Letting just 10,000 startup founders into the country each year could have a visible effect on the economy. If we assume 4 people per startup, which is probably an overestimate, that's 2500 new companies. Each year.

Also, more importantly, the one that applies to India - less Govt. control and regulations. The less the better. The Indian IT has thrived well as there is minimal Govt. Control. Paul continues to write:

The tricky part might seem to be how one defined a startup. But that could be solved quite easily: let the market decide. Startup investors work hard to find the best startups. The government could not do better than to piggyback on their expertise, and use investment by recognized startup investors as the test of whether a company was a real startup.

How would the government decide who's a startup investor? The same way they decide what counts as a university for student visas. We'll establish our own accreditation procedure. We know who one another are.

India, one of the most corrupted countries in the world (mostly due to politicians, bureaucrats, and govt. employees) can easily do this as so much taxes are levied on hard working citizens. Also, India is ranked as one of the harshest countries in the world for tax regulations.

We do not get any benefit as such for tax payment (water - can not drink tap water, electricity - in the "Silicon Valley" Bangalore everyday there is power arbitrage, infrastructure - do I need to write anything?, etc.). And we are alright with it and we move on and continue to vote. So, in this case, Govt. can at least let the regulation loose on startups. We have seen that it is private enterprises who increase the standard of living and hence let them flourish more.

Coming back to the main theme, in India, it is not about VISA, as nobody is coming to India as such. Rather, it will be more in line with launching a new policy which will give new incentives to Indians who want to start Tech ventures or others (on which we have shown promise). Indians are known to be survivors in lowest possible cost and let the Govt. do its little bit to enthuse the silent and sleepy entrepreneurial spirit.

What Indian Govt. can do for this?

- Give them a complete Tax Holiday for 10 years (or at least 5 years)

- Minimal Govt. Control and let the investors decide (with a board maybe) on which one can be considered as startup

- Tax can be there on the Employees of startups and it has to be minimal so that best talent which are dying in the remote corner of many lethargic companies can easily change jobs

- Create more SEZ specially for startups

- Give incentives and land at reduced prices for startups

etc.

This is "Now or Never". A number of Indian companies are sitting on huge cash pile and a number of people are returning back to India. As I have seen, the younger generation is much more hungrier than before. If India does not do it now, then it will unwittingly let China rule the world in this century. Above all, it does not hurt most our self serving politicians and bureaucrats much!

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GAE (Google App Engine) finally courts Java

2009-04-08T20:23:00.002+05:30

Finally, GAE has come to support Java. We believe it is a very good move on Google's Part.

What is the benefit of having GAE?

1. You run your web application on Google's web infrastructure and hence you are freed from the maintenance of the server, but you can manage it.

2. Get the scalability and reliability advantage of Google

3. Get the various feature advantages (most notably Offline) and support of Google.

This will give definitely a big advantage to Google and another boost to Java as the new breed of computing (cloud computing) takes center stage.

However, we do not completely agree with the so called end to end solution for building AJAX Application with Google Eclipse Plug-in. It is in working stage so far. Even if it is fully developed a lot of work is still out there considering the plethora of Web Servers, Application Servers, Web Service Servers and how best the current GAE with Java can really support the building of an Application end-to-end.

To us end-to-end concept is pretty simple and straight forward, but very difficult to achieve in a crystal clean way! To us it means we can do everything using a single integrated tool - design, development, coding, testing, deployment and maintenance. Honestly, no tool still can claim that capability so far.

Nevertheless, GAE has adopted some of the most used APIs such as JSP/Servlet, javax.cache and javax.mail. I am not sure of the utility of having the JDO/JPA, as they could have more popular alternatives to it in the current market - they have taken Hibernate or TopLink. Perhaps, it will come along the way.

Also, now that J2SE 1.6 is available, we think that J2EE 1.6 is very near as well. However, as the difference between J2SE 1.5 and J2SE 1.6 is actually minimal (certain enhancements in Collection API, addition of new API such as Console etc.), there might not be much differences in J2EE 1.6.

Nevertheless, here is chance to know more and what better can be done for all Java programmers using GAE as mentioned here.

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Technology and My Mom

2009-04-07T09:13:00.003+05:30

A light-hearted post as Technology is considered to be very serious and people in tech sector are considered to be nerdy (read unsocial types). I do not agree with the later as I believe, technical folks are smarter and they want best return on investment - whether time, money or relationship!

My Mom is never ever interested in Technology though all her sons and daughter are Engineers by education and some in profession. It always surprises me that she is so much at ease with old and traditional way of doing things and actually she never shows keen interest in any new Machine or Technical "know-how". Whenever she listens, it is just to make us feel happy.

This has its advantages as sometimes I use it to my benefit (sometimes a bit unfairly though :-)). But, she made me realized once that how powerful technology can be, if it reaches to a common person.

How...here it goes.

During a vacation, the whole family watches a movie together after dinner. My Mom, as usual, will be a bit late to come (after taking care of everyone and ensuring that everything is alright with her house) and it really makes me impatient. So, I had found a simple technique and I used it best.

"Mom...come quickly..the movie has started", I'll shout. "You have already missed the most important part" and she will come running to join us! But it backfired after we had a Computer at home.

Next time, when I called up (she was in our house Temple and no one dares to disturb when she is there), she reverted, "Do not shout....just copy it. I'll see it later." She gave a quick irritated glance and I was speechless for a moment.

She somehow had come to know that one can have duplicate copy of the movie and it can be seen much later.

Thank you Mircrosoft and Mr. Bill Gates for inventing "Ctrl + C" and "Ctrl + V". The power of it is Unquestionable.

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IBM to Acquire Sun - Any Impact on the Java World?

2009-04-05T14:07:00.005+05:30

The Big Blue makes deals and we have seen it. I like this company as it does not make much sound-bytes and lets its work do the talking. On a different note, perhaps, some Indian companies who thrive on hype and hoopla on announcing multiple deals (like we are actively looking for acquisitions, we have so much cash reserve etc.) can take a leaf out of IBM's book! In all probability, this deal might go through.

Coming to core issue of Java - What is going to happen to Java? No other programming language has as much impact in the Internet Age as Java had. This, I believe, even the most pronounced critic of Java will agree. Java since its birth of 1995 has seen tremendous growth in many areas, free software (itself free), forum, tools and plethora of technologies.

One thing is for sure - Java is not going to die by this deal.

I believe it will enhance the strength of Java in the market. Added to that the rumour of Java support in Google AppEngine (which I think will do a lot of good to Google itself in the adoption of AppEngine).

However, the immediate questions, which are not clear, that come to mind are:

- Which version of Java will be adapted? – Sun Java or IBM Java

- Which IDE will be used? - IBM Eclipse or Sun NetBeans

- How much funding will be available for Java?
Java was one of the core portfolios of Sun, not IBM's.

- How much effort IBM will put into Java and related technologies?

We are indebted to Sun on many aspects on it, as it made this great PL free. I think it started and showed that how a free model of PL (a significant one) can rule the market. But then, how IBM is now going to deal with Java?

- Which App Server will be promoted? – IBM WebSphere or Sun App Server

These questions need serious discussion, as I believe, IBM will add one more huge portfolio into one of its existing 4 big ones. And IBM also needs to keep the discussion open with the Java community, technologists and evangelists instead of pushing IBM product or doing a mix-match of IBM-Sun product. The best feedback, I believe, will come from the existing developer community rather than the business community.

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Voice Communication Should be (and Can be) Free of Cost!

2009-03-23T03:20:00.003+05:30

The best things in life are free - affection from your near and dear ones, the air we breathe, the sunlight that we get or the intrinsic faith that we have on the Almighty (for theists of course)

Similarly, human beings are differentiated from other mammals on the planet by their intelligent form of communication. This is one thing which should also be made free and the good news is - it can be made free!

How?

The other day we were talking to one huge Telecom Service Provider (SP) on making their subscription free and make money from some other routes. They did not agree fully, but agreed with the concept.

What is the Case?

Party - A calls Party – B via any medium – landline, cell phone, calling cards etc.

What is Value for the End Subscriber?

The entire call is FREE. Subscription is FREE. Only thing the subscriber has to do is buy carrying equipment.

How the SP will make money?

When you are calling someone - put an advertisement, an info commercial of short duration during the call and let the customer know about. We can bet that in India or anywhere in the world someone will not just cut down on a phone when they are talking to someone. At first it may look irritating. But then was not the ad on TV during the fighting sequence between an Amitabh Bachhan with an Amzad Khan in the movie “Sholay”or a Leo Di Caprio holding off a Kate Winslet to rescue in the movie “Tiatanic”, was also irritating.

Here the better news is People will not cut off for a 5 or 10 seconds info commercial when they are talking. Rather when an info-commercial is displayed on a TV, watchers may very well switch to another channel. And inform people about your plan as well. We can bet that they will use it in droves.

During business talks also the SP can make money. Put at the beginning and end. There are some other smarter routes which can be thought of s well and they can very well make money.

So why not make the voice communication completely free?

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Most Powerful Business Model in this Decade and in near Future

2009-03-16T02:06:00.006+05:30

We are coming to the end of this decade, which saw the first growth of digital revolution across the world. We do not know for sure what will be happen in the next decade ...actually nobody knows!

We talk of various business models, like centralized practices, global delivery model, off-shore:on-site model etc. And a lot of hoopla and hype is also around that. We agree that they are good. But...but have you ever wondered which is the most powerful model in today's business.

Let us look at some of the most successful, popular and highly profitable businesses, like, Search Engines, E-Mail, Browsers, Blogging, Community Areas. Here are some of the inherent characteristics which combine them all.

1. Free:

By free we do not mean they do not make money. Google is a burinng example.

Free means, they do not charge anything to the end user to use their service. Any mail service, a photo sharing area or a browser, they just do not charge.

They make money by different means, say in a positive way like Ads or in a somewhat negative way like Pop-ups!

Ex: Google search engine, Yahoo! Mail, Opera browser, etc. and above all "The Internet".

2. Democratic:

People are allowed to view their opinions (of course in a civilized way) and they are not constrained. They pour their heart out in blogging, community based sites, etc.

Ex: Orkut, Facebook, Blogspot, Google web services

3. Interactive:

We live in a flat world where communication should never be constraint.

We can chat, see our near and dear ones faces, send an instant message/SMS to them via web.

4. On Demand basis:

What YouTube is doing or IPTV is planning to bring is to give information to people the way they want, the place they want it and the format they want. You can not force them to accept a particular way of doing things.

5. Entertainment oriented:

It is a dare say in a Business World. But it is the truth.

You take YouTube, Google, any Mail. Most of the time it is used for communication and a bulk of the communication ensures that we have out peace of our mind (aka in a somewhat different way – entertainment)

We read news, check the updates on our favorite movie or sport stars, send mails to our dear ones and gives a great sense of communication.

A repeat:

The most successful business models are free, democratic, interactive, on demand basis and entertainment oriented. They have literally ruled this decade and threw out other business models, which were bureaucratic.

How many people read newspaper now-a-days if they have net connections?

Can anyone think of a better business model in the coming decade. If you can, well, it will be your decade!

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Cloud Computing - Will it pull us out of Recession?

2009-03-10T23:25:00.000+05:30

I have been finding a lot of news on cloud computing now a days and it seems to be drawing a lot of attention from many as well. The term, as technocrats like to project is actually to bedazzle - such as “Ruby on Rail” (look at the name again!). In plain simple terms, it is a service in the web! Almost all the giants of Internet Era have embraced Cloud Computing in some way or another.

Some even have predicted that it will pull us out of the recession! I would love to see that happen, but before that, let us check some facts here first and fast.

What are the Arguments in Favor of Cloud Computing?

I find the below 5 compelling.

1. You do not need to have any backup:

Being a developer myself, I understand the importance of backup and of course the pain of it, if the data is huge.

When you have the data in the cloud, you need not have any backup at all. It is logical. But not completely true! Why? We will see in few minutes.

2. You are not dependent on the OS:

Well, you like it or not, Microsoft controls your PC. If you are on Unix or its variants lover, then you may have some other installation such as Open Office. But you DO need installations of software and if any other required as associates - say you want to export your Project Plan to Excel or you want to import your Calendar to MSP 2007 and so on.

To me, this argument looks irrefutable.

3. You can collaborate better:

Collaboration is a known word for any developer. You check in, check out and check in via some version control software. Imagine the same control on a document by a multitude of developers.

This argument is valid, but is not entirely flawless.

4. Browser is the new OS and it is the future:

Well, a number of browsers have come in (Google recently came up with one as well) and all claim that it will be new OS in the coming decade.

Here I will go for a fundamental question. Why do we need Software? The common answer will be for better productivity, efficiency, and yes, a better quality of life. And it cloud computing does help via social networking sites, video uploading facilities, blogging et al.

However, it is not entirely the truth.

5. Cost Effective, Scalable, Saleable and Green:

People say it is cost effective, but not impact is not dramatic. I agree that it is scalable and looking at some other advantages it is definitely saleable. Of course it is Green as you do not need that many computers to be wasted/upgraded/maintained as you see now.

This is also a good argument.

What can counter them?

1. You do not need backup:

Wrong.
First reaction is – do you want to say I will be online all the time? Definitely not. So, we have offline facilities. But then, if you have offline facilities what about they getting corrupted as they have to be stored somewhere also. It is actually in plain simple terms a cache in your local machine.

2. Browser is the new OS and it is the future:

This I am listening for almost a decade and it is still in the “back to the future” stage!

Software is not always about social networking, search engine – vertical or horizontal or posting videos on the net. It is actually much more than that. This argument holds good only when you consider the former idea behind software (btw, it looks hot and sexy now a days to be a social networking site or search engine type!). For real time system applications to solve real industrial problems, browsers can hardly be the OS.

3. Robust Systems:

Amazon recently went down for a long period of time and it was a real killer. So also a number of important sites have gone down for good amount of period in recent memory.

Building a site with 100% uptime is virtually impossible today.

In fact, as more and more users have access to the net, net transaction will be more as people will hate doing things by moving out which can be done from the comfort of home. And so far, I have not seen any of them to be that robust.

Bottom-line: This is a new trend and is fast catching up. But time will tell how far it will be effective. My guess is a desktop coupled with a cloudtop (if you can say that to be word!) will be the best choice. Sites which have to communicate better in an innovative way have seen success and people have made money out of it. However, Cloud computing is no way replacing the current way of computing - no definitely not.

Coming to the recession part - I am not an economist, but it is well known market will be back when consumers regain their confidence. An i-Phone or an i-Pod works in the market as it brings not only value to the consumer, but also a kind of pride in owning it and sense of joy in using it. Will Cloud computing be the next catalyst for consumer spending? Unfortunately, I can not say "CONCLUSIVELY YES". But then, time will tell.

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For AJAXians - 7 Interesting Things about AJAX

2009-03-09T22:31:00.000+05:30

AJAX has actually revolutionized the user browsing experience and has made HTTP applications look sexier. Here, I’ll not get into the AJAX fundamentals; rather I’ll have some tips and tricks.

1. AJAX without XML:

AJAX stands for ‘A’synchronous ‘J’avaScript ‘A’nd ‘X’ML. So if XML is not in the application, it sounds weird! However, you need not have XML at all in your AJAX application.

Say you have a simple application to show the user names as and when the user types in the user name in te application form (so that he does not have go the round of request-response mechanism). In such a case, all you need to do is query the user name from the DB via the WebServer, get a YES or NO (= a Boolean value) and if it exists, then simply disable the signup button. There is no need to have the date embedded in XML. It will be an overkill!

Similarly whereever you think of not having an XML, you better stick to that approach as it will be more memory efficient. More on it in the subsequent tips.

2. AJAX with XML:

So, what the heck and what is the big deal – AJAX anyway comes with XML? Well, nothing - other than your choice of XML parser in the client side plays a crucial role. When you mine your XML response, you have to be very careful in choosing a parser, which is memory efficient.

There are many of them such as JDOM, DOM4J, SAX etc and recently of course StAX. Here SAX and StAX, without question, fit the bill.

3. AJAX with JSON:

As I said earlier, in AJAX application when you process XML elements, it is memory intensive. At the same time, XML, at the cost of being platform independent have its intelligence wrapped up insider elements (root, sub-elements etc) or attributes which are added to the core data.

To rescue, comes JSON. Here you not only need not have unnecessary elements wrapping up the core data, but also there is no need of cross browser coding (for MS-IE it will be different!). Because you have the built in “eval” function of Javascript doing the work for you.

4. AJAX without JavaScript:

Well, again it sounds weird! In fact, you need not use JS at all in your AJAX application. Say you are someone who is not very into JS programming and only bent on writing AJAX code. And you can vey well do that.

This can be done by another 3rd party software which is "AjaxAnywhere" project available on sourceforge. The concept is of a “zone”. A zone can be any HTML element with a division. Here the server side code such as Servlet or ASP calls the 'AAUtils.addZonesToRefresh()' method and this in turn gets intercepted by a filer (standard web filter) which converts the response to XML and the zone is updated!

5. AJAX Tags:

To develop AJAX tags is as straightforward as developing JSP tags. You need to extend the 'TagSupport' class in the JSP API and develop your XXX.tld file. This file will be finally be configured in deployment descriptor of your application.

There are many 3rd party Tag Libraries and you can use them as well for your benefit. However, if you need something specific to your need, you can very well develop them.

6. AJAX with Struts:

Struts is one of the most mature MVC frame-works and recently you have seen the emergence of Spring, Tapestry et al. Struts comes with many tag libraries and one of the tags that is AJAX enabled is Struts Layout. More specifically it has a suggestion area and you can set up the entire work with minimal coding. Or you can use you JS along with the Struts framework to build an AJAX application.

The only difference here is you have action classes (such as SuggestAction) in place of Servlets which will be processing your requests. Similarly, for other MVC frameworks, you can have the AJAX phenom.

7. AJAX Debugging:

AJAX can be debugged with Google WebToolkit along with an IDE such as Eclipse. The key here is code will be completely in Java (your client code, JS code, HTML code) in hosted mode and it will can be run in a compact tomcat available in the Toolkit. Once you have complied the code is segregated, i.e., you will get your JS code and HTML code.

Welcome Chrome – the new browser from Google! I have checked the JS Debugger in Chrome and it seems to be better than the existing ones - such as Mozilla, Firefox or Opera. There are other standalone JS debuggers, but Chrome seems to have a different take. More of it sometime later - how to debug using Chrome.

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Some Words on Licensing

2009-03-07T23:53:00.000+05:30

Being an avid software reviewer, I check at least a couple of new software packages (freeware/commercialware/liteware etc) every month. Needless to say I like the freeware most as I can open up the source and find out exactly what they are doing.

At the same time, there is a caution of integration of freeware with other software packages. I have frequently changed freeware to suit my need and have integrated with some existing applications. However, the issue of licensing comes up, like:

1. Can I modify/enhance the existing freeware and publish it?

2. Can I integrate this freeware with my application (which is just a link-in) and provide a new packaged one?

3. Can I integrate this freeware (after modification) with my application?

4. Can I propose some customer to use it, and in that case what are constraints/assumptions I have to inform?

etc.

In broader terms, there are 2 types of licenses.

1. Free Software Licenses (FSL)

It grants permission to modify and redistribute the software, which may otherwise be prohibited by copyright law. It means you have freedom to modify or redistribute copyrighted work.

2. Permissive Software Licenses (PSL)

This is a permissive form of FSL. Here you can release the source after modification in a different license.

Some very prevalent license types and their terms:

1. GPL (GNU General Public License)

GPL is a type of FSL, with emphasis on "copyleft".

It means it is to be distributed under the same terms as the original software. Thus, all enhancements and additions to copylefted software must also be distributed as free software. Hence, it becomes "quid pro quo".

Finally it means you can NOT link (another application) with a software with GPL. Say if you are using some packages from GPL software, your final delivered package will also be under GPL.

And of course, if you are making changes to the source code of the GPL software, then you have to release it under GPL.

MySQL AB can be considered to be an example of this.

2. LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License)

It is a type of FSL and somewhat free as compared to GPL. It means it can be changed and released with a different license.

So you can use the packages from LGPL software and release it under a different license.

However, if you are making changes to the source code of a LGPL and releasing it, it can NOT be released in a separate license.

Mozilla, OpenOffice are examples of this.

3. BSD License

It is type of PSL.

Here you can link from your code by using a BSD software package and release it in a different license.

Also you can make changes to BSD software source code and release it under a different license.

Apache, Tomcat licenses are examples of it.

4. MIT License

It is a type of PSL.

Here you can link-in with the MITL software or change the source of the MITL software and release it.

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How to write Exceptions in Java?

2009-01-02T20:44:00.000+05:30

Quick Question: How will you define your own exception?

Answer: You have to extend the Exception Class and write it like this.

Class MyException extends Exception
{
MyException() {
super();
}

MyException(String message) {
super(message);
}
}

If someone asks you this and you give the above answer, making him/her happy – immediately assume that you will be in the company of “Javaphiles” (my term for useless Java programmers and for decent ones – “Javaites”).

If he has scratched Java (2 books max!), then some more useless questions like, what are checked, unchecked exceptions or can I extend Throwable class or can I catch Object in the “Exception” clause or give me some example of Exception, etc.

When I stated off, exception was the coolest topic, as it was the easiest! But then, in due course of time, some new things came up, which are marvels. Here are some of the things which you should know about exceptions.

Rule Number – 1

Write useful exceptions and give handle to the data being found via the exception class, if you can.

Do NOT write exception classes for the sake of writing exceptions (and sometimes making your code throughput look larger than others!). Here is a way to write a good exception:

public class OutOfRangeException extends IllegalArgumentException {

private final long value, minVal, maxVal;

public OutOfRangeException(long value, long minVal, long maxVal) {
super("Value " + value + " is out of range: " + minVal + ".." + max +);
this.value = value;
this.min = minVal;
this.max = maxVal;
}

public long getValue() {
return value;
}

public long getMinValue() {
return minVal;
}

public long getMaxValue() {
return maxVal;
}
}

Rule Number – 2

Use Chained Exceptions, if you think that the main cause of error can be something else.

Say you are reading an integer value via IO and IO error occurred. In this case, it is very likely that we will the integer value to have a default value of “0”, and hence we will get the ArithmeticException. But, was it the real reason? NO. Ideally, you should have informed about the IOException.

For it, you can use the initCause(Throwable causeExce) method. Here, you can pass the IOException object when it is caught. When the calling method, which only catches the ArithmeticException, there it will print the actual cause of exception as well.

Rule Number – 3

Never extend directly from the Throwable class unless your application is at major layer boundaries.

By extending Throwable, you are giving hook for RuntimeException, which is not detected by the compiler and as an application developer you will not want an unchecked exception. Extending throwable, as I mentioned, has its own usage. Like if you have app server, you will want to ensure that the server can NOT be brought down by some unchecked exceptions. Here, you may want to use the extension of Throwable.

Rule Number – 4

If you have opened up any resource or URL or anything, close it only in the “finally” clause.

If you happen to put them in the Exception clause, it will only be executed if there is an exception, otherwise NOT! However, “finally” block will be executed, no matter what happens (with an “exit” statement also). It is there for this purpose only.

Rule Number – 5

Be careful while using Assertions.

Do not confuse Assertion with Exception handling, though Assertion uses Exception handling mechanism of Java via AssertionError class.

Exception = to have robust software program
Assertion = to have correct programs
Exception + Assertion = reliable program

You should use Assertion thinking that it will be handled like Exception. There is very good chance that Assertion can be disabled during production environment. Say your code uses assertions like below:

assert xxx.callAMethod();

It will have disastrous consequences if assertion is disabled in production environment. In fact, you should write code this way.

Rule Number – 6

Throw Exception early and catch exceptions late.

Whenever you believe that there is a possibility of exception will be thrown, throw them as early as possible. Your code flow should not wait for long to throw the exception.

Similarly while catching exceptions, the reverse is true, reason being that you may not have all the information to catch the exception and inform and hence it is better to wait till you have all the information.

Rule Number – 7

Always document your exception.

It is very important to note under what condition the exception will be thrown and why it was placed like that. Exceptions are very critical during debugging and your document will help a lot for your own debugging.

Rounding Up:

Rounding up, the same question as asked in the beginning – how will you write your own exception?

This should be your answer - if you answer it very simply.

Class MyException extends Exception
{
MyException() {
super();
}

MyException(String message) {
super(message);
}

MyException(String message, Throwable cause) {
super(message, cause);
}

MyException(Throwable cause) {
Super(cause);
}
}

There will be new methods with Throwable as parameter. For best possible reasons for having Throwable as a cause in the Exception class, you may have a look here.

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How to be a Good Technical Person?

2008-12-30T13:41:00.000+05:30

I was talking with an architect who seemed to be very dynamic and assertive. Coming directly to the point, what he informed me opened up my eyes:

1. He reads 50 pages everyday no matter how tired he is.
2. He writes 5 pages everyday no matter how exhausted he feels.
3. Every year he tries to learn at least one programming language.
4. Every year he tries to attend at least 3 technical conferences and make some new contacts with good techies
5. Every year he tries to contribute new something to a freeware

I know the first 2 are tough calls, if you are not a habitual reader or writer. But it can be “customized” a bit. How about reading 20 pages and writing 2 pages a day and ramp up your ability down the line?

For the 3rd one, I believe one can easily learn a programming language in a year, which suits the profession and marketable. It not only helps you sharpen your ability to think with your “brainware” being connected, it does provide many side benefits as well.

For the 4th one, well I am also a freeware person at heart and very frugal. So how about joining discussion groups, which can be on framework, emerging technology, patterns etc? I think it is very much doable.

For the 5th one, I think it might be tough initially, but you will get there if you know there process and practices. And who know you will know and learn a lot from them. Though at this stage, I am not following it either – fact is, it is beyond the reach of my current ability. But, you can give a try.