When using Spring contexts, it is easy to misconfigure. Especially when mixing XML and annotation configurations. So we all (should) include a unit test that ensures that at least the Spring configuration is OK, before we go and test the functionality itself. I thought that there must be a more generic way of doing this and came across the Beanoh library.
Boosting local performance with Vaadin using Jetty 7 / 8
When your are generating a new Vaadin project using one of the supplied archetypes, it comes with a jetty plugin configuration which allows you to quickly run the application using mvn package jetty:run. Nice, but then often you have to wait, since Jetty 6 somehow takes very long to use the Vaadin Widgetset.
Want to speed things up, use the new Jetty 7 maven plugin and you will notice the difference!
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Logging, which framework to choose? Log4J, Commons Logging, LogBack, SLF4J?
Logging is part of every application we create and most of the time we do not use java’s own Java Util Logging framework. Most developers and architects use Jakarta Commons Logging (JCL) in combination with Log4J. But what about SLF4J instead of JCL? Although more and more frameworks are using it, a lot of developers and architects stick to Jakarta Commons Logging with Log4J, why is that? Read more…
Charmed by Vaadin
Since my visit to Devoxx last november, I have been charmed by Vaadin. Although it is a very different way of creating your web application GUI, since everything is done in Java, it has potential.
Java developers are most of the time not very good in creating user interfaces, so the styling and layout is not their focus. Now with Vaadin you do not need to, since a lot of it comes out of the box.
It reminds me of programming windows applications in MFC/C++. Although most of you will compare it to Swing (I have no experience with Swing though).
Next to using GWT, which means it can easily be extended with other GWT widgets, there are already a lot of components that can be downloaded from the Vaadin Directory. Although not all of them open source and free of license, a great place to start.
One thing I am missing is a better Maven support. A more substantial maven archetype would be nice. Also a lot of the extensions in the directory are not available via Maven yet, or are in BETA phase. That is OK for my pet store project, but in an enterprise environment, I really like to have at least a 1.0 version and solid maven repository support.
Another reason to keep looking at Vaadin is the Vaadin TouchKit, with which you can create mobile applications. So whatch Vaadin this year!
Reusing unit test support classes across maven modules
During a project I encountered a problem reusing my builder classes I was using to create my test fixtures. I wanted to use them in both my webservice project as my service layer project. Normally it is not a problem to use a module as a dependency, but I had never had the need to reuse classes that were not in my main sources, but in my test sources.
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