Which web sites could you recommend, where I shall find overviews of different java libraries and frameworks that are currently preferable to use in development of applications?
update: To be more precise, I've liked to find a site that will be like a magazine about java, where will be the overviews, comparisons, best practices, examples and other useful information about java (technics, libraries, frameworks and so on) for different purposes. The aim of magazines is not to cover all the things of their subject area, but to present more actual, interesting and useful things only.
I really like the design on Open Source Software in Java. They've got it laid out by type to start with, plus when you dig down you can find several competing projects for each category.
For example clicking on 'HTML Parsers' gives this (and more - this is just a partial clip):
I hope this helps.
The world of java has so many libraries that it would be practically impossible to recommend anything without some kind of understanding about what kind of application you are actually writing. Are you writing a blu-ray disc, a game for a java phone, an android app, a desktop application, a server side computation process, a web service, a web site.... the list of things that java can and does do is huge.
The same thing goes for frameworks too. I would always say (although many people on this site disagree) that you should only look for a framework when you are finding something difficult, and the framework makes that thing easier, without making other stuff harder. Some people say you pick your framework first.....
Perhaps if you gave more details on what kind of thing you were trying to attempt, the community might be able to point you towards some useful stuff.
As a side note, remember that the internet is full of people with opinions - just because they are loud, it doesn't make them right - after all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog
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I'm going to develop an on-line IVR application using Java (without PBX).
In the software requirements there are some mathematical calculations and database communication which I prefer to implement on Java side.
As you know, different technologies are ready to integrate with Java, such as JTAPI, Zanzibar OpenIVR, Moho, VoiceXML, CCXML, Jive, Prophecy, Voicent, Voxeo etc.
Now the question is: What is the best solution? Which one is easiest to reach? Which one have the best efficiency? Do you recommend Open Source frameworks? Is there any Windows API for handling IVR systems?
If you're going to do VoiceXML with Java, you should take a look at Rivr, an open-source VoiceXML dialogue engine.
Rivr let you code your callflow naturally in the Java language. Thus you can reuse all the available Java tools (e.g. debugger, unit testing framework, coverage test tool) to develop the callflow. You also benefit from all your IDE features too (refactorings, source navigation, version control, etc).
The API is very simple. You can code a complete callflow with a single method. No need to define "states" or to manipulate templates or XML files.
Integration with server-side logic is trivial since you are only coding for the server side.
There is far too little information here to provide a direct answer, but I'll try to give you some basics.
The standards for IVR application development is VoiceXML for dialog (caller interaction) and CCXML for call control. The latter is not as commonly available. There are also numerous proprietary solutions. Your choice of an open standard versus a proprietary solution should be more about vendor/solution lock in. Even with the open standards, you'll likely use custom enhancements and have some amount of lock in, but portability will be easier. You can code directly to the telephony boards (challenging and usually poorly documented if you are someone new to telephony) or work with solutions that provide end to end capability. I find very few people porting IVR applications so I would focus on supportability of your application, features and ease of use in your decision.
Platform choices run the spectrum. You have premise (onsite) and hosted solutions. You mostly have high end enterprise solutions and low end solutions. There are very few middle ground solutions. Features (telephony and integration capabilities) vary dramatically.
From a telephony perspective, take nothing for granted. In particular, transfers. There are many ways to transfer a call. How it is done will be constrained by your connection. An analog line to the CO (phone company) can have multiple mechanisms and the one in place will typically be dictated to you. Not all telephony platforms will support what you need. Hangup detection, at least on analog lines, can also catch the novice out. Hosted solutions will typically allow you to avoid most of these problems. VoIP solutions are even more complicated due to compatibility between devices (yes there are standards, lots of them, with lots of optional parts and then there are custom flavors).
For windows specifically, you can use Lync, but it is complicated...though many of the solutions you will explore will be complicated.
In short, there is no best solution. Your knowledge of the technologies, requirements and budget are going to drive the decision. I've generally worked with enterprise IVRs in on premise and hosted configurations that are typically fronting large call centers. I have come in contact with many of the open source solutions. Anything on premise is likely to be complicated because of the system and telephony configuration. Hosted solutions have typically done most of that for you.
I know that those are "de jure standards". But you should also take Asterisk(with AGI/AMI) as a consideration for your project. If you decide to try Asterisk and Java, take a look of astivetoolkit.org it may be very helpful.
Ricky from Twilio here.
For me, picking the best tool for a particular problem is one of my favorite tasks a developer. One technique to figuring this out is blocking off a day and spending an hour or two with each potential option. A few question I'll typically explore:
Which tool is the easiest to get started with?
Which tool has the best documentation?
Which tool has an engaged community that I can learn from?
I'm sure there are a ton more questions depending on your scenario you'd want to explore (Does it fit within my budget? Can I use it with the technologies I already know and love?).
If you're looking at building an IVR, we have an API that could help. We just dropped some new tutorials including a non-trivial, production ready IVR application using Java.
Recently I got introduced to node.js and cool packages like express and jade. I have few questions consistently knocking my door:
If I pick node.js to build my next website, I will be using JavaScript to write my server-side complicated logic? but I don't think you can compare JavaScript with Java or Python to write server-side code as they have such a vast ocean of libraries. Is node.js really meant for it? or I have missed something?
Can I call Java or Python from node.js?
Not quite sure what most of these folks are talking about.
A "vast ocean of libraries" is something the community is actively working on. Check this: http://search.npmjs.org/#/_analytics -- there were 8 packages published yesterday
Its not going to solve your software design for you. As for where and how to write business logic, many of us embrace mvc or mvvm or something close to it. If you're building an application and like how Rubyists (for example), structure their code you might look at doing something just like that -- aint nobody going to tell you how to structure your code.
Check https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/modules
Some of the more popular libraries for doing the day to day:
Express: http://expressjs.com/ - https://github.com/visionmedia/express
Sinatra inspired, use it to build a typical web app
Stats: 3407 watchers, 286 forks, on pull request 778
Compare that to Sinatra itself! 2529 watchers, 366 forks
With connect, it supports all kinds of middleware:
sessions,
all kinds of routing,
static files
some 15 different templating engines
validation, form handling, etc, etc
Socket.io: http://socket.io/ - make it 'real-time'
DNode: https://github.com/substack/dnode - do rpc between anything
Backbone.js: http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/ - MVC
Variety of techniques for re-using your models on the server:
http://andyet.net/blog/2011/feb/15/re-using-backbonejs-models-on-the-server-with-node/
Spine.js: http://maccman.github.com/spine.tutorials/index.html - MCV
Techniques for re-using code on the server:
http://maccman.github.com/spine.tutorials/node.html
caolan/async: https://github.com/caolan/async - Help manage your async business logic
Database, pick your poision
node_redis, https://github.com/mranney/node_redis - or one of the eight other clients
"This is a complete Redis client for node.js. It supports all Redis commands"
node-mysql, https://github.com/felixge/node-mysql - or one of eleven other clients/orms
node-mongodb-native, https://github.com/christkv/node-mongodb-native
node-postgres, https://github.com/brianc/node-postgres
There's also a host of ORMs out there, if thats your bag. Things like http://mongoosejs.com/, http://sequelizejs.com/ and friends
Test-driven development is at the core of node. There are 15 different TDD packages to choose from that range from full code coverage analysis to custom assert modules.
Saying all modules are incomplete is silly. There is an incredibly dedicated group of people building and maintaining tons working open-source in this community every day.
There might be reasons to pass over node, but its not for an inactive community or lack of libraries.
I would say you missed something - more specifically, the core purpose of Node.js, that is, the asynchronous I/O model.
I started a little pet project to test Node.js - how it "feels" and how to program on it. I became impressed by the ease of working in such ecosystem: Node.js code is easy to write (although its asynchronous paradigm is not that straightforward for the conventional programmer), libraries are easy to build etc. etc. Even npm is amazingly easy: I just found the most straightforward way to provide code of your own as a library is to make a public package of it - and it is absurdly easy!
However, there is not much good tools to work with Node.js. Maybe because it is too easy to do anything, most libraries are partially-implemented, undocumented solutions.
Also, note that the relevant difference of Node.js is not the JavaScript language, but the asynchronous I/O model. It is the most interesting aspect of Node.js, but the asynchronous programming style is not as well tested as the conventional way of web development. Maybe it is really the marvel that is propagandized - or perhaps, it is not as good as promised.
Even in the case it pays off, will you have enough developers to maintain such an (at least still) unusual codebase? If you can get a lot of advantages from the asynchronous "way of life" of Node.js, you can use more consolidated languages and frameworks, such as Twisted for Python (which is my preferred languabe, so take care with my opinion :) ). There may be something like this for Java, too. Anyway, I suspect that you do not have a lot of interest in this model for now, since your question focuses more on languages than in the programming paradigm, so Node.js does not have much to offer to you anyway.
So... no, I would not develop something professonaly in Node.js for now, although I think it is both fun and instructive to study. You can do it, however - just do not do it without having in mind the main purpose of Node.js: asynchronous-IO, event-driven programming. If it is what you want, Node.js is a good alternative.
Ryan did not start with JavaScript. A large part of why Node was created in JavaScript is that JavaScript lacked vast oceans of libraries.
Those vast oceans of libraries are almost all written in blocking code.
To take full advantage of Node.js you need to limit your self to non blocking libraries. Which means that might need to write some libraries to complete your project in Node.js.
I think you'll be surprised by the amount of work you can get done in JavaScript via Node.js. There are a bunch of libraries available for Node and more are being written all the time. Furthermore, native extensions are also available for those times where you might need to drop down to a lower-level.
If you think there's a gap where Node won't be able to provide for your business logic, take a look around NPM or give Google a quick serch to see if anyone else has already solved your problem.
Of course, you can use Python, PHP, c++ or other technologies with nodejs 'cuz node can run it as a child process. Nodejs give you the freedom to use any technology which you want inside itself. You can use whatever you want combining the most performance programs.
There are some things that JavaScript just can't do. If you come up against those Node might not be the best choice for your app. However you can probably accomplish most of what you need.
As far as the API being limited, I suggest you take a look at npm and all the libraries in its repository. Specifically ones like underscore.js. Many aim to fill in the gaps of what native JavaScript lacks compared to other languages.
I am not new to software developing, but in the last years I was almost completely involved with web applications development, most likely to PHP with MySQL/PostgreSQL.
Now I am changing focus. I would like to start programming for desktop applications, with Java. The decision about language was motivated by the following reasons: it is a mature language, has space into the market, it is multiplatform, full of resources, and has some very nice IDEs (I am using netbeans 6.9).
I am not new to OOP concepts (or most of them at least), but Java has a huge gamma of solutions (technologies, frameworks and so on), and I am getting lost with that. Can't decide what is the most appropriate solution to adopt and learn from.
That said, let's get to the point. I will describe the software targets, some things I has adopted so far, and expect someone to give me some trail to follow filling the messy points.
My application is a small business application. Usual stuff about products, sales, cash management. It needs to run into a small office, with some computers (not a fully standalone desktop application). Not every user can do everything. Some would have privileges to access financial stuff, others only sell, others only fulfill products, and so on.
Per above highlevel definition, we know that it will operate like a client-server application. One server will be installed into just one machine, all others will just have the client. I am using HSQL as backend for persistence.
Would like to use Swing to build the UI (to keep theming based on the OS). Possibilities for the client include sending email (not directly, but through some already-set email client [Thunderbird, Outlook]) and printing (to any available printer in the network).
For this I am using Desktop API.
Alright, finally we got were I am loosing the grip: which framework / technology do you recommend to make development quick (pre-built forms based on the available tables), and as modular as possible?
As I said, different users would have different privileges, but instead of just checking and disabling, I would like to keep modules separated. In different packs, or something like that.
EJB? BlueJ? JavaBeans? OSGi? Swing Application Framework? I'm kinda lost with those. Any help will be appreciated.
If you're lost, keep it simple.
For the kind of desktop apps you describe, you'll need Swing and JDBC. If you switch to web, substitute JSPs written using only JSTL and servlets. You'll have to know HTML and CSS to write JSPs. You can embellish those with JavaScript as needed.
You'll go a long way with just those.
The others you mentioned are just noise until you become more comfortable:
EJBs are for enterprise scale apps. You get to leave a lot of complex stuff like threading, object pooling and lifecycle, etc. to an app server and concentrate on expressing your business logic in distributed, transactional components called Enterprise Java Beans. Not necessary to start.
BlueJ is a beginners IDE designed to shield folks from the complexities of Java. I wouldn't recommend it.
OSGi - modular deployments for web apps. Not necessary to start.
Swing App Framework? I'm not familiar with it - I don't write Swing. If you mean Spring, I think it's an excellent framework, but not necessary to start.
This is a bit off-topic, but I think it should be said anyway.
My application is a small business application. Usual stuff about products, sales, cash management. It needs to run into a small office, with some computers (not a fully standalone desktop application). Not every user can do everything. Some would have privileges to access financial stuff, others only sell, others only fulfill products, and so on.
You are attempting something very ambitious here. There are countless existing applications for doing this kind of thing for small business, some of them household names. What makes you think that you can can do better? What makes you think you can compete?
The fact that you are new to Java makes this doubly ambitious.
My advice would be:
If you have dreams of making lots of money out of this, forget it. You are >10 years too late.
If you are doing this for some client, your company or yourself to use, they / you would probably be better off using an off-the-shelf business application.
If you are doing this for "the public good", you labors would be more fruitful if you joined some existing open source business application project.
If you are just doing this "for fun" ... go for it. (This doesn't strike me as a "fun" project though ...)
Starting off with java, swing desktop app is normal... I must say though that the components included in the default, i never liked, i thought they were too ugly. https://substance.dev.java.net/
Is a look and feel lib for java.
So do your app, think it through though and make sure you have some sort of design in mind.
Its easier and often faster if you have an idea of where you're going visually than if you just start coding and hope you reach somewhere you like.
Get paper and pencil out,scribble little notes and drawings of your GUI.
You don't necessarily need frameworks and the lot, if your app will need to store data then look at the JDBC driver to connect to mysql, or have a look at embedded databases such as HSQLDB...
We are going to create Jar Store the way like App Store works, but for Java Developers.
Everyone will able to submit and sell custom .jar library which solves some little problem, but solves it very good to save other developer's work time.
The only undecided question is how to prevent .jar copying or publishing bought .jar to the Net.
EDIT: This can probably achieved by using strong copyright policy? Suggest please!
EDIT 2: I imagine Steve Jobs asking:
How we can prevent iPhone Apps from copying?
— You can't it's just a files on the iPhone which can be easily copied by anyone.
Whoa! Did we just go through a 12-year time warp?
This is exactly what JavaBeans was intended to do, back in 1996-7.
It was intended to solve a technical challenge of pluggable, re-usable code, which would of course engender a vibrant and lucrative third-party marketplace of drop-in components. People would make,sell, buy, and consume these re-usable pieces of code.
Then, that fantasy was replicated when server-side Java grew in popularity. The idea behind numerous companies was that they'd act as brokers and commercial exchanges for re-usable pieces of code. The names of these companies escape me now. There were many.
Most of them faded, and some of them evolved their business model away from acting as an commercial exchange, and towards selling software directly. In particular, they moved toward selling the thing they had hoped to run their business on (their "ERP"), as a piece of software that enterprises could use internally - a component repository supporting re-use within an enterprise.
Darn! The names of the big companies that made this transition escape me now.
An interesting question is, why did App Store succeed (wildly!) while the vision for JavaBeans stores, or stores for enterprise Javva components, never caught on.
I have my theories but... not least among the reasons is the phenomenon of "open source" - where you can get pretty darn good re-usable components for free. Before you go tilting at this windmill, I suggest you study some industry history!
For this to work you need to have content. Really good content. With excellent documentation.
I would imagine this is the first obstacle you need to tackle.
With this business idea copyright protection in both technical and legal way must be you core competences since this is the main part for your added value.
If you prevent something from copying, how are people supposed to distribute their software? I'm not writing enterprise solutions to run only on my notebook.
you can't don't even spend any more time on trying.
rephrase your question to
I want to restrict someone copying a
plain text file.
Same problem with a .jar file. You can put all the legal restrictions you want, but it won't stop anyone from making a copy of your file if they are able to use it. Go ask the RIAA how effective they are at stopping the copying of .mp3 files.
I would also offer what do you think you can offer than the Open Source community doesn't already offer in the Java world? The Java ecosystem is very mature and very full featured from a library stand point. I can't imagine that anything you offer, that might be the least bit innovative, some open source project won't spring up and create a free open source version of.
We're embarking on a project for a client. They plan on having about 50k users by the end of the year. We're pushing to use Pylons w/ Mako and SQLAlchemy, and our contact there is excited about it, but some of his colleagues are wary because it's not .NET or J2ee (they're used to enterprisey stuff).
Their web app will have some data analysis that we'll offload as well as a twang of social networking features. (basically all they have so far is some Flex mockups for UX)
I'm looking for some evidence with regard to development time, or other reasons that will help our argument to reassure the customer.
The other options is that we're barking up the wrong tree and have no idea. I hope that's not the case.
Any references to case studies or whatnot would be nice. The best I could find are
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/rubio-python-turbogears.html
and
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/devlin-python-oracle.html
which are a bit dated (wrt to TG2 and whatnot)
Thanks!
If you're looking for a success story for a customer, Virgin Charter is using Pylons with SQLAlchemy for their site. This is a high-value transaction system as people are booking very expensive flights through the site.
For a more high-traffic site, Reddit is now running on Pylons, along with Charlie Rose.
SQLAlchemy and Mako were both designed by Mike Bayer (A veteran Java programmer), SQLAlchemy being based on the best of Hibernate and with the same powerful principles and patterns that Hibernate supports.
If they're wary of deploying something they're not familiar with, Pylons runs on Jython, and the latest SQLAlchemy (0.6 branch) is about ready on Jython too. This would let you package up a full Pylons app into a WAR file for deployment which would reassure their Java-types.
For general Python, consider pointing out all the big animation studios that use it, and the other various srouces S.Lott points out.
It's almost easier to build a quick Proof of Concept service that demonstrates how clean and simple it is.
A simple SQLAlchemy mapping with a quick demo of query processing.
A simple template showing how cool Mako is.
A simple Pylons app to put the two together.
Most important -- use their application and their data. Not a lame hello world; not an existing tutorial.
If they want to compare your clean, elegant demo of their app with .NET and J2EE, they'll see that other languages lead to a much, much bigger code base.
Edit
Show them this: http://python.org/about/success/
Also, one of the best Python demos is to do things the way the SQLAlchemy and Django tutorials do things -- in interactive python from the >>> prompt. Nothing is more exciting than programming which is so simple you can do it interactively.
You won't find a lot of compelling case studies. Python is a community. .Net and J2EE are products. .Net has Microsoft's advertising backing it; Microsoft can afford to do extensive surveys and studies of their product. Same for Sun (soon to be Oracle) and J2EE -- lots of marketing hype backing up their claims.
Python just has what's on the Python.org site (http://python.org/about/). The various related projects (Pylons, Mako and SQLAlchemy) don't have lavish case study whitepapers. They do have a large number of downloads, and lots of word of mouth.
But if someone's looking for "proof" that Python works better than .Net, there's not going to be much.
They are crazy if they want to use j2ee imho. Visual Studio/C# is very nice, especially if you are not trying to do anything tricky. However, if you want to customize the C# way of doing things beyond what it was explicitly designed for it can quickly turn into a mess -- you get mired in automatically generated XML configuration files &c. Of course, I also think that Pylons with SQLAlchemy might turn into a mess because they too generate so much stuff that you ultimatly might end up having to reconfigure. If you want complete control, I would recommend a less intrusive environment, like Werkzueg. Please read my essay on writing MVC with no invisible means of support.