Published on
May 24, 2010 in
Java.
Tags: brix.
It is truly unquestionably the best cms framework for Java. And it makes managing content with pluggable dynamic sections easy. It excels in many ways and features. but it is mainly aimed towards bigger sites. i had actually began the work of making my own cms/blog when i accidentally discovered Brix. i fooled around with it and quickly came to the following conclusion:
its to big for use in simple cases like a blog. making a blog in wicket is just hammering nails. making something similar in brix means adding alot more stuff and not needed wrapping. It is per example no need in my blog for changing or creating the templates when the application is running. templates can be predefined and switched in an administration panel.
My final conclusion is that i have not yet seen the best of Brix and that I still need some time playing with it and learning its internals.
I will absolutely recommend Brix for more advanced sites that need an active dialog with designers and webdevelopers. they wont even know that the page is written in Java because all they see is Xhtml!
Don’t give me this crap! the person saying that the web should be cross browser compatible is mostly thinking in the wrong lines (focused on the individual sites). one should start with the browsers first: different shit different wrappings… all browsers has some or many problems. they might even not be problems in the first place, just incompability issues.
so what am i suggesting? develop a universal browser framework that takes care of rendering and let people make good looking wrappings for it! Generally it would mean no difference for the end user and party time for web designers (because they would no longer be needed most of the time). and the Java web developers ( count me in) would be a bunch more productive and would generally live a happier life 
Published on
May 14, 2010 in
Java.
Tags: linux.
It shouldnt be that hard really. and it aint. its just for a mediocre user like me its a pure hell if you dont know what you are doing. openjdk my ass. all linuxes have that damned package. its not that it doesnt work as expected, but i want to run and compile my software in the environment it is going to be used. and that aint for sure not openjdk.
Continue reading ‘Linux and Java development’
Published on
May 10, 2010 in
Java.
I have in my past two years as a professional Java web developer stumbled upon the fact that if my code is not reusable and readable, as well as not structured and modularized, it cannot be maintained in the long run. I have had the need for good web frameworks and I have learnt a few of the available support frameworks along the way. By saying support frameworks I mean for example Freemarker templating engine. It is not a web framework in it self but rather a helping hand for separating code from design.
Continue reading ‘Thougths about opensource java web frameworks’
Published on
March 16, 2010 in
Java.
I wrote an article some time ago where i was a bit harsh on the library. It has occured to me that the problems i got using the wicket library could easily be solved with recursive panels. My problem was actually infintely deep menu lists. But be warned that bookmarkable page links do not go well across different applications.
I think my wicket CMS will get a move on now please tell me if you want to contribute by sending me a mail to post (at) jarl-andre.com. I am not yet on sourceforge with the project. Thats another project
Published on
February 16, 2010 in
Java.
I’m not an Expert. But I have worked with web frameworks in the last two years. During those years i have tried to find easier ways to do basic user interfaces. It has always been recoding this and reusing that. What if the world of web development could start being effective?
And then Wicket comes into the picture. It doesnt make the case any better. Actually, wicket is the rant for this article.
Wicket uses abstraction and inheritance to develop interfaces. Mostly like we do with Swing. But does it really make the cut?
With developing web applications as a daily job, boilerplate is always an issue. And with wicket that boilerplate issue increases. Yes i can make reusable components, but that doesnt advocate its use as an out of the box framework. Its very difficult to make a dropdown menu per example whereas in web flow this is just a template.
To conclude: wicket cant stand up to Spring Web Flow when it comes to speed of development. I can make a flow app from Pojo in about one hour that actually works. With wicket i have to code, compile, package and test. In flow i can just edit a flow definition or two.
I Think Ill keep on using Spring for my development.
In the last two years ive tried to learn Spring. I wanted an easier approach to web development. It was too cumbersome to recreate the gui flow for each new project. So i decided to go into MVC. It was heaven compared to how i had it before. Simpler.
I couldnt really get the grasp on Web Flow at that point. It was only recently that i discovered how simple and easy this framework really is.
Web Flow is all about control. You will see all the nifty details and can make sure that the page you are managing has the required behaviour. And all defined in an XML file. And another thing; if i ever decide to use another framework my POJO service and domain classes wont be difficult to make use of.
Some advocate that Web Flow has poor binding support. That binding custom classes is not easy/possible. But I say that its a small matter compared to what I gain. Almost everything can be bound with strings and arrays.
I am creating a cms that is taking use of Web Flow, and its a breeze. No more extended controllers!
When I read the article on inter-sections.net I just felt like .. wow .. I could almost go back in time to the interview for my current job and recognize many of the questions they asked me. It was so fun to read, to see that I at least fitted three or more of the core points in the article for how to recognize a good programmer. But even more I am glad to see that it is possible to digg for it, because I have some beliefs that not all programmers are able to loosen their jacket and talk freely in an interview.
Continue reading ‘Programming is a lifestyle’
Published on
April 13, 2009 in
Java and PHP.
I was recently in the need of deleting a set of mysql tables with a shared prefix, and I searched the net to find something that could help me, so that I didnt have to write all the code myself. Yeah programmers are lazy, but its good actually to reuse instead of reinventing.
Continue reading ‘A useful program for dropping mysql tables’
Published on
February 21, 2009 in
Java.
In short, Java is a great language for programming large applications. But at some time, when you have manually reused or remade a database handler, e.g. for SQL queries, you might think that there should and must be a simpler way of persisting your application “objects”. In this article I will try to transfer my knowledge on how to use Hibernate for that cause. I have yet to see a better framework for persisting. This tutorial can be applied on any application, J2SE and J2EE.
Continue reading ‘Java persistence with Hibernate’
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