Blogging Roller

• David Van Couvering: Zimbra uses Derby for offline storage!
  "inspired by the demonstration Francois did of offline Derby at ApacheCon"
• David Van Couvering: Why Use Java DB For Web Client Storage?
  Why use Derby vs. Firefox WHATWG or dojo.storage
• How to deploy a JRuby on Rails app to Glassfish
  Small code-change, couple config tweaks and bam... ROR on JEE
• Pete Lacey: The S stands for Simple
  "Dev: (Reads WSDL spec). I trust that the guys who wrote this have been shot"
• Sam Ruby: The H stands for Hyper
  "Everybody seems to be linking to Pete Lacey‚ The S stands for Simple"
• Clarification: Java ME and GPL and no linking exception
  "Sun chose GPLv2 without classpath exception for Java ME because..."
• Phobos Meets Atom, REST
  Atom protocol impl. in Phobos via server-side JavaScript REST library
• Overview of Project Phobos
  "a lightweight, scripting-friendly, web application environment running on the Java platform"
• Phobos Tutorial
  "short tutorial uses a simple calculator example"

The ROME mailing list has been a little quiet lately. I'm hoping to change that. Roller's built-in planet aggregator uses ROME, Roller's Atom protocol implementation does too and I recommended ROME in my book, so I'd really like to see ROME continue to improve and grow. Now that I'm focusing on a standalone version of Roller-Planet, I've got some time to devote to those goals. Last week I cleared the bug list, this week I committed some improvements to ROME's summary/content handling and next I'd like to start pushing for a ROME 1.0 release. If you'd like to see ROME thrive, please join the fun.

In my off-hours, I've started work on Blogapps 2. Blogapps is a collection of RSS/Atom utilities and applications based on the code from RSS and Atom in Action. You can read more about the project in my recent Blogapps article on on Java.net. Up until now, I've been working alone, but now the project now has a couple of committers. Ramesh Mandava (of the Java WSDP team) joined to help with the Blogapps 2 effort.

We're starting with some renaming. Instead of using chapters-oriented directories and package names, we're more logical and intuitive application names. We're also switching from package name com.manning.blogapps to org.blogapps. Later, I hope to update some dependencies (e.g. Apache XML-RPC 3.0), consolidate/streamline some of the utilities and explore alternatives to Tomcat/HSQLDB for the Blogapps server.

By now, everybody's heard the good news that Java[1] is being released under the General Public License (GPL v2), the same free software license used by Linux. A dual-license arrangement will allow Sun to continue to offer commercial licenses. Sun's Java EE implementation and developer tools, which had already been released as open source under Sun's MPL-based CDDL license are being relicensed under a triple license of GPL, CDDL and commercial licenses.

The usual "how's this good for Joe Java developer?" and "how's Sun gonna survive?" questions are coming up on the forums and blogs. The Open Source Java FAQ answers those questions very well, but here's my take. A truly free/open source Java is good for Java developers and what's good for Java developers is good for Sun. GPL is a good choice because it's truly and undeniably free/open source and the viral nature of GPL drives innovation back to the center, which prevents closed source forks of Sun's Java implementations.

So, how's this good for Java developers? Finally, Linux distros can bundle what is arguably most popular/well known, high-quality, high-performance, multi-platform and well-supported Virtual Machine there is. And that's not just good for Java developers, JRuby is starting to look pretty good too. That will result in more developers choosing the Java VM, more ISP/hosting providers supporting Java and more users using Java. That's good for Java  developers.  And and it's good for Sun -- if Sun, the ultimate experts in Java, can't make mo'money from mo'Java then I just don't know what to say.

Why is GPL a good choice? GPL and dual-licensing gives Sun the best of both worlds. GPL means Java is truly free/open source, which satisfies the free/open source community and the growing number of governments and orgs that are mandating open source. The viral nature of GPL guarantees that innovation is driven back to the center, i.e. you can modify the Java VM and redistribute it, but you must release your mods free for all under the GPL (and trademark law says you can't call it Java). And the other world I referred to? Licensees who don't want GPL can keep on licensing under commercial-friendly terms and most probably will.

So it's all good and big congratulations to all the folks who worked to make open source Java possible! 

[1] By which I mean Java(TM) technology and include Java SE, ME, EE, etc.

I ran the Old Reliable Run today and thanks to the cool weather, overcast skies and better training I did a little better than last year. Last year I had to stop to walk a couple of times and I ran the 10K in 55:36 minutes. This year I didn't stop, felt strong and I think my time was closer to 54 minutes.

Update: Here are the (soon to be) official times:

Place Bib  Name                    Chiptim Guntime Pace
===== ==== ======================= ======= ======= =====
489   1443 DAVID JOHNSON           54:31   55:18   8:54

The Server Side posted an excerpt from RSS and Atom in Action last week. Chapter 2: Development kick-start explains how to setup the Blogapps Server and how to post to just about any blog server via MetaWeblog API from Java and C#. And if you're interested in that, then you'll also be interested in The Blogapps Project, which was published on Java.net last month.

On the O'Reilly site, Mark Woodman's How to Build an RSS 2.0 Feed is now available as an O'Reilly Short Cut, a 56-page PDF for $7.99. Marks says that he covered RSS 2.0 from the perspective of the RSS Advisory Board Profile (aka RSS 2.0.8), which seems like a good idea. And he covered ROME too.

Mike Swaine in Dr. Dobb's Journal: But employee blogs are turning out to be a good place to go to track what's really going on. When Sun partnered with the University of Kent on the NetBeans IDE/BlueJ Edition, Ian Utting of U Kent vlogged in Sun's blog space about this beginner's Java tool. Incensed by rumors that Java doesn't work on Windows Vista, Sun's Chet Haase blogged to the contrary. And, responding to a high-news-value development, CEO Jonathan Schwartz links to YouTube video of Jonathan and Sun's Chief Technologist Greg Papadopoulos on Oracle's decision to fork Linux. (Hey, that's Jonathan's choice of words, not mine.)

And maintaining a place for ex-employees to blog is either brilliant or loony. My guess is, brilliant.

The second installment of James Snell's developerWorks article on Atom Publishing Protocol (APP) is online. In part 2 he shows how to post to an Atom server and one of his examples is Roller. If you want to try Snell's example code with Roller, but you don't want to go through the trouble of installing full-on Roller/Tomcat/MySQL, try the super easy-to-install Blogapps Server bundle.

Here are links to parts 1 and 2 of Snell's article:

• Getting to know the Atom Publishing Protocol, Part 1
  Create and edit Web resources with the Atom Publishing Protocol
• Getting to know the Atom Publishing Protocol, Part 2
  Put the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP) to work

And now, both parts of RSS and Atom in Action Chapter 4: Newsfeed Formats are online at WebReference.com. The chapter includes a history of RSS and Atom newsfeed formats and diagrams that illustrate the elements each format.

• Newsfeed Formats, Part 1
  From the Birth of RSS to the Nine incompatible versions of RSS
• Newsfeed Formats, Part 2
  the new standard: Atom

Roller 3.0 is a major new release that focuses on infrastructural improvements necessary to better support a large community of bloggers. These improvements includes a completely new URL structure, a new template system, better support for multi-language weblogs and an easy-to-manage front-page weblog. (read more)

To design a website you need to know about HTTP, XHTML, and URIs.

To design a web application you need to know about HTTP, XHTML, and URIs.

To design a web service you need to know about XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, WS-Policy, WS-Security, WS-Eventing, WS-Reliability, WS-Coordination, WS-Transaction, WS-Notification, WS-BaseNotification, WS-Topics, WS-Transfer...

What happened there?

It's fairly easy to navigate to your old blog entries on a Roller system, but we don't provide an archive page like some blog servers do. Today on JRoller.com, Alex Ruiz explains how to add a nicely styled archives page to your blog using Roller's "big calendar" macro.

We've got a new meeting place, Helios Coffee in the Glenwood South area of Raleigh. Please join us to talk blogging, podcasting, politics, tech or whatever else is on your mind.

Time: Tuesday Nov. 7, 2006 - 6:30PM
Place: Helios Coffee, 413 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC (map)

We deployed the Roller 3.1 codebase to blogs.sun.com yesterday so Sun bloggers have got Web 2.0 taggy goodness now. The rest of the Roller-using world will have to wait for Roller 3.1 to make its way through the Apache Incubator release process. Want to know more about 3.1, here's the Roller 3.1 What's New page.

But be warned. If you stand outside the Apache software factory waiting for Roller 3.1 to emerge onto the loading dock, you'll be somewhat disappointed. The next release due out is Roller 3.0 (here's the Roller 3.0 What's New page) -- we just got the votes to make the release so you can expect it in the next couple of days.

Anton Zuiker wrote to tell me about the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference coming up January 20th, 2007. I just registered and I'm looking forward to learning more about how scientists are using blogs and RSS/Atom blog tech in their work.

Over the weekend, we drove about three hours west towards the mountains to Statesville, NC for the annual Carolina balloon-fest. We saw a tank, an assortment of military helicopters and we even saw some balloons attempt to inflate. Unfortunately, it was way too windy for ballooning. So it was a bit frustrating, but the kids love any chance to take a road trip so it wasn't a total loss. You can see some of my photos on Flickr.