2008 is going to be an important year for Rich Internet Applications. Most organizations are delivering or planning to deliver Rich Internet Applications; however, at the same time, most IT managers are facing a dilemma: which Rich Internet Application technology and platform to use? The number of different frameworks and libraries is too vast to even consider evaluating a fraction of them.

Commence CRM On-Demand is a web-based CRM solution that enables businesses to manage customer relationships in an organized and efficient manner. Commence recently announced the launch of its CRM platform for the Manufacturing Sector. An intuitive set of ready to use applications automates the customer facing aspects of a business that directly impacts sales execution and customer service.

This article introduces a new form of analysis for Java EE applications: a runtime abstract application model derived automatically from an application server using stored knowledge of Java EE construction. The model is used dynamically to do extensive automatic checks for a range of construction errors that could produce poor performance or unreliability. The model also lets server behavior be dynamically visualized in real-time or retrospectively.

Rackspace Managed Hosting and JBoss, have announced a partnership agreement to create Intensive Hosting for Linux-JBoss Edition, the first and only managed Linux hosting solution specifically designed for complex Java Enterprise Edition (EE) applications running on JBoss Application Server.

J2EE applications of late have become weight conscious. The combined burden of EJBs and coarse-grained component design has given the term test driven design a new meaning: technology driven design! Fortunately a host of lightweight solutions are emerging, such as PicoContainer, Spring Framework, Hivemind, Hibernate, Castor, and Webwork. In this article I'll discuss my experience with the Spring Framework and how it can be used to make a J2EE application more maintainable, testable, and better performing.

JavaPolis has posted a presentation how Java EE technology was extensively used to build a mission-critical health care application for Brazil. Speaker Fabiane's session shared the experience of building such a system, showing how it was designed, the challenges, the problems, what changed in the health system once it was deployed, and showed the importance of the decision on using a standard based and multi-platform architecture, that allows several independent teams to augment the information system,adding value to it and improving the quality of care.

Apache Geronimo, already a fully certified J2EE platform and therefore competitive with other J2EE application servers, received an additional boost today as Covalent Technologies announced it will offer full commercial support for Apache Geronimo 1.0.

Diamelle Technologies which provides a comprehensive identity and access management enterprise solution, has announced the release of a low cost Authentication server with two factor authentication, aimed at the SMB market and high volume online applications. Two factor authentication, using one time passwords (OTP), requires the user to enter something they know, which is usually a PIN, and something they have; a physical device such as a token, smart cards with micro-processors, or biometrics such as finger print scanners.

There has been talk recently that Sun is planning to end the use of the J2 platform name and branding scheme. The proposal is that the terms Java Enterprise Edition and Java Standard Edition will replace J2EE and J2SE. If you had the opportunity to read the March edition of JDJ, you will have discovered that the history of the J2 name, although not perfect, was a compromise by recognizing the platform had taken a significant step forward and resisting the temptation for calling the new release Java 2000.

Throughout this article I'll describe how an effective service-oriented architecture (SOA) can be achieved using J2EE technologies. In particular, I'll focus on which J2EE component types and communication channels to choose according to specific, real-world situations.

By now you've probably either heard about or read the analyst report from the Burton Group entitled 'J2EE in Jeopardy.' In summary, the claim is J2EE as a standard is in danger due to several market forces.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with many Java users about the current release and their general experiences with the platform. One of those developers told me that he didn't use J2SE but his J2EE VM sometimes caused problems.

You know how to write good Java code and deployment to a server is no mystery either. But have you ever had to work in large development teams, maybe geographically dispersed (off-shoring...)? Ever had to address the pain of application software updates?

The first upgrade in almost two years, Sun Microsystems has released its latest version of the company's application server. This offering from Sun is something developers have been longing for, Java-centric developers in particular.

VERITAS and Sun Microsystems have broadened their long-standing alliance by announcing that VERITAS i3 application performance management (APM) software now supports the Sun Java Enterprise System.

Linux is taking the world of Java application servers by storm. Recently, Sun Microsystems hosted an event to tout the adoption of the latest version of the enterprise Java platform, known as Java 2 platform, Enterprise Edition, or simply J2EE 1.4. At this event, many of the application server vendors were present.

What are the most important best practices for J2EE, when you include Web services development as a part of J2EE? Three IBM staffers recently had a shot at coming up with a Top Twelve.

The Quest Application Performance Management (APM) Suite for the J2EE platform has completed the BEA Validation Program and is now verified to integrate with BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1.

Joseph Ottinger speaks to Sun to find out more about Java Studio Creator and its place in the development pantheon, and comes to the conclusion that Sun's done a better job than many developers expected.

It has been well proven over the past few years that the best form of information exchange (in a typical B2B and B2C environment) is through XML. There are various XML-based standards (schema) for both the horizontal and vertical market sectors and there are ongoing efforts to move toward a standardized format in the various industry sectors.

Sooner or later all architects and developers of large-scale J2EE products face the same problem: their software's response time gets slower and slower, and the scalability of their solution is ending. This article investigates caching solutions that promise to help; sheds some light on their limitations; and describes an easy, lightweight, and effective caching mechanism that solves most of the issues.

The need for a chemical/biological early warning system within mass transportation sites is real and was being researched before the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, this research has become an operational necessity. Led by Argonne National Laboratory, along with teams from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), researchers created an early warning system for subways within a major metropolitan area.

The vast majority of Java enterprise applications are architected along the lines of Sun's original PetStore showcase application. Rather than seeing this as a market stall displaying all the J2EE goods on offer, developers took it as a blueprint for enterprise applications.

There's a J2EE tie-in. I promise. A fellow user mentioned something the other day about using libraries in Java. He said, and I paraphrase, that he simply didn't feel comfortable using a library if it couldn't be explained in one page.

It's that time of year, when the air is crisp and cool, and lights fill the air with the glint of good cheer and renewal. It's when wishes are fulfilled; when revitalization is just around the corner. Here Joe Ottinger takes some time to share some of the things he'd like to see for the next year, and about the people for whom he'd like to see them.

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a promising new paradigm that came out of Xerox PARC a few years ago and is just now becoming mature and mainstream. A natural complement to object-oriented programming, it has the promise of easing the management of complex systems and making their organization much more intuitive, extendable, and flexible.

Service-oriented architectures (SOA) provide numerous benefits: reuse of business logic by many clients, location transparency of business logic, simplified unit testing, better scalability through distributed and load-balanced processing, and the composition of new services from existing services.

On the occasion of JSR-151 receiving unanimous approval last week by the executive committee of the JCP, Bill Shannon and Mark Hapner, Co-Specification Leads, JSR-151, have written an Open Letter to Java developers everywhere. JDJ News Desk brings you the full text.

Dublin-based Iona Technologies is becoming a certified JBoss Authorized Service Partner and will henceforth offer JBoss support either bundled with its Orbix and Artix families of integration products or on a stand-alone basis for JBoss-only customers.

We tend to see the United States through a lens made up of its major population centers: New York; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Miami; Atlanta; Chicago; and a few others. That's because these are the places that have things 'going on,' and as a result we get a skewed picture not only of what the United States is about, but of what the United States actually is.

The promise of J2EE was to build more robust, scalable, and secure enterprise systems. J2EE promised that we could do it quickly and easily since J2EE is supposed to take the complexity out of building powerful distributed systems.

How J2EE Connector Architecture and JTA specifications can be implemented to build such an adapter, XAFileConnector.

Welcome to the November edition of the JCP column! Each month you can read about the Java Community Process: newly submitted JSRs, new draft specs, Java APIs that were finalized, and other news from the JCP.

As the capabilities of our distributed applications increased, so did our consumption of bandwidth. In 1998, our server sent objects no larger than 50K to a group of users on a local network.

When Sun was designing Java, it omitted multiple inheritance - or more precisely multiple implementation inheritance - on purpose. Yet multiple inheritance can be useful, particularly when the potential ancestors of a class have orthogonal concerns.

This month I'll discuss the evolution of the JCP, J2SE 1.5 or 'Tiger', Java portlets, and a new JSR from Nokia and Siemens.

The approval of the JSRs within the JCP is a duty performed by the two Executive Committees. These are appointed bodies representing the members of the community. The ME EC oversees JSRs related to the consumer and embedded space while the SE/EE EC oversees JSRs for the desktop and server space.

User authentication and access control are important security measures for most Java applications, especially J2EE applications. The Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS), the core API of J2SE 1.4 and 1.5, represents the new security standard. It provides a pluggable and flexible framework that allows developers to incorporate different security mechanisms and various security sources.

The Java platform was designed to be robust, secure, and extensible in order to support the mobility of code and data. The Java ClassLoader in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is a key component in the realization of these goals.

When choosing among the different types of authentication mechanisms offered by J2EE Web containers, form-based authentication is almost always selected ahead of its alternatives: HTTP basic authentication and HTTPS client authentication.