java.net Spotlights

java.net at JavaOne 2008
JavaOne 2008 begins next week, and as always, java.net will be a big part of the event, as captured by our JavaOne wiki page. On Saturday, May 3, we're holding a Community Leaders Weekend, an unconference in which community leaders can discuss the online community and help shape the future of the site. Then, of course, the Community Corner on the Pavilion floor will be your place to meet up with fellow community members, see demos, and check out 20-minute mini-talks from java.net project owners and community members. The mini-talks will be recorded as podcasts, sent out during and after the show; you can subscribe to the feed at the podcast's home page, or via the iTunes link. Finally, if you're presenting a technical session, hands-on session, or BoF based on your java.net project, please be sure to add it to the list of java.net sessions on the wiki.
[04/28/2008]

CEE Tutorial and Q&A: Tutorial For New Project Owners
Collabnet is hosting a tutorial and Q&A for new java.net project owners, Thursday, April 24 at 8:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (15:00 GMT). You can join the online meeting with WebEx, or just the teleconference by phone. Check out the info page for specific instructions, technical requirements, and assistance.
[04/21/2008]

CEE Tutorial and Q&A: Tutorial For New Project Owners (concluded)
Collabnet's tutorial and Q&A for new java.net project owners, held on April 24, is now available as an WebEx recording. To learn more about setting up and managing java.net projects (including branding of left nav, project membership, roles and permissions, setting up mailing lists, etc.), check out the stream or download the entire session.
[04/21/2008]

JavaOne 2008 Student Program
Are you a college student? Interested in Java? Want to get into JavaOne for free? The JavaOne 2008 Student Program, hosted by Sun's Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos, is a five-day program to attend the CommunityOne and JavaOne conferences in San Francisco, May 5 - 9, 2008. Participants will have full access to the conference, including general sessions, technical sessions, birds-of-a-feather sessions (BoFs), specially developed Java University classes, a coupon for a free Java Certification Class, access to the JavaOne pavilion (come see us at the java.net Community Corner), t-shirts, lunches, the AfterDark party with Smashmouth, and more. Space for this program is limited, so interested students should download the registration PDF right away.
[04/14/2008]

RoboSim Programming Contest
Entries are now being accepted for the RoboSim Programming Contest. The contest "is designed to test an entrant's coding skills in Java using the Greenfoot Framework/IDE to direct a simulation of a Sun SPOT equipped TrackBot through a simulated maze. The winners will receive free passes to the JavaOne 2008 Pavilion." To participate, read the rules (PDF or HTML), and follow the instructions in the trackbots-greenfoot-contest-2008 project. The deadline for entries is April 14th.
[04/07/2008]

NetBeans IDE 6.1 Beta Blogging Contest
With the next version of the NetBeans IDE just around the corner, the community is hosting a NetBeans IDE 6.1 Beta Blogging Contest. Blog about NetBeans IDE 6.1 Beta for 10 chances to win a $500 American Express Gift Certificate or 100 chances to win a cool NetBeans T-Shirt. To enter, post a blog describing your experience using the new NetBeans IDE 6.1, a tutorial, insight, tech tip, cool code sample, request for enhancements, etc. Your blog must be linked to a comment or trackback made to the NetBeans Blogging Contest site. Entries must be new material and not copied from something already written. Complete the submission form, or see the contest page for an e-mail link. The conest ends April 18.
[03/31/2008]

java.net Community Corner at JavaOne 2008
The java.net Community Corner at JavaOne 2008 will be your place to meet up with fellow project members and community leaders, and attend 20-minute mini-talks from fellow java.net members. Sign-ups for the mini-talks are still available, so post an abstract and you can show off your project in the booth (and to the audience of java.net podcast listeners). You can also introduce your project by means of a poster, or by scheduling a time to meet the community.
[03/17/2008]

Open JBI Components
The overall goal of Project Open JBI Components is to foster community-based development of JBI components that conform to the Java Business Integration specification (JSR 208). You can join this project as a JBI component developer or as part of an existing JBI component development team. Starting your own component project is relatively straightforward: you have the option to create your JBI component project as a regular Java.Net project. Joining an established development team might take a little longer and require additional approvals.
[03/10/2008]

Kijaro
The Kijaro project "provides an area for those interested in adding new language features to Java to try out their ideas." Starting from a copy of the OpenJDK javac compiler, the project has gone off on several interesting branches, including the First Class Methods implementation, properties, abstract enums, static implements/contracts, anonymous parameters, and list comprehensions. The project describes itself as "similar to KSL", but without the legal overhead.
[03/03/2008]

OpenCable Project
As announced in a recent press release, the non-profit industry consortium CableLabs has launched the OpenCable Project on java.net. The OpenCable Platform is a Java-based middleware software layer that "provides the opportunity for operators to deliver interactive services and applications to consumers bundled with their other service offerings. Content Programmers may also leverage the OpenCable Platform to enhance their own programming and advertising offerings and perhaps evolve new businesses around these new services."
[02/25/2008]

OpenJDK 6
The OpenJDK JDK 6 project, a backport of the evolving GPL+CPE codebase to the JDK 6 spec, has posted its first source release. Due to IP encumbrances, some classes are not available as source, and are instead provided as "binary plugs" for Windows, Solaris (32- and 64-bit) and Linux (i586 and AMD64). More details about the project are available in Joe Darcy's blog and his initial project proposal. Those interested in the OpenJDK project will also want to check out the OpenJDK Developers' Guide, an early attempt to document everything needed by would-be contributors, from checking out code to contributing patches.
[02/18/2008]

Duke's Choice Awards nominations open
"A global search is on -- to find the coolest Java technology innovations on the planet. Don't miss this opportunity to be recognized as one of the Java developer community elite at JavaOne, in San Francisco. The primary judging criteria for this prestigious award is innovation -- putting small developer shops on an equal footing with multi-national giants." The annual Duke's Choice Awards celebrate extreme innovation in the world of Java technology and are granted to the best and most innovative projects using the Java platform. Submissions are now open for this year's awards, and can be submitted through March 14. Winners will be notified by April 4, and announced at JavaOne 2008.
[02/04/2008]

ROME Modules Subproject
The ROME Modules Subproject combines a number of contributed ROME plugins into a single distribution for users who want to work with feeds from major RSS sources. Included modules allow you to work with such feeds at iTunes podcasts, A9 OpenSearch, Slash-based blogs, Yahoo! Weather and more. The subproject's wiki page serves as a guide to module-makers, as well as providing guidance to users of the modules.
[01/28/2008]

Ask the Experts: Developing and Deploying Java SE-Based Applications on Solaris
This week's Ask The Experts topic is "Developing and Deploying Java SE-Based Applications on Solaris". "Are you developing or deploying Java SE applications in the Solaris Operating System? Do you have a question about Java SE technology in Solaris? Post it during this session and get answers from three people at Sun Microsystems who have lots of experience with the intersection of Java SE and Solaris: Dave Dice, Alan Bateman, and Valerie Peng."
[01/21/2008]

Roller Support Project
The Roller Support Project "povides themes, plugins and other add-ons for the Apache Roller blog server. If you've got a theme or plugin you'd like to contribute then speak up on the Apache Roller mailing lists. The Java.Net Roller Support site hosts sample applications and related components based on the Apache Roller blog and planet servers."
[01/14/2008]

JADE Project
The JADE Project is the JScience Advance Development Experimentation effort, an experimental subproject of the larger JScience project. "We have a complete standalone set of files and releases but we expect one day to merge the whole into the very ahead of time JScience official architecture. Check the documents and files section to try our code. The library supports almost everything you should expect." Aside from source, available documents include articles about JScience and numerical computing, benchmarking information, and more. JADE was the top project by CVS commits on java.net for November.
[01/07/2008]

Mobile & Embedded Community survey
It has been one year since the open source Mobile & Embedded Community was launched and we have experienced tremendous growth and interest. With that in mind, Mobile & Embedded Community members are invited participate in a brief survey to tell us how we're doing and share ideas for the direction of the Community. We want to hear from you, so click on the link and take the Mobile & Embedded Community survey today.
[12/17/2007]

CommunityOne 2008 Call for Participation
The free CommunityOne conference will be held again on May 5, 2008 (the day before JavaOne), and its Call for Participation is now open. The initial topic list is:

1. Free and Open
2. Projects and Strategy
3. Operating Systems
4. Web Servers and Databases
5. Scripting Languages: Content Authoring and RIAs
6. Tools and Integrated Development Environments
7. Next Generation Web Applications
8. Web Scale Computing

New java.net Forums
To mark the release of NetBeans 6.0 we've launched a new NetBeans 6.0 forum to discuss experiences, issues and ideas with the popular IDE. The new forum is part of a re-freshening of our forums, which includes the archiving of older discussions, and the launch of new forums, including two new forums for OpenJFX, covering JavaFX Script Language Discussion and OpenJFX General Discussion.
[12/03/2007]

Mobile & Embedded Developer Days
This is the last week to get early-bird pricing for the Mobile & Embedded Developer Days conference. "This conference is devoted solely to the technologies of mobile and embedded Java platforms and will be a unique opportunity for application developers of intermediate and advanced skill levels, platform developers, and technical experts at tool vendors, OEMs and carriers to get introduced to the community, to join in and collaborate. Attendees will enjoy a broad range of technical sessions, lightning talks, poster sessions, panels, hands-on labs, and participatory sessions." Visit the conference's project page to check out the agenda, list of speakers, and planned sessions. The $175 early bird registration ends on November 30.
[11/25/2007]

OpenSSO
The Open Web SSO project (OpenSSO) provides core identity services to simplify the implementation of transparent single sign-on (SSO) as a security component in a network infrastructure. OpenSSO provides the foundation for integrating diverse web applications that might typically operate against a disparate set of identity repositories and are hosted on a variety of platforms such as web and application servers.
[11/19/2007]

JavaOne 2008 Call for Papers
The JavaOne 2008 Call for Papers is now open. This year's conference intends to broaden the scope of topics: "2008 will be the most significant evolution of the 13 years of the Conference. We have expanded our topics to include areas that appeal to development - not just in Java technology - but in areas of compatibility and interoperability as well. We are digging into next-generation scripting languages, Web 2.0, ecommerce collaboration, business management topics and more. We are also reaching out to include technologies that play well with Java, exploring the rich development platform available to all. Take this opportunity to share with the developer community how you use technology that relies on Java, leverages the Java programming language, and extends the Java platform." The CFP closes on Friday, November 16.
[11/05/2007]

openInstaller
The openInstaller project, part of the GlassFish Community, is an open-source, next-generation, cross-platform software installer framework. According to the about openInstall page, "initial development of openInstaller was done by Sun Microsystems, but is now available under the open source Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL)", and the project is "currently staffed with some of the most experienced engineers and installation experts that Sun has to offer, but we are in the early stages of this endeavor and are looking for community contribution on the project to make it hands down the best installer framework out there."
[10/29/2007]

Ask The Experts: NetBeans 6.0
This week's Ask The Experts session is on NetBeans, the free, open-source, Integrated Development Environment (IDE). NetBeans IDE 6.0, which is currently available as a beta download, contains a wealth of new features designed to make application development easier and faster. Got a question about NetBeans IDE 6.0? Post it during this session and get answers from key members of the NetBeans evangelism team: Judith Lilienfeld, Brian Leonard, and David Botterill.
[10/22/2007]

jVoiceBridge
The jVoiceBridge is software written in the Java Programming Language that handles Voice over IP (VoIP) audio communication and mixing for tasks such as conference calls, voice chat, speech detection, and audio for 3D virtual environments. The voice bridge supports a range of voice qualities from telephone to CD-quality. In addition, the voice bridge supports stereo audio and the ability for each individual connected to the Bridge to have their own private voice mix. The voice bridge enhances 3D virtual environments such as MPK20: Sun's Virtual Workplace by providing individually adjustable audio channels for each live avatar and each in-world recorded sound source.
[10/15/2007]

jMaki 1.0
The jMaki project for developing Ajax-enabled web applications has announced that version 1.0 is available for download. "jMaki is a lightweight client/server framework for creating JavaScript centric Web 2.0 applications using CSS layouts, widgets widget model, client services such as publish/subscribe events to tie widgets together, JavaScript action handlers, and a generic proxy to interact with external RESTful web services. While jMaki abstracts much of the JavaScript and CSS by providing defaults for widgets, the JavaScript widgets and CSS are made easily accessible so they may be customized by a designer or page developer. jMaki focuses on the aspects of delivering JavaScript to the client allowing the JavaScript to communicate to various server-technologies including PHP, Java (JSP/JSF), and Phobos in a server-technology neutral way."
[10/01/2007]

SailFin
The SailFin project is a communication application server that provides SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) functionality to GlassFish. As the project page points out, "SIP and SIP Servlets are behind many popular services we enjoy today, like Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone service, instant messaging, presence and buddy list management and web conferencing." The project currently implements JSR-116 functionality and is working towards JSR 289 compatibility. SailFin Milestone 1 came out in October, and Milestone 2 is expected in October.
[09/24/2007]

Ask The Experts: GlassFish v2
As part of the launch of GlassFish V2, the latest Ask the Expert session is about GlassFish v2, which "builds on the quality and feature richness of the initial GlassFish application server implementation, GlassFish V1, to provide higher value-add features for the enterprise. Got a question about GlassFish V2? Post it during the week of September 17 on the Ask the Experts page and get answers from GlassFish experts Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart, John Clingan, Sridatta Viswanath, Scott Oaks, and Dhiru Pandey."
[09/17/2007]

Timing Framework 1.0
The Timing Framework project for assisting in animation and timing-based Swing tasks, has released version 1.0. Chet Haase describes the framework in a recent blog, two earlier java.net articles (Timing Is Everything and Time Again), and his recent book Filthy Rich Clients. Chet writes "I figured it was important to declare a 'real' version 1.0, rather than simply incrementing the pre-1.0 version numbers. It's indicative of a lilbrary which, while not yet complete in all of the features that I and others would like to see, is at least solid, stable, and useable in its current state."
[09/10/2007]

Project Woodstock
Project Woodstock participants are developing the next generation of User Interface Components for the web, based on Java Server Faces and AJAX. The project's preview page shows off a number of Woodstock's available components, including complex widgets such as Bubble Help, Calendar, a File Chooser and Uploader, Progress Bar, and more. The latest build instituted a feature freeze, and the roadmap shows the route these components will take to inclusion in NetBeans 6.
[08/27/2007]

Ask the Experts: JSR-248 - Mobile Service Architecture (MSA)
This week's SDN Ask The Experts session is on JSR-248, the Mobile Server Architecture. This Java ME optional package defines the next generation of the Java ME platform and serves as a follow-on to Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI). The MSA specification aims to address fragmentation issues and create a predictable environment for application developers who build applications for mobile handsets. Got a question about MSA? Post it between now and Friday and get answers from Mikhail Gorshenev, E-ming Saung, and Hinkmond Wong.
[08/20/2007]

Iris
Prominently demo'ed on the JavaOne 2007 video wall, Iris is an online photo browsing, editing and slideshow application. More importantly, perhaps, it shows the power of modern Java applets and next generation web concepts. Among its significant features are interoperation with JavaScript on all major browsers, native desktop integration to support "drag and drop to the web", Java multithreading to hide network latency, advanced graphics handling, and dynamic extension of applets with technologies like OpenGL, OpenAL, and Java Media codecs.
[08/06/2007]

Casual - JavaFX Instant Messaging Client Demo
The OpenJFX project's Casual is a JavaFX demo of an InstantMessaging (IM) client. It is meant to demonstrate the flexibility of the JavaFX Script language and its framework APIs. Available via Web Start, Casual provides the ability to log in to Jabber or Google Talk accounts and supports some basic IM functionality, including smilies, image and link embedding, and custom dialogs for new chat notification. Future releases are to include support for more IM protocols, menus and preferences, and a full-fledged buddy window.
[07/30/2007]

Project Tango
Project Tango develops and evolves the codebase for Web Services Interoperability Technologies (WSIT) that enable interoperability between the Java platform and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) (aka Indigo). Project Tango's WSIT tecnology is bundled inside GlassFish v2. It is also possible to download a more recent version of WSIT and install into GlassFish or Tomcat. Project Tango uses JAX-WS and JAXB as a foundation upon which to build plugins to provide web services features such as bootstrapping communication, optimizing communication, reliable messaging, atomic transactions, security and trust.
[07/23/2007]

JSR-315: Java Servlet 3.0 Specification
JSR-315, the Java Servlet 3.0 specification, was recently accepted as a JSR by an 11-0 vote (with five abstentions). Nominations for membership in the expert group are now being accepted. The JSR's stated goals are to improve extensibility/pluggability, support ease-of-development through the use of new language features, and to better support next-generation web application development
[07/09/2007]

Modules
The OpenJDK community has posted information and the first early access source for JDK 7's Modules. "This page covers the implementation of the modularity specifications defined by JSR 277 and JSR 294 as well as the related work in the JDK. [...] The Modules project hosts the reference implementation of the new core functionality and serves as an umbrella for other related work items developed by other OpenJDK groups."
[07/02/2007]

Metro
The GlassFish web services stack has a new name: Metro. Combining the JAX-WS RI and WSIT projects, Metro is "a high-performance, extensible, easy-to-use web service stack. It is a one-stop shop for all your web service needs, from the simplest hello world web service to reliable, secured, and transacted web service that involves .NET services." More information and perspective is available in introductory blogs by Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Arun Gupta, and Harold Carr.
[06/25/2007]

Java Mobility Podcast
Launched in late April, the Java Mobility Podcast has already put out eight professionally-produced episodes featuring interviews and discussions on a number of topics of interest to the mobile developer community, including important JSRs and device fragmentation, vendor initiatives like Vodafone Betavine, OpenLazlo for ME devices, and more. Subscribe to the podcast via its feed, or find the podcast in the iTunes Store.
[06/11/2007]

Blu-Dahlia
The Blu-Dahlia project is a California-based user's group for developers of Blu-Ray Java applications, and applications for other GEM TV platforms, such as OCAP and MHP and GEM-IPTV. Like the nightclub in Raymond Chandler's 1946 movie, the Blu-Dahlia Java SIG is a place to exchange ideas and best practices among professionals. Blu-Dahlia intends to be an open group for the sharing of best practices in application development, including tools, techniques, frameworks, and shared code.
[06/04/2007]

Project Wonderland
Featured prominently at JavaOne 2007, Project Wonderland is a 3D scene manager for creating collaborative virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio and can share live applications such as web browsers, OpenOffice documents, and games. A number of Wonderland video demos and interviews are available in the project's News section.
[05/28/2007]

Shoal
The Shoal project, part of the GlassFish Community, is a java based clustering framework that provides infrastructure to build fault tolerance, reliability and availability. The framework can be plugged into any product needing clustering and related distributed systems capabilities without tightly binding to a specific communications infrastructure. For a quick introduction, you can go through the Shoal Overview Presentation (PDF). and for further details, read the Shoal Overview document for details on Shoal's functionalities.
[05/21/2007]

Project OpenJFX
Introduced in the JavaOne general session, Project OpenJFX is a project of the OpenJFX community for sharing early versions of the JavaFX Script language and for collaborating on its development. In the future, the JavaFX Script code will be open sourced. The governance, licensing, and community models will be worked out as the project evolves. JavaFX is a new family of Sun products based on Java technology and targeted at the high impact, rich content market. JavaFX Script is a highly productive scripting language that enables content developers to create rich media and content for deployment on Java environments.
[05/14/2007]

JavaOne 2007 Community Corner Podcasts

Once again, java.net's booth at JavaOne will be the place for several dozen 20-minute mini-talks, presented by members of the java.net community, about their projects, communities, and related activities. We'll be recording all the talks and sending them out as podcasts over the next few weeks. You can listen the podcasts by visiting the Community Corner podcast page, subscribing to the feed, or finding the podcast via the iTunes Store.
[05/07/2007]

Ask the Experts: WSIT and Project Tango
Got a question about Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) and Project Tango, two efforts focused on delivering interoperability between Java EE and .Net? The next Ask the Experts session spotlights these topics, allowing you to post your questions and get answers from Sun experts Arun Gupta, Harold Carr, and Marek Potociar. This session runs from April 30 through May 4.
[04/30/2007]

CommunityOne
Combine NetBeans Day with a GlassFish Day, add some OpenJDK and Mobile & Embedded, and you've got CommunityOne, a free and open event sponsored by Sun, taking place in San Francisco on Monday, May 7, on the eve of JavaOne. Along with formal session tracks, the event features a co-located unconference, a startup camp, a lunchtime session of the Java Posse podcast, and an opening general session by Tim O'Reilly.
[04/23/2007]

Java Mobile Application Video Contest Closes April 27
The Java Mobile Application Video Contest deadline of April 27th is fast approaching. This contest seeks example of great Java ME applications or services. To enter, create a video of up to three minutes that references Java ME or the open-source phoneME technology used, and post it to YouTube. Prizes include a Ericsson K800 phone, Panasonic Blu-Ray DVD Player, an Amazon.com gift certificate, and PlayStation 3 consoles. Check the official rules for more information and specifics of submitting your video.
[04/16/2007]

Beans Binding (JSR 295) Project
The Beans Binding project gives you an advance look at the work going into the early draft of JSR 295, which uses a modified version of the GlassFish JSP/JSF Expression Language (EL) to keep properties of two beans in sync, which can in turn be used to simplify rich GUI development. This project provides the reference implementation of Beans Binding, with an additional emphasis on the ability to bind to Swing components, and easy integration with IDEs such as NetBeans. "The intended audience for this snapshot is members of the community interested in binding, who want to see where we're headed and to provide early feedback. So that's exactly what we're looking for at this point; constructive feedback and bug reports are welcome."
[04/09/2007]

java.net Community Corner at JavaOne 2007
The java.net Community Corner at JavaOne 2007 will be your place to meet up with fellow project members and community leaders, and attend 20-minute mini-talks from fellow java.net members. Sign-ups for the mini-talks are still available, so post an abstract and you can show off your project in the booth (and to the audience of java.net podcast listeners). Finally, we'll have a running slide-show of java.net-related pictures, such as photos of project members and teams, screenshots, meetups, etc. If you'd like to add a photo from your project to the slideshow, just follow the directions.
[03/26/2007]

ROME
The ROME project "is an open source (Apache license) set of Atom/RSS Java utilities that make it easy to work in Java with most syndication formats: RSS 0.90, RSS 0.91 Netscape, RSS 0.91 Userland, RSS 0.92, RSS 0.93, RSS 0.94, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3, and Atom 1.0." ROME includes a set of parsers and generators for the various flavors of syndication feeds, as well as converters to convert from one format to another. Check out the Powered By ROME wiki page to get an idea of how many sites are using ROME for their feed needs.
[03/19/2007]

Java Mobile Application Video Contest
Know of a great mobile application or service that runs on Java ME? The Java Mobile Application Video Contest is your chance to tell the world about it, and maybe just pick up a sweet prize. To enter, create a video of up to three minutes that references Java ME or the open-source phoneME technology used, and post it to YouTube. Prizes include a Ericsson K800 phone, Panasonic Blu-Ray DVD Player, an Amazon.com gift certificate, and PlayStation 3 consoles. Check the official rules and post your video by April 27.
[03/05/2007]

Ask the Experts: JAX-WS 2.1
The latest SDN Ask the Experts session is on JAX-WS 2.1. JAX-WS 2.0, a follow-on to Java API for XML-based RPC 1.1(JAX-RPC), simplifies the task of developing web services using Java technology. JAX-WS 2.1 is a maintenance release that adds WS-Addressing capabilities to JAX-WS 2.0. Got a question about JAX-WS 2.1? Submit your questions from February 26 through March 2 on the Ask the Experts page and get answers from three JAX-WS experts at Sun: Vivek Pandey, Jitendra Kotamraju, and Kohsuke Kawaguchi.
[02/26/2007]

java.net at JavaOne 2007
java.net is getting ready for May's JavaOne 2007 conference. Check out our JavaOne wiki page, in which we'll be keeping track of technical session and BoF's presented by java.net members, along with other java.net activities during the week. And once again, we'll be in the Pavilion with the java.net Community Corner, which gives you an opportunity to present your project, JUG, community, or other java.net-related mini-talk, both before a live audience in the booth and via the java.net podcast feed.
[02/19/2007]

Ask the Experts: Java Plug-In Technology
The latest SDN Ask The Experts session looks at the Java Plug-In technology, which as you probably know is included as part of the JRE and which establishes a connection between popular browsers and the Java platform. From now through Friday, February 16, you can ask your questions about the Java Plug-In and have them answered by Java SE Deployment Team members Dennis Gu, Calvin Cheung, and Margarita Fisher.
[02/12/2007]

Swing Application Framework
The JSR-296 Swing Application Framework prototype implementation is a small set of Java classes that simplify building desktop applications. The prototype provides infrastructure that's common to most desktop applications: application lifecyle, support for managing and loading resources, support for defining/managing/binding Actions, and persistent session state. The JSR-296 expert group launched this effort in late summer 2006. A prototype implementation, spec, and some small examples are now available. Although the JSR has not reached the "Early Draft" JCP review stage, the expert group has agreed to make the prototype public to give interested members of the Swing community the opportunity to provide feedback. This version is just a snapshot of the ongoing design process, it's likely to change substantially in the coming months.
[02/05/2007]

JavaOne 2007 Registration
The registration page for the JavaOne 2007 conference is now available. Early Bird discounts apply to conference passes purchased before April 4. This year's conference, which runs May 8-11 in San Fancisco, features a "new, expanded program that embraces technologies outside the core Java Platform, while keeping Java technology as the focal point of the Conference."
[01/22/2007]

Ask The Experts: Open-Source Java
The latest SDN Ask the Experts session addresses the topic of Open-Source Java. From Tuesday, January 16 to Friday, January 19, you can submit your questions on the open-sourcing of Sun's Java implementations, and have those questions answered by Richard Sands, Kenneth Drachnik, and Vivek Mody, the Community Marketing Managers for the SE, EE, and ME platforms respectively. You may also want to visit the Free and Open-Source Java FAQ in advance, or ask the experts a follow-up question about a topic from the FAQ.
[01/15/2007]

SIP Communicator
The SIP Communicator project is an audio/video Internet phone and instant messenger, which recently put out a 1.0 alpha 1 release after more than a year of development. SIP Communicator supports some of the most popular instant messaging and telephony protocols such as SIP, Jabber, AIM/ICQ, MSN and soon others like Yahoo and IRC. More information on using the project is available in a FAQ list.
[01/08/2007]

Project Looking Glass
The 3D desktop Project Looking Glass is approaching its 1.0 release, with the recent announcement of LG3D 1.0 RC1, with a final release expected soon. But what is a "3D" desktop? According to its home page, "Project Looking Glass is based on Java technology and explores bringing a richer user experience to the desktop and applications via 3D windowing and visualization capabilities. It is an open source development project based on and evolved from Sun Microsystems' Advanced Development division. It supports running unmodified existing applications in a 3D space, as well as APIs for 3D window manager and application development."
[12/18/2006]

Semblance
The Semblance project provides reusable components for Java applications in the form of two framework subprojects and an example application subproject. Semblance emerged from earlier work done in the StrutsLive framework, as it came to include a number of powerful and generically useful facilities that could potentially add a great deal of value outside the web tier. The Semblance project made it possible to divide the original StrutsLive codebase into two frameworks. Struts-dependent code would remain in StrutsLive, and the rest would move to the new Foundation framework, no longer encumbered by ties to Struts, or to the web tier in general.
[12/04/2006]

Semblance 1.0B1 Includes StrutsLive Framework
The Semblance project has announced the release of Semblance 1.0B1, which incorporates the StrutsLive framework (formerly maintained as a separate project) a new Foundation framework, and a comprehensive example application. This is a major feature release that adds support for XHTML templating, dynamic query generation, and list management, including pagination, navigation, sorting, filtering, and selection management. Please see the release notes for further details.
[11/30/2006]

Mobile & Embedded Community
The Mobile & Embedded Community is a gathering place that enables and empowers developers to collaborate and innovate, driving the evolution and adoption of the Java(TM) Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) for mobile and embedded devices. Here you can be a part of a robust culture of developers and technology experts and find people with similar interests and goals. For more information, see our community vision.
[11/20/2006]

Facelets
Want JSF without JSP? Have a look at Facelets. "The web community is eagerly seeking a framework like Tapestry, backed by JavaServer Faces as the industry standard. While JavaServer Faces and JSP are meant to be aligned, Facelets steps outside of the JSP spec and provides a highly performant, JSF-centric view technology. Anyone who has created a JSP page will be able to do the same with Facelets. The difference is under the hood where all the burden of the JSP Vendor API is removed to more greatly enhance JSF performance and provide easy plug-and-go development."
[11/06/2006]

Facelets
Want JSF without JSP baggage? Have a look at Facelets. "The web community is eagerly seeking a framework like Tapestry, backed by JavaServer Faces as the industry standard. While JavaServer Faces and JSP are meant to be aligned, Facelets steps outside of the JSP spec and provides a highly performant, JSF-centric view technology. Anyone who has created a JSP page will be able to do the same with Facelets. The difference is under the hood where all the burden of the JSP Vendor API is removed to more greatly enhance JSF performance and provide easy plug-and-go development."
[11/06/2006]

Current CMS
The Current CMS project offers a content management system (CMS) that is the product of nine years of development, originally developed with flat files and perl, but later migrated to Java. Current CMS is a multi-user CMS with workflow, versioning and publishing capabilities. It includes a generator that prepares scaffolding including Java model and view classes, JSP, SQL create and alters... all based on simple XML configuration files. The project was also the subject of a recent java.net feature article.
[10/23/2006]

Ask the Experts: Swing
This week's Ask the Experts session centers around Swing, the popular toolkit for building GUI's for Java desktop applications. Post your questions and you'll get answers from key members of Sun's Swing, Java2D, and AWT teams, namely Scott Violet (Swing Architect), Shannon Hickey (Swing Technical Lead), Chris Campbell (Java 2D Engineer), and Oleg Sukhodolsky (AWT Technical Lead). This Ask the Experts session runs from Monday, October 16 through Friday, October 20.
[10/16/2006]

TrueLicense Library Collection
The TrueLicense Library Collection "aims at managing licensing aspects for closed source Java applications in a secure, reliable, flexible and yet easy way." The package allows you to create and verify licenses that are bound to a person, company, or any other entity, can be perpetual or granted for a specific time, and can provide a "free trial period" license functionality. Licenses use the digital signature methods of the Java Security API, and privacy of installed license content is maintained by using the password based encryption mechanisms provided by the Java Cryptography Extension. The project also offers two tutorials, the The TrueLicense Library Collection Tutorial and the Introduction to the TrueLicense Library Collection[PDF].
[10/09/2006]

Timing Framework
The Timing Framework project is a library to simplify Java animation and timing-based control. Introduced by the articles Timing is Everything and Time Again, it offers fundamental timing classes, interpolation facilities, and a set of trigger classes to facilitate starting and stopping animation based on events.
[10/02/2006]

Hudson
Need continuous integration? Check out Hudson. This project monitors executions of repeated jobs, such as software builds or automated tests. "Hudson provides an easy-to-use so-called continuous integration system, making it easier for developers to integrate changes to the project, and making it easier for users to obtain a fresh build. The automated, continoues build increases the productivity." Features include easy installation, change sets, permalinks to "latest build" and "latest successful build", RSS/e-mail integration, distributed builds, plugin support, and more
[09/25/2006]

GlueGen
Developing JNI code isn't the easiest task, but GlueGen makes it somwahat easier to manage. The project page describes GlueGen as "a tool which automatically generates the Java and JNI code necessary to call C libraries. It reads as input ANSI C header files and separate configuration files which provide control over many aspects of the glue code generation. GlueGen uses a complete ANSI C parser and an internal representation (IR) capable of representing all C types to represent the APIs for which it generates interfaces." GlueGen is used to generate several Java-to-C wrapper libraries, including JOGL and JOAL.
[09/11/2006]

Subversion Best Practices webinar
Subversion is one of your choices for version control when starting a java.net project, and now CollabNet, which powers the project hosting and collaboration facilities on java.net, has posed a one-hour webinar on Subversion Best Practices, hosted by CollabNet's Chris Clarke and Garrett Rooney. "In this one hour web seminar, you’ll get an insider’s view of how best to use Subversion’s most important functions, how to create new branches, what should be under version control, how to make atomic commits, and more."
[09/04/2006]

Cenqua
java.net partner Cenqua offers several helpful services in support of java.net projects. If your source is hosted on java.net, you can use the FishEye tool to get a web-based view of your code repository to analyze change sets, see diffs, search, and more. This feature works with both CVS- and Subversion-based repositories. Projects can also apply for a free license for Clover, a coprehensive code-coverage tool.
[08/21/2006]

Ask the Experts: JavaServer Faces
The latest week-long Ask the Experts online session focuses on JavaServer Faces, the poular technology for simplifying building user interfaces for server-side Java applications. If you have a question about JSF, stop by to get answers from Ed Burns and Roger Kitain, the co-leads of the JavaServer Faces 1.2 Specification (the version of JavaServer Faces technology in Java EE 5).
[08/14/2006]

Amateur
Started as a reaction to another compulsory paid upgrade to QuickTime Pro, Amateur is a free, open-source clone of Apple's QuickTime Player Pro written in Java, without the feature crippling and registration fees. The application uses QuickTime for Java and its most recent version, 1.0d6, implements most of the playback and editing features of Apple's player app. The current version is tested only on Mac, though a Windows version is thought to need just a few hours' work.
[08/07/2006]

Ajax4jsf
Want to write Ajax applications without having to touch JavaScript? The Ajax4jsf project leverages Java Server Faces and adds the Ajax functionality for you. "The framework is implemented using a component library that adds Ajax capability to your existing pages without needing to write any JavaScript code or needing to replace existing components with new Ajax widgets. Ajax4jsf enables page-wide Ajax support instead of the traditional component-wide support." You can use it to add Ajax to existing JSF applications, write components with Ajax support, and more.
[07/31/2006]

SwingX Web Services project
Used by the Aerith demo at JavaOne 2006, the SwingX Web Services project collects JavaBeans for interacting with web services. " Initial beans include support for several Yahoo and Google webservices such as searching news, video, images, and financial data, as well as a generic tile based mapping component." This way, you can develop your client apps that use web services with a JavaBean-aware graphical editor, such as NetBeans. The project is putting out a call for developers with knowledge of specific topic areas: "the SwingX-WS project is actively seeking new developers to enhance the existing beans and build new ones. We would especially like to see beans for accessing Google's search services, Flickr photos, Microsoft Live, MusicBrainz metadata, and enhancements to the JXMapViewer for connecting to NASA map servers. "
[07/24/2006]

jMaki
The jMaki project "is all about enabling Java developers to use JavaScript in their Java based applications as either a JSP tag library or a JSF component," by allowing mixing and matching JavaScript widgets from different Ajax frameworks. Out of the box, it provides bootstrap widgets for components from Dojo, Script.aculo.us, Yahoo UI Widgets, Spry, DHTML Goodies, and Google. A buzz page collects articles and blogs about jMaki, as well as guides and tutorials to using it.
[07/17/2006]

Sun Grid Cool Applications Contest
The Sun Grid Cool Apps Developer Challenge is offering a total of $50,000 in prizes to developers of the "coolest" apps for the Sun Grid Compute Utility. There are actually two contests: one for apps that use the Compute Server plugin for NetBeans (open to US and international participants), and another that actually runs on the grid (US participants only). The contest submission deadline is August 31, with a community vote scheduled for early September and announcement of the winners expected in mid-September.
[06/26/2006]

Project Open ESB
Highlighted in the JavaOne 2006 keynote, Project Open ESB "implements an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) runtime with sample service engines and binding components. Open ESB allows you to easily integrate enterprise applications and web services as loosely coupled composite applications. This allows you to seamlessly compose and recompose your composite applications, realizing the benefits of a true Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)."
[06/12/2006]

JGoodies Looks
The JGoodies Looks project, a subproject of the larger JGoodies effort, provides a pair of appealing look-and-feel packages for Swing. The JGoodies Windows L&F "focuses on a precise emulation on Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/2003/XP/Vista" in various widgets, honoring desktop font size and screen resolution as it affects sizes, insets, and widget dimensions. Meanwhile, the Plastic, Plastic3D, and PlasticXP L&F's are "elegant multi-platform Look&Feels that look good on all Windows platforms, including XP."
[06/05/2006]

Substance
The Substance project provides a "configurable and customizable production-quality Java look and feel library for Swing applications." Its latest release, version 2.3 provides support for right-to-left orientation, inverted themes and better support for dark themes, extensive watermark support, various tab improvements, a color picker, and more. A screenshot gallery helps visually convey Substance's many abilities.
[05/22/2006]

JavaOne 2006 java.net Community Corner Podcast

Bringing java.net to your speakers or headphones, the java.net Podcasts project is the home to podcasts created at java.net events. At JavaOne 2006, we'll be podcasting the mini-talks from the community corner as they happen, meaning you can subscribe to the podcast feed and get a frequently-updated series of 20-minute talks about java.net projects and other activities of interest to community members. In a "seed" episode posted in advance of JavaOne, java.net site manager Helen Chen talks about how the Community Corner works and what to expect.
[05/08/2006]

DWR 2.0
The Direct Web Remoting (DWR) project recently reached milestone 1 of version 2.0. DWR is popular for providing "easy AJAX for Java" -- making it simple to call server-side Java from client-side JavaScript by eliminating almost all boilerplate code. The new version will introduce the concept of "reverse AJAX", in which server-side Java can asynchronously call client-side JavaScript, making interactive applications much easier.
[04/24/2006]

JAXB 2.0 Project
The JAXB 2.0 Project hosts the reference implementation of the Java Architecture for XML Binding, as defined in JSR-31 (JAXB 1.0) and JSR-222 (JAXB 2.0). The project, part of Project GlassFish, is committed to provide a production-quality implementation of the spec. The JAXB codebase is written entirely in Java and runs on many different platforms.
[04/17/2006]

Ask The Experts: Java Web Start
The latest SDN Ask The Experts session focuses on Java Web Start, which allows for one-click deployment of Java software over the network, with clients receiving automatic updates of your code after the initial download. All week -- Monday, April 10 to Friday, April 14 -- Java Deployment in J2SE team members Andy Herrick, Thomas Ng, and Cheng Dan will be available to answer your questions about this popular solution for Java distribution and deployment.
[04/10/2006]

java.net Community Corner 2006
The java.net Community Corner 2006 wiki page is the home for planning java.net's presence at JavaOne 2006. We'll be offering a space for communities and projects to get together and learn about each other's activity. The community corner will once again be host to 20-minute mini-talks, and this year we will also distributing papers and abstracts from the mini-talks at the booth. You can use the wiki to propose a mini-talk, volunteer to work at the booth, and (soon) upload pictures for our java.net slideshow.
[04/03/2006]

OFBiz joins Apache Incubator
The Java Tools Community project Open For Business (OFBiz) has been accepted as an Apache Incubator project. OFBiz provides the building blocks of e-commerce applications, including catalog, customer, order, warehouse and fulfillment management functaionality. A strong community has formed around the OFBiz project, as described in a java.net success story article from 2004.
[03/20/2006]

Duke's Choice nominations
This is the last week to nominate innovative Java technologies for the Duke's Choice Awards. Nominees need to enter by filling out a submission form before Wednesay, March 15. New this year is an open selection for the favorite java.com application -- five finalists have been selected and you can vote now in this category, with balloting open until March 31.
[03/13/2006]

Java Champions
The Java Champions project recognizes leaders in the Java developer community, in "an effort to bolster and encourage this community of leaders". The champions are an informal but carefully-selected group of professional Java developers, JUG leaders, educators and authors with a common goal of advancing the Java platform. The project includes material related to the nomination and selection of champions, as well as links to online articles by or about champions.
[03/06/2006]

Ask the Experts: Java Plug-In
This week's Ask the Experts page features members of the Java Deployment Team answering questions about Java Plug-In Technology. If you're working on getting your code to run in a browser, Sun staffers Dennis Gu, Danielle Pham, and Mike Lei will be taking your questions all week.
[02/27/2006]

Dalma
The Dalma Workflow Engine offers a means of doing "continuations" - meaning to capture and suspend the state of a thread, continuing it potentially much later and potentially in another JVM entirely. "While functional programming languages typically have a built-in support for continuation, procedural programming languages like Java usually doesn't. Because of this, the use of continuation has been largely limited to computer scientists... While continuation itself will likely to remain as one of the most difficult programming concepts to understand, there are many applications of it that are useful for general developer audience." One such use is illustrated in Kohsuke Kawaguchi's blog Dalma to automate java.net project approval process.
[02/20/2006]

Mustang Regressions Challenge
Sun is seeking regression reports in the Mustang Regressions Challenge. Every verified regression submitted before March 31 wins a t-shirt, and the best five (as judged by Sun engineering and QA) win a new Ultra 20 workstation. There's more information in the FAQ, a forum for discussing the challenge, and a blog about its goals in Announcing the Mustang regressions challenge.
[02/06/2006]

Where We Are with the JDK
Recapping the status of JDK development, Ray Gans' blog entry Where We Are with the JDK also spells out the JDK team's plans going forward. Mustang (Java SE 6) is expected to go beta in February, with another beta in Summer, with a final release this Autumn. Meanwhile, the Dolphin (Java SE 7) project is expected to open this Spring, releasing its snapshots in parallel with Mustang. While the window is closing to Mustang fixes, it's now time to start thinking about features and start discussing them on the Java SE Forum.
[01/30/2006]

2006 Duke's Choice Awards - Now Accepting Nominations
The search is underway for the best and most innovative uses of Java technology -- nominations for the 2006 Duke's Choice Awards are now being accepted, with a submission deadline of March 15. The "Dukies" celebrate innovation in Java development, putting small developers on an equal footing with big companies. Winners are recognized at the JavaOne keynote and receive a statuette of "Duke", the Java technology mascot. Last year's winners included java.net's JDDAC project.
[01/23/2006]

JXTA J2SE Reference Implementation Use Cases
JXTA Community member Vanessa Williams writes: "while surfing around looking for research papers on JXTA, I came across a paper by Nicolas Theodoloz which contained in an appendix a reverse-engineered set of use cases for the J2SE reference implementation. With his permission, I have duplicated these in Wiki format and added them to the JXTA Wiki." This JXTA J2SE Reference Implementation Use Cases wiki page iterates through the steps required for working with discovery services (including publishing and getting advertisements, providing error notifications and becoming a peer), resolver services, pipe services, rendez-vous services, and more. "Although they are based on version 2.1.1, and are not entirely complete, I have already found them invaluable. It's my hope that the community will help in updating and extending them so that we can all share a good reference to what's really going on inside the code."
[01/16/2006]

JavaOne 2006: java.net Community Corner
The java.net Community Corner 2006 wiki page is the home for planning java.net's presence at JavaOne 2006. We'll be offering a space for communities and projects to get together and learn about each other's activity. The community corner will once again be host to 20-minute mini-talks, and this year we will also distributing papers and abstracts from the mini-talks at the booth. You can use the wiki to propose a mini-talk, volunteer to work at the booth, and (soon) upload pictures for our java.net slideshow.
[01/09/2006]

FeedPod
Don't have time to offer a podcast version of your blog? Not to worry. The FeedPod project offers "a Text-To-Speech RSS/ATOM Newsfeed reader." This means that "You can use FeedPod as a personal feed reader. [Or] you can integrate FeedPod into you Portal site and offer audio subscriptions and 'Listen Now' links. You can use FeedPod on your site to offer a PodCast of your blog." FeedPod is packaged as a pair of two WAR files that you deploy to your servlet container, and has been tested on Win32, Fedora Core 3, and Solaris 10.
[01/02/2006]

Ricoh Java Programming Contest 2006
The ricoh.dev.java.net project is the home of the Ricoh Java Programming Contest 2006. Students from universities in six European countries are encouraged to develop innovative Java-based applications for Richo's Aficio multi-functional products. Information on entering the contest is compiled on the ricoh project's front page, and requires being a java.net member, joining the CoolThreads project and the support forum, and then submit a project request. Registration is open through February 15, 2006.
[12/12/2005]

SwingLabs
The SwingLabs project describes itself as "a Sun Microsystems supported project that allows experimentation with extensions to existing Swing components, new Swing components, and other desktop related technologies such as Java2D, AWT, etc. It acts as a testbed for ideas related to client side techologies. Successful experiments will be considered for inclusion into future vesions of the JDK." As well as being the parent to the prominent JDesktop Integration Components (JDIC) and JDesktop Network Components (JDNC) projects, SwingLabs has a number of smaller, focused projects, like the latest version of the SwingWorker for thread-safe long-running Swing tasks.
[12/05/2005]

JDK Community Starter Bug List
Want to contribute to the JDK but don't quite know where to begin? The JDK Community Starter Bug List collects bugs identified by JDK engineers as well-suited for outside contributors to fix. These bugs were chosen for being useful, easy to fix, low impact, and not already on Sun's to-do list for Mustang. A getting started page suggests how you can claim a bug, collaborate with others, and contribute a fix.
[11/28/2005]

JavaOne 2006 Call for Papers
There's just a week and a half to go for the JavaOne 2006 Call for Papers, which closes on November 30. The CFP page offers guidance in what attendees want -- specifically "talks that deepen their practical knowledge" -- speaker selection criteria, and policies that proposals need to adhere to. Potential JavaOne attendees can voice their opinion on what kinds of sessions they'd like to see on the java.net Planning JavaOne 2006 Forum.
[11/21/2005]