Thursday, July 14, 2011

WebLogic/Java Developer Webcast Series

 
We ran a Webcast series earlier this year for Java Developers using WebLogic that showcases the Java EE6 APIs that are supported in the most recent version of WebLogic.  We have posted the webcasts to be viewed offline and they can be found here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/weblogic/learnmore/weblogic-javaee6-webcasts-358613.html.  This webcast series was very popular with developers in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and we are tweaking it a bit before running the series in North America.  Stay tuned for updates!

At the same time we were running this series we were building out the Oracle Parcel Service example application that uses these API’s.  The example code can be found here: https://www.samplecode.oracle.com/sf/projects/oracle-parcel-svc/.  If you are interested in the project please let me know.  Thanks!

Please find a summary of the sessions below.

 

Developing a Data Access Layer with JPA

The Java Persistence API is the standard persistence API for Java.  JPA and draws upon the best ideas from persistence technologies such as Hibernate, TopLink, & JDO and simplifies the development of Java EE and Java SE applications using data persistence.  Learn how to use JPA to develop enterprise-class JEE applications utilizing WebLogic’s Industry leading Transaction Manager!

 

Distributed Grid Data Cache – Design for Scale-out, Build for the Cloud

Distributed Data Caches are critical in developing horizontally scalable applications.  By utilizing this technology in the right way you are able to achieve high availability, performance and scalability.  Learn how to utilize this technology to build enterprise-class applications for WebLogic!

 

Web & JMS Services with Spring on WebLogic

Spring is a popular framework for building Web Services & other messaging services and WebLogic has the best messaging performance and transaction management in the industry.  Learn how to build Spring applications utilizing advanced WebLogic features and experience the best platform for Spring!

 

Web Apps with JAX-RS and JQuery

REST is a simple, lightweight yet full-featured alternative to RPC and SOAP.  With JAX-RS you can quickly build REST clients and create rich, dynamic web apps with frameworks like JQuery.  Learn how to use these exciting technologies to create a scalable shared services architecture running on WebLogic!

 

WebLogic Troubleshooting & Performance Tuning

Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting methodologies share many similar tenants.  Behind every bottleneck is yet another bottleneck and every piece software has defects.  Learn how to use Oracle’s JRockit Flight Recorder and WebLogic Diagnostic Framework to quickly identify and resolve issues in your application and WebLogic Grid!

Slides from WebLogic Developer Webcasts on SlideShare

James Bayer and I have uploaded slides from the WebLogic Developer Webcast series to SlideShare.  Please find the links below:

You can find the video recording of the webcast here:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/weblogic/learnmore/weblogic-javaee6-webcasts-358613.html

DICE.com has 30% More Job Listings for WebLogic than JBoss

I was curious today about Job Listings for WebLogic so I did some investigation.  What I found was that, on average, job sites have around 30% more job listings that contain ‘WebLogic’ than ‘JBoss’.  There are literally thousands of job listings for ‘WebLogic’, ‘WebLogic Developer’ and ‘WebLogic Architect’. 

Which skill would you rather have?

Here are some direct links to Dice and Monster:

Dice:

'WebLogic': 2,161 jobs, 1,201 full time

‘WebLogic Architect’: 412 jobs, 258 full time

‘WebLogic Developer’: 1,125 jobs, 584 full time

Monster:

'WebLogic': Over 1,000 jobs, 998 full time

'WebLogic Architect': 176 jobs:

'WebLogic Developer': 428 jobs, 403 full time

Detailed Data

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RESTful Web Services in WebLogic

WebLogic 11gR1 PS3 (10.3.4) now supports RESTful Services with Java (JAX-RS).  This support is provided through Jersey, which is the reference implementation for JAX-RS.  I didn’t care much about RESTful services until they were supported directly in WebLogic and included in the EE6 specification.  I came from a SOA/SOAP background and REST had too much of a ‘hype’ factor, plus SOAP was giving me everything that I needed at the time, so why change?  Nonetheless, I have started learning about JAX-RS & REST and its quite interesting!  Not only is the programming model fun to play with, the architectural questions that arise on when/how to use it are also enlightening. 

To throw my opinion into the ring, I firmly stand behind the principle that REST should be used for exposing RESOURCES while SOAP should be used for exposing BUSINESS LOGIC.  However, you can choose to blur the lines as much as you want, for example, what does ‘PUT’ really mean?  Is ‘PUT’ a valid action on a Message Queue?  If so, then I should be able to expose a message queue via REST, but that’s quite different from doing a ‘GET’ on a Customer resource, no?

Both SOAP and REST have their rightful places in the toolbox of an Enterprise Architect.  REST doesn’t replace SOAP – they compliment each other…

Here is an excerpt of a webcast where I discuss RESTful vs. SOAP Web Services on our YouTube Channel:

WebLogic 10.3.4 Zip Distribution

I had a chance today to download and play with the WebLogic ZIP Distribution that was introduced in version 10.3.4.  I have been curious about this for a while, and after hearing some complaints on Twitter about the installation and startup time I figured I would give it a shot.

I have to say, I was pretty (pleasantly) surprised about the installation and usage of the ZIP distribution.  I was able to get it downloaded, installed and running in about 5 minutes!  I think its fair to say that you have to see it to believe it yourself, so I recorded a video (link below). 

I was able to get it installed and running on my 2010 MacBook Pro 15”, logged into the Admin Console in about 2 minutes.  Granted, not everyone has access to a fast development machine so I decided to try it on a different machine.  I’ve got a DELL XPS 400 which has a Core 2 DUO (first version of the multi-core CPU) where I’m running vSphere and Windows XP in a Virtual Machine.  In this scenario I was able to get WebLogic installed and running in 3 MINUTES!

Check it out:

WebLogic 10.3.4 ClassLoader Analysis Tool

I recently did some investigation into the WebLogic Filtering ClassLoader, and the larger ClassLoader picture for WebLogic and put together a presentation on it.  I also included a demo of the ClassLoader Analysis Tool (CAT) that is a very useful tool for looking under the covers of the WebLogic ClassLoader operation.

The CAT analyzes class conflicts and shows you the conflicting library/JAR in your application that is in conflict with the WebLogic-packaged libraries.  You can see in the screenshot from the CAT below:

CAT_Conflict

 

Not only does CAT analyze conflicts it also provides the XML needed to add to the WebLogic Deployment descriptors (weblogic.xml and weblogic-application.xml):

CAT_Suggestion

 

Check out the presentation and demo below:

New YouTube Video: WebLogic 11gR1 PS3 (10.3.4) New Features

When I gave my presentation about WebLogic 10.3.4 at The Server Side Java Symposium there were a few people that were surprised about the new features in the latest release WebLogic.  I have broken the presentation up into a few different pieces, and you can find a link to the video below.  You can also visit our WebLogic YouTube channel to learn more about WebLogic.

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YouTube Video: WebLogic 11gR1 PS3 (10.3.4) New Features