We have added three new features to Amazon RDS for Oracle Database to enable you to use it for more of your use cases: You can use Amazon RDS for Oracle in Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) You can use...

Ben Stopford takes a look at the Big Data movement, its development and implications, reflecting on a future where NoSQL solutions and traditional ones coexist. By Ben Stopford

Posted by Satoshi Kataoka and Ken Wakasa of the Android text input engineering team The Spelling Checker framework improves the text-input experience on Android by helping the user quickly identify and correct spelling errors. When an app uses the spelling checker framework, the user can see a red underline beneath misspelled or unrecognized words so that the user can correct mistakes instantly by choosing a suggestion from a dropdown list. If you are an input method editor (IME) developer, the Spelling Checker framework gives you a great way to provide an even better experience for your users. You can add your own spelling checker service to your IME to provide consistent spelling error corrections from your own custom dictionary. Your spelling checker can recognize and suggest corrections for the vocabularies that are most important to your users, and if your language is not supported by the built-in spelling checker, you can provide a spelling checker for that language. The Spelling Checker APIs let you create your own spelling checker service with minimal steps. The framework manages the interaction between your spelling checker service and a text input field. In this post we'll give you an overview of how to implement a spelling checker service. For details, take a look at the Spelling Checker Framework API Guide. 1. Create a spelling checker service class To create a spelling checker service, the first step is to create a spelling checker service class that extends android.service.textservice.SpellCheckerService. For a working example of a spelling checker, you may want to take a look at the SampleSpellCheckerService class in the SpellChecker sample app, available from the Samples download package in the Android SDK. 2. Implement the required methods Next, in your subclass of SpellCheckerService, implement the methods createSession() and onGetSuggestions(), as shown in the following code snippet: @Override public Session createSession() { return new AndroidSpellCheckerSession(); } private static class AndroidSpellCheckerSession extends Session { @Override public SuggestionsInfo onGetSuggestions(TextInfo textInfo, int suggestionsLimit) { SuggestionsInfo suggestionsInfo; ... // look up suggestions for TextInfo return suggestionsInfo; } } Note that the input argument textInfo of onGetSuggestions(TextInfo, int) contains a single word. The method returns suggestions for that word as a SuggestionsInfo object. The implementation of this method can access your custom dictionary and any utility classes for extracting and ranking suggestions. For sentence-level checking, you can also implement onGetSuggestionsMultiple(), which accepts an array of TextInfo. 3. Register the spelling checker service in AndroidManifest.xml In addition to implementing your subclass, you need to declare the spelling checker service in your manifest file. The declaration specifies the application, the service, and a metadata file that defines the Activity to use for controlling settings. Here's an example: <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.example.android.samplespellcheckerservice"> <application android:label="@string/app_name"> <service android:label="@string/app_name" android:name=".SampleSpellCheckerService" android:permission="android.permission.BIND_TEXT_SERVICE"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.service.textservice.SpellCheckerService" /> </intent-filter> <meta-data android:name="android.view.textservice.scs" android:resource="@xml/spellchecker" /> </service> </application> </manifest> Notice that the service must request the permission android.permission.BIND_TEXT_SERVICE to ensure that only the system binds to the service. 4. Create a metadata XML resource file Last, create a metadata file for your spelling checker to define the Activity to use for controlling spelling checker settings. The metadata file can also define subtypes for the spelling checker. Place the file in the location specified in the element of the spelling checker declaration in the manifest file. In the example below, the metadata file spellchecker.xml specifies the settings Activity as SpellCheckerSettingsActivity and includes subtypes to define the locales that the spelling checker can handle. <spell-checker xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:label="@string/spellchecker_name" android:settingsactivity="com.example.SpellCheckerSettingsActivity" /> <subtype android:label="@string/subtype_generic" android:subtypeLocale="en" /> </spell-checker> That's it! Your spelling checker service is now available to client applications such as your IME. Bonus points: Add batch processing of multiple sentences For faster, more accurate spell-checking, Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) introduces APIs that let clients pass multiple sentences to your spelling checker at once. To support sentence-level checking for multiple sentences in a single call, just override and implement the method onGetSentenceSuggestionsMultiple(), as shown below. private static class AndroidSpellCheckerSession extends Session { @Override public SentenceSuggestionsInfo[] onGetSentenceSuggestionsMultiple( TextInfo[] textInfo, int suggestionsLimit) { SentenceSuggestionsInfo[] sentenceSuggestionsInfos; ... // look up suggestions for each TextInfo return sentenceSuggestionsInfos } } In this case, textInfo is an array of TextInfo, each of which holds a sentence. The method returns lengths and offsets of suggestions for each sentence as a SentenceSuggestionsInfo object. Documents and samples If you'd like to learn more about how to use the spelling checker APIs, take a look at these documents and samples: Spelling Checker Framework API Guide - a developer guide covering the Spelling Checker API for clients and services. SampleSpellCheckerService sample app - helps you get started with your spelling checker service. You can find the app at /samples/android-15/SpellChecker/SampleSpellCheckerService in the Samples download. HelloSpellChecker sample app — a basic app that uses a spelling checker. You can find the app at /samples/android-15/SpellChecker/HelloSpellChecker in the Samples download. To learn how to download sample apps for the Android SDK, see Samples. Join the discussion on +Android Developers

Allen Rohner discusses the benefits and the problems of mixing Clojure and JRuby running them in the same process, making some recommendations at the end. By Allen Rohner

We all wish we could predict the future. It would be wonderful to tell when a stock was going to go up before it did. Unfortunately, most of us are not psychic. In order to be successful in the stock … Continue reading →

The Oracle HotSpot group is starting the discussion of a new project to explore implementing GPU support in Java with a native JVM. This project intends to enable Java applications to seamlessly take advantage of a GPU with the objective to improve the application performance.

Java developer Mamadou Lamine Ba shows you how to consume a REST service within a JSF application using the JQuery JavaScript library and Handlebars, a client-side templating system.

SpringSource/vFabric Education has launched several new Hot Seat promotions for professional Spring training classes in Belgium, Ireland and UK. If you register now, you can SAVE 30% on the following professional Spring classes: Core Spring September 11 - 14: Brussels, Belgium September 18 - 21: Dublin, Ireland September 18 - 21: London, United Kingdom Rich Web Applications with Spring September 04 - 07: Dublin, Ireland Please use the following discount code in the referral code field during the registration process: SPLPROMOCLS To view more training locations please visit our vFabric Education page

It may have taken a backseat to the bigger news of the Java 7 update yesterday, but Oracle clearly is backing their rich client framework JavaFX to the hilt. Yesterday’s release of JavaFX 2.2 bundled into the JDK 7u6 package certified their commitment into including the technology in future plans, adding new features such as the free drawing Canvas node (bearing similarities to HTML Canvas) and the option to screenshot part of a scene graph. Richard Bair, Project Lead for JavaFX, had bigger news though, revealing future plans for JavaFX as part of Java SE. The biggest change will see the next release skip a few numbers, straight up to JavaFX 8.0, which makes sense if JavaFX is included in Java 8 as hoped. “So the next major release (formerly 3.0) will actually just be called JavaFX and share the version number of the JRE that it ships with. If JavaFX becomes part of JavaSE in JavaSE 9 timeframe as we hope, then it would clearly no longer have its own version number, so it made sense to us to get in line now.” Efforts on this reworking is well underway with “tons of performance work recently” going into the 8.0 repository. The changes haven’t yet been reflected on the roadmap, but we can expect that in due course. Bair promised to showcase the latest features on FX Experience, looking deeper at the drag-and-drop tool Scene Builder and Scenic View 1.1 (which also went GA yesterday). Well worth monitoring if you’re keen to grasp the new nuances of this growing framework. In the meantime, get hacking!

#spring #security #oauth 1.0.0.RC2 is released today http://bit.ly/xfE5PM. Download via github or Maven (SpringSource milestone repository). Highlights: * Better error responses from the framework endpoints * Fixed some issues with validation and enhancement of token contents Enjoy!

Two weeks since releasing the first large-scale OpenStack public cloud, Rackspace have launched a private equivalent. Available now as a free download, the release - codenamed "Alamo" - is touted in marketing materials to take “less than an hour” to deploy. Being based on OpenStack, the USP of Rackspace’s Private Cloud offering is both its openness - preventing vendor lock-in - and their well-regarded ‘Fanatical support’. Escalation support will for now cost $2,500 plus $100 for each node under management. The company is making clear that their private cloud offering isn’t a separate distribution of OpenStack, and will continue to be updated as often as its public sibling. Though they’ve yet to set a regular release pattern, Rackspace GM of private clouds Jim Curry told The Register they expect Private Cloud releases to lag behind by around 45-60 days. Rackspace, a key driver of the OpenStack project, may have been the first to market with OpenStack-based cloud product, but RedHat are close behind (with their own offerings due early next year) and HP have recently released their OpenStack-powered cloud service. Version 2 of the Public Cloud, to be based on the upcoming Folsom release due at the end of next month, will also contain a range of managed services, including monitoring, capacity planning, patching, and upgrading of private clouds. There’s a getting started guide available for those looking to test it out for themselves - well, after the 1.8GB download. Image background by zaphad1.

A new OpenJDK project, proposed by Oracle and AMD, aims to establish whether it is possible to implement GPU support into Java with a native JVM. Essentially, this Oracle-led initiative seeks to find out whether Java application performance could be improved by utilising the GPU for computational power, and not just for graphics. This follows in the footsteps of competitors of Microsoft, Mozilla and Google – all of whom have turned to hardware to eke out some GPU browser power Hotspot’s Group Lead John Coomes, alongside AMD’s Gary Frost, made the proposal on a OpenJDK mailing list, detailing why he believes this investigation is critical for Oracle’s JVM, the most commonly used virtual machine by Java developers: This project will demonstrate the performance advantages of offloading Java compute to a GPU. We propose to use the Hotspot JVM, and will concentrate on code generation, garbage collection, and runtimes. Performance will be improved, while preserving compile time, memory consumption and code generation quality. The project will also explore the possibilities of enabling GPU support for various other JVM languages, such as Nashorn, Scala, JRuby, JavaScript, opening up possibilities for developers not necessarily keen on using plain old Java. The proposal also states the intentions to bring in Java 8 Lambda library features along the way, but it is also quick to recognise the Java API challenges that could emerge such as extensions. This would mean new standards would have to be created through the Java Community Process, and this has also been taken into account. AMD are putting their weight behind the project, with Frost pledging committers from his development team. The GPU project would maintain one or more code repositories within the larger OpenJDK HotSpot repository and maintain a developers mailing list. With GPU compiler projects like Rootbeer cropping up recently, there's a clear demand for greater graphics control in Java. Now seems the ideal time to pursue the option of segmenting Java processing into GPU and CPU, to lighten the load. Oracle recognises the need to accelerate performance, to accommodate for more demanding graphics within apps on smartphones and tablets. But have they moved too late? The rest of the competition have already done this. But the biggest stumbling block could well be the length of time it would take to see this standardisation. OpenJDK certainly has noble intentions but as recent events have shown us, it takes a fair bit of time for anything to get close to getting into Java. Pessimism aside though, it’s a bold and needed proposal that should be applauded for its intentions. Whether we see it come to fruition is another matter. 

The free article The Enterprise Side of JavaFX: Part Three describes build and deployment of a real world JavaFX application: LighView. It is all about Maven 3, signing jars and WebStart installation. The first part of the series is about Maven build and RESTful backends and the second about structuring the view and databinding. Feedback is, as always, highly appreciated! Real World Java EE Bootstrap and Effective Java EE Bootstrap Workshops [Airport Munich]

Tobias Trelle offers an introduction to the Spring Data project, a high level SpringSource project whose purpose is to unify and ease the access to different kinds of persistence stores, both relational database systems and NoSQL data stores. By Tobias Trelle

Adobe Systems has recently released PhoneGap 2.0. PhoneGap provides the ability to build applications for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Samsung Bada and Symbian. PhoneGap 2.0 includes support for Cordova WebView, which enables developers to wrap a web application as a native app by using the browser control available in all the mobile platforms. By Anand Narayanaswamy

Java gets better every day. Like here is a three-part guide for building up modern Java web applications without the common annoyances, like tons of XML, long builds & restarts and seeing tools working with simple, trivial applications (i.e. Hello World).

I have subscribed to various user groups of jOOQ's competing database abstraction tools. One of which is Preview Text: I have subscribed to various user groups of jOOQ's competing database abstraction tools. One of which is ActiveJDBC, a Java implementation of Active Record design pattern. Legacy Sponsored: ...