The JDK bug migration from a Sun legacy system to JIRA has reached another planned milestone: the data displayed on bugs.sun.com is now backed by JIRA rather than by the legacy system. Besides maintaining the URLs to old bugs, bugs filed since the migration to JIRA are now visible too. The basic information presented about a bug is the same as before, but reformatted and using JIRA terminology: Instead of a "category", a bug now has a "component / subcomponent" classification. As outlined previously, part of the migration effort was reclassifying bugs according to a new classification scheme; I'll write more about the new scheme in a subsequent blog post. Instead of a list of JDK versions a bug is "reported against," there is a list of "affected versions." The names of the JDK versions have largely been regularized; code names like "tiger" and "mantis" have been replaced by the release numbers like "5.0" and "1.4.2". Instead of "release fixed," there are now "Fixed Versions." The legacy system had many fields that could hold a sequence of text entries, including "Description," "Workaround", and "Evaluation." JIRA instead only has two analogous fields labeled as "Description" and a unified stream of "Comments." Nearly coincident with switching to JIRA, we also enabled an agent which automatically updates a JIRA issue in response to pushes into JDK-related Hg repositories. These comments include the changeset URL, the user making the push, and a time stamp. These comments are first added when a fix is pushed to a team integration repository and then added again when the fix is pushed into the master repository for a release. We're still in early days of production usage of JIRA for JDK bug tracking, but the transition to production went smoothly and over 1,000 new issues have already been filed. Many other facets of the migration are still in the works, including hosting new incidents filed at bugs.sun.com in a tailored incidents project in JIRA.

One of the key problems with integration testing is figuring out what to do with your data. If you mock out your database, it's not exactly an integration test. But if you run multiple tests and your database gets out of sync somehow, tests can erroneously fail. In this article on LosTechies, Jimmy Bogard discusses the art of isolating the database while doing integration testing.

JooFlux is a JVM agent that allows both the dynamic replacement of method implementations and the application of aspect advices. Article by Julien Ponge and Frederic Le Mouël.

"Why use Scala when you have Ruby and Ruby on Rails? Well, we still use Rails. It works great for front-end stuff. The productivity is worth the tradeoff for working in a slower-performing dynamic language. When you think about what a web framework is doing under the hood, it's tons and tons of string concatenation. Ruby on Rails can handle that." - Alex Payne

The JavaFX UI controls sandbox repository on OpenJFX is now open. This repo is intended for OpenJFX developers to put their 'toys' until such time that they get called up to the big leagues for inclusion into OpenJFX itself (although there are no guarantees that this will ever happen).

Developer John Ferguson Smart presented at JavaOne regarding the fusion of contemporary Continuous Delivery processes and practices with the established and widely-accepted Maven release process. You can view slides and see audio.

Java Evangelist Stephen Chin (@steveonjava) is motorcycling across Europe, and dropping in on developers and Java User Groups to talk about Java and do some hacking. What's cool is you'll be able to be a part of it too: watch via live streaming, and interact using #nighthacking on Twitter.

Four luminaries in the Java community have been selected as new Java Champions. The are Agnes Crepet, Lars Vogel, Yara Senger and Martijn Verburg. They were selected for their technical knowledge, leadership, inspiration, and tireless work for the Java community.

JSR 107, JCACHE - Java Temporary Caching API, has posted their Early Draft Release. JSR 331, Constraint Programming API, has published a Maintenance Release. JSR 335, Lambda Expressions for the Java Programming Language, has moved to JCP 2.8! JSR 349, Bean Validation 1.1, has published a Public Review.

This might have been hidden somewhere between the lines, but you can now run Java on iOS devices.Oracle found a solution for the "iOS can't run Java" problem, and released it in the new Oracle ADF Mobile solution. This enables you to use Java to write the logic layer of on-device applications that run on iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones (oh, and the same code and application will...

ARM TechCon is a technical conference for hardware and software engineers, Oct. 30-Nov 1 in Santa Clara, California. Days two and three of the conference will be geared towards systems designers and software developers, those interested in building ARM processor-based modules, boards, and systems. It will cover all of the hardware and software, tools, ranging from low-power design, networking and connectivity, open source software, and security. Oracle is a sponsor of ARM TechCon, and will present three Java sessions and a hands-on-lab: "Do You Like Coffee with Your Dessert? Java and the Raspberry Pi" - The Raspberry Pi, an ARM-powered single board computer running a full Linux distro off an SD card has caused a huge wave of interest among developers. This session looks at how Java can be used on a device such as this. Using Java SE for embedded devices and a port of JavaFX, the presentation includes a variety of demonstrations of what the Raspberry Pi is capable of. The Raspberry Pi also provides GPIO line access, and the session covers how this can be used from Java applications. Prepare to be amazed at what this tiny board can do. (Angela Caicedo, Java Evangelist) "Modernizing the Explosion of Advanced Microcontrollers with Embedded Java" - This session explains why Oracle Java ME Embedded is the right choice for building small, connected, and intelligent embedded solutions, such as industrial control applications, smart sensing, wireless connectivity, e-health, or general machine-to-machine (M2M) functionality---extending your business to new areas, driving efficiency, and reducing cost. The new Oracle Java ME Embedded product brings the benefits of Java technology to microcontroller platforms. It is a full-featured, complete, compliant software runtime with value-add features targeted to the embedded space and has the ability to interface with additional hardware components, remote manageability, and over-the-air software updates. It is accompanied by a feature-rich set of tools free of charge. (Fareed Suliman, Java Product Manager) "Embedded Java in Smart Energy and Healthcare" - This session covers embedded Java products and technologies that enable smart and connect devices in the Smart Energy and Healthcare/Medical industries. (speaker Kevin Lee) "Java SE Embedded Development on ARM Made Easy" - This Hands-on Lab aims to show that developers already familiar with the Java develop/debug/deploy lifecycle can apply those same skills to develop Java applications, using Java SE Embedded, on embedded devices. (speaker Jim Connors) In the Oracle booth #603, you can see the following demos: Industry Solutions with JavaThis exhibit consists of a number of industry solutions and how they can be powered by Java technology deployed on embedded systems. Examples in consumer devices, home gateways, mobile health, smart energy, industrial control, and tablets all powered by applications running on the Java platform are shown. Some of the solutions demonstrate the ability of Java to connect intelligent devices at the edge of the network to the datacenter or the cloud as a total end-to-end platform.Java in M2M with QualcommThis station will exhibit a new M2M solutions platform co-developed by Oracle and Qualcomm that enables wireless communications for embedded smart devices powered by Java, and share the types of industry solutions that are possible. In addition, a new platform for wearable devices based on the ARM Cortex M3 platform is exhibited.Why Java for Embedded?Demonstration platforms will show how traditional development environments, tools, and Java programming skills can be used to create applications for embedded devices. The advantages that Java provides because of the runtime's abstraction of software from hardware, modularity and scalability, security, and application portability and manageability are shared with attendees. Drop by and see why Java is an optimal applications platform for embedded systems.

OK, my adrenaline is back to normal, and it's time for a wrap-up about JavaOne. Preview Text: As the Main Event in which we participate every year, this year's JavaOne was big for JFrog. Legacy Sponsored: unsponsored

According to the Gift of Life foundation, in Europe and the United States 80% of children diagnosed with cancer survive. In Russia fewer than 70% do. Because the only difference is money, we have decided to run a small experiment. Preview Text: According to the Gift of Life foundation, in Europe and the United States 80% of children diagnosed...

Java EE: Servlet 3.0 and JSP 2.2 tutorial This tutorial focuses on using Servlet's and JSP the right way. Servlet and JSP have evolved over the years, and now there is often more than one way to do things. For example, this tutorial uses EL and JSTL not JSP scriptlets, it uses JSPs in a Model 2/MVC style not in a model 1 style, etc. Consider it a tutorial that focuses only on the best practices...

HTML5 game developer Softgames has completed the first round of funding in order to expand its distribution platform ‘Softgames Connect’. The round was led by Software & Support Media, parent company of JAXenter, and VC Funds Creative Industries Berlin, which is a subsidiary of venture capital firm IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft. Established in 2006, Softgames has developed over 1,500 titles with 50 million sales between them. Popular titles include 'Mega Airport', 'Fish Story' and 'Happy Farmer', spanning iOS, Android, Blackberry, Android and Java ME-based feature phones. The funding is specifically to fund Softgames Connect, a service for external game developers which links games with app stores, social networks and high-reach portals in order to overcome two of the biggest challenges facing mobile games: distribution and monetisation. CEO Alexander Krug said: “SOFTGAMES Connect gives developers worldwide the tools to cover more market space with their HTML5 games and to monetize them successfully. The partnership with the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Software & Support Media GmbH allows us to accelerate our already strong growth even further.”

ThoughtWorks, the IT consultancy company known for preaching the values of Continuous Delivery, has released the latest edition of its roughly bi-annual “radar” report into emerging tech trends. The four-section report categorises these trends into ‘Techniques’, ‘Platforms’, ‘Tools’, and ‘Languages & Frameworks’, each recommended as ‘adopt’, ‘trial’, ‘assess’ or ‘hold’. The report doesn’t offer up many truly radical opinions, but the authors’ summary reflects the opinions of many industry commentators, including the increasing importance of mobile devices, NoSQL databases, accessible analytics (‘big data’ for all) and reproducible environments (now possible via cloud computing). The move towards simpler, infrastructure-based techniques is also highlighted as important, although the authors state that “we have not yet seen the usage shifts we believe are necessary”. The 'Languages & Frameworks' section of the report visualised. Within the ‘Languages & Frameworks’ section, JVM languages Clojure and Scala have been upgraded from ‘trial’ to ‘adopt’ status by the authors without comment, reflecting the maturity these relatively young languages have achieved. They are joined in the ‘adopt’ section only by CSS preprocessing languages such as SASS, SCSS, LESS and Stylus. The authors also “wonder if we should start to consider JavaScript as a platform and not just a language” with the rise of Node.js, Meteor.js and mobile frameworks like Calatrava, as well as other languages, such as CoffeeScript, which compile to JavaScript. However, this approach is categorised “assess”. The increasing mainstream acceptance of NoSQL databases is reflected in the new ‘adopt’ status of open source graph database Neo4j, which recently debuted its unique query language Cypher and is described by ThoughtWorks as “the front-runner in the [graph database] space”. Nowadays, the term ‘hybrid cloud’ is batted about with abandon, often to much derision due to the vagueness of this particular buzzword. However, the report is gushing in its praise of hybrids, placing them in ‘trial’ and praising their ability “combine the best features of public clouds and private data centers” with “robust offerings from Amazon, Rackspace and others” now available. However, the authors are less enthusiastic about existing open source IaaS offerings, such as OpenStack, CloudStack and Eucalyptus, placing them in a lower ‘assess’ category. The authors are particularly scathing regarding Windows Phone, one of the few profiled platforms to actually regress from ‘trial’ to ‘assess’. Windows Phone, “despite a promising start”, has seen “several stumbles in the execution of the platform strategy”, they argue. “This makes us less optimistic about the future of the platform than we were in the last radar.” Notably absent is Windows 8, the new tablet/desktop operating system launching this month. You can read the full report online at thoughtworks.com/radar.

Right in the midst of conference season, it’s no surprise to see the Hadoop vendors showcasing their wares now that the big data ‘kernel’ has permeated the enterprise world. Yet there’s no beating around the bush here - there’s still an array of concerns for companies considering adopting the data munching technology for their large scale data needs. The most pressing is of course real-time querying and processing. Plenty of work at Apache Hadoop HQ has gone into adding extra functionality to the batch-oriented platform, through projects like Hive and HBase, but we’re still a way off the speed and business intelligence capabilities that enterprises crave. This week’s Hadoop World 2012 could prove to be the most important battleground yet for the likes of Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR and Greenplum, as they attempt to assure prospective customers that they should stick with them for the coming months, and (most importantly) give them a glimpse into the future. After two years of closely guarded development, Cloudera yesterday unveiled Impala, a speedy distributed parallel SQL querying engine. Tailored to query in real-time against the standard Hadoop File Distributed System (HDFS), and/or the NoSQL choice HBase, it could prove to be a massive leap for the enterprise, being the first concrete effort to emerge offering real-time capability. Cloudera assure us on the project page that it isn’t intended to displace the batch processing frameworks of old, but as an additional tool in the Hadoop arsenal. After all, one of the reasons Hadoop has risen to prominence is through its vibrant ecosystem of projects, which has served to consistently push the envelope. The ties to Google’s F1 system, revealed back in May this year, are well documented. In fact one of the key people behind its query engine, Marcel Kornacker, was hired by Cloudera to lead this effort. Chief Architect at Cloudera, Doug Cutting, recently told JAXenter of Google “being ahead of the curve” and giving us all “a roadmap of where we could go.” Like so many projects in the space, Impala has been open sourced under an Apache license, inviting the Hadoop community and other companies to help push it along. Initially being offered in a private beta (and reportedly piloted by a number of companies such as Expedia), Impala has now arrived to the public. Cloudera have dubbed this the 1.0 release, but are clear to intimate that this is purely the beginning of things for them. Impala should be rolled out on its own in 2013, when Cloudera’s CDH5 appears. Interestingly, competitor MapR have also put their real-time chips down, leading another Apache project, Drill. Whilst the two have notable differences (Drill based on Google’s interactive analytic system Dremel), they’re both reflecting the desire for real-time querying in Hadoop. You’d likely assume the other big Hadoop vendor Hortonworks would want to dip their toes in soon as well. As in most industries, increased choice can only be a good thing. For all Hadoop’s successes, there needed to be a push beyond batch. Now we’ve got the signal from the vendors that they’re ready to answer the real-time call. Image courtesy of Ludovic Hirlimann

Scripted is a new browser-based JavaScript code editor which works locally, having the content being served by a Node.js web server. The editor is being developed by VMware based on Eclipse Orion's editor component. Scripted was created for developers who want to work locally with a simple and lightweight tool instead of a fully blown IDE. By Abel Avram

Thanks for attending my Java EE "airhacks" workshop at MUC AirPort. I really enjoyed the three, interactive days, many questions, discussions and ideas. Code examples I showed during the course are: http://x-ray.adam-bien.com http://lightfish.adam-bien.com http://connectorz.adam-bien.com http://kenai.com/projects/javaee-patterns [Plugins, Scopes, Gateway and other patterns] Slides and my demo code created during the 3 days is available for download as well. Screencasts / videos are also available: http://adam-bien.tv I used http://netbeans.org (Java EE Edition--without any plugins, extensions or tricks :-)) for all my coding stunts Patterns and most of the source code we went through is discussed in the recent book http://realworldpatterns.com An end-to-end application with build, monitoring, logging REST etc. is discussed in the book: Real World Java EE Night Hacks Thank you for attending, and see you at Java EE Workshops at MUC Airport (March 25th-28th), with a new workshop Java EE User Interfaces! Thank you for coming, and see you soon! :-) Real World Java EE Bootstrap and Effective Java EE Bootstrap Workshops [Airport Munich]

The Conference This year's conference, in my opinion, was the best that Oracle have produced in the three years that it has taken over the stewardship of Java. It was great for technical content. The positives were that similar sessions were arranged to be close together in the same hotel, in other words tracks were co-located. This was markedly better than 2010, when I remember rushing...