Skip to main content

Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With

Posted by editor on October 9, 2006 at 11:39 AM EDT

Adventures in licensing

It's hard to keep track of all the projects on the site, but one way to catch up is to actually need to use one in my work. That happened the other day when I got a feature request to add some sort of a licensing scheme to a desktop application.

After looking at proprietary solutions, I decided to give True License Collection (TLC) a try. I can't give a final report on it, because I'm still in mid-implementation -- I'm able to generate license files from and to specific X500Principals, namely the company developing the application (the issuer) and the end-user (the consumer), but I'm still working through installing the license into the end-user's prefs (currently stuck on some sort of crypto exception).

Still, as you can see from the project javadoc, it's a pretty hefty API. Its idea of licenses is pretty flexible: you grant a license to some subject (which could be an application, a document or set of documents, a network connection, etc.) and can optionally set a maximum number of uses, expiration dates, etc. It also has a facility for creating "free trial period" licenses. Fortunately, it has multiple tutorials that help with navigating the complex API.

In short, a pretty attractive package, and Apache-licensed to boot. So since it's fresh on my mind, I've made it this week's Spotlight project. If you have licensing needs, do take a look.

So, there's one java.net project I've really dug into. Only 3273 to go.

In Java Today, Hans Muller has written a Java Developer's Journal article on Swing: Its Past, Present, and Future. "New software fashions tend to have a half-life of about 18 months. After that the books start to move to the discount bin, the conferences go quiet, and developers move on to the next big thing. Swing has not suffered that fate. As the software has stabilized and improved over the years, it has attracted a loyal and growing community of developers who've built tens of thousands of applications deployed to millions of users. No less of an authority that Evan's Data Corporation has reported that 'Java Swing with 47% use, has surpassed WinForms as the dominant GUI development toolkit.' Not bad for a (nearly) 10 year old."

The O'Reilly Radar notes the emergence of a "widgets" platform for Java ME in Mobile 2.0: Nokia launches WidSets: "Nokia today announced the release of WidSets, a mobile widget platform available for Java MIDP 2.0 phones, including of course non-Nokia phones. Put short, WidSets is for the mobile what Netvibes is for the browser. I've played around with WidSets for an hour on both my SonyEricsson K750i as well as a more recent - and higher resolution - Nokia N80, and I must say that I am impressed. Even at the 176 x 220 pixels on the K750i navigation is a charm."

The ninety-seventh issue of the JavaTools Community Newsletter is online, featuring tool news from around the web, a welcome to new community projects, a news item on the release of version 1.0 of the Maven 2 XML Validation Plugin, and a Tool Tip on separating fact from fiction with the JavaPedia Java Misconceptions page.

Chet Haase wants to clear up some curiously popular micsonceptions in today's Weblogs. The fact-check is in Java on Vista: Yes, it Works: "Let's dispel some odd rumors of late: Java works great on Vista. But let's not stop there; let's also dive into some of the challenges that Vista presented for us to make Java work well."

Also on FUD-busting duty, Ethan Nicholas spells out What you should know about Secure Static Versioning: "Lately there has been some scary-sounding misinformation spread about Java's security. Read on for the truth."

And since Business Week seems to believe Sun is backpedaling on Java in favor of JavaScirpt, Greg Murray offers a look at Sun and Scripting: "Sun's path to embrace scripting including JavaScript has been a long one which started in 2003. There have been claims that we are reacting to the AJAX phenomenon I want to set the record straight on how Sun helped create the phenomenon and where we are going."

In today's Forums, kellyohair spells out the status of the JDK 6 and 7 projects in the thread Re: Just a bit confused about JDK 6 and JDK 7 progress.... As a JDK release finishes up (like JDK 6 or Mustang), there is a great deal of energy that still needs to go into finializing the product. JDK 6 is a pretty done deal as far as the engineering team goes, but it will take some time for us to get moving on JDK 7 (Dolphin) which isn't any where near a beta, not sure where you are seeing a JDK 7 beta 1. The JDK 7 at https://jdk7.dev.java.net/ is just Build 1 or 2 of JDK 7. Also, with all the changes coming like changing the Source Code Management system we use, and the open source activity, we are a bit busy around here. I don't think there is any intention of having a Media blackout. Is there something in particular you want to hear about in JDK 7?

vorgi would like to know what's up with the Mac version of JDIC in Re: [JDIC] JDIC Browser Crashing in Mac when loading Applet: "This may sound utterly stupid, but where did you get the Mac OS Version of the JDIC? I searched everywhere and even tried to build the CVS files but everything I got was a blank panel and loads of error messages. Sorry to post it here, but this is the only trace of a Mac OS Version I found so far that is not from 2004."

In today's java.net News Headlines :

Registered users can submit news items for the java.net News Page using our news submission form. All submissions go through an editorial review before being posted to the site. You can also subscribe to the java.net News RSS feed.

Current and upcoming Java Events :

Registered users can submit event listings for the java.net Events Page using our events submission form. All submissions go through an editorial review before being posted to the site.

Archives and Subscriptions: This blog is delivered weekdays as the Java Today RSS feed. Also, once this page is no longer featured as the front page of java.net it will be archived along with other past issues in the java.net Archive.



Adventures in licensing
Blog Links >>