Changshin Lee's Blog

March 2006 Archives

Java Web Services (JWS) 2.0

While I was working on preparing slides for my session on TmaxDay 2006 (http://www.tmax.co.kr/tmaxday/), I came up with some idea of grouping and classifying Java web services technologies:

Java Web Services 1.0 (adopted by J2EE 1.4)

JAXP 1.2
SAAJ 1.2
JAX-RPC 1.1
(Optional) EWS (JSR 109) 1.1

Java Web Services 2.0 (adopted by Java EE 5 and Java SE 6)

JAXP 1.3 + StAX 1.0 (= JAXP 1.4)
SAAJ 1.3
JAXB 2.0 + JAX-WS 2.0 (JSR 181 included)
(Optional) EWS 1.2

Instead of calling each Java XML and Web Services technology for a certain level or time of Java EE, we can simply say "JWS (pronounced "J Wiz") 1.0" for the former set and "JWS 2.0" for the latter set. Actually this idea was inspired by Sun's i-Stack that emcompasses JAXB, JAX-RPC, JAX-WS, and so on.

Yeah, I also have to admit that JWS 2.0 is another wave of "2.0" just like Web 2.0 :-)

Mirae means "future", but Apache Mirae means "now"

I just posted a snapshot of Apache Mirae 1.0 to http://people.apache.org/~ias/mirae/ . "Mirae" in Korean means "future" and I used the word to name a project for implementing JSR 172 J2ME Web Services in Apache.

The project launched two years ago, but has gone through many things: lack of participation (and use as well), TCK delivery, and holes of JSR 172, and so on. However, around the beginning of this year, I got quite stimulating responses from both developers and users of Mirae and finally feel ready to release its very first version.

Open source software targeted at Java ME has narrower playground than the other platforms mainly because the platform itself is sort fo "closed", or rather tightly controlled by telco carriers and phone vendors. For example, java.* and javax.* are not permitted to install by users on some devices, which prevents from using Mirae WS(Web Services, an implementation of JSR 172 JAX-RPC subset).

Knowing this irresistible situation, we still (and ever) want our devices to be connected based on a notation called "service oriented architecture", and JSR 279 Service Connection API for Java ME and JSR 280 XML API for Java ME shed light here. Even as an implementor of JSR 172, the JAX-RPC subset was pretty disappointing, especially when it came to real usages.

What I'd like to lead through Mirae is to let people make full use of their daily information devices. That's the future.

NGWeb2006 - Introducing Ajax and Widgets

Mustang for Mac OS X

FreeBSD Java is based on Intel, so it might be possible to apply it to port Mustang for Darwin, the underlying OS layer of Mac OS X on Intel Macs. One more feasible idea about the porting is making a headless version of Mustang for Intel Macs, i.e. core Java without graphic facilities such as AWT, Swing, and Java 2D.

Or, we can just wait for Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) to come up with Mustang :-)

Java Widgets

As I'm going to deliver some presentation on widgets such as Yahoo! Widgets (formely known as Konfabulator) and Google Desktop Sidebar, One idea hit me: Why not Java for widgets?

Most of widgets take advantage of JavaScript to program widgets, and most of widget engines provide a considerable amount of APIs to allow programmers to work on OS, Network, and so on, which Java already has done.

Obviously we need a framework and API for Java Widgets and also think about how those widgets are displayed and manipulated. It can be just another breed of Java application models like Applet and Java web start. However, more and more computer users enjoy mini applications, and Java could be a very good solution to write and run widgets across platforms with powerful existing APIs.

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