Spring Dallas User Group

TITLE:
Introduction to ExtJS and Spring

ABSTRACT:
ExtJS is a JavaScript library used for building RIAs without the need for plug-ins. It is a complete MVC framework for the browser and includes a feature-rich widget library. This talk will introduce you to the ExtJS library, with an overview of the widgets and MVC components. It will also show how to wire up the ExtJS AJAX features to the Spring MVC stack so you’ll understand how to integrate ExtJS into your own applications.

BIO:
Tim Sporcic is a software development manager with a large financial services company in Plano, Texas. He has been working with Java since the JDK 1.1 days on everything from enterprise systems to an embedded Java operating system featured at JavaOne. Tim has been recently focusing on client-tier RIA development using JavaScript, CSS and XHTML.

Get Tim’s slides and examples here

WHEN:
August 20th

• Social - 6:30 PM
• Meeting - 7:00 PM

WHO TO TELL:
Tell your friends in the office who are interested in Spring.

WHERE TO GO:
Our meetings are now at the offices of Improving Enterprises. Directions and information can be found on our meeting location page. The building doors lock at 7:00 and we will not have anyone to shuttle people around. Please be there before 7:00.

–Erik Weibust
–Andy Hoffman

I ran across a link to the DZone Refcardz in a JavaLobby newsletter last week. The idea of reference cards (think laminated cards of formulas for chemisty, physics, etc. that you see in stores) for some of our more commonly used Java tools sounded like a good idea so I went and took a look. I signed up without giving away too much personal info and requested all of the cards (4 total right now). I then got e-mails (one per card) that gave me a download link for the pdf.

With that said, the Spring Configuration refcard by Craig Walls is very good. Craig mostly covered the XML configuration and namespaces but also includes a section on the annotations related to these. The really important part is that these are all now in a single place, not broken up in the book or the user docs. There are 8-pages and the overall card is professionally done with good coloring and highlighting of the information. In the future, I’ll be using this as a reference aid in the Introduction to Spring course that I teach at CCCCD Continuing Education department.

My only problem (a very minor and personal one) is that they didn’t put page numbers on them anywhere. Usage of a refcard is best when it is right at hand and I’m old-school enough that I like some things on paper and while the layout of the information is pretty much self-contained by page; page numbers are easy enough to add.

UPDATE: The commenter’s are correct in that there are pages numbers. The just didn’t print for me due to printer settings.

So go take a look for yourselves.

TITLE:
Spring Web MVC 2.5 and Beyond

ABSTRACT:
Spring MVC is a popular web framework, and the core platform for powering Spring-based web applications. Also building on the Spring MVC platform are a number of interesting extensions.

• Spring MVC 2.5 introduces significant new features that simplify the core MVC programming model, including support for annotated @Controllers.

• Spring Web Flow 2 adds significant new features for implementing conversational flows within a Spring MVC-based app.

• Spring Faces, a new module, provides groundbreaking support for JavaServerFaces in a familiar Spring MVC environment.

• And last but not last least, Spring Javascript, a new module, integrates leading UI toolkits such as Dojo and Ext into a Spring environment.

Come to this meeting to see the killer new features in Spring MVC 2.5, Spring Web Flow 2, Spring Faces, and Spring Javascript in action, all working together in an integrated reference application. This meeting will also provide a brief overview of what is in store for Spring MVC 3.0.
BIO:
Keith Donald is a principal and founding partner at SpringSource, the company behind Spring. He is best known in the Spring community for creating Spring Web Flow. At SpringSource, Keith is the lead of the Web Application Development Products Team. His team, based in Melbourne, Florida, sustains the development of Spring MVC and Web Flow and their associated integrations, and is also responsible for future innovations in the domain of web application development frameworks.

Full Bio

WHEN:
May 21st

• Social - 6:30 PM
• Meeting - 7:00 PM

WHO TO TELL:
Tell your friends in the office who are interested in Spring.

WHERE TO GO:
Our meetings are now at the offices of Improving Enterprises. Directions and information can be found on our meeting location page. The building doors lock at 7:00 and we will not have anyone to shuttle people around. Please be there before 7:00.

–Erik Weibust
–Andy Hoffman

TITLE:
Using JavaConfig

ABSTRACT:
For most Spring developers, the de facto configuration technology for Spring is XML. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We will explore how to use Spring’s JavaConfig to configure application using pure Java. At the end of the presentation, we will have a Spring application configured with zero XML, but instead in completely typesafe Java.

BIO:
Ryan Breidenbach has been developing software for over eight years with a current focus on enterprise Java applications and agile development. He is the co-author of Spring in Action. When he is not home spending time with his wife and two daughters, he can occasionally be found honing his skills at the poker tables.

WHEN:
April 16th

• Social - 6:30 PM
• Meeting - 7:00 PM

WHO TO TELL:
Tell your friends in the office who are interested in Spring.

WHERE TO GO:
Our meetings are now at the offices of Improving Enterprises. Directions and information can be found on our meeting location page. The building doors lock at 7:00 and we will not have anyone to shuttle people around. Please be there before 7:00.

–Erik Weibust
–Andy Hoffman

TITLE:
A (re)introduction to Spring MVC

ABSTRACT:
Spring 2.5 introduced many new features, especially with regard to annotation-driven configuration. The number of annotations available in Spring has doubled and no area of Spring development has benefited from annotation-driven development more than Spring’s own MVC framework. At the same time, Spring has adopted many convention-over-configuration capabilities, especially in Spring MVC, that can dramatically reduce the amount of configuration required to build Spring-enabled web applications.

BIO:
Craig Walls has been professionally developing software for over 13 years (and longer than that for the pure geekiness of it). He is the author of Spring in Action (now in its second edition) and XDoclet in Action, both published by Manning.

When he’s not slinging code, Craig spends as much time as he can with his wife, two daughters, 6 birds, 3 dogs, and an ever-fluctuating number of tropical fish.

WHEN:
March 19th

• Social - 6:30 PM
• Meeting - 7:00 PM

WHO TO TELL:
Tell your friends in the office who are interested in Spring.

WHERE TO GO:
Our meetings are now at the offices of Improving Enterprises. Directions and information can be found on our meeting location page. The building doors lock at 7:00 and we will not have anyone to shuttle people around. Please be there before 7:00.

–Erik Weibust
–Andy Hoffman

TITLE:
Successfully Scaling Java Applications in Spring

ABSTRACT:
While clustering applications may increase the overall availability of business services, it certainly does not imply that they may easily scale out to provide greater system capacity or performance. Further, most clustering solutions leave the effort of addressing non-trivial issues like data, space, recovery and process partitioning (affinity) across a cluster to the developer, ultimately increasing application and deployment complexity and impeding the rate at which solutions may be delivered.

In this presentation, we will introduce and examine the Data Grid paradigm, and in particular how Spring applications may apply it to increase the availability, reliability, scalability and performance of systems, while at the same time reducing system complexity and improving delivery.

BIO:
Patrick Peralta is a Software Engineer for Oracle, specializing in Coherence. Patrick’s software development experience includes implementing Java/J2EE middle tier solutions, web applications, system integrations, and Swing desktop clients. Prior to joining Oracle, Patrick was a Senior Developer at Symantec, working on J2EE and integration systems. He enjoys mentoring others on technology, and he especially enjoys participating in Open Source. Patrick has a BS in computer science from Stetson University in Florida.

WHEN:
September 19th (3rd Wednesday)

• Social - 6:30 PM
• Meeting - 7:00 PM

WHO TO TELL:
Tell your friends in the office who are interested in Spring.

WHERE TO GO:
Our meetings are now at the offices of Improving Enterprises. Directions and information can be found on our meeting location page.

–Erik Weibust
–Andy Hoffman

Welcome back again as we reset for the new year and finally get to have our first meeting for 2007.

ABSTRACT:
Test Driving Development is a valuable technique that has several benefits. However, unit testing is hard when your code has dependencies-this often becomes a quick excuse to give up on TDD. This example driven Zero Powerpoint (ZePo) presentation will help you spring into unit test your Spring applications. We will look at techniques to realize good unit testing, and focus on effective use of mock objects and frameworks to help you toss mock objects for your spring application.

BIO:
Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc. has trained and mentored more than 3000 software developers in US, Canada, and Europe. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with agile practices on their software projects, and speaks frequently at international conferences and user groups. Venkat is the author of “.NET Gotchas” (O’Reilly) and coauthor of “Practices of an Agile Developer” (Pragmatic Bookshelf). He has been an NFJS speaker since 2002.

WHEN:
February 21st (3rd Wednesday)

• Social - 6:30 PM
• Meeting - 7:00 PM

WHO TO TELL:
Tell your friends in the office who are interested in Spring and testing.

WHERE TO GO:
Our meetings are at Nerdbooks in Richardson TX. Directions can be found on their website.
*** Nerdbooks is our location sponsor and is providing a meeting place. Show up early and take a look at their large selection of Java related books.

– Erik Weibust
– Andy Hoffman