Java-Based UI Frameworks

Rik Scarborough Java, Programming 1 Comment

In today’s development environment, there is an abundance of frameworks that we can choose from for front-end or user interface (UI) work.

I was recently talking with a friend about UI development. He has also been a programmer since programming was considered an arcane art (when those of us that did it were considered like Gandalf the Grey facing the Balrog). Or maybe we just saw ourselves that way. Regardless, both of us have been Java programmers for a great deal of that time.

We both lamented the fact that it was a context switch to go from coding most of our projects in Java, then needing to switch to JavaScript for the front end.

Based on conversations I’ve seen online, several readers are warming up their keyboards to chide me for complaining about having to code in JavaScript. Keep your keys cool, both of us and our co-workers are experienced in, and happy to write in, JavaScript and any of its frameworks for our clients. But using JavaScript isn’t always the best approach.

 In this post, we introduce two frameworks that allow you to code your user interface in Java: GWT & Vaadin…

Using Dapper Flexibly

Jason Schmidtlein .NET, Problem Solving, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

Dapper is a micro ORM (Object Relational Mapper) for .NET that is nearly as fast as using a raw ADO.NET data reader. It is a great alternative to Entity Framework, especially when performance is a top priority and you don’t need all the features of a “heavy” ORM.

In this post, I will provide an example of creating a generic CRUD repository that leverages the performance of Dapper while providing flexibility for a multitude of scenarios..

Gaining Docker Image Size Efficiencies By Separating Application Layers

Luke Patterson Docker, Java, Problem Solving, Spring Boot, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

Problem

I was pushing a new Docker image tag for each application code commit, and the admins of the private registry were getting annoyed at how much space I was using.

Solution Summary

Yes, I know there are strategies to clean up old tags but I first wanted to reduce the impact of the tags I was pushing. With the right layering strategy, I knew I could reduce the net registry size increase of consecutive tag pushes.

I wanted to only push what had actually changed in the application. In addition to reducing the impact on the registry, having smaller tag deltas could possibly speed up rolling deployments since nodes could potentially have less to download.

Using MongoDB and Spring Boot to Create a RESTful Web Service

Robert Rice Java, Spring Boot, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

Spring Boot is a framework designed to simplify the bootstrapping and development of a new Spring application. The framework takes an opinionated approach to configuration, freeing developers from the need to define a boilerplate configuration. MongoDB is a simple set up and easy to use document database. A RESTful API is an application program interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data.

In this post, I will demonstrate the process of creating a RESTful web application with Spring Boot and MongoDB.

Building a Node.js Service with AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, and Serverless Framework

Matthew Brown AWS, Cloud, JavaScript, Node, Tutorial Leave a Comment

My favorite new technology as a developer is serverless computing. The convenience and cost make it a very compelling choice for running options in the cloud. Especially for proof of concepts or quick ways to prove out ideas. Using serverless computing to get up and running takes very little effort and the costs of running an application in the cloud are minimal. Serverless really empowers developers to act on ideas as quickly as possible.

In this post, I’m going to briefly touch on what serverless computing is and the pros and cons of using it. Then I will build a Node.js service to do CRUD operations using AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, and the Serverless Framework. You can view the finished product on Github.