Each year the JavaOne Conference hosts Java University, a program where developers can take courses on a variety of Java technologies and other technologies. While many developers come to the conference to see where technologies are going, what people are doing with them, and where they can fit into the scheme of things, many developers come for some down-and-dirty programming instruction. That's what they get at Java University. These great technical training courses offer in-depth information on the hottest development topics in today's market and are created and delivered by Sun-certified instructors. Only holders of Conference Plus Passes and Java University Passes can participate in these sessions.
This year, Sun Microsystems has a number of other courses that focus on different technologies besides Java technologies, such as Ruby on Rails, Ajax and Dojo Toolkits, and Groovy and Grails. Many of the courses focus on Web 2.0 or Java EE technologies, but desktop technologies, such as Swing, are also available. Java University is jam-packed with meaty courses. These are just a few:
- JRuby and Rails
- Groovy and Grails
- MySQL
- Filthy Rich Clients (great stuff you can do with Swing)
- Java ME and Mobile Devices
- Java Persistence API
- Secure Java Web Services
The courses are set up to take place the first day of the conference, and are divided into morning, afternoon, and bonus evening courses. Java University Program attendees have the option of attending a full-day course or selecting two half-day courses in addition to the many other courses. This year Java University is at the Intercontinental Hotel. Attendance and enthusiasm run high at Java University. Most of the courses require at least some programming experience with Java technologies, though not all do.
The day begins with the many Java University attendees hanging out, sharing coffee and juice, in the large areas outside the rooms. Last year the courses were held in Moscone Center with us sitting in hard chairs behind tables, but this year with the courses being held in the hotel, we sat in comfortable, padded high-back chairs. I must admit the atmosphere was nicer. As usual, a big screen was in front for the instructional presentation, and speakers mingled with attendees as they trickled in.
I find the courses nicely organized, and presentations easy to follow, and this year was no different in that respect. What's great about these courses, too, is that we each receive a printed booklet that contains all the code covered in the presentation. That makes it so much easier to take the information back to the computer where we can put all this great stuff to work.
This year I attended the Web 2.0: Building Dynamic Web Sites with Ajax and Dojo the Toolkit course, which covered the following:
- Overview of the technologies
- Essential tools for development
- Introduction to Ajax
- Introduction to Dojo
- Ajax with Dojo
This is a great basic course that detailed exactly what Web 2.0 is, types of participants using and influenced by these technologies, and where you can get community examples. The course kicked off with the background and purpose of Web 2.0. The speakers gave a bit of background on Web 1.0, starting with Gopher and FTP; Web 1.5, which introduced discussion forums and web mail; and then Web 2.0 with sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia, and photo sharing. In other words, Web 2.0 makes it possible to create social sites that are interactive and easy to use.
This is where Ajax enters the picture. The point of Ajax is to deliver information quickly and smoothly, and improve the user experience. Ajax is a technique, not a specific technology, and there are many advantages to using Ajax in web sites, especially regarding making server requests load more smoothly.
The course went into various ways these technologies are being used, types of content involved, and then the talk launched into the specifics of the technologies. Ajax has been the focus of much confusion and interest to developers, and it was really nice to get a breakdown of which technologies Ajax makes use of, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML/JSON.
With the various technologies, the speakers checked with the audience to get an idea of how many developers in the room already had experience and knowledge in these areas. When few hands went up, they gave more detail than when everyone knew the technologies.
When you have to combine many technologies for a web page, especially using JavaScript, a good debugger is needed. We saw a really great demo of Firebug. Firebug is a JavaScript debugger that is built into the Firefox browser, and has a console to log statements to. There is also a lightweight version of Firebug that will run in all browsers. Firebug has HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript views that allow you to easily see and correct the code for these different technologies. Firebug makes it possible to correct code right in the console, test it, run it, and then copy and paste the corrections into the original file. You can edit your CSS on the fly as well. You can also view how your DOM tree has changed, and what is really happening. A very useful debugging tool!
Detailed information on the Document Object Model (DOM) was useful, detailing exactly what it is, what DOM nodes are, the DOM of a web page, accessing a DOM node, properties, events, and event handling, all with code examples. Explanation was given for dealing with DOM on its own, which could be a major pain, and then doing the same things with toolkits, which makes development so much easier.
Of course, using Ajax with the Dojo toolkit is much easier than trying to handle DOM without tools. Ajax with Dojo provides a number of simple functions with a tandem complement of parameter, helps prevent memory leaks, and returns a dojo.Deferred object for consistent async handling across the library.
Throughout the talk and demos, attendees were able to ask questions and get answers, many of which brought up security questions and how to deal with those issues. Code examples and live demos exemplified speakers' explanations, and the booklet is an excellent resource for later use.
Fortunately, developers can get what they need for Ajax technologies through Open Source Software:
- Development: The NetBeans IDE
- Server side: GlassFish Application Server and Java Standard Edition (SE) Development Kit
- Client side: JavaScript libraries like Dojo Toolkit, JavaScript Debuggers, Mozilla, Firefox, DOM Inspectors
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