J2EE Development Using Open Source and Free Tools

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J2EE Development Using Open Source and Free Tools

• Aaron Mulder
• Chief Technical Officer, Chariot Solutions
• Erin Mulder
• Java Architect, Texcel Inc.

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In this BOF we will
Discuss low-cost J2EE development
environments Compare open source and free tools
to commercial alternatives
Beginning
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Topics We Will Cover

• Operating Systems
• Databases
• IDEs
• Application Servers
• Database Browsers
• Source Code Control
• Bug Tracking
• Mailing Lists
• Optimization Tools
• UML Modelers
• Build Tools
• Test Frameworks

Beginning
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Current Projects

• Relational Financial Systems, a Swing/EJB
  accounting application for private industry
• iCore, a JSP/EJB accounting application for
  government agencies
• Concert, a JSP/EJB convention management system

Beginning
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What We Develop On Today
Beginning
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Not just about cost
In each of these areas, also consider

• Comfort, Productivity, Morale
• Will developers be happy with the tools that are
  chosen?
• Will more advanced tool features speed up the
  project?
• How much time will be lost learning new
  interfaces?
• How portable does the development environment
  need to be?
• Expected production environment
• Do customers / corporate policies dictate certain
  vendors?
• Will testing be easier if you match the
  production environment?
• Will diverse development platforms help avoid
  portability pitfalls?

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Operating Systems
Take a look at

• Linux
• (Windows if already installed on developer
  workstations)

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Operating Systems
Conclusions

• Take application requirements into account
• Use what youre most productive with
• Multiple development platforms within one project
  may help productivity and morale, but can
  sometimes be an obstacle to teamwork

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Databases
Take a look at

• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• Hypersonic

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Databases
Conclusions

• Several worthy free offerings which are easy to
  administrate
• Often the best choice for applications that need
  to ship with an embedded database
• Best to match production database where possible

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IDEs
Take a look at

• Eclipse
• NetBeans
• Forte Community Edition

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IDEs Eclipse Screenshot
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IDEs NetBeans Screenshot
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IDEs Forte C.E. Screenshot
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IDEs
Conclusions

• User interfaces are not always as sleek and
  well-tested
• Latest versions include some great refactoring
  features that arent available in many
  commericial tools
• EJB Features missing

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Application Servers
Take a look at

• Servlet/JSP
• Tomcat
• Jetty
• EJB
• JBoss
• JOnAS

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Application Servers
Conclusions

• Servlet engines ready for prime-time
• EJB containers support EJB 1.1 well, but dont
  fully support EJB 2.0 or clustering
• Administration via config files
• Interfaces could use some polish

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Database Browsers
Take a look at

• DBVisualizer
• TORA (Oracle only)
• TOAD Freeware version (Oracle only)

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DB Browsers DBVisualizer
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DB Browsers TORA
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DB Browsers TOAD
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Database Browsers
Conclusions

• If you work with databases, you should definitely
  be using a database browser
• Free offerings usually fit the bill
• DBAs and developers relying heavily on specific
  features of non-Oracle databases may want to
  invest in a DB-specific tool (for query analysis,
  stored procedure language tools, custom admin
  tools, etc.)

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Source Control
Take a look at

• CVS
• RCS
• CSSC (free SCCS)

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Source Control
Conclusions

• CVS is a clear winner
• Allows concurrent (non-locking) access for
  developers working on the same file
• Many IDEs have built-in support
• Great web interface available (CVSWeb)
• Easily configurable to take action on commits
• Great for secure, remote development

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Bug Tracking
Take a look at

• Bugzilla and variants
• Scarab (in beta)

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Bug Tracking Bugzilla
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Bug Tracking Scarab
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Bug Tracking
Conclusions

• Free offerings get the job done
• Usability issues
• Dont integrate as well with requirements
  tracking, testing and general project management
  products
• Limited workflow support

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Mailing Lists
Take a look at

• Mailman
• Majordomo
• E-mail aliases

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Mailing Lists
Conclusions

• E-mail aliases are simple, but require someone to
  manage
• Mailman is a great mailing list solution
• Simple (un-)subscription procedures for end users
• Web interface for administration
• May need an archiving solution

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Profiling / Optimization
Take a look at

• Suns JVM Xprof Xrunhprof options
• ???

???
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Profiling / Optimization
Conclusions

• Every project can benefit from the built-in JVM
  tools
• Open source profiling/optimization tools are
  scarce and largely outdated
• If you need to spend a lot of time tuning
  performance, invest in a commercial product
• May need a load-generation tool to investigate
  performance under realistic conditions

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Modeling/Design Tools
Take a look at

• ArgoUML
• Poseidon Community Edition (an
  ArgoUML extension)

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Modeling Poseidon Screenshot
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Modeling/Design Tools
Conclusions

• Great for simple modeling needs
• Not as well-known or comfortable to designers as
  commercial products
• Advanced code generation and some useful export
  features not available in free versions
• Can integrate with IDE, but not as tightly as
  some commercial offerings

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Build
Take a look at

• Ant
• Make
• Shell scripts, batch/command files

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Build
Conclusions

• Ant is the clear winner
• Lots of predefined tasks, including source code
  control, building, packaging, deploying, testing,
  documentation
• Same build script supports any OS
• Nested build scripts
• Works well in automated builds

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Testing
Take a look at

• JUnit

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Testing
Conclusions

• Works well for unit testing
• Not really a fit for integration testing
• Doesnt integrate with specs, bug-tracking, etc.
• No automated interface for testing GUIs

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Putting it all together

• Recent IDE releases integrate (or provide
  plug-ins for) many of these tools, including CVS,
  JUnit, Tomcat, Poseidon, Ant
• Ant ships with tasks for CVS, JUnit, mail, etc.
• CVS has a common web interface (CVSWeb) and can
  be integrated with a mailing list to e-mail
  URLs to graphical diffs
• Biggest integration shortfall is spec to test to
  bug tracking workflow

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Conclusion
You dont need to spend a bundle many open
source and free tools are of excellent quality.
Target your budget for maximum productivity
gains, or to support platforms your customers
demand.
End
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More information

• Linux
• www.linux.org
• Eclipse
• www.eclipse.org
• Forte C.E.
• www.sun.com/forte/ffj
• PostgreSQL
• www.postgresql.org
• MySQL
• www.mysql.com
• Hypersonic
• hsqldb.sourceforge.net
• Jetty

Tomcat jakarta.apache.org/tomcat JBoss www.jboss.
org JOnAS www.objectweb.org/jonas DBVisualizer w
ww.minq.se/products/dbvis TOAD www.toadsoft.com
Ant jakarta.apache.org/ant Majordomo www.greatcir
cle.com/majordomo
Mailman www.mysql.com Scarab scarab.tigris.org C
VS www.cvshome.org Bugzilla www.bugzilla.org Arg
oUML argouml.tigris.org Poseidon
C.E. www.toadsoft.com JUnit www.junit.org
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