A Java geek

Distributing desktop webapps via Docker

Two weeks ago, we studied how to replace desktop Java apps with Java webapps. Now is the time to think about distributing such desktop webapps. The current trend now is to use Docker. I assume readers are at least familiar with the technology. The most straightforward way is to create a WAR and deliver it inside a Tomcat image. Another option is to create a fat JAR with Tomcat embedded as per the previous post, and run it inside a image with the JRE only.

Development

Agile cargo cult

One of my first talk at an international conference was about cargo cult in the Java world. The story behind cargo cult is quite interesting: indigenous peoples were living their life on some islands in the Pacific Ocean. During World War II, both Japanese and American forces happened to come to those islands which were important to their respective military supply chain.

Java

Webapps desktop integration

Though I fancy myself a backend developer, I love the frontend. It’s always magic to visualize what you coded. Believe it or not, 15 years ago, I wrote JavaScript to dynamically add rows to an HTML table for Internet Explorer 5.5. That was called Dynamic HTML. But I was still a Java developer at heart.

Development

Don't git push

I admit the title is a bit provocative. Of course, you need to push your changes. I should probably have renamed it Don’t just git push, or Don’t simply git push. But I’m sucker for clickbait titles. My point is, you should never ever type: git push This begets the question, why? Answering this question is the subjet of this post.

JavaEE

Metrics with Spring Boot 2.0 - Counters and gauges

Last week, I wrote about how one could migrate metrics from Spring Boot 1.5 to Spring Boot 2.0. This week, it’s time to check the different metrics available in Spring Boot 2.0 and how to create them. Meter There are 4 main types of metrics available: CounterGaugeTimerDistribution summary To keep the post readable in one piece, it will be limited to Counter and Gauge All metrics inherit from the base Meter class. A Meter provides basic measurement storage capabilities.

JavaEE

Metrics with Spring Boot 2.0 - Migration

I’ve already written about the excellent monitoring features available in Spring Boot. In Spring Boot 2.0, there has been a major rewrite regarding how the /metrics endpoint is designed. This is the subject of this post.

Development

Check the quality of Kotlin code

Last week, I read a post about Kotlin code analysis, thanks to the Kyiv Kotlin UG. I stumble upon a lot of similar posts: they show how to hack into the build to produce a text report showing quality issues. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I claim this is not proper software engineering. It’s a one-time hack: it has no value over the long term. Code quality is a serious subject, and should be treated accordingly.

Java

My first impressions about Graal VM

Last week was the release of Oracle’s GraalVM. As stated on the website: GraalVM is a universal virtual machine for running applications written in JavaScript, Python 3, Ruby, R, JVM-based languages like Java, Scala, Kotlin, and LLVM-based languages such as C and C++. GraalVM removes the isolation between programming languages and enables interoperability in a shared runtime. It can run either standalone or in the context of OpenJDK, Node.js, Oracle Database, or MySQL.

Java

Spring Boot 2.0 actuator change analysis

Some years ago, I discovered the Spring Boot actuator: Spring Boot includes a number of additional features to help you monitor and manage your application when it’s pushed to production. You can choose to manage and monitor your application using HTTP endpoints, with JMX or even by remote shell (SSH or Telnet). Auditing, health and metrics gathering can be automatically applied to your application.

Nicolas Fränkel's blog