SAP (Business Objects) has recently released Crystal Reports for Eclipse version 2.0 to provide reporting solutions for Java-based applications. This is available as free to use (within an organization) and has the advantage that it is built on the most tested and reliable component (Java Reporting Component in Crystal Reports) that has been in market for quite a few years now. This article discusses the features of CR4Ev2.0, usability of its designer and API, and starting off with an overview of Crystal Reports product architecture. Crystal Reports - Product Overview Crystal Reports is delivered in three editions with features added upon with each edition and its core feature diagrammatically depicted in Figure 1. Crystal Reports Developer and Server editions have SDKs for Report Integration that aid in report viewing, printing and exporting in applications, custom... (more)

Secrets of Java Serialization

Serialization in Java is an operation in which an object's internal state is translated into a stream of bytes. This binary stream or image of the object is created in an operating system-neutral network byte order. The image can be written to a disk, stored in memory, or sent over a network to a different operating system. This amazing feat requires little or no work on the part of the programmer. Just implement the serializable interface, which contains no methods, and call the writeObject() method on your object, and it's serialized! You can serialize an object to or from any I/O device that Java supports. The serializable interface doesn't contain any code or data; it's a marker interface. If a hierarchy of classes is to be serialized, each class in the hierarchy must implement the serializable interface. All objects that are in an object hierarchy, or "Web of ... (more)

How To Build a Matrix Calculator for Java-Enabled Mobile Phones

The matrix is an indispensable tool for engineers and mathematicians. Matrices are used in many engineering applications for solving linear equations, differential equations of n-order, and so on. Mathematicians have developed matrix arithmetic to help engineers in solving their engineering problems. It is generally very easy to understand and perform. However, due to the mere size of the computations involved, it's prone to errors. Even at the school level, students want to use a calculator to solve (or at least verify the results of) their school assignments on matrices. Some of the scientific calculators support Matrix Arithmetic. These scientific calculators are not always handy. In recent days, mobile phones have become abundant and one may dare to say that virtually every literate person in this world possesses a mobile handset. Many of the present-day mobile h... (more)

JBuilder of All Trades

I run a small custom software development company in Bulgaria called dSoft-Bulgaria Ltd. Established in 2003, our company provides information system design and development. We have a wide range of specialists in different areas and we deploy systems on several different platforms including Windows, Linux, Solaris, .NET, and J2EE. The technology market in Bulgaria is diverse and complicated. The United States and Western Europe outsource their long-term projects to large Bulgarian consulting firms. Other project work in the technology sector is either funded by the government or by European Union incentive programs and these projects go to the larger companies as well. For smaller companies like dSoft-Bulgaria, it's difficult to get these kinds of assignments unless you work as a subcontractor. For these reasons we end up working on small projects with tight budget... (more)

Jini Surrogate as a Platform for J2ME Games

In Part 1 of this article (JDJ, Vol. 7, issue 3) I introduced the idea of using the surrogate architecture within Jini as a platform for J2ME games. I also showed how to start Madison, Sun's reference implementation, and how to connect to it with the provided device simulator. This article continues the surrogate architecture tour and introduces a method through which a J2ME device can use it. To briefly recap, the architecture allows any device, in our case a J2ME one, to connect to a Jini network through a surrogate object that represents the device in the network. The surrogate host provides a mechanism for the devices to register themselves and obtain a context that enables access to the underlying Jini infrastructure. Another important reason for choosing the surrogate architecture is that it allows us to view the device as a single object from the network persp... (more)

Oracle-Sun Nice Cloud Computing Fit, But Maybe Not

It's an obvious point, already commented upon elsewhere, that the respective cultures of Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corp. couldn't be more different. Sun, although brash and aggressive in the mode of its co-founder and chairman Scott McNealy, has produced numerous "characters of the game" other than McNealy over the years. Folks such as co-founders Bill Joy and Andy Bechtolsheim, Ed Zander, James Gosling, John Gage, Radia Perlman, Whitfield Diffie, Bill Raduchal, Greg Papadopoulos, and Bernie Lacroute to name just a precious few. The company was also a famous breeding ground for CEOs, including Zander, Eric Schmidt, Bill Larson, Carol Bartz, current Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, and in the glory of the dot-com days, Kim Polese. McNealy was always clearly the boss, but having grown up around powerful people, always seemed utterly at ease in working with high-wattage person... (more)

Sun’s JavaOne 2009: Business As Usual

In the wake of Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, many of us questioned whether we would actually see the company's annual JavaOne developer conference and exhibition take place. Industry commentators and analysts have been postulating over possible the emergence of a new and more commercially driven iteration of the Java programming language and platform. Initial signs of this becoming a reality have come with the announcement of a new Java Store to showcase applications in front the 800 million desktop Java technology users worldwide. So it seemed that overall, it's business at usual at Sun. Larry Ellison & Scott McNealy at JavaOne 2009 (Photographer: John Todd / Don Feria) According to the company, the Java Store will contain personal productivity, business and entertainment software presented in an simple user interface that allows users to install applica... (more)

EC May Not Clear Oracle-Sun Merger: Reuters

As the clock ticks and the September 3 deadline nears, speculation is rising that the European Commission may throw a spanner into the Oracle-Sun merger and delay things another four months. Reuters said late Tuesday that EC regulators were fretting over the competitive implications of Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL and debating whether to open a full-scale investigation. If the EC decides to probe, the acquisition could get a pass, a fail or get loaded down with conditions, dragging out any resolution until late December, early January. Further delays will give IBM and HP even more time than they’ve already had to rustle Sun’s remaining hardware customers. They’ve been chasing them since Oracle announced its intentions to buy Sun in April. ... (more)

Is 2011 the Year of the Mobile Web?

With January almost over now and conferences like Mobile World Congress and CTIA upon us, here is a thought: In the age of Mobile applications, will 2011 be the year of the Mobile Web apps In this article, we outline the reasons why it will be and welcome your comments. Some initial terminology, We refer to apps on specific technologies like iPhone, Android, Blackberry as native apps and we call apps using web technologies as ‘Web apps’ (more on this below) By Mobile Web, we also include widgets – not just browsing. By Web technologies, we mean w3c technologies but more importantly for our discussion, there are a set of emerging web technologies on the horizon such as – CSS2.1, CSS3, SVG Filters, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, Native JSON, MathML, Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG), Cross-Site XMLHttpRequest, Microformats, Web Worker Threads (source Mozilla) Native ... (more)

Apache Hadoop and WebSphere eXtreme Scale

Hadoop Apache Hadoop is a software framework (platform) that enables a distributed manipulation of vast amount of data. Introduced in 2006, it is supported by Google, Yahoo!, and IBM, to name a few. At the heart of its design is the MapReduce implementation and HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System), which was inspired by the MapReduce (introduced by a Google paper) and the Google File System. MapReduce MapReduce is a software framework introduced by Google that supports distributed computing on large data sets on clusters of computers (or nodes). It is the combination of two processes named Map and Reduce. Note: MapReduce applications must have the characteristic of "Map" and "Reduce," meaning that the task or job can be divided into smaller pieces to be processed in parallel. Then the result of each sub-task can be reduced to make the answer for the original task. ... (more)

Thinking About Enterprise Mobility, Digital Transformation and Doctrine

Last week I was in Europe speaking and teaching enterprise mobility and digital transformation strategies.  I worked with several large multinational companies where I heard the same questions asked, "How do we convince our executives that we must change, and invest in change?  How do we establish a culture of innovation, capable of winning in a world of digital transformation?"  The change they were referring to had to do with the convergence of the physical world with the digital and its impact on markets.  These changes are introducing new ways of selling, marketing, manufacturing and moving products in a digital world that is rapidly being transformed as a result of innovations in social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies.  We are seeing entire industries and marketplaces turned upside down as a result of these innovations.  How can companies deal with ... (more)