Server-side Sessions

Whether you're adding Ajax to your existing infrastructure or building a rich Web application from scratch, we've got you covered. Discover how to Ajax-ify your Struts apps, use Google Web Toolkit to improve your J2EE apps and see what's new and cool in DWR 3.

View all Server sessions or click a title below to read its abstract.

 

Ajax on Struts: Coding an Ajax Application with Struts 2

with Ted Husted, Apache Struts group; Author, Struts in Action

Ajax libraries like Yahoo User Interface (YUI) and Dojo provide great support for writing user interfaces, but a UI still needs to interact with a business logic and data access layer. Rich applications need a rich business layer.

In this session, we look at writing a new Struts 2 application from square one, using the YUI Library on the front end, and Struts 2 on the backend. YUI provides the glitz and the glamour, and Struts 2 provides the dreary business logic, input validation, and text formatting.

Plus, you discover:

  • Basics of the Yahoo User Interface (YUI) Library;
  • Business services Struts can provide to an Ajax UI;
  • How to integrate an Ajax UI framework with a Struts 2 business framework.

 

New Features in DWR Version 3

with Joe Walker, Creator, Direct Web Remoting (DWR); Director, Support & Development, SitePen

This session looks at the new features of DWR version 3, including server proxy APIs and integration with Dojo, script.aculo.us, Pub/Sub message passing and integration with JMS and the OpenAjax Hub, image and binary file support for both upload and download, support for JSON and Bayeux and integration with Google Gears.

In this session you see:

  • The new features of DWR version 3;
  • How to use DWR in any Web site.

 

Saving Your Investment: Transforming J2EE Applications into Web 2.0 using GWT

with Dietrich Kappe, CTO and Co-founder, Pathfinder Associates, LLC

In this session we discuss the pressures of keeping pace with Web 2.0 entrants into the marketplace. Rewriting is expensive, adding Ajax widgets can result in a complex, unmaintainable application, and both require you to hire scarce JavaScript developers.

Now, enter Google Web Toolkit - which allows you to write Ajax interfaces in Java and layer a desktop-like interface on top of your Web app. This sesson teaches you how to analyze the service profile of your application, to change HTML views into XML or JSON services, and to resist opening security holes by putting state and control flow logic into the client.

In this session you learn how to:

  • Use Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to layer a desktop-like interface on top of your Web app;
  • Avoid opening security holes by putting state and control flow logic into the client;
  • Leverage the GWT SDK;
  • Better leverage the resources you have;
  • Analyze the service profile of your application;
  • Change HTML views into XML or JSON.

 

Struts on Ajax: Retrofitting Struts with Ajax Taglibs

with Ted Husted, Apache Struts group; Author, Struts in Action

Struts is Java's most popular Web framework. Ajax is the Web's hottest user interface. What happens when we put Struts on Ajax?

Many frameworks, including Struts 2, are wrapping Ajax calls in conventional tags or components. Leveraging Ajax in an existing application can help developers enhance a user interface without a major rewrite.

In this session, Ted stirs some Ajax wizardry into a conventional Struts application, without all the sweat and bother of writing JavaScript. Struts 1 and Struts 2 both support Ajax taglibs that look and feel just like ordinary JSP tags. If it's just a little bit of Ajax that you want, these tags will get you around the learning curve in record time.

In this session you explore:

  • How to use the Java Web Parts taglib with Struts 1;
  • How to use the Ajax YUI plugin with Struts 2;
  • How to integrate Ajax features with Struts 1 or Struts 2;
  • Basics of the Java Web Parts taglib;
  • Basics of the Struts 2 YUI plugin.