Calgary Java Users Group

Registration Opens..2008 Western Canada Software Symposium returns to Calgary on September 26-28th

2008-09-03T18:14:00.002-06:00

Find all the details at www.nofluffjuststuff.com/conference/calgary/2008/09/index.html.

- Peace

September 10th: Agile Methods and Digital Tables

2008-09-02T18:15:00.002-06:00

September's return to CJUG is being hosted at the University of Calgary courtesy of Dr Frank Maurer and the Agile Software Engineering/e-Business Engineering (ase/ebe) group.

The meeting will be held on the University campus in room 516 of the Information & Communications Technology building, and to allow time for people working downtown to get there will run from 6.00pm until 8.00pm. A campus map is available online at http://www.ucalgary.ca/map/index.html - look for the building labeled ICT.

The meeting will give an overview on current research of the Agile Software Engineering group at the UofC. The AgilePlanner project investigates project planning support for distributed agile teams. Currently, the work focuses on digital tabletops for agile planning. In addition, we investigate integrating project planning with executable specifications/acceptance tests. Executable Acceptance Test Driven Development (EATDD), also called story test driven development, is a process where development of new features only starts after executable tests for it are defined. Acceptance tests act as an executable specification. Agile methods are moving from single teams to whole organization. This raises issue of how to coordinate multiple teams and organize software reuse across multiple projects. Our Agile Product Line Engineering project is developing new apporaches that combine software product lines with agile thinking.

The meeting will consist of short presentations followed by demos of the various tools:

Overview (Frank Maurer)
APDT: Distributed agile planning using digital tables (Xin Wang)
FitClipse: Tool support for executable acceptance test driven development (Shelly Park, Brady Lill, Keynan Pratt)
APJazz: Integrating AgilePlanner with IBM Jazz (Jens Kordowski, Shelly Park)
ActiveStory: Low-fi prototyping and distributed usability testing (Keynan Pratt, Brady Lill)
eHome Monitoring & Control (Maha Shouman, Darren Andreychuk)

Once again, please note that we will not be meeting at 5th Avenue place (downtown) this month.

Mailing Lists

2008-08-08T18:18:00.000-06:00

The main CJUG List is to announce CJUG events, plus one or two related events we think you should know about. We send about 20 - 30 emails a year on this list. Send an email to cjug-subscribe@topica.com to subscribe.

CJUG-Talk is an open list for members to talk about Java and the tech market in Calgary. Honestly it's low traffic, but we do post a number of job opportunities on this list each year. Send an email to cjug-talk-subscribe@topica.com to subscribe.

- Peace

June 11th: Ted Neward on Groovy and Dynamic/Functional languages

2008-06-03T12:10:00.001-06:00

The Busy Java Developer's Guide to Groovy - 60 minutes
Looking for ways to extend your Java programming skills in the dynamic direction without abandoning the platform you've come to love? Groovy, an open-source programming languages being ratified through the Java Community Process as we speak, is a dynamic language with both interpreted and compiled execution modes, complete access to the underlying Java platform and libraries, and a lot of the features that we've come to love in languages like Ruby and Python. Come find out what Groovy can do for you through this introductory, code-first overview.

Ted will also do 30 minutes on why the next five years is about languages - Dynamic/Functional

Ted Neward is an independent consultant specializing in high-scale enterprise systems, working with clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 corporations to small 20-person shops. He speaks on the conference circuit, including the No Fluff Just Stuff Symposium tour, discussing Java, .NET and XML service technologies, focusing on Java-.NET interoperability. He has written several widely-recognized books in both the Java and .NET space, including the recently-released "Effective Enterprise Java". He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, two sons, four video-game consoles, thousands of books (on programming and otherwise), and eight PCs.

Ted is being flown in by the folks at No Fluff Just Stuff who put on the Western Canada Java Software Symposium each year.

Details:
Wednesday, June 11h, 2008
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Wed May 14th: Decentralized Source Code Management

2008-05-07T12:43:00.000-06:00

With development teams becoming more geographically remote or working independently, the centralized source code repository, typified by tools such as CVS and Subversion, is becoming less suited to the way these teams would like to work. Over the last few years, decentralized source code management systems have appeared, and have gained ground rapidly in the Open Source world. So what is different about a "decentralized" system and what makes using one so special? Paul Umbers will give an overview of DSCM systems, then demonstrate how one - Git - can be used not only in the traditional "centralized" way, but much more effectively (even by a single developer) by using it's decentralized features.

Paul Umbers has been in the IT industry for over 20 years, initially with IBM in a variety of roles, more recently as an independent consultant specializing in Internet-based application development. Over the last 10 years he has worked for clients across the aerospace, banking, communications & technology industries ranging from blue-chips to start-ups. He has a Masters Degree in Information Technology and is a member of the British Computer Society, the Institution of Analysts & Programmers, the Agile Alliance & the International Function Point Users Group, and has published technical papers through the IEEE. He is currently the Software Architect for Elluminate Inc, based in Calgary.

Details:
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Tagger Cat Web Application Framework., Wed April 9th

2008-04-02T12:23:00.001-06:00

Grant Genereux has over 20 years experience in the software development field, and has been involved with Java for the last 10 years. He is also one of the original founders of the CJUG.

Grant has extensive experience in the enterprise Java software space, Java products, and consulting.

Recently Grant developed an open source web application framework based upon JSP and Hibernate. The focus of the framework is visual and rapid application development based upon extended metadata, declarative business logic and advanced JSP template techniques.

Grant will demo the highlights of the Tagger Cat framework, and will discuss the rationale and motivation behind developing yet another web framework in this already crowded field.

Time & Location

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

JUnit 4, Wed March 12th

2008-03-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

JUnit4 has been around for a couple of years now, but some companies are still (inherently) wary of the upgrade. Peter will be examining JUnit4, particularly where it extends from and improves upon JUnit3. He will also show how it takes advantage of the latest features of the Java language.

presented by:

Peter Spierenburg is a Systems Analyst for Pason Systems, a local Oil and Gas Services company. He has three years experience with automated testing systems including JUnit.

details:

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

3D CAVEman, Wed Feb 13th

2008-02-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

In May of 2007, the Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics, and Kasterstener Inc. (Red Deer, AB) introduced the CAVEman project.

We have created the world's first object-oriented Atlas of the human body. Currently, we have a model of the adult male anatomy, which consists of more than 3000 Java 3D(tm) objects.

Dr. Sensen will introduce the project and the developments around the characterization of complex genetic diseases and developmental patterns.

Dr. Sensen is the director of the Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine.

Details:

Wednesday, Feb 13th, 2008
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Careers Evening: January 2008

2007-12-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

A Merry Xmas to all our members, and a happy new year!

After a brief Xmas vacation (ie: no meeting in December), CJUG will kick off 2008 with what is now becoming our regular IT Careers Evening at the Knox United Church, 506 4th St SW on Wednesday 9th January between 5PM and 8PM.

There will be a panel of experts from the Calgary IT recruitment agency community you can fire questions at, then the chance to mingle with them and other members. Food & refreshments will be provided for the evening.

Confirmed speakers are:

Jules Levesque from Brightspot Consulting
Alistair Shepherd-Cross from Agile Recruiting
Jennifer Aubin from Material Insight

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Wednesday, Oct 10th, 2007 F8 - The Facebook Development Platform

2007-10-09T12:05:00.000-06:00

F8 - The Facebook Development Platform

Facebook.com is growing crazily. Figures released in Jun 2007 boasted a 270% growth rate over 12 months. The number of registrants is well in excess of 50 million after only three years of being live. It is rumoured that there are more photos on Facebook than on Flickr - the web's leading photography site. Significantly, over 50% of users log in on average at least once a day -
you may well be one of them.

Why? Because Facebook is a social networking site. It keeps friends up to date with friends. A core suite of applications to update your social network with news, share photos and organize events keeps you coming back.

So why is this of interest to you as a Java programmer?

The answer is F8, the Facebook Developer Platform - a new frontier for web apps. With the Facebook Java API you can create your own applications that tap into this vast user base - for fun or profit. The viral growth pattern of Facebook's social networking model could see your application being used by thousands or even millions of users in next to no time.

What does this new platform look like? How can you leverage your skills to take advantage of it? What makes a good Facebook app?

Alan Biggs will get you up and running in the space of about an hour at October's CJUG Presentation.

Now all you need is an idea...

Speaker Bio

Alan Biggs is a software development consultant specializing in GUIs and Usability. Alan has been involved in diverse projects including the Calgary Flames web site, GIS mapping, the Graffiti 2 demo applet for Palm Inc., and enterprise applications at Hewlett-Packard. He is currently a consultant with the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) working on both thin and rich client Java apps. As an undergraduate, Alan was awarded 'Young Software Designer of the Year', and holds a BSc in Computer Science (Software Engineering). He has had articles published in user group magazines and international technical journals.

Details:

Wednesday, Oct 10th, 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Maven References

2007-09-13T09:32:00.000-06:00

Thanks to everyone who turned up last night for my talk about Maven - if you're interested in trying Maven for yourself, here are some resources that I've found useful:

Maven itself is available from the Apache web site at http://maven.apache.org/
The Continuum build server is at http://maven.apache.org/continuum/
The book I mentioned, Better Builds With Maven is available as a free PDF download from http://www.devzuz.com/web/guest/products/resources#BBWM
And, yes, Dave was right, the Maven Developer's Notebook is an O'Reilly book available from http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mavenadn/ in both print format and via Safari Online . The web site for the book is at http://mavenbook.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Better Builds With Maven Wed Sept 12th

2007-09-10T17:17:00.000-06:00

Apache Maven has been an alternative build system to Ant for some time now (it is currently in version 2.0.8), and is used in a significant number of large Open Source projects - Interface 21 have recently converted the Spring Framework to a Maven build, for example. But, many people still do not understand it and consequently fear it, preferring Ant for it's "simplicity". So, what does Maven have to offer over and above Ant, and is it worth the learning curve to get that extra benefit?

By Paul Umbers
Senior Developer
Alberta Electric System Operator

Paul has been in the IT industry for over 20 years, initially with IBM in a variety of roles, more recently as an independent consultant specializing in Internet-based application development. Over the last 10 years he has worked for clients across the aerospace, banking, communications & technology industries ranging from blue-chips to start-ups. He has a Masters Degree in Information Technology and is a member of the British Computer Society, the Institution of Analysts & Programmers, the Agile Alliance & the International Function Point Users Group, and has published technical papers through the IEEE.

Details:

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Western Canada Software Symposium 2007

2007-07-24T15:22:00.000-06:00

The 2007 Western Calgary Software Symposium is returning to Calgary on
September 28-30th. WCSS 2007 will offer four (4) concurrent sessions
for you to choose from. The hot topics covered at WCSS 2007 include:

* Spring 2.0
* Groovy/Grails
* OSGI
* Domain Driven Design
* Annotations
* GWT
* Java 6.0
* SOA/ESB
* SEAM
* REST
* JRuby
and many more!

The speaker line up features:

Venkat Subramaniam, co-author of "Practices of an Agile Developer"
David Geary, co-author of "Core JSF"
Neal Ford, author of Application Architect w/Thoughtworks
Scott Davis, co-author of "GIS for Web Developers"
Jared Richardson, co-author of "Ship It"
Nathaniel Schutta, co-author of "Foundations of Ajax"
Brian Sam-Bodden, "Enterprise Java Development on a Budget"
Ben Hale, Sr. Consultant w/Interface 21
Howard Lewis Ship, creator of Tapestry
Brian Sletten, REST Expert

see the No Fluff Just Stuff 2007 Western Calgary Software Symposium page for details.

- Peace

Taking July and August Off

2007-07-09T15:41:00.000-06:00

Enjoy the all too brief Calgary summer and we'll see you in September.

- Peace

Agile Web Development with Grails

2007-06-06T17:40:00.000-06:00

Our friends from NFJS will be brining in Venkat Subramaniam to speak on Groovy's answer to Rails: Grails. BTW the Calgary NFJS will be September 28 - 30, 2007

Agile development is all about developing code and seeking feedback from your users to make sure you're developing what's relevant. When they suggest changes, those must be affordable and reliable. Grails, along with its facility to develop test driven, is a killer combination for rapidly developing web applications. In this ZePo (Zero PowerPoint) presentation, we will take a test driven approach to developing a small but fully functional web application in Grails. We will cover the fundamental features of Grails along with utilizing other capabilities like Ajax. At the end of this presentation, you not only be confident, but eager to roll your own web application using Grails.

In this session you will learn
* How to create web application using Grails
* Take a Test Driven Approach to developing the application
* Understand Grails Conventions
* Learn how to use the code generators and how to manually create domain
models, controllers, and view
* AJAX your application
* Integrate with database

Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., has trained and mentored more than 3000 software developers in the US, Canada, and Europe. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with agile practices on their software projects, and speaks frequently at conferences and user groups. He is author of ".NET Gotchas" (O'Reilly) and coauthor of "Practices of an Agile Developer" (Pragmatic Bookshelf).

Details
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

- Peace

Rapid Web Development with NetBeans & EJB3 - Wed May 9th

2007-05-03T13:21:00.000-06:00

One of the (claimed) benefits of Ruby on Rails is the rapid development time for web applications. The canonical example (see the March 2006 Meeting , for example) is a simple CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) application for rows in a database table.

In this presentation Tom will demonstrate that you don't have to give up your code-completing, error-detecting-at-compile-time IDE in order to rapidly develop web applications. Tom will use Sun's NetBeans IDE to develop a simple CRUD application and show just how easy it is, and how much more powerful and "enterprisey" than RoR. Other enabling technologies for this are the JSF Web Application Framework and the (relatively new) EJB3 specification, as well as some extra modules for NetBeans.

Our Speaker:

Tom Malaher is a software developer/architect who has worked for a variety of different clients over the years, both as an employee and as an independent consultant. Along the way Tom has used a variety of different languages from APL to Prolog, but mostly C, Perl and Java.

Tom has been using Java since the "Juggling Duke Applet" days in the mid 90's. Most of his projects have been web-based (e-commerce, content management, portals) with a few forays into thick-client GUIs.

Currently Tom is employed by TELUS's IT Outsourcing organization, involved with self-service portals integrating various applications..

Details
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Vote for June CJUG Groovey or Grails?

2007-04-16T13:03:00.000-06:00

Our friends from NFJS will be brining in Venkat Subramaniam at the June CJUG meeting. Here's the thing we can choose between two presentations, please read the descriptions and leave a comment on which you'd prefer. BTW the Calgary NFJS will be October 19 - 21, 2007

Groovy for Java Programmers

Object-oriented scripting languages, or agile dynamic languages, as some like to call those, are gaining programmers' attention. Groovy bring this excitement to the Java platform with its ability to generate byte code. You can use Groovy instead of Java for some parts of your application. By learning it, you can switch between the languages where you consider fit.

In this session we will learn what Groovy is. We will take an example driven approach to look at interesting features. We will see how a piece of code you would write in Java can be written, elegantly, using Groovy. In addition to the current features, we will also discuss the state of the language and tools.

Agile Web Development with Grails

Agile development is all about developing code and seeking feedback from your users to make sure you're developing what's relevant. When they suggest changes, those must be affordable and reliable. Grails, along with its facility to develop test driven, is a killer combination for rapidly developing web applications. In this ZePo (Zero PowerPoint) presentation, we will take a test driven approach to developing a small but fully functional web application in Grails. We will cover the fundamental features of Grails along with utilizing other capabilities like Ajax. At the end of this presentation, you not only be confident, but eager to roll your own web application using Grails.

In this session you will learn
* How to create web application using Grails
* Take a Test Driven Approach to developing the application
* Understand Grails Conventions
* Learn how to use the code generators and how to manually create domain
models, controllers, and view
* AJAX your application
* Integrate with database

So what do you want to hear in June?

Continuations for Flow Control in Request-Response Systems, Wed April 11th

2007-04-04T17:50:00.000-06:00

A continuation is what's left in a computation, a representation of the execution state of a program. When supported in a programming language, continuations provide an elegant mechanism to continue a computation from an arbitrary point in a program. This presentation will provide an introduction to continuations and demonstrate how they provide an elegant alternative to how most web applications (request-response systems) are constructed. While continuations are not a language feature provided by Java, several frameworks attempt to realize the paradigm of continuations in Java

A Presentation by:

Todd Reed, the Manager of Software Development for Call Genie. Todd has been with the company since its inception. Aside from leading the development team, Todd's primary responsibility has been the development of the Call Genie VUI (Voice User Interface). Todd holds a Masters degree from the University of Calgary where his thesis on a optical music recognition system placed second , out of 657 eligible candidates, in the Governor General's Gold Medal competition for research and thesis work.
Todd has been a developer, architect and Entrepreneur in the Calgary Information Technology marketplace since 1996.

Details
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

- Peace

NFJS Montreal

2007-03-13T14:27:00.000-06:00

If you can't wait for No Fluff Just Stuff to come to Calgary in the fall of 2007, then you could check go see the Montreal NFJS in April.

- Peace

Space-Based Architecture and the End of Tier-Based Computing, Wed. March 14th

2007-03-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Most business applications are architected using a tier-based approach (presentation, business logic, data tier). The emergence of powerful and new commodity HW and the introduction of SOA/Grid architectures touts the promise of achieving true linearly-scalable systems at a lower cost. However, as we shall see in this presentation, these new platforms and architectures are not aligned with the existing tier-based approach, which is by definition centralized and static.

During the presentation, a new approach will be introduced - Space Based Architecture (SBA). It is basically a combination of Distributed Caching, SOA and Grid concepts combined into a single coherent architecture optimized for high-performance data-intensive applications, which transforms existing tier-based applications into linearly and dynamically scalable services. Towards the end we will also discuss a real-life example of a financial application that was built using the SBA. We will explore the patterns used to achieve this goal and explore how it can be applied to other applications with similar requirements.

Presented by:
Owen Taylor
Director - Technical Communications
GigaSpaces Technologies, Inc

As Director of Technical Communications with GigaSpaces Technologies Inc, Owen translates the new architectural concepts and technical capabilities of space-based solutions into accessible formats so that technologists can adapt them rapidly into their environments and gain their maximum benefit. Owens’ areas of expertise include J2EE design patterns and performance tuning of J2EE applications. Prior to GigaSpaces, Owen worked as Principal J2EE Product Specialist with Identify Software. Before that Owen acted as Senior Enterprise Architect with The Middleware Company where he specialized in B2B, EJB and J2EE training and consulting with a special emphasis on webMethods B2B server and, BEA.s WebLogic Servers. Owen has over the years delivered architecture consulting, mentoring and training to dozens of companies and advised them on how to best architect new applications ranging from e-commerce to stock-trading. Many of his engagements involved developing application prototypes on-site.

Details
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

db4o - Tuesday Feb 20th

2007-02-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

We normally meet on the second Wednesday of the Month, but this year that's Feb 14th. As most of us have more important commitments to attend to that night, we've moved the meeting to Tuesday Feb. 20th.

db4o is the only native object database for both Java and .NET, available under open source and commercial licenses. 15,000 registered community members and more than 600,000 downloads make db4o the world's most popular object database. db4o is used by some of the world's most innovative companies, including Boeing, BMW, Bosch, Seagate, and Intel.

# Persistence in minutes
# Objects are stored as they are
# Automatic management of the database schema
# No changes to classes to make them storable
# Seamless Java (or .NET) language binding
# Installation by adding a single 500Kb library file (Java jar or .NET DLL)
# A single database file
# S.O.D.A. (Simple Object Database Access)
# Native Queries

Bio:

Travis Reeder is a Sr. Software Engineer at db4objects Inc., the creator of the popular open source Object Database db4o. He was previously a Lead Software Engineer at Siebel Systems and also worked as a consultant helping companies build enterprise applications using Java technology. Travis is a committer and a member of the Project Management Committee for Apache MyFaces. Travis holds a Computer Science degree from the University of Calgary in Canada.

details:
Tuesday Feb 20th
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

- Peace

Calgary Job Market Expert Panel Wed Jan 10th

2007-01-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

What does the Calgary Java and IT Job Market for 2007 Hold? I have no idea, but we're bringing in some people who can talk about the trends and where they see them going in 2007. Our panel will be:

Bronwen Scott, Managing Director S.i. Systems Calgary
Denise Richards, Principal Meritas Recruiting
Jules Levesque, Account Executive with BrightSpot Consulting
Michael Sikorsky, Chief Viking of Cambrian House

They'll each share some thoughts about what's happening in the Calgary IT market and then we'll open the floor for Q&A. If you've got career questions here's your chance to ask a panel of experts.

Please note the change in location for this meeting:

Knox United Church Parlor
506 Fourth Street SW

Use the 4th Street Entrance
Down one flight of stairs and turn right.

5 - 7 pm Wed Jan 10th 2007.

- Peace

ICEfaces is now open source.

2006-11-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Calgary's own ICESOFT has open sourced their AJAX JSF framework ICEfaces. See ICEfaces.org for details.

- Peace

AJAX Building Blocks - Wed Nov 8th

2006-11-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Patrick Reilly will be covering AJAX Building Blocks:

Ajax is a collection of technologies which allow developers to create web applications that rival the interactivity of their "installed-client" competitors. This collection includes: standards-based presentation using HTML and CSS, dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model, data interchange using XML and JSON, asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest, and JavaScript binding everything together. While various free and commercial frameworks are available to ease Ajax development, there's no substitute for a deeper understanding of the underlying technology; accordingly, this talk will focus on the nuts and bolts of Ajax listed above. Along the way, we'll dissect some real-world examples, demo some useful development tools and discuss performance tradeoffs.

Speaker Bio:

Patrick Reilly is an independent software developer. For the last 8 years, he's been building applications for the telecommunications, financial, electric utility and airline industries and has spent the last year building richer web applications with Ajax.

Details:

Wednesday, November 8, 2006
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Fifth Ave Place
West Tower
2nd floor conference room (Northwest corner)
237 - 4th Avenue Southwest

Comments and Perma Links Working Again

2006-10-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry I just discovered they were down. Fixed. Comment at will.

- Peace