Author Archives: ron

Maven and skinny wars

Posted on September 20, 2009 by ron

Maven is a great build system, but sometimes limitations come up that can drive you crazy.  One such limitation is support for building “skinny war” files.  Granted, I don’t think it’s the most common configuration, but for certain types of … Continue reading →

Posted in Java, Tools | Tagged | Leave a comment

Public mashup and data feed APIs

Posted on August 2, 2009 by ron

I’m doing some research for a possible venture.  A part of this venture would fall into the mashup category – pulling information from other sites and services, and combining it in a unique way.  Following are my initial notes on … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Development, Web | Leave a comment

JSR 303 & Hibernate validation framework

Posted on July 14, 2009 by ron

I was recently looking for a validation framework, and came across the work that has been done lately for JSR 303 (latest version of the spec here). JSR 303 defines a standard meta-data model and API for validation of JavaBeans/POJOs. … Continue reading →

Posted in Java | Tagged | 1 Comment

Grails security

Posted on June 1, 2009 by ron

I’m working an a Grails-based project which requires security, as pretty much every web application does. My high level requirements are: Role-based access control Database-based authentication (passwords stored in database) Simple to use Good documentation Ability to model permissions for … Continue reading →

Posted in Grails | Tagged | 1 Comment

Idea 8.1 & Grails 1.1

Posted on May 1, 2009 by ron

I’ve been working with Grails again lately after not using it for a while. Last time I was using Grails was a pre-1.0 release about a year ago. Even then it was an extremely productive framework, but it was rough … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Grails | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Setting up a virtual private server

Posted on February 2, 2009 by ron

I’ve had a dedicated server at a hosting provider that I’ve used to host applications and sites for years. I got a great price on the hosting package and it’s worked well, but the server’s growing long in the tooth … Continue reading →

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Mercurial and Subversion : What’s working for me

Posted on December 22, 2008 by ron

One popular use of DVCS systems such as Mercurial and GIT is as “super clients” to Subversion, at least until more projects get on the DVCS bandwagon. You get most of the benefits of the DVCS and can still work … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Development, Tools | 2 Comments

MyFaces and JBoss built-in implementation

Posted on October 28, 2008 by ron

I’m working on a WebSphere-based application, and need to get it running on my Mac. RAD isn’t available for the Mac, and even if it was, it’s so far behind in Eclipse revisions that I can’t use most of the … Continue reading →

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Semantic documentation markup languages: XDocs, DocBook, Dita

Posted on August 13, 2008 by ron

I’ve been using the Maven XDoc markup language for documenting design on a client project. Looking into editors for XDoc led me to taking a closer look at DocBook, and Dita, a relative newcomer. All of these formats allow you … Continue reading →

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Change Management and Bug Tracking

Posted on May 21, 2008 by ron

A project I’m involved with is in need of a change management tool, so I’m in the process of re-evaluating the landscape of open source change management tools, and testing a couple out. Change management is one of those software … Continue reading →

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