Enterprise JBoss » Java

SOA or not SOA

Buddy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:56:32 +0000

at my current job, we are evaluating the benefits we would gain from SOA. Personally, I would do SOA rather yesterday than tomorrow. But as always, there are some people out there, that are not really interested into such a drastic change, that a SOA brings with it.

What do I mean by that? Well it is rather easy. I am confronted with co-workers, that do not think like programmers do. Everything we talk about is reduced to the things they know. Not to the potentials that we could achieve. When I explain them what is really possible, they pretend that they understand what I am saying, but in fact they don’t.

Even worse, they talk bad about the idea, because it means big change for them. Even when I tell them, that a SOA would ease their everyday job…

On top of all, we have a consultant, who was there before I took over the apartment, and he wants to stick to the crap he thought of before. He knows nothing about standards and BPEL, instead he implemented his own “Workflow Engine” which has NOTHING to do with a real Workflow Engine.

The hard part is getting the idea across. How to explain, that using an Application Server will cost us money for the licensing, etc.

I have come to the conclusion, that it is important to emphasize on the good things. Have good arguments ready for people that do not think like you do, and that do not want any change.

Get the management on your side. Point out that this is an open standard. It allows you to integrate all those applications, you bought over the years, even the complete legacy ones. The possibilities by using BPEL and a Business Rules Engine are so great, that it is worth all the money. Make sure you get the global message across, and explain why it is important to stop thinking about one single application rather than the system in general.

When you do all that, I believe you will come to the same conclusion as me, and think SOA all the way.

Working on Hupa

Buddy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:43:33 +0000

Hupa is a GWT based Webmail Client. I find this pretty interesting, as it is using a new and promising technology. So I am excited to start working on it. So whenever you guys find the time, you should definitely check it out.

CSS for Programmers

Buddy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:16:35 +0000

I as in being a most time programmer, rather than an designer or UX Designer, always had a very hard time getting around with CSS. Although fascinated by Barrierfree Design, and CSS Zen Garden, I always was struck by different Browser Versions and the fact that floating divs were positioned at the wrong place. I has been a desaster.

Then I bought a Mac Book Pro. Not that that made me a better designer, but I got a hold of itunes. While on Windows I always hated itunes, because I believed it was to overbloated for just listening to music. On the Mac I got a hold of the podcast section and in there I found a Podcast named CSS Tricks. The site is run by Chris Coyier, and that guy is looking at CSS from the right perspective. He is a genius when it comes to understand what to tackle with CSS and when there are other tools that do a better job i.e. jquery.

So if you are a programmer, and want to find out more about how CSS can help your web application, and you are sick of table based Layouts, and forms, then go and check CSS Tricks out. And if yet you still don’t know what CSS based Design Principles can do for you, you should definately go and check CSS Zen Garden out.