Is OCMJEA Version 6 Still Relevant for Applications with Mobile Front End?

[L Foster]

Hello. I am wondering if this certification is relevant in these days of mobile tiers and technology? If it does not directly pertain, then is enough of the exam(s) applicable outside its own tight topics to make the acquired knowledge from the studying useful for implementing things that are NOT JSF? Indeed, does the test even deal with JavaFX?
Thanks in advance.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Hello,

On Part 1 of Java EE 6 exam I did not see any JavaFX related questions. Frontend questions included Java Servlets, JSP, JSF and Swing technologies.

On Part 2 it will depend on your assignment, if JavaFX is applicable you're free to add it to the project.

Best regards,
MZ

[Amritendu De]

How many are using Java FX or JSF to build mobile applications? Most I see are using native apps for iPhone and Android. For the rest of the vendors mobile browser support is implemented. In my current project that we have architect-ed we are using REST for the back-end and supporting four front-ends - Android, iPhone, mobile browser and online(web).

The assignment I had in 2009 did not specifically mention about requirements to support mobile but it is nice to have such flexibility in the architecture to support mobility. You cannot say the exam has gone out of date because there are still lot of applications out there which does not have mobile requirements.

[L Foster]

Thanks for the responses. I ask these questions because I had looked into OCMJEA for EE5 earlier (I am probably going to go after OCMJEA for EE6 in the days ahead), but one of the things I did not like was all the mention of JSFs, and a general feel that Swing was being deprecated with no desktop alternative. I had gotten this from reading a book I found on Safari (long time ago--I forget the title). But I had never seen a JSF-oriented project up to that time. All were either Swing or something like Struts/Struts2. Lately I have been working with Swing again, and not seeing even any web.

But I digress. Your input reassures me that there is still plenty to learn from this path. I am actually looking forward to learning something about JSF, as I have heard good things about how it facilitates rapid development. Ideally, this test would include something about both what choices to make in building for Mobile, and when to/not to use JavaFX.

Regards

[Dieter Quickfend]

Indeed, JSF has become a mature technology and is the number one choice for many EE applications these days. There are still a lot of enemies, which is not surprising given the problems of early versions. But I enjoy working with it and I see very few reasons left to develop a new application using Servlets&JSP's, other than statelessness and pure performance. Also, don't let people convince you that Swing is deprecated, or out of date. It is definitely not so. However, these days there are a number of frameworks that facilitate/improve Swing development (check out the NetBeans Platform, for example).

As far as the mobile tier is concerned, JSF is a very good, standardized option to create Web applications with a mobile front-end. However, there are other valid options in that style, such as GWT(client) or Vaadin(server), or one of the quickly emerging JavaScript-based fat browser client web frameworks. The basic question to ask yourself if you want to choose between these frameworks, is how much you aspire to do on the client, and how much on the server. JavaFX, with its 3D viewroot, to my eyes only becomes a real contender if the SuD has the highest graphic richness in view requirements, and/or if you have the development resource potential to provide that richness.

The Architect Certification is not made with any specific view technology in mind, the idea is that you have to be able to design a SuD and choose the right technologies for the given scenario, no matter which technologies those are. Make sure you're making your choice based on the right criteria and not just using JavaFX as a Golden Hammer.