Orion learning resources

[Matthew Phillips]

It's time for me to get back to learning J2EE. I am planning on using Orion as my server for this. Does anyone recommend any good resources for learing more about Orion?

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Matthew Phillips
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[Mike Jones]

Matthew,
Why Orion? I'm in the middle of the J2EE learning curve also, and started with Orion. I installed it and prepared to hit the documentation. What documentation? There is a support site but you quickly find out that someone has probably done a very good job building a quality application server, but a very weak job providing documentation. I think the learning curve is substantial enough without having to spend hours trying to work out poorly documented features. I found the Allaire web site supporting JRUN provided much better documentation. They have a JRUN developer version that does not expire after a trial period. I should note that I am just now finally getting to slinging some code, so I will soon be able to report how well it is working for me.
Good luck,
Mike

[Matthew Phillips]

I chose Orion primarily because it is the recommended server for the servlet portion of the Cattle Drive.

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Matthew Phillips
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[Pauline McNamara]

For the same reason, I've been grappling with Orion for the past few days. A couple sites with some support are www.orionsupport.com and www.atlassian.com .
There's an email list at http://www.orionserver.com/subscribe.html , but beware, from some of the emails I've seen it's hard to unsubscribe. They have a searchable archive, though.
The challenge for me with Orion is getting it going on the latest Macintosh OS (good thing I'm not in a hurry). There seems to be a lot more support out there for Tomcat...

[Matthew Phillips]

The challenge for me with Orion is getting it going on the latest Macintosh OS (good thing I'm not in a hurry)[/B]

When are you going to get rid of that awful machine?
Thanks for the links. I am thinking about installing Tomcat for as well.

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Matthew Phillips
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[Pauline McNamara]

He he, believe me, I came really close to going out and buying a PC last week. But the latest Mac OS is for real nerds, you know, it's got Unix underneath all that lovely exterior (mine comes with a special coating to protect it from other people's drool :razz: )
But this morning I finally got Orion up and working, yeeha, so I can moooove on with the Cattle Drive. Got a couple good tips from the folks on the mailing list. And of course, there's those dumb mistakes we learn sooo much from...
I'm still tempted to try out Tomcat, it seems to be something one should be familiar with anyway since it gets used so much.
Cheers,
Pauline
[This message has been edited by Pauline McNamara (edited December 30, 2001).]

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

We used to use JRun on the Cattle Drive, but a couple of things happened. We found that it has lousy support for EJBs and JRun(Allaire) was sold and will probably no longer be supported in the near future.

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

I suppose you've already been to Orion's online documentation page.

[Matthew Phillips]

I have checked out the docs on Orion's site, but I just don't like the way they are organized. It seems like you have to click on too many links to get to even the most basic information.

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

I'll agree with that, Matt. Their web site definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

[John Harby]

There is another resource with Orion. The #java channel on IRC usually has some knowledgable people who answer Orion questions. From time to time the people who actually wrote Orion will join the channel. If you don't know about IRC, go to IRC help

[Matthew Phillips]

Thanks for the link, John. I will check it out.

[Michael Pearson]

Originally posted by Pauline McNamara:
He he, believe me, I came really close to going out and buying a PC last week. But the latest Mac OS is for real nerds, you know, it's got Unix underneath all that lovely exterior (mine comes with a special coating to protect it from other people's drool :razz: )

I have a Mac, and it is my favorite computer. I use an application called Virtual PC to run the Windows OS in emulation when I really need it.
I do have a PC laptop and workstation that I do most of my Java work from, but the Mac lets my wife (read non-nerd, normal person) have her own computer without needing me 24/7 for technical support.

[Michael Pearson]

I've been using WebSphere and WebLogic as my primary learning tools because the documentation provided is top notch. You can always download one of these for free. I like to deploy my test code to different Application Servers to see how each works.
There's no doubt the Orion server seems much faster on my P3/1GHz/512MB workstation. I love the performance.
Thank you for the Orion information links. I'm looking forward to being able to deploy code on Orion with a technique other than trial and error.
Mike