David Hibbs

Hayrol Reyes Mejía wrote:
Also, ICEFaces is fully integrated with Facelets and you can forget abut use of JSP at all ... I really love facelets. On RichFaces even though you can do same things you can do with ICEfaces, you need to do more NO productive work to create something. The components into RichFaces looks to be most customizable, but again you need to work even with (x,y) coordinates, i.e.

Another thing I like from ICEFaces is the AJAX Push technology, I never have seen something so powerfull (in that topic) and too easy to configure and develop.

RichFaces not only works with SEAM, it's nicely integrated with SEAM. The chosen view technology for SEAM is... facelets.

Also, newer versions of the RichFaces framework DO provide an AJAX Push mechanism.

I'm not saying that one is strictly better than the other... just to make sure you're looking at all the factors involved!

harish Rudra wrote:Thank you for replying whether Aspose which you told is an open source. If it is opensource i am pretty happy .Because I am doing an application in which complex doc operation should be done.thanks in advance

No, Aspose is not an open source technology. In fact, from some stack traces that I've seen they employ an obfuscator to protect their product -- a logical decision if you ask me!

They do allow a free trial where Aspose simply applies a watermark to all generated documents indicating it is unlicensed.

We did a lot of searching and quite frankly this is the best solution available -- but it has its price. If you're working on an open source (i.e. not for profit) project, this is probably not the solution for you.

As Ulf pointed out, working with RTF may be an option for you -- but realize that the RTF specification is... extensive. You can download the entire spec here: http://tinyurl.com/yhsgqb5

Will Gorman wrote:
Regarding detailed pricing and information on joining the partner program, you would need to contact one of our sales representatives:
http://www.pentaho.com/partners/join_now/

aha, I found the offers page:
http://www.pentaho.com/offers/

Seems pricy for us right now!

Can you give any indication of what the costs/process is for joining the partner program or for including Pentaho as part of an OEM offering?
(Does the book get into this at all?)

I acknowledge that this is something that is likely negiotiable... but I'm curious of a ballpark feel before opening any serious inquiries.

It's neither free nor open source, but there's a really awesome product called Aspose that allows complete manipulation of the MS Word object model. I've used it a fair amount, and it's pretty impressive.

http://www.aspose.com/categories/java-components/aspose.words-for-java/default.aspx

Will Gorman wrote:Hi Leandro,

Our enterprise edition is a great value. It's about a tenth of the cost of our proprietary competitors. As an enterprise customer, you get great customer support on our open source products, as well as additional enterprise only software including our Dashboard Designer which lets you design quick dashboards, Enterprise Console which lets you manage the BI Server, and we just announced a new Analyzer Enterprise product, which makes it really easy to build cross tabs and do drag and drop analysis online. As a paying customer, you also get certified builds, indemnification, and more.

That raises an interesting question... where does the free/open source end? i.e. I infer that the Dashboard Designer and the Analyzer Enterprise are NOT open source -- is that correct?

How does the OEM/Parnter program compare with the Enterprise option -- do you receive the same benefits?

Andy Lester wrote:Here's a blog post from last year on the topic called "Don't fight to stay average."

Nice entry. I'll take a moment to add to your comment on the "BlackBerry Thank-You" and why this is a No-Go.

I may not be a "Millenial" but I'm not all that far off. I do understand quick responses are the norm. Thank you notes are NOT the right place for a quick response. To start, I'll directly second Andy's comment that :

Andy Lester wrote:I think it tells the recipient that you're just cranking through job prospects hoping to find something that happens to fit.

I'll continue by explaining what a delayed note in this case does.

First, it tells the employer that you're still thinking about the interview and what was discussed. If you send a note right away, it's no surprise that you're still thinking about it... for all I know, you were still in the office when you wrote it! You could even have drafted it while waiting, and then simply hit send the moment you walked out the door. (See, I told you I know how these things work.) If I get an email the next day saying "Thanks " and what you really liked about your visit, it leaves a nice warm fuzzy.

Second, it keeps your name in front of that potential employer. If you're running through resumes and you see each name once--even if it's only half a dozen resumes--then each one has very little chance to stick with them. If you put your name in front of that person again, along with a reminder of what you discussed, it keeps you in memory. If I sit down to make a decision and I can't remember who you were or what we discussed, you didn't impress me enough and I won't hire you.

To sum up... Here's the key: Every person I've hired (or recommended to hire) has had something in particular that made them memorable.

Sumit Bisht wrote:@andy
Thanks for the advice.
I have a doubt; can bringing in code samples be misconstructed as having some external help?

This isn't an exam, it's an interview. It's your one and only chance to show off what you know and can do.

I have one person working for me who brought copies of his award notices from his previous employer. He didn't just put it on his resume, he was prepared to show the evidence!

If you can show me some of your code and explain why you chose a certain approach, how it works, etc, it will be much more impressive.

Andy points out hard-copy, but I can see the limitations. What may be even more impressive would be if you can bring your laptop with an IDE and readily and quickly browse your work, class to class! Some highly secure environments may not allow you to bring your own laptop onsite... but really, there aren't all that many of those and we're talking about an entry level interview. Besides, you can always ask beforehand "Is it OK if I bring a laptop along to show you some code and maybe take some notes?"

(Wow, wouldn't that be impressive, Andy?!)

Gregg Bolinger wrote:I find it humorous that companies ask these kinds of questions and expect to find good engineers.

I find myself straddling the line on this one. Like Gregg, I groan a bit when I hear of these questions and lament a bit when someone is passed over simply because they don't know the optimal answer. On the other hand, I can also see it as useful--but not in the way others seem to have used it.

What I find important is to see how the person thinks. I want to know that the resulting solution will actually match the problem, not the assumed problem. Do they go straight to the (textbook) solution, or can they reason through it? Do they seek clarification?

Active questions help me to see that they know there are always hidden requirements or considerations and that they think about their solution. For example, if I asked this question and my candidate paused and then asked...

"Is the array sorted?"
"Can the array contain negative numbers?"
"How big can the array be?"
"Is memory use a consideration?"

I would find it much more compelling than if they just slapped out the code for a brute force search or a binary search. If they at least know the advantages/disadvantages of their solution, that's a good sign! On the other hand, if they still can't come up with a solution at all--good or bad--that's compelling in a different direction...!

Andy Lester wrote:
Consider the situation where I'm a hiring manager looking at two entry-level programmers. Both have just been certified, but Clare brought some sample source code to a working application, plus the demonstrated enthusiasm and commitment of having doing so. Which of you is going to be less of a risk for me to hire? All other things being equal, I'll hire for enthusiasm and demonstrable work.

This is some great advice. I've interviewed and hired a lot of programmers over the years, and I have yet to interview someone who walked in with some of their code in hand. Yet, it should be self-apparent!

When I was looking for my first Java position, I had pretty much just taught myself Java -- but I had used those skills on an open source project. Sure, I had a hard time getting in the door... I was an experienced C/C++ guy looking for a Java job without professional Java experience. But when I DID get in for an interview, I was able to point to my code and say "Look, it's all right there on SourceForge" and show it to them. I was at that job for 5+ years (and some very major enterprise projects) when my next job fell into my lap.

As noted, I've never had anyone walk in with code in hand... but it certainly would have left an impression on me if they did!

aha! Figured it out... I just needed to force my page size control to refresh on the ajax server response as well:

Page Size: <h:selectOneMenu id="dataPager" value="#{DataPageSize.primaryRowCount}" > <a4j:support event="onchange" reRender="dataPager,rfpResponsesList"/> <f:selectItem itemLabel="5" itemValue="5"/> <f:selectItem itemLabel="10" itemValue="10"/> <f:selectItem itemLabel="25" itemValue="25"/> </h:selectOneMenu>

I'm experimenting with SEAM/RichFaces and am working on a data grid page. I've figured out a lot of the basic functionality and really like it!

What I want to be able to do is let the user dynamically change the number of items on the data grid. This seems like it should be easy enough... I just set up my table, the scroller, and then create a session-scoped selection component for picking the page size. In fact, it's so easy that it works... the first time I change the page size. After that, the value gets updated on the object (I can see it in the SEAM debug console) but the datagrid no longer refreshes. Anyone have any input on what may be wrong?

The page size component:
@Name("DataPageSize") @Scope(ScopeType.SESSION) @Startup public class DataPageSize implements Serializable { private int primaryRowCount = 10; public int getPrimaryRowCount() { return primaryRowCount; } public void setPrimaryRowCount(int rowCount) { this.primaryRowCount = rowCount; System.err.println("setPrimaryRowCount!"); } public DataPageSize() { super(); } }

The relevant .xhtml segments:
Page Size: <h:selectOneMenu id="dataPager" value="#{DataPageSize.primaryRowCount}" > <a4j:support event="onchange" reRender="rfpResponsesList"/> <f:selectItem itemLabel="5" itemValue="5"/> <f:selectItem itemLabel="10" itemValue="10"/> <f:selectItem itemLabel="25" itemValue="25"/> </h:selectOneMenu> <rich:extendedDataTable value="#{rfpResponsesList.resultList}" var="_rfpResponses" id="rfpResponsesList" rows="#{DataPageSize.primaryRowCount}" reRender="ds" > <rich:datascroller id="ds" align="left" renderIfSinglePage="false"></rich:datascroller>

Originally posted by Frank Zammetti:

I'm not sure what you meant by static vs. dynamic presentation... I think they're all examples of dynamic presentation in that the UIs are updated on the fly. Did you mean something else?

Yes, sorry for the confusion -- this is what I meant. I meant displays updated on the fly vs the kind of thing you see in a traditional sense where an "answer" is generated and used to build a single response, i.e. a table/grid.

I know that Dojo provides some really nice widgets for layout, which could be used independently from the dynamic content. Sometimes that's all that's required, but far more often it makes sense to have the presentation dynamic. For example, displaying the details of a single, specific contact may not require the full dynamic display process.

I think it's probably safe to assume that the "Practical Dojo" projects include Ajax-enabled features. So, I'm curious...

First, is this a valid assumption? Second, do the examples show the differences between what a static dojo presentation and one that uses the Ajax support?

I checked out the TOC for JBoss in Action and one of the items that gave me pause (made me go 'Hmmm') was mention of the "JBoss Microcontainer". As I really hadn't heard about this previously (I primarily work with WAS, Tomcat, and BEA), I did a quick google search and came up with this very brief write-up:

http://www.jboss.com/products/jbossmc

I gather that this provides an IOC mechanism, but the JBoss page seems to indicate it is more unique than this.

What makes this "Microcontainer" unique, and what are some concrete examples for what I might use it? Does the book get into these issues?