Archive for June, 2004

JDesktop Network Components (JDNC):Java technology innovation on the desktop

Tuesday, June 29th, 2004

Sun announced the JDNC at 2004 JavaOne Conference.
via JDNC
The goal of the JDesktop Network Components (JDNC) project is to significantly reduce the effort and expertise required to build rich, data-centric, Java desktop clients for J2EE-based network services. These clients are representative of what enterprise developers typically build, such as SQL database frontends, forms-based workflow, data visualization applications, and the like.
JDNC leverages the power of J2SE and Swing while providing a higher level API, as well as an optional XML markup language, which enables common user-interface functionality to be constructed more quickly, without requiring extensive Swing or GUI programming skill. Additionally, JDNC simplifies the task of connecting a rich client to a J2EE backend, including JDBC and WebServices.
Recognizing the broad range of developer skill-sets and predilections, JDNC has been constructed in 3 distinct layers that can be used independently or together. These layers are reflected as JDNC sub-projects so that each can evolve at its own pace. From bottom to top:
Swing Extensions: APIs which extend Swing to provide key features required by data-centric applications (sorting, filtering, data-binding, asynchronous data-loading, etc); makes life easier for Swing developers. The APIs are defined in the org.jdesktop.swing package.
JDNC API: Higher level Swing based components that leverage the Swing Extensions, but provide a simplified JavaBeans API for common functions, provide attractive default visuals, usability features, and data-binding out of the box; usable by developers who may not know Swing. These component APIs are contained in the org.jdesktop.jdnc package.
JDNC Markup Language: A simple, extensible XML-based markup language that enables developers to configure JDNC based clients using XML and deploy them either as Java Web Start applications or as applets in a standard browser. The XML markup language is specified using a Schema (.xsd) and the tag library API used to implement the schema is defined in the org.jdesktop.jdnc.markup package.

RAX (Random Access XML) Processor

Friday, June 11th, 2004

RAX provides direct access to the data your application needs with near-zero parsing and other processing overhead. You identify the data you need through a set of XPaths and RAX indices into the source document for each matched XPath node. The processing that accomplishes this is done by Tarari’s RAX Content Processor, a device which snaps into the server or appliance’s standard PCI slot. Not only is the Tarari XML hardware much faster than software, but it also leaves the CPU free for other tasks. Your XML application can use the XPath node results directly or further traverse the document using the XPath indices as short-cut access points.
As quoted on Tarari’s website–Tarari’s XML Content Processor is the first “soft silicon” solution to dramatically reduce the cost of developing, deploying and reconfiguring XML and Web Services solutions. Based on standard hardware (PCI) and software interfaces, the XML Content Processor features optimized parallel searches and algorithmic acceleration for deep-content analysis on any part of an XML document.