Getting ready to upgrade to WebLogic Server 10.3? The decision to upgrade should be based on the value realized. Let Scott Nelson fill you in on what you should know before you do.

Follow these steps for smoother updates of minor releases and less painful migrations to major releases.

Learn how to create fully formatted Microsoft Excel workbooks at runtime. Just use Java with the help of the Apache POI projects' HSSF libraries.

Learn how to create a pure Java class for reading Microsoft Excel with the help of the Apache POI projects' HSSF libraries.

The Eclipse PMD plug-in finds code that isn't up to the standards you define, improving the code's consistency and preventing the avoidable production bugs.

Increase your productivity when developing in Eclipse with plug-ins that reduce the number of applications open on your desktop and make those infrequent tasks easier with wizards.

Agile methodologies can deliver more functionality and better quality in less time. When they don't, is it the process, the people, or the project?

Everyone knows that coding standards save time and improve quality. Learn how to provide consistency in code formatting and environment preferences seamlessly in any Eclipse-based IDE (fast becoming the majority).

Every J2EE web application can get an immediate performance boost by eliminating common and unnecessary overhead that uses an uncommon Eclipse setting and a little discipline.

The importance of stubbed methods is often misunderstood, leading to approaches that hinder development progress. Learn why this common technique is key to a project's success and a variety of approaches to adapt in your daily development.

Data not fitting in the space provided is a common conflict among developers, data owners, and visual designers. Read about solutions that will satisfy all three with clear, easy to copy examples.

Portals provide users with access to more applications from a single point of entry, but if it takes too long to get in,, they will go elsewhere. Learn specific techniques to improve page load time and track down what is slowing your pages down.

The WebLogic Portal provides a highly flexible and customizable security framework. Knowing your options will help you plan the security implementation that is usable, reliable and maintainable.

The performance of your portal has a direct impact on usability, and usability can make or break your portal ROI. Learn design and development approaches that will help prevent and pinpoint pesky portal performance problems.

Portal success depends on more than just the technical and information architecture (though they are important, too). Here are 10 practices that can help make or break the success of your portal.

Knowing multiple ways to create workflows in WebLogic Portal will provide you with the ability to deliver solutions based on requirements, methodologies, and timelines.

Portal content presentation can quickly become a maintenance chore. Learn one solution for a reusable, flexible, extensible, maintainable approach to managing content presentation in a portal by combining the use of configuration and includes files rather than developing all new code for new content sources and/or layouts.

Starting with version 9.2, WebLogic Portal provides two options for creating JSF (JavaServer Faces) portlets. Learn how to use both approaches and choose the right approach for your project.

Discover the 10 most common causes of portal project failure and how to avoid them, based on 12 years of experience.

If you must use IFrames to integrate legacy web applications into your portal, here is a manageable, extensible, and maintainable approach.

Learn how to share data between remote portlets while managing session size for performance and maintaining a loosely coupled architecture. Then, see how to provide these features without the use of forms, followed by dynamic navigation between federated pages.

Learn how to share entire pages and books between portals and then how to use data input from one remote portlet in another remote portlet.

WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets) is a handy specification from the folks at OASIS. It provides a standard for portal applications to share portlets between portals. Discover what it can do for you.