Building an application within a SOA may be fairly easy but what do you do when you have to apply SOA to an existing application?
Review a few frameworks available as open source, and observe some of the techniques and patterns used when choosing frameworks and putting frameworks to use.
It is true — Developers make mistakes. Discover if you've made some of the biggest mistakes in the components you've developed.
Examine the ways in which a complex client-server application can fail, and see what can be done about them.
Explore the different advantanges and disadvantages of "heavy" frameworks vs. "lightwight" frameworks for developers.
For those considering to take the Maven plunge, go for it. Discover what to expect here, especially in relation to Ant.
See how Model-driven development can help ensure the consistency of your development process, boost developer efficiency, and help ensure that a specification is accurately represented by the code that implements it.
Explore the combination of the XML processing language XSL with the newly released JavaServer Faces (JSF) standard API, using the Apache Cocoon framework as an enabler for both.
Have you noticed the tendency of developers to reject suitable external solutions to software development problems in favor of internally-developed solutions?
Virtually all significant Web applications have a need for a persistence service. Review persistence techniques and examine a fairly new Java API designed to bring some uniformity to these techniques.
You may be more vulnerable than you think. If your applications interface with the Internet there are additional issues and options to consider.
The arrival of JSF should not cause you to abandon existing UI frameworks. The good news is that JSF is perfectly capable of working in conjunction with these frameworks, and has in fact been designed with easy integration in mind. Take a look at how JSF can be used in conjunction with existing frameworks, as an enhancement, not a potential replacement.
Consider application navigation, particularly for Web applications. See where this can present a unique set of challenges.
Determine if JavaServer Faces will help you build effective user interfaces.
No matter how well you plan ahead of time, many times you still run out of apace. Horizontal scalability may be your answer. Deploy a load-balancing and failover cluster using the Keel meta-framework and other open source projects.
