Enter The JBoss Matrix Where JBossians blog

Just back from vacation and 600 unread emails. In the important work backlog, there is the task of watching nine hours of conference, interview and party video footage from JBWorld ATL and providing editorial suggestions to our video editor, Ben Fee.

Nothing like working with Youth to gain some comforting perspective on one’s own social ineptitude and would-be dissipation because we all know eighth graders in Irvine are currently doing far more exotic things in a Woodflower hot tub, and who can match the style of the masters?

We probably will have to take Delta to get to BCN, albeit this time sans the company of twins, Neil Patrick Harris Fleury and Johnny Knoxville Fleury and nannies. Sure, Delta randomly cancels flights, can’t interface with their partner airlines and loses reservations, but give them a break. When you start out as a crop-dusting outfit originating out of some mosquito-infested parish in Louisiana, it takes time to get technology right. In the "We are using technology to better serve you category," have you ever looked over the counter to see what actually appears at their ticketing agents’ terminal? They have a commenting system that automatically pops up every time they key in a frequent flyer. Supposedly, this is to provide such helpful indications as "likes Chardonnay properly chilled,” but human nature being what it is, the comments are far more entertaining, along the lines of "Watch out for this crusty old acid vat…” Delta may have fired Queen of Sky, but their stock went way up in my book the day I discovered somebody as cool as Hollis "I’m not quitting until they pry the peanuts from my cold, dead hands" Gillespie still works as a flight attendant for them. I just love Southern hospitality.

So back to the work. Time to hawk some JBWorld BCN passes. There’s the official site with the logistics and educational benefits to the conference, but what I’m more concerned with is the social line-up. It’s a vestigial Southern thing, probably genetically imprinted from my paternal grandmother (…yes darling, but is it social?). I haven’t yet made a business excursion to the Elephant Discothèque

but after a cocktail reception at the conference venue, The Hilton Diagonal Mar, a bus tour of Barcelona, the Elephant Discothèque promises an “amazing garden with colonial styled furniture, Arabic influences mixed with Hindu and Thai details…" I wonder if this will include a Hookah chair? I, myself, owe the permanent warping of my sensibilities regarding exotic foreign parts to a childhood reading diet prominently featuring Hergé’s, Tintin.

!Hasta Pronto!

Nathalie

In response to a mail campaign with this photo of JBossWorld party singer, Ciara, promoting our user conference, we received the following email from one of our subscribers:

"I will not come now. How could you think of sending such a sleezy photo, especially in a business email? What an awful marketing organization."

What can I say to our concerned subscriber? Have you been following our company for a while, because that's like one of the least offensive things we've been accused of. I assume the adjective you are referring to is "sleaze," as in sordid and disreputable? I have matriculated from no school of marketing, reputable or otherwise. I do have a liberal arts degree. I would be so thrilled if I thought a reference to Jane Austen, or Proust or Baudelaire would be a) understood/appreciated b) generate interest in our user conference. It doesn't work. Trust me.

As for musical taste, I'm just the mommy in carpool line who listens to hip-hop and R&B...

JBossWorld 2005 Party Featuring Ciara at the Tabernacle.

Being good isn't always easy, no matter how hard we try,
but now...
We are going to get Reliiiiigion.

You can always count on friends who go way back to keep it real. In that vein, I received the following comments about an article entitled "Redemption for JBoss' Boss."

"Nice of him to wash away your evil sins. I would would have preferred a sub-header such as 'Like a cleansing rain of hope washing away the ashes of post-bubble Silicon Valley sin, Mr. Fleury's JBoss Phoenix soars above his competitors....' And to a commentary on the parallels between professional open source and running a record label (hire the best talent and help them get their product to market) the following reflection: "Well if you were running JBoss like a recording label you would be hiring more eye candy, conducting more couch interviews with the new talent, have bigger parties, and have several ex-JBoss high-fliers in drug rehab. But perhaps I'm getting ahead of the curve here..."

Dear, dear, I can't speak for all of that advice, but I did stage an intervention for our user conference party--rescuing it from the ignominious fate of being a mere bar tab at the nearby Jock's and Jill's. What's the good of a miseducation, fraternization with dissipation, if not to corrupt the mores of one's more corporate brethren? Thus we came to hire ATL breakout Crunk & B diva, Ciara, to perform at the Tabernacle.

Some questions are posed about the musical genre of choice, a strain of dirty South hip hop originating in the club scene in Atlanta.

"Is it true that crunk is combination of crazy and drunk?"

"Oh no no, it just means 'cranked up' you know past tense of cranked, crunk," although this reference looks like it could get me in trouble too. In an online search, my favorite definition turned up in an AP-syndicated article "I would define crunk as more of a spirit," explains rapper David Banner. "Have you been to a Baptist church in the South? It's similar to that...It's that feeling in the club that gets you through life." Well, dearly beloved, I don't know about this thing called life, but it's good energy for a couple of hours at a party.

JBossWorld 2005--feed your head.

Peace up, y'all,
Nathalie

As part of the glamorous rock 'n roll "We're all about taking it to eleven" Professional Open Source life, our summer JBoss road tour includes the following events and cities:

Viva Las Vegas! Marc, Bill, Gavin and Bela will be speakers at The ServerSide Java Symposium. Ben Sabrin and I will be there as well.

JBoss Early Summer JUG Tour Schedule

May 10, Philadelphia (Marc and Gavin)
May 12, Dallas (Marc)
May 17, Raleigh (Marc and Gavin)
May 18, Chicago (Scott Stark and Gavin)
June 8, Los Angeles (Marc and Gavin)
June 9, Silicon Valley (Marc and Gavin)

Please check the JBoss events page for updates and further information.

JavaOne. No more alternative conference, alas. We will have a booth at the show. Gavin and Bela have BOFs and JBoss is hosting a cocktail party in the View Lounge of the San Francisco Marriott (across from Moscone) on Tuesday, June 29 from 5-8 pm. Come and meet us. The event will include an informal presentation and Q&A.

JBoss is pleased to announce the release of JBossCache 1.0, which comes in two components: TreeCache and TreeCacheAop (also known as JBossCacheAop). This new release includes new features and bug fixes.

1. TreeCache

Here are the features for TreeCache:

+ Cache mode. Supports local, synchronous replication and asynchronous replication.
+ Transaction. Works with JTA transaction manager. Supports transaction isolation levels.
+ Eviction policy. User can write their own eviction policy via a plugin. There is an org.jboss.cache.eviction.LRUPolicy class as an implementation of the LRU algorithm.
+ Runs under JBoss4.0 and 3.2.4 (and up) as an MBean service.

The major new features for TreeCache since 1.0Beta are: eviction policy and back-porting to JBoss3.2.4, to run as an MBean service.

I have implemented the eviction ploicy as a plugin so another policy can be used as well. However, I have also provided an LRU eviction algorithm. It has a notion of region and is both node- and time-based. Thus, users can specify different LRU parameters (maxNodes and timeToIdleInSeconds) in different regions. A region is just a tree section, e.g., /org/jboss/data. There is a brief document located under cache/docs cvs repository; I will post more details of eviction policy design later.

2. TreeCacheAop

Here are the new features for TreeCacheAop:

+ Provides same features as TreeCache: cache mode, transaction, and eviction policy.
+ Runs under JBoss4.0 as an MBean service.
+ Eviction policy. Provides an aop-specific policy implementation, org.jboss.cache.eviction.AopLRUPolicy.
+ "Object-oriented" features (in replication mode as well): inheritance, aggregation and object graph handling.

I have spent quite a lot of time in this release trying to define what exactly is an AOP-enabled cache. This project was orignally started by Harald Gliebe, and I took it over about 6 months ago. Bela Ban and I have had quite a few discussions on the important features needed. Finally, we agree that it should be "object-oriented." By that we mean that an AOP-enabled cache can actually perform what an in-memory OO database can do (without the query capability, of course:-) Luckily, the nature of our internal tree cache implementation maps naturally to an object tree.

So the remaining issues are just to complete the OO features: inheritance, aggregation, and object graph handling (multiple and circular references).

Inheritance is provided quite naturally by Bill Burke's new JBossAop1.0 Beta release. Basically, it means that in the base and extended classes, if both are being "advised," the extended class will inherit all the AOP properties of the base class. For example, if both a Person and a Student (extends from Person) are "advised," then a Student object, when managed by the cache, will have the base class attributes managed as well.

Aggregation concerns the principal of mapping object graph by reachability (until a "primitive" type is reached). This principal is used to map a complex object into the internal cache (e.g., Person has name, address, etc.) As we mentioned, tree cache fits nicely with this objective.

Finally, we handle object graph issues such as multiple and circular references. I have used simple reference counting by attaching to an AOP cache interceptor. It seems to work nicely.

In the final implementation, I had a couple of iterations because of replication. It has simply added a new wrinkle in the game, like going from a two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional one. We have talked about the fact that replication can be just another "aspect," but, truth be told, it is more than orthogonal.

And, of course, we will also need to preserve the same features of TreeCache, e.g., transaction, cache mode, eviction, etc., in TreeCacheAop.

So there you have it. We aim for an "object-oriented" cache that integrates closely and nicely with the Java language paradigm. This can provide transparency for a user, and that is the first objective of an AOP world, IMHO.

Ben Wang

From SMD to WMDs....

On the occasion of the Nukes on JBoss 1.0 release, project lead Julien Viet answers some questions about his work.

What is Nukes?

Nukes is an open source project funded by JBoss, Inc. and released under the GPL license. It aims to provide an easy-to-use, powerful and robust content management system. If you think about it, Nukes is more general and provides an infrastructure to enable collaboration among applications. In one sense it extends the JBoss microkernel for the web applications environment.

Why did you decide to create Nukes?

To fill an empty gap. We initially tried PHP PostNuke for the website, but the performance was really bad and it did not scale at all. So we decided to port PostNuke to the Java platform, leveraging Enterprise Java Beans and the JBoss microkernel.

Is Nukes a direct port of PostNuke or a rewrite?

First we thought about doing a straight port of PostNuke with direct mapping between PHP and JSP pages, but after a deep study of the the core of PostNuke, we decided to rewrite it. Today Nukes is a modules-based application; your server-side application is a composite choice of modules. If you decide you want it to be a CMS, you take the CMS-related modules and there you have your CMS.

What templating systems can you use for Nukes modules?

When we ported the PHPBB forums, we ported the templating engine it uses to keep compatibility with all the themes of that forum. So we decided to use it for Nukes. The template syntax is pretty easy and it allows the page to be previewed directly in a browser . At runtime, when a template is loaded, it is compiled in memory in a Java class with the Javassist library to give performance boost (5x faster than the interpreted version).

What features do you feel are most impressive in Nukes?

The forum module is really the strongest proof of what Nukes can provide, besides that, the modular architecture is the thing I prefer. Nukes performance is really good thanks to EJBs.

Why did you use JMX as the core technology behind Nukes?

For the same reasons that JBoss is using them. JMX enforce a clean separation between all of your components and bring hot deploy. That means you can add components to Nukes at runtime without having to reconfigure anything in your server.

How would I create a basic Nukes module?

Create a class that inherits the ModuleSupport class and provide a few lines of XML. There is a template module that you can use to avoid starting from scratch.

Describe how security works in Nukes. How would I secure that Nukes module?

Security is based on the original PostNuke security scheme, except that it has been simplified. It took me one evening to understand the concepts behind the original. I thought that it was possible to simplify it while keeping the good features.

Are there any sites besides JBoss.com using Nukes? Which ones?

JBoss.com is using Nukes. As for other sites, I have no concrete URL to give you, but I read on the forums that people are using it.

What other features do you plan to see in 2.0?

We want to port other successful, powerful applications from the php world to the Nukes platform. Also, we want to enforce the interaction between Nukes and the user. Today, the forum is able to send notification to the user on events. In the future we want to go beyond that, enabling the user, for instance, to post in the forum simply by answering the notification mail.

Where can I find other information, such as how to install and configure Nukes?

On the website we have dedicated sections with a forum where we discuss Nukes topics and a wiki that allows people to participate in the project documentation.

What other open source projects have you contributed to?

JBoss, the application server; Nukes is my first real experience as project leader.

How impressed were the girls at the Cheetah when you told them that you were, indeed, the creator of Nukes?

They seemed really impressed and offered me lap dances for free. Of course, as a gentleman, I had to refuse. Really, my coder status is what makes me so attractive.

A Very Happy New Year to all, in particular to the Java blogging community, for which curiously as a non-technologist, I've developed an affinity. A special note to

Alan Williamson: A welcome acquaintance brought about by terse circumstances. We're still pouting about the Reader's Choice Awards, java app server category, which we would have won on the official closing date of August 31, dammit. Oh well, I'm sure an audit would have revealed that all JBoss votes were bot-generated. Although, to our credit, our families and PR agency did vote for us.
Andy Oliver: My JBoss colleague and the only other frequent JBoss blogger. Thanks for encouraging me to start blogging. Who knew Java had a rock n roll side, although I don't know if we're more Nirvana or the Osbournes...
Cameron: A most fun sparring opponent on the topic of why Open Source rocks the Universe.
Carlos Villela--I developed a new appreciation for your observation about my blog upon discovering the far more Google-icious Nathalie with an "H": Nathalie "Cup of" Chicha. For all those who find me annoying, you'll just love Nathalie Chicha!
Chiara: A welcome female perspective in the Java engineering community. After three years spent working with male engineers, I shall be considering the under-rated virtues of pastry chefs or, better yet, a good book, warm bath and pastries.
Hani: Software uncensored: Swiftian satirical sensibilities in Javaland. Where else would our doppelgangers get to truly express themselves by giving unofficial interviews.
Joe Ottinger: My other JDJ acquaintance (see note to Alan on Reader's Choice Awards), with whom I've enjoyed debating metaphor and whether or not undertow and icebergs lurk in tranquil seas.
Rickard: The only person among the 40-odd recipients of the 2003 JBoss compensation plan to notice the clause whereby the recipient pledges all future intellectual property along with their first-born child to JBoss Group. As a PR girl I'm used to getting flack for our colorful modes of expression, but going after us for a compensation plan--that was just plain brilliant.

To the nameless legions of fanatic JBoss supporters, wherever you are, thank you. To those dedicated to JBoss schadenfreude or freudeschaden (German linguists?), in 2004 we shall continue to fulfill the promise of this closing salutation

Fleur de Lys
Everything You Desire,

Nathalie

7:09 am: Cameron has a revelation.

3:51pm: James Strachan is on the case.

Something is dodgy in Javasphere? Could it be that The Serverside Members List has something, er, in common with the fabled one billion JBoss downloads? Grrrooovy baby!

Cameron: (insert sniff of self-righteous indignation, or is it despondence? Is he losing his religion?) "Unfortunately, now I'm starting to doubt every post in which someone says anything positive about JBoss. Or any product for that matter."

Very clever, very clever, wish I'd thought of it myself. I, myself, trust nothing written in print, even less anything written online unless it comes from reputable sources.

Still it gives one pause. Avatar management would be the way to go, if you were in the propaganda business these days. Of course it'd be a lot of work. You'd have to keep track of their personalities, speech patterns, facts of their lives, have them interact with real people and the other avatars, they could have fights, develop friendships. Of course, you'd have to make sure that all the avatars kept to the same story on those occasions where they did purport to interact and be in real places...Maybe you could write a computer program to do this. Still it seems like a lot of work.

Take the JBoss Group avatar for example. How to reconcile the two distinct impressions of rather evil plotting, conniving people, the sort one should watch out for, with their reputation for bumbling incompetence? I mean they can't even manage the Marc Fleury avatar. He has this habit of escaping and getting into bad behavior, telling JBoss users to SMD, giving unauthorized interviews or crashing industry events in Zorro costume.

Googling for identity has its issues as well. Imagine, one of my favorite (due to his name) Serverside commentators, Sartoris Snopes has left the hamlet of Yoknapatawpha county and interested himself J2EE. Stranger things could happen.

What do I know? I'm just a simple girl, living in a high-tech digital world.

Along came a spyder and sat down beside her...

I need to improve my Google IQ quotient. A curious phenomenon manifests itself every time I do a Google News search on JBoss. Other technology companies that have had the good fortune to be profiled in this Pulitzer-worthy publication may have noticed the same thing. Regardless of when they publish their articles (the ones about us came out in February and June of '03, respectively), they endlessly refresh themselves on Google, appearing as though they were released the day of the search. Do they have nothing new to write about?

Our PR firm explained that Google News search runs on mathematical algorithms that search for website metatags. Websites can refresh their metatags on a daily basis to make sure that their material appears as current as possible. Ok, but what is surprising here is that in the number of news sites where we get coverage, the Inquirer is the only one to have figured out this nifty little trick.

Can any of my more technically oriented readers share some insights with me, as to how one goes about doing this? We could all learn from such creative mass media manipulation techniques.

It always amuses me to read other people's thoughts on JBoss and our business--some of it is actually insightful, although a good portion of it has to do with a certain confounding of the terms "java developer" and "juris doctor," by people who fail to caveat statements along the lines of "the historical-social probability matrix shows an inevitabality of failure for JBoss" with "here are the reasons it would be my personal wet dream to see those jerks at JBoss fail," or it's simply empty speculations by people with no involvement in our community or privately held company that contain insights such as "during such and such hard times" (oh really, would that be based on reading our financials?) "they were carried forward by their marketing efforts" (how interesting, I wonder what that budget looks like?)

I do have some insights into the company and community's past, but sorry, we don't kiss and tell because we're, ah...professional.

The peripatetic job of communications director for a Professional Open Source company does have its moments. One such moment involved resolving an issue of miscommunication between the president of JBoss Group and the editor-in-chief of a popular Java periodical. My response was that I am neither credible, nor am I interested in proving that any one of us is the kind of person with whom you might enjoy knocking back a few drinks at the local bar. Issues of taste and personality are, well, personal. What I did stress, and here the editor was sympathetic about overcoming an initial bad start, was the fact that JBoss Group is composed of multiple voices. Now, I am a writer, but I'm not capable of and am far too lazy to approximate the voices of the people who currently drive JBoss forward and represent our services arm through JBoss Group. We hail from Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, and the USA. Some of us worked for the big technology companies, some of us came to JBoss straight from university. We have respectively held professional positions ranging from Office Depot computer salesman, to pre-sales support flunkey, to lead architect in the IT arm of a major financial firm; we run the gamut from "mediatique" to "pauciloquent," controversial to diplomatic. Some of us have been disowned by our birth countries--for all of you who think our president is French, guess what? The French, themselves, refer to him as "That American."

We can be rowdy, raucous and we frequently argue among ourselves; we laugh a lot. We wouldn't be here if we didn't love what we do. I have enjoyed working with and getting to know these people. I have no idea what they'll write, but I look forward to reading the individual voices that make up JBoss Group.