Symantec Corporation
10201 Torre Avenue
Cupertino, CA 95014-2132
408-253-9100%
Requirements:
Windows 95 or NT
386 PC or better
8 MB RAM
20-30 MB hard disk space
VGA monitor
CD-ROM drive
Java Articles at the Web Developer's Journal - Java programming tutorials, applets, beans, servlets and more.
We've tried to assemble a collection of articles
about Java to help the beginner or the real Java gurus. If you have questions
(or answers) concerning Java, please visit our Java Discussion
Group.
For news and reviews of the latest computer audio
tools, visit:
Java Resources for Web Developers
Java Hub
If you have questions about Java development
you have arrived at the right place. Scroll down for articles about servlets,
product reviews and "how to do it" articles. We also maintain a Java discussion
group.
Taking Notes on Java
Edward Tanguay sings the praises of a very important language.
The
Bluffer's Guide to Java
Can't tell your Beans from your Applets? Wondering
if a Servlet is a small server waiting to grow up? Read our compact guide to Java
and you'll soon be dropping JAR, JVM and JSDK into casual conversations along
with the best of them. Nobody will bother listening to you, but they'll still
be mightily impressed.
Java: Coming
to a TV near you!
The new Java TV API holds the promise of Java-based
interactive television using set-top boxes.
Java
vs Other Web Application Technologies
(The JavaBoutique) Selena Sol, author of JavaBoutique's
Introduction to Java, gives an in-depth comparison of Java and other development
languages such as dHTML, ASP, and Perl.
Agent
Communication
Agent technology is becoming more prevalent as the availability of network access,
and the demand for the end-uses of agents, become greater.
Java Web
Server in Brief
A simple, dependable, and inexpensive ecommerce solution for small businesses
is proposed.
JSP: The Back Door into Java
Edward Tanguay discovers JSP, and finds it finally allows him to put his theoretical knowledge of Java to use, and hence, get a foot into the Java programming world.
Building
Java Server Pages
A detailed look at building JSP pages. Should you
use JSP or servlets? It depends on the ratio of markup to code. Here you'll also
find a guide to the different varieties of tag, and details about the main tags
such as <jsp:useBean> and <jsp:setProperty>.
Site User Logon with XML, Java Beans and JSP
During this tutorial we will use XML and Java Server Pages to verify a user's logon - and then store the results in a session Java Bean for easy access.
Serving
Dynamic WAP Content with Java Server Pages
Here's how to create dynamic content for WAP-enabled
mobile phones using the Wireless Markup Language (WML) and Sun Microsystems' Java
Server API. Our Java Server Pages application displays regularly updated appointment
data for someone on the move, such as an appliance engineer making house calls.
Object
Persistence Made Easy
With object serialization, your Java applets and
applications can save and load the state of objects to disk or over a network.
In this article, we'll examine the benefits of object serialization, and how to
implement it in your own programs.
Servlets
Intro
to Servlets
Java servlets are making headlines these days, claiming to solve many of the problems
associated with CGI and proprietary server APIs. In this article I will describe
the overall servlet architecture and what you need to develop your application
with servlets. I will use several code examples to show you how to use the Servlet
API, and compare it with CGI and proprietary server APIs where appropriate.
Internationalizing
Servlets
How to use the Java Internationalization API to build server-side code that alters
its output based on the location and language of the user. We demonstrate the
use of the API by building a simple method which displays a product entry for
a shopping cart application.
Using
the HttpSession object of the Servlet API
The Java Servlet API represents an elegant and powerful way to shift processes
from client to server, and offers a number of advantages over CGI. These advantages
have certainly been enumerated so that most developers are aware of the servlet
advantage. However, some of the details of the servlet architecture may at first
seem daunting. Here's a short introduction on one aspect of writing servlets:
the HttpSession object.
Improved
Performance with a Connection Pool
Establishing a connection once and then using the same connection for subsequent
requests can dramatically improve the performance of a database-driven Web application.
Since Servlets can keep information between requests, a database connection pool
is a straightforward solution.
You can't seem to pick up an article on the Web without coming across some references to Java, the cross-platform technology created by Sun Microsystems. All of the big names in the industry, including IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Netscape, have licensed Java technology from Sun Microsystems. Symantec, known for their Norton Utilities and Anti-Virus programs, has also jumped on the Java bandwagon.
April 8, 1997
Symantec's Cafe is a standalone graphical development program that provides all of the tools required to develop Java programs including applets ("small" applications run from within your browser), standalone (windowed) applications, and console (command-line) applications. Java applets/applications are cross-platform programs that can be run on Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX machines alike.
Cafe is based on Symantec's award-winning development tool for C++, but has been trimmed down and modified to fit the differences between Java and its ancestor. If you have used Symantec's C++ (version 7.0 or greater) then Cafe will look just like home. However, in addition to Symantec's own compiler and interpreter for Java, Cafe includes the latest release of the Java Development Kit (available free from Sun Microsystems).
Cafe is available on both CD-ROM and over the Internet. I installed Cafe version 1.0 from the CD-ROM into Win95 with no problems. Along with the product comes a subscription for one year of support and upgrades from Symantec. This turned out to be good since shortly after I purchased it, Symantec released an updated version of Cafe.
I logged into Symantec's Java Central Web site, registered my copy of Cafe, and downloaded the 1.2 version (which included the 1.0.2 version of the JDK). Here Symantec's support really shines - rather than having to log into their FTP site, search for the latest version and then download it, Symantec provides a utility to do it for you. Called getcafe, the utility is run from a DOS window while connected to the Internet. After prompting for your registration id and password, getcafe logs into the FTP site and checks for a newer version of Cafe. If one is found, getcafe asks if you would like to download it. And here's the great part - getcafe can restart the download from where it left off if the transfer is interrupted!
Symantec is continually updating Cafe, to provide users with the latest Java technologies in an easy-to-use integrated environment. The latest version of Cafe to be released is version 1.5.1. This new version is only available for download over the net. Version 1.5.1 adds support for Windows NT 4.0, improvements in the debugging features and a more complete and comprehensive online tutorial.
Cafe's layout is fairly simple to understand. In addition, the user can customize the workspace to suit his or her needs. Cafe includes various elements from Symantec's C++ application. These include, AppExpress, ProjectExpress, Class Editor, the Hierarchy Editor, and the Cafe Studio (which was called the Resource Studio in C++).
AppExpress is designed to automate the creation of a skeleton program upon which you can build the application you are designing. In Cafe, the choices are fairly limited; you can choose to create an SDI (single document interface), Console app, or an Applet. Applets, in case you don't know, are what all the rage about Java is about. Applets are small applications that can be viewed with your Web browser by almost any platform, be it PC, Mac, Unix etc. Cafe creates an HTML file with your program embedded in it, along with the code required in your application so that it calls the proper methods, etc. to be used as an applet.
The ability to automate various small, arduous chores is one of the high points of Cafe. The Cafe Studio is designed so that you can rapidly and easily create visual elements of your application - menus, buttons, scrollbars, etc. With Cafe, there is no need to remember the code required to make functional buttons appear on your Web page. Cafe Studio allows you to simply place the button on the screen where you want it, and then it creates the code that makes the button operate. The Class Editor is designed to make it easy to view a particular class quickly. This way, you can very quickly look at a particular class and all of its associated methods and objects without shifting through hundreds of lines of code to find them all. The Hierarchy editor allows you to see the relationship of the various classes and to easily create classes or change the inheritance of a particular class. Drag a subclass from one class to another and Cafe automatically adjusts the source code to reflect the change you just made.
Cafe also comes with a visual debugger, the first to be released for Java. The debugger allows the programmer to step through the source code one line at a time or to step through the execution of methods. The debugger is fully capable of stepping through multi-threading, which is critically important to Java applications or applets. The programmer can freeze individual threads, allowing the rest to be executed.
If you are looking for online help, I'd suggest the comp.lang.java newsgroup. The Cafe development and technical support teams maintain a very active presence on this newsgroup. The team quickly and capably handles complaints or problems with Cafe, as well as offering various tidbits for programming in Java. Symantec's team is very committed to Cafe and Java, and it shows! It is not often these days that you see such active and vocal support for a product by its design team.
Symantec has also created an entire Web site (www.cafe.symantec.com) dedicated to their Java development products. Entry to the site is free once you have registered with Symantec. The program can be purchased on CD-ROM, or at the Symantec Web site. If purchased at the Web site, you can either request that it be mailed to you, or download it over the Web. Be prepared for a long wait, it's a 13MB download.
In addition to the basic program, Symantec includes a fairly large number of sample Java programs and applets with Cafe. This allows the user to experiment with them, and also get a good feel for how the various parts of Cafe work. You'll also learn how to use Java to accomplish your programming goals. On-line tutorials for both Cafe and Java programming are also included, although I felt the Cafe tutorial was a little on the short side. While the basic program is covered, along with the Class Editor and Hierarchy Editor, nothing at all is said about how to use Cafe Studio (although there is plenty of online help explaining how to do so). Also, included are the complete references from Sun Microsystems on the Java Programming Language and API Specs.
Documentation, included with the program, starts with a 16-page booklet, "The Getting Started Guide." This booklet begins with a short introduction to Java and Cafe. Next are instructions on how to download Cafe from Java Central and how to install it, either by way of the Web site download, or from the CD-ROM. Instructions on how to uninstall Cafe are also included (a nice touch, since some vendors, operating under the illusion that no one would ever want to uninstall their product, do not include them). Closing out the booklet are several pages on where to find more information on Cafe, how to obtain updates, how to register, and support levels available for program users.
A 41-page tutorial on how to use Cafe is included within the Help pages. Each page of the tutorial contains a screen shot of the feature being discussed, but I still found it to be somewhat confusing at times. Completing the tutorial only took about 20 minutes, even allowing for re-reading some of it. Unfortunately the tutorial does not take you through the actual creation of something useful, but instead presents Cafe from the top down.
Included within the Help pages is a very good replication of the Java API hypertext documentation. This is handy to have around as a reference guide to Java programming. Also, included is the Java Language Reference Specification and an Introduction to Java Programming. The Intro is very extensive with complete code examples and screen shots from Cafe.
To sum it all up, if you want to program in Java using a graphical interface, then look no further. Although Cafe is no longer the only GUI development tool for Java (Sun has released the Java Workshop beta, which requires 16 MB of RAM and costs considerably more than Cafe), it still holds some very good qualities. For one thing, the compiler originally released with Cafe and the recently released JIT(Just-In-Time) compiler are among the fastest (if not the fastest) of all the Java compilers available. The environment is easy to use, and designed for automation of a large portion of the more tedious programming chores. This leaves the programmer free to concentrate on other things. The level of support from Symantec is very impressive. I'm still a freshman at programming in advanced languages but I am impressed with Cafe and with Java in general. Cafe gets a big thumbs-up from me.
Bill Johnson
has been working in the computer field since 1986. He is currently a member of an independent design team working on Java applets for various Web design companies.
