java.net Spotlights

Voice over IP projects
The Java Communications community hosts several voice over IP projects, most based on the Java API's for Integrated Networks (JAIN), which was featured in a recent Java Developer Journal article. The jain-sip project features an implementation of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP, also RFC 3261), which enables projects like the sip-communicator audio/video softphone.
[10/08/2004]

Project Support Improvements
Several new features are available to help promote your java.net projects. Project owners can now indicate that the project contains a downloadable executable by clicking on 'Change your project directory settings' from their "My Pages" tab. This will cause a special "downloadable" icon to appear alongside the project name in the project directory. Also, project announcements are now available via RSS - details for setting up a feed for your project are available on the Getting Started page.
[10/01/2004]

Flying Saucer
The JavaDesktop community project Flying Saucer is a 100% Java XHTML renderer, designed for embedding XHTML content into desktop applications. The recent beta release 3 (a browser demo is available via Java Web Start) offers 10x speed improvements and greater fidelity with the CSS 2.1 standard.
[09/24/2004]

SiteMesh
Separating web application appearance from functionality is made easier with SiteMesh. It allows you to assemble web pages from smaller, dynamic parts, and add a consistent appearance at the end of the process. The result is pages that look nicer and are easier to maintain, and special-purpose pages like printer-friendly pages are a snap. A feature article by Will Iverson can help you get started with SiteMesh.
[09/17/2004]

JDesktop Network Components
Reducing the learning, design, and coding requirements of desktop applications is the goal of the JDesktop Network Components. Announced at JavaOne '03, the JDNC project provides extensions to Swing, a JNDC API to make using these extended components easier, and an XML markup language to allow building some or all of the GUI without writing Swing code. JNDC GUI's can then be deployed as standalone applications, Java WebStart applications, or Java Applets.
[09/10/2004]

OpenSymphony Cache
JSP performance is a critical issue for major web sites, and the java.net project OpenSymphony Cache can help. The fast and flexible system can cache JSP's or other servlet-generated content, works in clusters, and supports a variety of disk- and memory-based caching strategies. It's used by popular, high-traffic web sites, including TheServerSide, JavaLobby, and JRoller.
[09/03/2004]

NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta 1
The NetBeans Community has released the 4.0 Beta 1 version of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Download the beta for Windows, Linux, the Solaris(tm) Operating System or Mac OS X.
[08/27/2004]

Javacc
Parser creation is simplified with JavaCC, which its FAQ, reports "has been used to create parsers for RTF, Visual Basic, Python, Rational Rose mdl files, XML, XML DTDs, HTML, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Oberon, SQL, VHDL, VRML, ASN1, email headers, and lots of proprietary languages." JavaCC is part of the Java Tools Community.
[08/20/2004]

JavaTools new homepage
The java.net Java Tools community has unveiled its new homepage. Subscribe to their new newsletter. Features include tool of the week, great idea of the week, and tips.
[08/13/2004]

Project Looking Glass
Open-sourced at JavaOne 2004, Project Looking Glass uses 3D visualization and windowing to redefine the desktop experience. The authors say: "we're releasing the Project Looking Glass code to the whole community to explore every aspect of the technology rather than restricting access to a privileged few."
[08/06/2004]

Safari Eclipse plug-in
The Safari search plug-in currently works with Eclipse version 2.1.3 and will soon be available in version 3.0. Now, without leaving the IDE, the developer can type in the keywords in the Safari search window and execute a search on the Safari library.
[07/30/2004]

The Mac Java Community at java.net
The Mac Java community focuses on Java development on and for Macintosh operating systems. Community projects include MRJ Adapter, which makes it easier for developers to use Mac-specific features in different versions of Java on the Mac, and JNI Direct, which simplifies the use of native Mac code.
[07/23/2004]

java3d
Sun has open-sourced the Java 3D API on java.net's Java Desktop Community. java3d is a parent project, containing the subprojects j3d-core, vecmath, j3d-core-utils and j3d-examples. A contributing to Java 3D page explains how to get involved with Java 3D development.
[07/16/2004]

RIFE v0.7.2 Released
The RIFE project offers a simplified approach to web application development. Its loosly coupled, robust system allows developers to use only the pieces they need, and to bring in whatever outside components a developer may want. Along with supporting several public websites, RIFE powers the Drone sub-project, an auto-responding IRC 'bot. RIFE allows Drone to offer simple deployment and web-based administration. Both are part of the Java Tools community.
[07/09/2004]

Java Specification Requests - a new java.net community
The new JSR community is a "gathering place of those who are involved in JSR projects as well as those interested in work defined by the JCP process. This community is designed to be a place for JSR discussion and collaboration. The development of the outputs of a JSR — the Specification, the Reference Implementation (RI) and the TCK — will take place here on java.net." The JSP spec work and JSTL spec work are already featured in projects
[07/06/2004]

Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control (JDDAC) Framework
The Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control (JDDAC) Community has released the first version of the JDDAC framework. The project provides common components for building intelligent systems in industrial, test, measurement and control environments. The first release includes a simple J2SE application to exercise the included Java Transducer Interface (JTI) and Java Measurement Dataflow Interface (JMDI) implementations. The purpose of this release is to offer an early preview of two of the JDDAC APIs, as well as providing a simple "Hello World" type data acqusition application that developers can build upon.
[06/18/2004]

JavaPedia workshop at JavaOne
The JavaPedia has just turned one year old. We are rerunning Ron Goldman's original article on the goals of the JavaPedia. Take a look and then sign up if you can join us for the JavaPedia workshop at JavaOne.
[06/14/2004]

JDIC JDesktop Integration Components
More complete integration with the host platform is the goal of the JDesktop Integration Components (jdic) project. JDIC provides access to the system's browser and mail applications, and can register Java applications as document viewers for specific file types. This Java Desktop Community project is also incubating sub-projects such as the SaverBeans Screensaver SDK. SaverBeans is running a contest and will show off winning screensavers at JavaOne and are offering T-shirts to early adopters.
[06/04/2004]

Ginipad
Ginipad, is a small IDE hosted in the Java Education and Learning Community community. It offers syntax highlighting, code completion and other features, while only needing 3 MB to run and five minutes to learn.
[06/04/2004]

Open For Business
The Open For Business project user conference ran in Minneapolis, MN on May 27-28, with developments posted to the OFBiz home page. The project is an open-source business automation effort, including tools for e-commerce, CRM, ERP, credit-card processing, etc. You can Download OfBiz 3.0. The project enjoys significant international developer support and is the focus of our first java.net success story.
[05/28/2004]

JOAL - Java APIs for OpenAL/Sound 3D
Games with great 3D graphics are possible with JOGL, but what good is great graphics without killer sound? JOAL is the audio equivalent, offering Java bindings to the OpenAL API for hardware-supported 3D spatialized sound. The project also offers a higher-level API, Sound3D, to allow developers to write to an easier-to-use, object-oriented interface.
[05/21/2004]

People wiki
Add or update your entry on the People Wiki. It is a place to let everyone know a little bit more about you - your real name, a bio, projects you're involved with and things that interest you.
[05/21/2004]

Velotags and JNuke projects collaborate
The "Velotags project and JNuke project have joined to create a Java implementation of phpnuke: Jnuke. The JNuke developers are changing its MVC framework from Struts to Spring, and with help of Velotags project members are restructuring it and building a flexible and prety WebUI." The java.net projects are collaborating to give the java community an flexible, powerfull and ready to use portal system.
[05/14/2004]

JavaOne Bulletin Board
JavaOne is a hectic week. The JavaOne Bulletin Board is a place for you to post information about sessions you are giving or may be interested in attending. Also feel free to create related wiki pages for meetups and other gatherings for your communities or projects.
[05/07/2004]

Juicy News Network
James Gosling's Juicy News Network project has been promoted from the JavaDesktop Incubator to a full-fledged project. JNN is an RSS news feed reader/aggregator. You can try it using Java WebStart (you may have to manually clear out the WebStart cache.) You can also download a jar of JNN or a Mac application. To try the talking version, click Talking JNN.
[04/30/2004]

Two JUGs graduate from the incubator
Two Java User Groups (JUGs) have graduated from the JUGs incubator. Congratulations to the Hong Kong JUG (check out their Duke-Panda logo), and Portal Java, a virtual community in Brazil. Visit the jugs-incubator project to see the easy steps you need to graduate to the JUGs community.
[04/23/2004]

Mythical Man-Month bookclub discussion
The java.net Bookclub is now up and running. Join John D. Mitchell in this month long discussion of Fred Brooks' classic The Mythical Man-Month in the first of our java.net bookclub discussions.
[04/13/2004]

2004 Java Technology Game Development Contest
Do you have an idea for a cool video game using Java technology? Maybe you've already developed a game that you like. The Java Games community invites you to "enter it in the 2004 Java Technology Game Development Contest and compete for $50,000 in prizes!" Check out the games-contest project for details on how to enter between now and June 7, 2004.
[03/26/2004]

JSDT: Shared Data Toolkit for Java Technology
The JavaDesktop community has launched Sun's first open-source JavaDesktop project JSDT , the shared Data Toolkit for Java Technology for adding collaboration to Java applets and applications. "It can be used to create network-centric applications, such as shared whiteboards or chat environments. Other uses are remote presentations, shared simulations, and easy data distribution for enhanced group workflow. "
[03/10/2004]

New Community: JDDAC
The latest addition to the java.net family is the Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control Community. The JDDAC community will be working with NIST, IEEE, and ANSI to create open source standards for "the industrial, and test, measurement and control environments." They also intend to provide "key common components and adaptors that encourage the use of Java in the industrial and distributed transducer world."
[02/17/2004]

The java.net Linux community
This week's project spotlight is the newly formed java.net Linux community. Check out Chris DiBona's welcome and request a project of your own for the community.
[01/22/2004]

Daily and weekly newsletters from java.net
All java.net members can subscribe to the javanet_Daily and javanet_Weekly email updates. You must be logged in to subscribe The Daily Update is sent weekdays with a summary of the items new to the front page and includes bullet points with the news items and upcoming events as well. The Weekly Update will be sent Fridays with a summary of the preceding week.
[01/15/2004]

JAXB - Java APIs for XML Binding
The JAXB project is beginning to provide weekly binary and source code releases. This Java Web Services and XML community project is featuring these weekly builds of JAXB once you click through a conditions page. You can also download a PDF of a JAXB presentation from June 2003 and contribute to their wiki.
[12/26/2003]

jsr206-public: SR 206 Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.3
This week's spotlight comes from the Java Web Services and XML community. They are hosting the jsr206-public project which contains artifacts for the JAXP 1.3 JSR that is in public review through January 15, 2004. You can download the specification, JavaDocs, and open issues and are invited to send your comments to JSR-206-comments@JCP.org. You can also visit the JSR 206 home page or the JSR 206 public review page.
[12/19/2003]

JInput: Java Game Controller API
The JInput project, this week's spotlight, is "an implementation of an API for game controller discovery and polled input." The pure Java core "can handle arbitrary controllers and returns both human and machine understandable descriptions of the inputs available." Platform specific plugins are being developed for Win32, Linux, and Mac OS X.
[12/12/2003]

Rife: Java web application framework
The Rife project aims to provide "all required tools and APIs to implement and perform all common website related tasks in a fast, intuitive and consistent manner." A RIFE application is built around a repository that " keeps the different parts of the application together, such as configuration data, site users, data sources, etc. These parts are called participants." The File Sharing section contains recent versions of the user guide in PDF or HTML, binaries, source, examples, and javadocs.
[12/04/2003]

aTrack: a bug tracking application using AOP
The aTrack project has just been promoted from the incubator into the General Projects category. The aTrack project is "an open source bug tracking application that demonstrates use of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) with AspectJ." It is also intended to be a show case for "design patterns for building an enterprise-class Java system with AOP using lightweight open source components and frameworks". A good entry point is the project Wiki.
[11/26/2003]

jme: Java gaming engine
The Java Games community provides this week's project spotlight: the jme project "which provides a high performance scenegraph based rendering and physics system." The implementation has been redesigned so this is a good time to become a member. The JMonkey Engine (yes that's what jme stands for) includes more news and screenshots.
[11/17/2003]

DB2JavaObj: Java code from a database model
Join the work in progress on DB2JavaObj. The initial goals were to create a code generator that "when pointed to a database, be able to produce the tedious boiler plate code that almost any project requires- object properties, setters and getters, the SQL statements for basic CRUD." Download the latest build or navigate the source code .
[11/11/2003]

Jacknet: JXTA appliance controller
Bill Joy's sixth web is the Device Web described as "The Web with different devices that let each other know their capabilities, and interact accordingly." This week's java.net project spotlight is JXTA community project for controlling devices remotely over the internet: Jacknet. Check out a diagram of the Global Light Blinker architecture, read about proof of concept projects like the remote cat/dog feeder, car command center, and the 6 Sigma Aircraft Engine Counter, and find out more about the related Embedlets technology.
[11/03/2003]

soundjack:live music between numerous peers
Imagine a distributed jam session where you connect to the internet from home and play with musicians who are somewhere else. The JXTA Soundjack project aims to make this a reality - provided that you have " internet2 and a very low latency audio core." You can browse the source , join a mailing list, or read through background and related material from the Stanford CCRMA's (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acousitics) Soundwire home page .
[10/28/2003]

Wurm Online: Massively Multiplayer OnLine Game in Java
The java.net Java Games community has submitted this week's project spotlight: Wurm Online . Chris Melissinos writes "Wurm Online will be a community-centric fantasy MMORPG fully developed in java. Gameplay will be free at first, but when you wish to develop your character beyond basic skills, you're going to have to pay a monthly fee." The technologies used include java.net projects jogl and joal as well as BeanShell and GAGETimer.
[10/20/2003]

JAIN-SIP: Call control in Telecommunications and the Internet
The JAIN-SIP project features a reference implementation and TCK for the Java APIs for Integrated Networks Session Initiation Protocol. This "Java API for call control in the Telecommunications and Internet industry" is also described in JSR 32. The jain-sip-3pcc project which is " an example application that illustrates the use of JAIN-SIP."
[10/13/2003]

JGoodies: Components, Frameworks, and Animation
The JGoodies project has three subprojects that focus on look and feel , forms , and on animation. You can download the source code, binaries, and examples.
[10/06/2003]

JavaCC - the Java Compiler Compiler
The java.net JavaCC project features "a tool that reads a grammar specification and converts it to a Java program that can recognize matches to the grammar". JavaCC has other capabilities that you can read about on the Features page or on the mailing list before heading to the download page.
[09/29/2003]

MeRMI - Simplified RMI for J2ME (MIDP 1.0)
The MeRMI project is designed to adapt RMI to more naturally fit with J2ME. Download the MeRMI alpha release and use the How to guide to get up and running quickly.
[09/22/2003]

JOGL- Java Bindings for Open GL
The JOGL Project hosts a reference implementation of the Java bindings for OpenGL API. Download the latest precompiled binaries for Solaris, Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X and run the demos or your own applications.
[09/15/2003]