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I have read the book Activiti in Action and I think I have a good idea what a BPM does. However, I am not drinking the kool-aid of using BPMN2 nor BPEL as the backbone for specifying a workflow. The script tasks are also quite clumsy to define and maintain with the confine of a static language like Java.
After reading the book I think to myself, wouldn't it be cool if the BPM system can make use of an event-driven architecture and closures for defining activity? Preferably in a dynamic language that support them natively?
Does such BPM project exist? and if no, do you think this is a good idea?
Did you check drools and jBPM? That's the main idea behind those projects. To provide a Knowledge oriented platform to define your flexible processes helped by the Rule Engine.
It also comes with Drools Fusion for the Event Processing capabilities.
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I know that there have been plenty of topics describing this topic but I still can't put up my mind what to choose.First of all, I need you to know that I am a student in his last year, who will probably continue studying for a few years. However, I'm trying to find what I would benefit most from.
I've been in contact with RoR last year; seeing Ruby's squirky syntax amazed me, and Rails CoC and DRY principles make me dream. I've written some scripts to generate sql statements in Ruby, but that is about all.
I'm considered to be a java developer, as they call me the java guy on school, (no, i do not consider myself good, on the contrary, every day I realise more how much more i've got to learn). Now, I've taught myself several technologies related to java. To make my work easier, I opted learning hibernate and maven. Now we are developping an application in Spring + Spring MVC.
Grails caught my attention lately since it is built on top of these technologies, and uses a language that is similar to java, and allows access to java classes.
However, i'm not sure what is the best way to go. Should I struggle through Ruby's quirkyness first, and learn Rails? Or would learning Grails first give me an advantage over learning RoR?
Also, as far as from what i've read, RoR would give me a bigger advantage on the market than grails would; but how do I get a "proof" that I can use RoR? Would it be enough to be able to show applications made using RoR?
I've used both frameworks pretty extensively, and both have their warts and advantages, but when you come right down to it, there aren't that many differences for someone coming from your background.
In my area (Minneapolis), the grails market is larger than the rails market, but that isn't the case everywhere.
I'd pick whichever one has the user group in your area that you connect with the most. That will be your best bet for finding work with whichever one you choose.
You've mentioned that you're already into Java, Spring and Hibernate. Well, Grails is based on those - in continuation.
Spring is a very comprehensive, powerful, and modular, framework. Hibernate has been a de-facto standard, and is compliant with Java EE 6's JPA. Both are most relevant in the Java world.
So, there's the aspect of consistency of your technical knowledge. From Spring/Hibernate to Grails/GORM you'll have cohesive knowledge.
Another central aspect is your options. When dealing with Spring, you'll probably soon learn how easy it is to change complete architectural layers, like, changing the view technology, or database layer, or simply exporting a web service by configuration. Spring-based applications can be highly modular, and you can plug-in almost any technology scope you could think of. - So you have many ways to go further if desired.
The Spring framework has been written from the ground to foster best practices. Just dealing with that framework will teach you a lot.
Admittedly, I haven't dealt with Ruby on Rails, at all. I regard it a rather isolated technology, while Grails is a (Java and Spring) integration framework to me, with the backends/grounds and options as mentioned above.
When evaluating practical aspects of technologies, it's always a good idea to do some research on Google Trends and Indeed job trends. Other indicators on popularity/relevance are the numbers (and trends) of mailing list messages for Grails vs. Ruby on Rails, and (not quite an accurate measurement for niche languages) the TIOBE programming languages index.
Finally, Java had experienced several years of starvation and uncertainty in the past (despite of being one of the few all-time languages and frameworks, at all, and a long-burner). Recently, however, several evident signs came up that appear to seriously forecast a much brighter future than before.
As a Grails developer...
Grails runs on mature and proven virtual machine (JVM) and really do the best performance compared to any dynamic language, even static Java/JSP when using Freemarker Plugin! http://www.jtict.com/blog/rails-wicket-grails-play-lift-jsp/
Grails uses Groovy, so it has an almost flat learning curve for Java developers. You can write Java syntax and gradually learning Groovy syntax, closures, meta-programming and more... getting expressiveness and agility of a dynamic language like Ruby.
Grails uses modern principles and practices like Convention over Configuration and Scaffolding, just like Rails taught us all.
Grails uses a mature platform, so it comes w/ all great existing java libs, mature groups and projects like Apache, Eclipse, JBoss and so on for reporting, file exporting, legacy integration... and many new well-supported libs and frameworks from Google and others like Guice, Guava, Collections and so on...
Grails uses a vastly used platform, so you can reuse all your existing java libs. You could reuse your entities, utilities, and so on...
Grails use existing Java infrastructure, so it comes with many ready & mature server w/ great documentation (i.e install, configuration) Tomcat, Jetty, Glassfish, and so on...
Grails use existing Java infrastructure, so it scales very well w/ many ready & mature options: Server Clustering, Open Terracotta, Second Level Cache, and so on...
Grails runs on top of well-know and vastly documented frameworks like Hibernate, Spring MVC, Hibernate, SiteMesh, and so on... and you can step down into abstraction when you need, i.e batch imports, complex reporting queries, complex interfaces, and so on..
Grails has a great plugin ecossystem much like Ruby Gems and can use all existing Maven-based lib repositories to resolve dependencies.
Grails uses a solid platform, so you'll always reuse your libs (JARs) with the next Language of The Year (LOTY). "Write Once, Run Ever"
Hope that helps! :-)
If you liked Ruby's syntax and simplicity, go with Rails, and run it on top of JRuby, which will give you access to Java classes as well.
Check: http://blogs.oracle.com/coolstuff/entry/using_java_classes_in_jruby
So I've been tasked at work to write windows services to replace some old legacy VB6 WinForms apps currently running as services, consistently repeating tasks day-to-day. To give some general background, they have there own state machines built in to handle decision basing and not utilizing threading.
A lot of the senior developers here thought it would be worth a try to look into WorkFlow to replace the state machines rather than write my own business logic and try threading it programmaticly. So it's WF vs. the "Old College Try" I suppose.
My concern is that there aren't many books on the topic, and since it was implemented in .Net I've heard very little about it being used. I brought this up at work and another developer mentioned that it's because Biz Talk never really caught on and it was designed for that.
So is it broken? Do you think it will be supported long enough to not worry so much? I don't want an ill-functioning process injected into my services, my new babies at work, and then have WF's keel over. Leaving me with having to replace them with my own code in the event of an emergency; which does not seem like much of a grand scenario to me.
Any suggestions, recommendations would be super.
Workflow Foundation is used in Microsoft SharePoint, so I think they will continue supporting it.
There is an open source project called Stateless by Nicholas Blumhardt. It is quite flexible and very light weight. See my SO answer for details.
I chose this over Windows Workflow simply because I could define a state as State and thereby persist the state of my workflows back to the database using SubSonic. Configuration consists of one XML file. If I need to add tasks, I simply add nodes to the XML.
The each state can have a series of triggers that once satisfied will advance to appropriate state. This framework is a single assemble and fits nicely in your domain logic.
I want to learn a framework that promotes good programming practices and is respected by the programming community.
However, I also want a framework that I can use for a day job.
Which one would you recommend?
This question comes from my experience of learning the basics of Django because it was highly acclaimed by developers on Stack Overflow and Hacker News. However.. there's hardly any jobs in my area (NYC) that are asking for Django developers.
As a long-time ASP.NET guy, I've recently gone through a similar decision process to figure out what other web frameworks I should try. Here's what I learned so far which may apply to your case too:
framework/platofrm choices (and hence job opportunities) are highly regional-- the Bay Area job market differs alot from what you'll find in NYC, Chicago, Montreal, or London. Look at local job listings (craigslist and indeed are good places to start) to get a good sense at what's in demand.
similarly, usage varies alot based on the size and type of company. if you want to get a job in a large company, Spring MVC and ASP.NET MVC may be your best bets. In small companies, DJango and (especially) Rails seem to be on the rise.
usage also sometimes varies by industry. for example, many HR apps seem be to .NET based, while financial/banking apps seem to favor Java. if you want to work in a particular industry, check out what up-and-coming companies in that industry are using.
when investing your scarce time in learning something new, favor technologies which are on the upswing of the adoption curve (e.g. Rails) rather than frameworks with wider adoption which may not be growing as fast. Also be wary of very early or niche frameworks which may not ever gain wide adoption.
the one common thread between most (or almost all) frameworks gaining in popularity is that they're MVC frameworks and rely heavily on a solid understanding of REST. Learning those concepts in depth is a good idea.
before deciding to invest a lot of time in one framework, gain a basic understanding of several of them, so you can get a reasonable sense of what you like and don't about each-- and so if you end up applying for a job using a framework you haven't learned, at least you'll be able to talk intelligently about it.
If you focus on what you enjoy, you'll be more motivated to learn it. For example, personally I found Rails (regarless of employment opportunities) more interesting than Spring or Django, so I decided to focus on Rails first. Others may have different impressions-- follow your programmer instincts. That said, there are often few jobs using technologies you find fascinating, so try to strike the right balance: technology you like that many companies are actually hiring people to use!
once you answer the basic "what framework" question, there are many more questions lurking, including picking a javascript framework, validation framework, an ORM, etc. Don't worry too much about those choices yet-- when starting, just pick the default implementation for your framework. But as you get more advanced, the same argument about frameworks also hold for those other things-- e.g. it's useful to know a few ORMs.
Personally, I decided on this approach:
continue building stuff in what I knew best (ASP.NET) but transition all work to ASP.NET MVC, where I can better understand MVC and REST concepts which apply cross-platform
learn JQuery (again, platform neutral)
blow off the ORM choice alltogether for now-- too many other things to worry about
build a few projects in Rails, which is the framework I see used most in the newer SF-Bay-Area startups I've been looking at
learn the basics (e.g. read a book or two, try a few samples) about Python/Django, Java/Spring, and Groovy/Grails.
I've encountered real projects at cool, small companies using Django, Ruby on Rails and (eiuw!) even Zope. .NET is for teletubbies - I've only ever heard of it being used by big corporations that don't know better.
I would say that knowing two or three is better than knowing one that is widely used because you will gain a better understanding of how it works as a concept. For instance if you've only used Java, there is something probably missing in your understanding of OOP, because you're pigeon-holed into thinking about it in one way. If you already know Django though you Spring would probably be a good compliment to that.
i'd probably say ASP.NET MVC. I always see lots of .NET jobs around and this seems to be a solid framework which i think in fact powers all the stackoverflow family. As a PHP developer i must also make a mention of Zend Framework which is used by a number of big sites including bbc.co.uk and is now frequently mentioned in advertisements for PHP jobs.
I want to learn a framework that promotes good programming practices and is respected by the programming community. However, I also want a framework that I can use for a day job.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but those two desires tend to conflict. IMHO most business managers tend to go for (ugly) rapid development on top of CRMs or other higher-level 3rd party codebases. Building elegant websites from the ground up mostly happens in startups, or true web companies where the website is the sole product. There are not that many of those companies; and many of those that seem to fit are actually a mess on the inside, i.e. due to time pressure, messy legacy code and many other reasons you often don't get to write according to "good programming practices" anyway.
I agree with Kaleb Brasee that Java and .NET are the two main platforms when job availability is a priority.
Every job market is unique, so look at job openings in your area, or call a handful of recruiters and ask what they see a need for / could easily place you in a junior position for. What I'm seeing is that Microsoft Sharepoint is in demand, and a few other regional CMS'es are in demand (in Denmark I see Sitecore regularly).
I think ASP.NET MVC 2.0 together with MVC Areas and ASP.NET Dynamic Data will have a good story, a good solution, for many of those bosses who want rapid development. And I think the resulting code could be quite okay, or at least not bad compared to many of the "CMS beaten into something else" sites that exist. But this is a brand new thing for the .NET platform, and it will need to be sold to the decision makers first...
Bottom line: If you want job security first and foremost, then look at large CMS's like Sharepoint, and work on other technologies in your spare time. Optionally you could take a job at a startup / a web company later; but look before you leap.
Have you tried Spring MVC? Many companies do use Java for web-apps (or .NET) and web service based applications.
Since you mentioned Ruby on Rails, you might want to learn Ruby on Rails. It has got some good programming practices in it and a very well thought architecture. The Ruby community itself have also (in my personal opinion) created very innovative frameworks and highly favor testing and quality. You can see this by the innovative testing framework like Cucumber, webrat, shoulda, coulda, rspec, test/spec. Many startups also uses Rails as their platform, so it should be easier for you to get a job. You can start looking at Working With Rails and 37signals job board. So there is a good ecosystem inside Rails and Ruby community.
But the downside of Rails compare to Django is mainly there are too much magic (less explicit) and the docs is not as good as Django. If you want to get a Django job, try looking at several news site because Django grew up from a newspaper site so it is adopted alot in news based sites.
I would recommend ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails, or Python/Django, they all seem to be popular and successful, and based on the MVC paradigm which is definitely the right tool for the job when it comes to the web.
.NET and Java are by far the 2 largest platforms used by employers, and hence the most in-demand when searching for a job. Java has a few popular frameworks, with JSF, Spring MVC and Struts all seeming to be about equal in demand. I don't use .NET, but from what I've seen, ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC are the major ones.
I would say that most of the frameworks mentioned here promotes good practices. But that doesn't neccesarily mean that the companies using those frameworks are actually following those good practices! In fact most probably aren't. So don't expect too much.
You see, places like Stack Overflow, Hacker News etc. are a great way to connect with people who really care about their craft. Sadly this is a minority. There are millions of programmers in the world. Most of them suck. The code they write sucks. They don't care. They are not interested in improving their skills. They just want to learn the bare minimum required to collect their paycheck, go home, feed the dog, spend some time with the family, watch some TV, go too bed and do it all over again the next day.
Okay that was a bit harsh :) What I'm getting at is that you are probably better off asking this question to some of the managers at the companies where you would like to work. My guess is that most of them will answer .NET or Java. If you are up for a laugh ask them why they chose that particular technology over something else, and see how many buzzwords they throw at you ;)
What tools are available for metamodelling?
Especially for developing diagram editors, at the moment trying out Eclipse GMF
Wondering what other options are out there?
Any comparison available?
Your question is simply too broad for a single answer - due to many aspects.
First, meta-modelling is not a set term, but rather a very fuzzy thing, including modelling models of models and reaching out to terms like MDA.
Second, there are numerous options to developing diagram editors - going the Eclipse way is surely a nice option.
To get you at least started in the Eclipse department:
have a look at MOF, that is architecture for "meta-modelling" from the OMG (the guys, that maintain UML)
from there approach EMOF, a sub set which is supported by the Eclipse Modelling Framework in the incarnation of Ecore.
building something on top of GMF might be indeed a good idea, because that's the way existing diagram editors for the Eclipse platform take (e.g. Omondo's EclipseUML)
there are a lot of tools existing in the Eclipse environment, that can utilize Ecore - I simply hope, that GMF builts on top of Ecore itself.
Dia has an API for this - I was able to fairly trivially frig their UML editor into a basic ER modelling tool by changing the arrow styles. With a DB reversengineering tool I found in sourceforge (took the schema and spat out dia files) you could use this to document databases. While what I did was fairly trivial, the API was quite straightforward and it didn't take me that long to work out how to make the change.
If you're of a mind to try out Smalltalk There used to be a Smalltalk meta-case framework called DOME which does this sort of thing. If you download VisualWorks, DOME is one of the contributed packages.
GMF is a nice example. At the core of this sits EMF/Ecore, like computerkram sais. Ecore is also used for the base of Eclipse's UML2 . The prestige use case and proof of concept for GMF is certainly UML2 Tools.
Although generally a UML tool, I would look at StarUML. It supports additional modules beyond what are already built in. If it doesn't have what you need built in or as a module, I supposed you could make your own, but I don't know how difficult that is.
Meta-modeling is mostly done in Smalltalk.
You might want to take a look at MOOSE (http://moose.unibe.ch). There are a lot of tools being developed for program understanding. Most are Smalltalk based. There is also some java and c++ work.
Two of the most impressive tools are CodeCity and Mondrian. CodeCity can visualize code development over time, Mondrian provides scriptable visualization technology.
And of course there is the classic HotDraw, which is also available in java.
For web development there is also Magritte, providing meta-descriptions for Seaside.
I would strongly recommend you look into DSM (Domain Specific Modeling) as a general topic, meta-modeling is directly related. There are eclipse based tools like GMF that currently require java coding, but integrate nicely with other eclipse tools and UML. However there are two other classes out there.
MetaCase which I will call a pure DSM tool as it focuses on allowing a developer/modeler with out nearly as much coding create a usable graphical model. Additionally it can be easily deployed for others to use. GMF and Microsoft's Beta software factory/DSM tool fall into this category.
Pure Meta-modeling tools which are not intended for DSM tooling, code generation, and the like. I do not follow these tools as closely as I am interested in applications that generate tooling for SMEs, Domain Experts, and others to use and contribute value to an active project not modeling for models sake, or just documentation and theory.
If you want to learn more about number 1, the tooling applications for DSMs/Meta-modeling, then check out my post "DSMForum.org great resources, worth a look." or just navigate directly to the DSMForum.org
In case you are interested in something that is related to modelling and not generation of code, have a look at adoxx.org. As a metamodelling platform it does provide functionalities and mechanisms to quickly develop your own DSL and allows you to focus on the models needs (business requirements, conceptual level design/specification). There is an active community from academia and practice involved developing prototypical as well as commercial application based on the platform. Could be interesting ...