Andrew Powell's Flex, Java, ColdFusion, and AJAX Blog

Aug 15 Index Your Object Domain Model With Hibernate Search

Hibernate Search is an addition to the powerful ORM, Hibernate, that allows you to perform full text searches against your domain model.  Under the hood, it's powered by Apache Lucene.  How does it work?  Well, Hibernate Search is smart enough to index your objects as you insert and update your data.  On a delete, it will remove the data from the index.  All this happens transparently.      

There are a few requirements, first is JDK 5, the second is the Hibernate core.  All configuration for Hibernate Search is done via annotations ( I think this is where all the Hibernate config is heading ), so there's no need for lines and lines of XML configs.

Go download it, give it a try and see what you can do with full-text searching of your domain model.

Aug 15 Hibernate: Annotations or XML Mapping?

Until recently, I've always used the XML mapping files to define my persistence model with Hibernate. I was not real keen on the idea of using meta to define persistence in the objects themselves via annotations. However, I decided to give it a shot recently. My main argument had always been that by using the XML mapping, my persistent objects are not tied to Hibernate, exclusively. When I stopped to think about it though, one thought really hit me hard: I don't use any other ORM for my Java code. Why would it matter if the meta for mappings is in the code?

This being said, I wanted to pose a question: Is there a benefit to using annotations over XML mapping (other than JVM compatibility)? Your thoughts in the comments, please.

Aug 12 IntelliJ IDEA 7.0.4 Available

IntelliJ IDEA, the most kick-ass Java IDE available, is now out and better than ever.  The main thing about 7.0.4 is that it now has great support for Ruby/JRuby.  This means that, essentially, IntelliJ is a viable Ruby IDE now, as well as a Java IDE.  It's also got some support for Flex, but it's not quite ready for prime time yet, IMO.

What's new in 7.0.4

Aug 7 What Defines A RIA?

The other day I heard someone define iTunes as a RIA. I started to correct them because, until then, I had only thought of RIAs as being built with AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, etc; with these new RIA technologies. That comment though, got me to thinking. What does really define a RIA? Is it the technology that is used to build the application or how it leverages the power of the Internet (via SOA, etc.)?

After a bit of consideration, I have to say that an RIA is any application that leverages the power of the Internet to enhance the application. An RIA is not simply an AIR application, a Flex application, an AJAX application, or a Silverlight application. Any application that uses the internet to leverage new user experiences is a RIA.

So, that being said, iTunes is probably one of the best examples of an RIA out there. It changed the game when it came to music applications, adding the ability to subscribe to podcasts, share your library, listen to Internet Radio broadcasts, and the iTunes store itself transformed iTunes into the most ubiquitous and indispensable RIA we've seen yet. All that and it wasn't even built in Flex, AJAX, OpenLazlo, Curl, or Silverlight. It was built in Objective-C.

In the coming months and years as we see RIAs and the influence of SOA proliferate through ordinary desktop applications, we're going to have to take a long hard look at how we, as a community, define a RIA. I think we're heading towards a point where we really do define a RIA as any application, regardless of the development language, that leverages the Internet to deliver new user experiences to the end user. In the end, it would seem, we are all RIA developers.