Apache Jackrabbit 1.5

Apache Jackrabbit was just released in version 1.5.

It looks that this is the "yes, we heard you" release, and is a huge jump forward for straightforward usage:
1) grab the jar-file
2) java -jar jackrabbit-....jar

And... there is no step 3 :).

I can't stress out enough the importance of such easy usage. While it already has been more or less simple to use Jackrabbit in, say, semi-professional setups, it now has the chance to hit the Main Street. "Want webdav? Well, you'd better use that jackrabbit thingie".

Ok, there may be some steps 3, but I will write about those later

Using ocmgroovy as Persistance Layer for Griffon

Griffon is a very interessting approach to create an agile and fun framework for building Swing applications. Currently a very shy version numeration is used (0.0.1 is current), but the whole package is built using large know-how.

One thing missing is the persistance layer. It is planned to use GORM, the hibernate-based layer of Grails.

This situation is an opportunity for ocmgroovy, my "framework"(*) for persisting Groovy objects into a JCR. While beeing a little ugly hack atm, the basic things like save() and get() seem to work, at least for my basic test cases.

Using ocmgroovy in grails is one annoying and 2 easy steps

1. download ocmgroovy (either create the project via pom.xml or download all dependencies manually, which basically means to download all jackrabbit dependencies and xstream with its dependencies) and install it into {griffon_project}/lib directory
2. declare the class to be persisted in {griffon_project/lifecycle}/Startup.groovy
3. use it in your Griffon mvc
   

Step 2 looks like this

TransientRepository repository = new TransientRepository()
def session = repository.login(
new SimpleCredentials("threatmanagment", "password".toCharArray()))
JcrPersister strategy = new JcrPersister()
strategy.session = session
strategy.instanceRoot ="threatmanagment"

strategy.instrumentate(ThreatModel, "name")
strategy.instrumentate(Dataflow,"id")

This makes model classes ThreatModel and Dataflow persistable, i.e. currently mostly adds save() and get() methods to instance and class, respectively

And Step 3: about as easy

ThreatModel model = new ThreatModel("name": "TestModel")
model.save()
...
ThreatModel model2 = ThreatModel.get("TestModel")

Please note that this is all very shaky at the moment (and therefore will create a black hole if you try it at home ;)), but might prove usable in the future.

I probably will release a PoC-project in the near future.

===
(*): ocmgroovy is very alpha and only used by myself. Therefore I do not consider this to be a framework

A first view at Sling

Sling is, well Yet Another Java Web Framework. But it adds some unique aspects, which might turn out to be a game changer:

• it focuses on resources
  
• it uses JCR as backend API (see jackrabbit as implementation)
  
• it adds a thin layer of REST over JCR
• it adds a dash of custom behavior by allowing dynamic languages (javascript, jruby, amongst others) to manipulate the REST request processing flow
  
• it uses OSGI and its plugin-mechanism for more heavyweight and/or integration stuff

Besides being rather hype compliant (JCR, jruby, osgi, REST, thank you), the most interesting feature is that it's inspiring: it makes me think, and this in a constructive way. It kind of makes REST more approachable as an architectural style rather than a framework.

In a sense, it is like learning a new programming language: it opens your horizons, and questions some established thought routines.

Go ahead and check it out, it might trickle in...