Spring Integration STS Templates Updated - 1.0.0.M5

We are proud to announce a new milestone release of the Spring Integration Templates version 1.0.0.M5 for Spring Tool Suite (STS). This release brings numerous fixes and enhancements as detailed below. If you are using the latest version of STS version 3.2, the updated templates are automatically available to you. Just press the "Refresh" button under File --> New --> Spring Template Project.

If you are not fully familiar with the STS Template support, please see the original blog post including screencast at:

http://blog.springsource.org/2012/04/09/create-spring-integration-projects-using-sts/

In this new release, we have updated the templates to the latest Spring Integration version (2.2.3.RELEASE). Also, all templates will now warn if either the Maven support or the Gradle support are not available in the respective Eclipse environment. 

In particular, we made numerous improvements to the War template as well as the Adapter template.

Spring Integration War Template

The War template now provides a much better (prettier) UI using Bootstrap. If you have not used Bootstrap, yet - It is basically the new UI baseline. It is very simple to use and even prototypes, presentation demos etc. shall not look like 1990s websites any longer. 

The updated template also uses wro4j to provide more efficient bundling and minifiacation of CSS and JavaScript resources. This allows the War template to achieve a fairly decent YSlow rating of 97.

Spring Integration Adapter Template

Another area of improvements for this release was the Adapter Template. In 2012, we introduced the Spring Integration Extensions project, to further encourage community contributions to the Spring Integration project. In order to improve the starting experience, we also introduced the Spring Integration Adapter Template for STS back then.

For a detailed overview, please checkout the original blog post introducing the Spring Integration Extensions project as well the Adapter Template:

http://blog.springsource.org/2012/08/23/spring-integration-extensions/

For the 1.0.0.M5 milestone, we upgraded the project to Gradle 1.5 and also upgraded all project dependencies to the latest release. As a minor enhancement, the user provided version number will now also set the version numbers for the XML Schemas (Which provide the XML namespace support). 

I hope that the Spring Integration STS Templates are helpful to you, be it while learning and exploring Spring Integration, to kickstart new Spring Integration projects or to start developing new extensions for Spring Integration. If you see any issues, please let us know either in Jira or the community forums.

DevNexus 2013 Registration closing on 2/5/13 - Only 50 tickets left

With two weeks to go and 800 people attending we have only 50 tickets left for DevNexus 2013. The support from the community has been incredible and we will be closing registration on Tuesday evening, so if you are coming and have not registered, yet, now would be the time...

• We have 8 incredible tracks with 50 speakers covering;
• HTML5 + JavaScript (Backbone.js, Bootstrap, CoffeeScript, Canvas, IndexedDB, WebSocket, LESS)
• Mobile Development (PhoneGap, Android, Titanium, Mobile Web, AeroGear)
• Data + Integration (MongoDB, Storm, Spring Integration + Batch, Ehcache, JPA)
• Java/JavaEE/Spring (Java 8, Java EE 7+8, Concurrent Programming)
• Web (Play, REST, Spring MVC)
• Alternative Languages (Groovy, Scala, Clojure)
• Cloud (Cloud Foundry, AWS, MS Azure)
• Agile + Tools (Git, Gradle, XP, Kanban, Continuous Delivery, Vagrant)

Adding to the fun, we will have a happy hour sponsored by eHire Labs, most of our sponsors will be raffling off cool stuff and we will be giving away a MacBook Air, Nexus 10 tablet and an unlocked Samsung Galaxy SIII in the raffle. http://devnexus.com/s/index

A big thank you to all our sponsors without whom we would not be able to put on this event for such an incredibly affordable price.

Gold Sponsors:

• Compuware - http://www.compuware.com/  
• IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) - https://www.theice.com/   
• SpringSource, a division of VMware - http://www.springsource.com/  
• Terracotta - http://terracotta.org/  

Silver Sponsors:

• 4t Networks - http://www.4tvirtual.com/
• Actuate - http://www.actuate.com/
• Anteo Group - http://www.anteogroup.com/
• Apex Systems - http://www.apexsystemsinc.com/
• AppDynamics - http://www.appdynamics.com/
• Bridge2 Solutions - http://www.bridge2solutions.com/
• Creative Mischief - http://www.creative-mischief.com/
• Dimensional Thinking - http://www.dtglobalstaffing.com/
• eHire Labs - http://ehirelabs.com/
• GitHub - http://www.github.com/
• Google - http://www.google.com/
• inComm - http://www.incomm.com/
• JBoss - http://www.jboss.com/
• Lancope - http://www.lancope.com/

Cocktail Hour Sponsor:

•  eHire Labs - http://ehirelabs.com/

DevNexus 2013 - Schedule Published

DevNexus 2013 is only 4 weeks away and will take place February 18-19 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA. The past days and weeks, we have been super-busy organizing and confirming the best speakers of our industry. Finally, we are now happy to announce the preliminary schedule for DevNexus 2013 at:

http://devnexus.com/s/devnexus2013/schedule

This year will mark our biggest DevNexus conference event, yet! Compared to last year, we added 2 more tracks to the conference, bringing the total to 8 tracks. 40 speakers will deliver 71 sessions equipping you with the critical knowledge to take your career to the next level. This also includes 2 wonderful keynote sessions by Neal Ford and Ben Evans.

As in prior years, we will cover a wide variety of crucial topics and we will have dedicated tracks on:

• HTML5 + JavaScript (Backbone.js, Bootstrap, CoffeeScript, Canvas, IndexDB, WebSockets, LESS)
• Mobile Development (PhoneGap, Android, Titanium, Mobile Web, AeroGear)
• Data + Integration (MongoDB, Storm, Spring Integration + Batch, Ehcache, JPA)
• Java/JavaEE/Spring (Java 8, Java EE 7+8, Concurrent Programming)
• Web (Play, REST, Spring MVC)
• Alternative Languages (Groovy, Scala, Clojure)
• Cloud (Cloud Foundry, AWS, MS Azure)
• Agile + Tools (Git, Gradle, XP, Kanban, Continuous Delivery, Vagrant)

With this line-up of topics, attending DevNexus should be a priority - This is also the South-East’s best, yet affordable, developer conference! We, the volunteers from the Atlanta Java Users Group would be delighted to see you all at DevNexus! Learn, network and have fun -

Please register today at: http://www.devnexus.com

We would like to thank all our Sponsors that help us greatly to keep DevNexus super-affordable ($195 group-ticket / $220 regular ticket). 

Gold Sponsors:

• SpringSource, a division of VMware - http://www.springsource.com/
• Terracotta - http://terracotta.org/
• IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) - https://www.theice.com/careers.jhtml

Silver Sponsors:

• AppDynamics - http://www.appdynamics.com/
• Anteo Group - http://www.anteogroup.com/
• Apex Systems - http://www.apexsystemsinc.com/
• Creative Mischief - http://www.creative-mischief.com/
• Dimensional Thinking - http://www.dtglobalstaffing.com/
• eHire Labs - http://ehirelabs.com/
• GitHub - http://www.github.com/
• Google - http://www.google.com/
• inComm - http://www.incomm.com/
• JBoss - http://www.jboss.com/
• 4t Networks - http://www.4tvirtual.com/
• Bridge2 Solutions - http://www.bridge2solutions.com/

Cocktail Hour Sponsor:

• eHire Labs - http://ehirelabs.com/

We are looking forward seeing you all in February!!!

PS:

If you have any question let us know at info at ajug.org and please follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/devnexus for news and updates.

DevNexus 2013 - Feb 18/19 - Registration is Open

The Atlanta Java Users Group is delighted to announce that registration for DevNexus 2013 is now open. In order to reserve your ticket, please go to:

http://www.devnexus.com/

DevNexus 2013 will be held on Monday, February 18th and Tuesday, February 19th at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA. We have already confirmed many wonderful speakers, representing the who's who in our industry. They will be covering a wide array of crucial technology topics such as:

• Java and JVM Languages (incl. Clojure + Scala)
• Cloud, Big Data and NoSQL
• Web (HTML5, JavaScript)
• Mobile (Android, Hybrid, Mobile Web)
• Methodologies, Architecture, Tools and Security

In addition to providing great content for Java/JVM developers, DevNexus is an awesome networking opportunity. This event attracts Java/JVM talent from diverse backgrounds, be it large corporations, consulting organizations or independent technology connoisseurs. You will have an opportunity to discover what other development teams are using as their favorite tools and practices.

Why should you attend DevNexus 2013:

• Best Value: $195 Early Bird price (until Jan 15) for two full days of technology immersion and camaraderie (group+student discounts available).
• Ask questions to world-class experts and fellow developers
• Learn how to move your applications into the cloud 
• Learn Agile Best Practices & Tools 
• Learn more about core Java topics as well as other languages on the JVM
• Learn more about building rich (mobile) web-application applications using HTML5
• Hear about the latest developments from JBoss, SpringSource and Typesafe

We have already lined-up some impressive speakers, with many more to be announced in the upcoming weeks:

• Jeremy Deane
• Hans Dockter
• Ben Evans
• Mark Fisher
• Neil Ford
• Andrew Fuqua
• David Geary
• Wesley Hales
• Stuart Halloway
• Ken Kousen
• Josh Long
• Matthew McCullough
• Pratik Patel
• Reza Rahman
• Nate Schutta
• Venkat Subramaniam
• James Ward

Fore more details regarding speakers please visit:

http://www.devnexus.com/s/speakers

We would like to welcome 2 new DevNexus sponsors: 

Silver Sponsors

- eHire Labs - http://ehirelabs.com/

- AppDynamics - http://www.appdynamics.com/

Cocktail Hour Sponsor

- eHire Labs - http://ehirelabs.com/

We also would like to thank our other AJUG/DevNexus sponsors for their support in making DevNexus a success. 

• Anteo Group (http://www.anteogroup.com)
• Apex Systems (http://www.apexsystemsinc.com/)
• GCA and Oracle University (http://www.gca.net/oracle)
• inComm (http://www.incomm.com/)
• Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) (https://www.theice.com/careers.jhtml)
• JBoss (http://www.jboss.com)
• SpringSource, a division of VMware (http://www.springsource.com/)
• The Intersect Group (http://www.theintersectgroup.com)
• Terracotta (http://www.terracotta.org/)
• Turner (http://www.turnerjobs.com/)
• 4t Networks (http://www.4tvirtual.com)

We hope to see you all at DevNexus, and please register as soon as possible for this incredibly valuable event at:

http://www.devnexus.com/

(We have sold out early in prior years)

What's New in Spring Integration 2.2 - JPA Support

I have just published a new blog posting, which introduces the new Java Persistence API (JPA) support that is provided with Spring Integration 2.2. This is the third part in a series of blog posts highlighting some of the new features available in Spring Integration 2.2 following the recent release of Release Candidate 1. Please head over to the SpringSource blog to get the details:

http://blog.springsource.org/2012/10/05/whats-new-in-spring-integration-2-2-part-3-jpa-support/

Community-Driven Spring Integration Extensions

I just published a new blog posting over at the SpringSource blog. This blog posting announces the new Spring Integration Extensions repository and also describes the new Adapter Template for SpringSource Tool Suite (STS). Please check it out at:

http://blog.springsource.org/2012/08/23/spring-integration-extensions/

Password Security and Hash Slippage

The massive losses of password hashes at LinkedIn [1], eHarmony [2] and Last.fm [3] are very concerning, to say the least. These are companies that are generally perceived as technology leaders, particularly LinkedIn. Also, as far as I now, eHarmony and LinkedIn are Java/JVM shops. Just some data that I gathered today regarding the scope of the issue:

• Last.fm - presumably up to 17 million lost hashes - Algorithm used: MD5 - Hashes were Not salted
• eHarmony - 1.5 million hashes - MD5 - No salted - All upper-case-passwords
• LinkedIn - 6.5 million hashes - SHA1 - Not salted

Some of the leaks supposedly happened as far back as 2011. Here is some further background information: 

• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/technology/linkedin-breach-exposes-light-security-even-at-data-companies.html
• http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fsecurity%2Fmeldung%2FPasswort-Lecks-groesser-als-angenommen-1613946.html
• http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/linkedin-eharmony-dont-take-your-security-seriously-819858
• http://erratasec.blogspot.de/2012/06/linkedin-vs-password-cracking.html

What is quite amazing to me, is that the basic measures that would prevent the cracking of the hashes, like better hash algorithms, salting, re-hashing are not rocket science. There is even a very nice library [4] out there that does it for you and it even hooks into e.g. Spring Security [5] - Not even Java coding is necessary.

I just wonder how the hackers got access to the hashes in the first place...I could not find any information on that, yet. Maybe another juicy story...

[1] http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/06/09/an-update-on-taking-steps-to-protect-our-members/
[2] http://advice.eharmony.com/blog/2012/06/07/updates-on-ongoing-efforts-to-protect-our-members/
[3] http://blog.last.fm/2012/06/08/an-update-on-lastfm-password-security

[4] http://www.jasypt.org/

[5] http://www.springsource.org/spring-security

Create Spring Integration Projects using STS

I finally published my blog post on how to create Spring Integration projects using Spring Templates in STS. You can find the post over at:

http://blog.springsource.org/2012/04/09/create-spring-integration-projects-using-sts/

I also created a corresponding screencast, which was posted to the SpringSourceDev YouTube channel.

DevNexus 2012 - March 21-22 - Schedule Published

DevNexus 2012 is only 5 weeks away and will take place March 21-22. As of late, we have been super-busy organizing and confirming the best minds of our industry. We are happy to announce the preliminary schedule at

• http://devnexus.com/s/schedule

Again, this year will mark our biggest DevNexus conference event, yet! Compared to last year, we added 2 more tracks to the conference, bringing the total to 6 tracks. 30+ speakers will deliver 48 sessions equipping you with the critical knowledge to take your career to the next level. And if this is not enough, we have 3 wonderful keynote speakers as well:

• Patrick Curran, Chair of the Java Community Process organization will present "Java User Groups and the Java Community Process: a winning combination"
• Barry Hawkins, a veteran in our industry will present "How We Got Here, And What To Do About It", and we also are delighted to have
• Ben Galbraith, founder of Ajaxian.com and now running mobile architecture and engineering at Walmart.com.

This year we will have an incredible breadth of topics. Besides covering core Java topics (e.g. Java 7+8, Joda Time, Guava) as well as JVM Languages (Groovy and Scala), we will also extensively cover Mobile topics (including HTML5). Furthermore, we will dive into Cloud related topics, covering Platform as a service (PaaS) providers such as Cloud Foundry, Google App Engine and Heroku. Here is a more comprehensive list of covered topics:

• Core Java (Java 7+8, Joda-Time, Guava)
• Spring (Spring 3.1, Spring MVC 3.1, Spring Integration)
• JBoss (DeltaSpike)
• Mobile (jQuery Mobile, PhoneGap, Android, Appcelerator Titanium)
• HTML5
• JavaScript (Node.js, jQuery), 
• Cloud (Heroku, Cloud Foundry, Google App Engine)
• Gradle
• Groovy
• Git
• Scala
• NoSQL (Neo4J, Cassandra)
• Play Framework
• Caching (EhCache  and JSR107)
• REST
• Continuous deployment
• Talks on Agile Methodologies and Architecture

With this session line-up on the horizon, attending DevNexus should be a priority - This is also the South-East’s best, yet affordable, developer's conference!

We, the volunteers from the Atlanta Java Users Group would be delighted to see you all at DevNexus! Learn, network and have fun -

Please register today at: http://www.devnexus.com

We would like to thank our Sponsors that help us greatly to keep DevNexus super-affordable ($185 group-ticket / $200 regular ticket). We also welcome two new DevNexus Gold Sponsors:

• SpringSource, a division of VMware
• GCA Technology Services and Oracle University 

GCA Technology Services and Oracle University are thrilled to be sponsors of AJUG again this year. GCA specializes in Identity and Access Management (IAM) consulting and education. We partner with Oracle to provide industry leading solutions for user provisioning, role management, rights management, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, governance and compliance. We deliver training for Oracle Solaris, Java, Oracle Identity and Access Management as well as other Oracle Applications and technologies. We believe that the blended approach by providing expert consultants who also educate our customers in the products we implement, allows us to achieve consistently positive results. Oracle's Java based IAM solutions lead the industry. Let us work with your team to create a training and IAM consulting solution that gets the results you want. Contact us at http://www.gca.net/oracle or 770-643-0443. We look forward to seeing everyone at Devnexus!

The DevNexus Gold Sponsors:

• Terracotta
• IntercontinentalExchange (ICE)
• JBoss
• The Intersect Group
• GCA Technology Services and Oracle University
• SpringSource, a division of VMware

Silver Sponsors:

• Apex Systems
• Anteo Group
• 4t Networks

Cocktail Hour Sponsor:

• MATRIX Resources

We are looking forward seeing you all in March!!!

Cheers,

Gunnar Hillert
President, Atlanta Java Users Group (AJUG)

PS:

If you have any question let us know at info at ajug.org and please follows us
on Twitter at http://twitter.com/devnexus for news and updates.

DevNexus 2012 Early Bird Ends in 48 Hours!

This is a friendly reminder that the Early Bird pricing for DevNexus 2012 ends in 48 hours on February 1 at 11:59pm. Therefore, please register for DevNexus at http://www.devnexus.com/ in order to secure your ticket for this wonderful conference at the low price of $185.

Date: March 21-22, 2012
Place: Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, GA
Cost: $185 (early bird price), $200 after February 1st.

DevNexus is the South-East's biggest conference for Java developers! We provide the best software professional development content at the lowest possible
price, bringing some of the world's best speakers & most interesting topics to Atlanta!

For 2012, we have an amazing line-up of speakers and sessions. Here is what you can expect:

• 2 days
• 6 tracks (2 more than last year!!)
• 48 sessions
• 3 keynote presentations
• Food and beverages will be provided 
• Cocktail-hour with free sponsored drinks at the end of the first day
• Raffles and give-aways (e.g. books)
• Great networking opportunities
• Ridiculously cost-effective value
• DevNexus is organized by community volunteers (pro-bono) for the community!

Here is a list of topics that we will cover:

• Core Java (Java 7+8, Joda-Time, Guava)
• Mobile (PhoneGap, Android, Titanium Mobile)
• HTML5
• JavaScript (Node.js, jQuery)
• Spring (Spring 3.1, Spring MVC 3.1, Spring Integration)
• JBoss (Delta Spike, JBoss 7)
• Cloud (Heroku, Cloud Foundry, Google App Engine)
• Gradle
• Groovy
• Git
• Scala
• NoSQL (Neo4J, Cassandra)
• Play Framework
• EhCache
• REST
• Continuous deployment
• Talks on Agile Methodologies and Architecture

The DevNexus website already contains 32 session abstracts which you can browse at:

http://www.devnexus.com/s/presentations

More presentation abstracts will be added shortly. We are also super-excited to offer 3 keynote presentations at DevNexus 2012. The opening keynote presenter will be Patrick Curran, Chair of the Java Community Process organization (JCP):

"Java User Groups and the Java Community Process: a winning combination"

Our second keynote presenter will be our very own Barry Hawkins, a veteran in our industry as speaker, developer, and agile coach and mentor.

"How We Got Here, And What To Do About It"

Please find more information about our keynote speakers, including keynote details, on our website at:

http://www.devnexus.com/s/speakers

This is THE conference you must not miss. Therefore, come join us for this incredible event.

Don't hesitate, sign up for DevNexus 2012 today at: http://www.devnexus.com

We would also like to thank our Sponsors that greatly help us to keep DevNexus so affordable:

Gold Sponsors:

• Terracotta
• IntercontinentalExchange (ICE)
• JBoss
• The Intersect Group

Silver Sponsors:

• Apex Systems
• Anteo Group

Lastly, please feel free to send this note to your present & past co-workers in the local software development community. Group discounts of 5 or more apply.

If you have any questions please contact us at:

info at ajug dot org
678-908-9067

See you all at DevNexus 2012!!!!