Roy's Technology Diary

Posts

A Brief Journey Through Web Services - SOAP, REST, and Beyond

Introduction In this post, we’ll dive deep into the fascinating evolution of web services—from their early SOAP-based beginnings, through the rise of WebDAV and REST, and all the way to modern solutions like GraphQL and gRPC. Each approach addressed a particular set of challenges, and all of them left a lasting mark on the way applications talk to each other over the Internet. Let’s explore how web services went from clunky XML exchanges to streamlined JSON endpoints to high-performance, real-time systems. Regardless of whether you are a seasoned developer or just starting your journey, understanding these historical shifts will give you valuable insights into the “why” behind today’s popular API styles. Early Days with SOAP and RPC-Focused Services The Advent of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) In the late 1990s, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) emerged as a game-changer for exchanging data across different platforms. It mainly ran over HTTP (though it wasn’t strictly li...

Dynamic Traits with Java

Traits are reusable components representing a set of methods or behaviors that can be used to extend the functionality of multiple classes. Some programming languages like Groovy and Scala have been supporting Traits for a long time, and allow dynamic association of Traits to any object, at runtime. Java being a strongly typed programming language, enforces a very strict discipline of type association, upfront whilst declaring any language element, e.g. variables, functions, etc; and the same is applicable for Classes too. Therefore when you implement a class in Java, the associative types for the class, must be specified as a part of the declaration of the class, which strongly binds the type interfaces to the class, and cannot be changed in runtime. The concept of Traits is implemented in Java using Interfaces, which contain default methods and variables to allow maintaining an object's state. However, these interfaces then have to be tightly coupled with the class decl...

Java 7, brings a simple yet a long awaited feature...

Would you be surprised to know that the API of java.io.File only supported getting the last modified time, and NOT the file's creation time, until Java 7...? Well, not many people seem to be aware of this and surprisingly even the Internet was very quiet on this topic all the while. So if you are using anything below Java 7 and are desperate to fetch a file's creation time then, one solution would be to write some native code to call system routines and then call the native code using JNI. Most of this work seems to be already done for you in a library called JNA , though. Nevertheless, you will still need to do a little OS specific coding in Java for this, though, as you'll probably not find the same system calls available in Windows and Unix/Linux/BSD/OS X.

VMWare Cloud Foundry - Developing "cloud-ready" web applications has never been so easy

A lot has been said and done about services on the cloud lately and "Platform as a Service" (PaaS) is probably one of the most popular buzz-word that's been around for quite sometime now. However, I sincerely feel that the common man (read as "developer") is yet to get a taste of what it really means. Now, this very paradigm seems to be soon changing, with VMWare Cloud Foundry. Cloud Foundry is the world’s very first open Platform as a Service (PaaS). It is designed to help developers easily create web applications, using multiple programming frameworks including Spring for Java, Ruby on Rails and Sinatra for Ruby; that can run upon public and private cloud environments, with just about no additional learning curve. So, by now if you are dreaming of a possibility to port your existing web-applications to the cloud with minimal efforts, then let me give you the good news - "it's all possible here..." Well, looks like i've done a lot of sales t...

Demystifying Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF - Understanding the Architecture Development Methodology (ADM)

In the previous article, we glanced through Enterprise Architecture as a whole and also discussed the need for an Enterprise Architecture Framework, like TOGAF. With this article we shall continue exploring TOGAF further, and discusses TOGAF's Architecture Development Methodology (ADM). The Architecture Development Methodology (ADM) The Architecture Development Methodology (ADM) provides a proven and repeatable process for developing architectures. The Scope The scope of ADM includes or encompasses the below listed activities, which are generally carried out in iterative cycles of continuous architecture definition and realization; thus aiding a controlled transformation of an enterprises in response to business goals and opportunities - Establishing an architecture framework Developing architecture content Transitioning Governing the realization of architectures Implementation Phases The implementation of ADM could be envisioned across the following phases - Preliminary Initiation...

Demystifying Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF

Lately I've been studying/reading The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), and I simply could not resist from appreciating the structural approach that it introduces towards envisioning and capturing Enterprise Architecture. I therefore thought of initiating a series of articles herein, with the sole purpose of sharing, simplifying and promoting the framework especially amongst the architecture aspirants out there who follow and read my blog. This write-up, which is the first one in the series, intends to provide a brief overview on Enterprise Architecture and then further goes on to illustrate the need for an Enterprise Architecture Framework. Preface ISO/IEC 42010: 2007 defines "architecture" as: "The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution." TOGAF embraces but does not strictly adhere to ISO/IEC 42010: 2007 terminology. ...