Default route...

One of the things that has been bothering me in Rails since everything switched to resources is how we lost the easy way any public method in the controller became an accessible URL without having to write a rule for it. For example, in a person controller, I could define a search method like this:

def search     
results = Person.seach(params[:q])
end

And it would be accessible, just like that. http://myapp/people/search?q=matt
I even wrote a simple router in Java to do the same thing, because it just makes it so easy to navigate the application code.

The poor design of map.resources messes this up. By adding the route pattern :controller/:id it starts with the default assumption that the search?q=matt part of my URL is an ID. Is it so hard to put an action name in there? In any case,

map.connect ':controller/:action'

goes above all of the map.resources calls in my app. You might want to put it in your application too.

JRuby- The Element of Surprise

JRuby...I used to think, "meh, who needs Java? I'll stick with the c implementation." Then I started working on a project investing millions of dollars in infrastructure to run Java web applications. Sadly, I initially agreed with the assessment that it was a bit of a hack to run the Ruby on the JVM. Thus I soldiered on, avoiding JSF and EJB, but getting sucked into many of the other indignities of the Java world.  The opportunity arose to build a quick prototype for a different system. The desire to go the Rails route proved successful with a quick delivery and excellent customer feedback- but how would we ever deploy it? How would the proprietary Sun Single Sign On service work? Could it possibly connect to Access Manager- a feat that had taken weeks of development time in Java? A couple of emails with Arun Gupta and Nick Sieger led me to some of the truly impressive work that has been going on. Warbler builds a war file out of your Rails app using jruby-rack. Drop your .jar libraries in the rails lib dir. Muck with your web.xml so you can make it use a filter. Drop the .war file on your server. Done. A little method called servlet_request is now magically available to you. Call servlet_request.getUserPrincipal : it's populated. It's not magic- it's JRuby!
  
It's really suprising how much faster things seem to get done. Now, I know that's sort of silly. People can work fast in any technology that they are good at. In fact, I think the source of most of the disagreement in technology and product selection (which is a plague in the Java world, the GIS world, the database world, etc.) is that people want to use what they are best at because it allows them to shine. I ultimately only care about the end result. I don't mind switching to some technology I know nothing about. It is harder for me to provide value, but I love nothing more than learning new things and evaluating them. 

Anyway, that's why JRuby is even more awesome. Let them write Java. The JVM is a environment where we can all get aong.

Java EE 6: profiles versus subtraction

The JCP has produced a Java Enterprise Edition spec that even "Mr. Spring" Rod Johnson can approve of. This is actually a really big deal, as Java containers have become bloated by implementing expensive pieces of the spec which are seldom used. What they are doing is allowing for compliance to subsets of the standard, with these subsets referred to as profiles. They are also allow for extensibility, with a standard for extensions to the spec.

The "profiles" approach can lead to much confusion, as anyone who has tried to figure out why their Bluetooth phone and Bluetooth car can only communicate on the most basic levels can attest. The OGC also has been using this approach for GML data standards, and seems like overkill when you are just talking about XML. However, in general it makes a lot of sense when you need to preserve the whole from a service implementation standpoint. But really, sometimes just subtracting things from standard is a great thing. (JSF anyone?)

I wonder if there will be profile for app servers to run JRuby on Rails?

Simple

I think this is the route I am going to go when I have to do another Java web application. I have become improbably enamored with horizontal scalability. The primary downside is that they started using xml configuration files. Curse you XML configuration. The XML config is just there to compensate for the lack of dynamic language features...

Seriously though- the old way of building Java web applications is seriously threatened by the latest .Net stuff on one side, and the dynamic language stuff on the other side. I think the .Net 3.0 is not helping much on the complexity angle.

It makes me laugh to think how much the REST architecture resembles the Java Servlet Spec. All of these frameworks to abstract away HTTP verbs, when that was what really needed to have application structures that are concordant with the architecture of the web itself.

Ruby Community

I don't know who "Dan" is, but I like the way he rolls.

"I have no idea what the "Ruby Community" is. How do you define
membership in this community?"

No, no, the "Java Community" has a defined static membership, but the
"Ruby Community" is more dynamic. As long as you respond to the right
messages, you're just assumed to be a member.