How Did I Lose focus?

I was a master multitasker. Working a full time job, writing blogs, writing articles, reading a lot of books, and writing detailed reviews for all the books I read. To top this all, take care of my family, drive my teenage daughter everywhere, cooking which of course is my hobby. I did all these with great interest and a perfect timing.

However, from the past 7-8 months, not sure what happened everything changed. Not one blog entry for months. Didn't write one article for Javalobby. Wasn't able to finish the two books which came my way. I keep grumbling while cooking. Can barely walk for a few yards because of the foot problem.

Is it because of the hectic travel schedule within the job? Is it because of my persistent foot problem which has become chronic? Is it because I am getting old? Or is it just a temporary phase which everyone goes through? Haven't excercised in almost a year now.

I have no idea. I don't like this phase at all. I really want to get back on track. But, have no idea where to start.

Why am I not able to work effectively as I did earlier?Has this happened to you? How did you get back on track?

I hope I will get back my focus and mutltitasking abilities soon, and be more active within the community.

Wish me luck.

STP Conference - Won Olympus Stylus 1050 SW

I talked yesterday at the STP Conference held at San Mateo, CA. My session was from 2.15 - 3.15 p.m. The hall was packed. The audience was very communicative and enthusiastic about knowing how to test web services. Oh yes, I spoke about testing web services using SoapUI.

Here are the details about my talk as posted on the conference web site:


805 Web Services/SOA Testing Made Easy
By Meera Subbarao
Learn how SoapUI can be used to write functional tests by creating and executing test cases against your Web services. Includes a demonstration using Groovy scripts for assertions, properties setup and tear down for each test case. Also covers use of the tests in a continuous integration environment, with the Hudson Java servlet as an example of integration and execution of the tests, breaking the build when tests fail and generating reports.
NOTE: A laptop is strongly recommended for this class.

BTW, I didn't write this blog entry to mention about my talk. I actually won an Olympus Stylus 1050 SW Digital Camera. The camera is worth $300. Just awesome. It is the first time I have ever won anything. And that too a digital camera when the one we had just broke last week. Amazing.

Hudson and Doxygen

I wrote an article last year for Javalobby and couple more blogs on Doxygen called "Javadoc or Doxygen". Doxygen is a documentation tool for many languages such as Java, C, C++ and so on. In that article, I show how to use Doxygen for generating technical documentation based on your source code, keep this up-to date by adding additional tasks to Ant build files, and run them from your CI Server(Hudson in my case) on commit and nightly builds, and also publish the results.

It sure was easy and needed just 3 steps. However, while preparing for my presentation for SD West next week, I saw that Hudson has a neat plug-in for Doxygen. So, here is another way of generating your documentation on a daily basis in 3 simple steps.

1. Download the Doxygen plug-in for Hudson. This is quite easy if you already have Hudson up and running. Just click on the '"Manage Plugins" link, and in the available list check Doxygen and install. Restart hudson for this plugin to become available.

2. Next, configure the plug-in within your Hudson job. As shown below:

3. Finally, if you have configured the Doxygen config file earlier, just force a build and see your updated docs on the dashboard of your project. No XML file, no Ant targets. Isn't it cool?



Just 3 simple steps, how much easy can generating documentation be? Now you know why I am so crazy about Hudson. Don't you agree?

As always, keep me posted if you need any help. You sure won't. But, in case....

Book Review : Stripes:...And Java Web Development Is Fun Again

It has been a hectic 2009. I was working in San Francisco for the past 7 weeks. Back after a long time. I read several books while traveling to and from San Francisco, so you will see many more book reviews in the coming weeks.

Just yesterday, the review for "Stripes:...And Java Web Development Is Fun Again" was posted on Javalobby. Stripes is an amazing framework, and this book with quite funny quotes and excellent working examples makes web development really fun.

You can read the chapter-wise review in detail here.

Are you using Stripes? Have you read this book? Mind sharing your thoughts about Stripes or the book?

Stay tuned for many more reviews for some very interesting books coming soon..

Book Review : JBoss in Action

The detailed chapter-wise book review for JBoss in Action has been published on Javalobby yesterday. I am really really surprised by the comments that review has received; 123 comments in less than a day. Of course, DZone has partnered with Manning to give away a free book. Most comments are for the free book giveaway.

I have been getting free books for almost 5 years now. It is not actually free, I do spend a lot of time reading and writing detailed reviews. And, of course I pick and choose which books I want to read.

However, I was surprised to see so many using JBoss AS. So, fellow developers, if you are using JBoss and want a free copy of the book, leave a comment. You might be the lucky one to get the book also.

JBoss in Action : A Sneak Peek

Since this is my first post for 2009, WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!.

I started reading the book "JBoss in Action" in October 2007 just before I did the interview with the authors of this book for Javalobby titled "An Interview with JBoss in Action authors Javid Jamae and Peter Johnson. I kept asking the authors and also the publishers every few months if the PDF I was regularly getting the final version. It took almost 1 and 1/2 years from the day I started reading this book. Anyway, the book is finally out.

The book is just amazing. The authors have packed so much detail in this book. JBoss in Action is the first book I have read to focus in detail on how to use the JBoss 5 application server from installation to configuration to production development. The topics on security are also very well covered.

This book is divided into four parts, containing 15 chapters and two appendices. This books covers 5.0.0.GA version of JBoss AS, the chapters on the portal are based on the 2.6.4.GA release running on JBoss AS 4.2.2, and were later verified with JBoss AS 4.2.3 and Portal 2.7.0.

Part 1 covers JBoss AS basics like configuring the server, deploying and undeploying applications and a brief overview of security.

Part 2 shows how to configure, deploy Java EE technologies. There is a complete chapter messaging and web services as well. Very interesting chapters.

I wasn't sure why the authors decided to dedicate Part 3 entirely to JBoss Portal. I did evaluate JBoss Portal long time ago, no real experience here. I would have loved to see this part replaced with two chapters on JBoss Seam. The earlier version of PDF I read had JBoss Seam, I guess the authors had their reasons to remove those chapters.

Part 4 : Going into Production was very interesting. Especially the topics which cover Clustering and tunning the JBoss AS are very well written.

I was a big fan of JBoss until 2007. Once we switched to Java 6, I had big trouble using JBoss and EJB3 with Java 6. So, I haven't used JBoss since than. But, I have seen many of my clients using JBoss.

It is very simple to rate this book: everyone who uses JBoss AS should own and read a copy.

Stay tuned for a detailed chapter wise review and the rating on Javalobby.

2008 : The good, bad and ugly

I am so glad 2008 is finally coming to an end. It was indeed a roller coaster ride for me from the beginning. Lots of ups and downs.

The highlights of 2008 were speaking at conferences, giving presentations locally, wrote 68 articles for Javalobby, the three part SoapUI article was #1, #2 and #8 at Architecture Zone and SOA Zone. I also had the opportunity to learn and use many tools.

Now coming to the bad. I always wanted to learn Maven; I even tried to use it a few times. I first tried to use Maven was when I reviewed the book “Java Power Tools”. It was a simple project, and everything seemed to work fine. However, I failed miserably when I tried using Maven for a few other examples. Instead of persevering through my problems I gave up.I started out wanting to become an expert on Maven; I ended up being just another Novice.

Up until my spell of laziness, I read about 2-3 books a month. Starting in about October, I began to lose interest in reading and reviewing books. But I do hope to reverse this trend in the next year.

I never knew that there would be something worse waiting for me in 2008. I used to feel so bad whenever I heard on TV that a company was closing its operations and all the employees were laid off. I felt so bad for them, had no idea that it was going to happen to me also.

When I heard that the company I was working was closing its operations and we were given just 3 days notice, I was devastated, shocked and stunned. I just can't even write how I felt in those few days. My world had turned upside down. I had planned a trip to India to visit my parents and had collected 80 hours of vacation. Lost all of them, the company had no policy of paying for unused vacation. Hah, they tell me at the end. It was just bad.

However, I am sure I had done some good karma, I was able to find another job in just 3 days. Thanks to one of my Friends who referred me.

Now that I have gone through the worst, I am sure I will be able to cope better next time if the same happens.

Anyway, what an incredible year 2008 was. Life is full of surprises; good, bad and ugly, and if and only if we could predict the future........