XMPP IM with Smack for Java applications - Infrastructure for Instant Messaging

This tutorial is the third part of the “Setting up an infrastructure for Instant Messaging” article series. In my previous tutorials, I showed you how to setup the Openfire IM Server and how to configure the Spark client in order to connect to that server. In this tutorial, I will show you how to add XMPP messaging capabilities to your own application.

Java Best Practices – String performance and Exact String Matching

Continuing our series of articles concerning proposed practices while working with the Java programming language, we are going to talk about String performance tuning. We will focus on how to handle String creation, String alteration and String matching operations efficiently. Furthermore we will provide our own implementations of the most commonly used algorithms for Exact String Matching. Many of these algorithms can achieve far more superior performance compared to the naive approach for exact String matching available with the Java Development Kit. This article concludes with a performance comparison between the aforementioned Exact String Matching algorithms.

Openfire server configuration - Infrastructure for Instant Messaging

This tutorial is the second part of the “Setting up an infrastructure for Instant Messaging” article series. After installing the Openfire server ("Openfire server installation"), we are now ready to create some users.

Openfire server installation - Infrastructure for Instant Messaging

This tutorial is the first part of the “Setting up an infrastructure for Instant Messaging” article series. In this tutorial, we are going to setup an Instant Messaging infrastructure for a private intranet. This should come really handy if you don't wish to depend on solutions running on the internet or if your network administrator has blocked all the traditional IM services (MSN, Google Talk, Skype etc.). I will show you how to setup the IM server as well as configure the clients to connect to it.

Setting up an infrastructure for Instant Messaging - Article series

Instant messaging (IM) is nowadays one of the most used ways of communication and collaboration. In the next few articles I will be discussing how to create an infrastructure for instant messaging (IM) in your network.

The articles will show you how to install and configure an IM server, as well as how to use a XMPP library in Java in order to add instant messaging capabilities to your own application. Stay tuned!

Articles Series:

1. Openfire server installation
2. Openfire server configuration 
3. XMPP IM with Smack for Java applications

Java Best Practices – Vector vs ArrayList vs HashSet

Continuing our series of articles concerning proposed practices while working with the Java programming language, we are going to perform a performance comparison between the three probably most used Collection implementation classes. To make things more realistic we are going to test against a multi–threading environment so as to discuss and demonstrate how to utilize Vector, ArrayList and/or HashSet for high performance applications.

Sending e-mails in Java with Spring – GMail SMTP server example

For e-mail sending in Java, the JavaMail API is the standard solution. As the official web page states, "The JavaMail API provides a platform-independent and protocol-independent framework to build mail and messaging applications". The necessary classes are included in the JavaEE platform, but to use it in a standalone JavaSE application you will have to download the corresponding JAR from here.

Note: Unless you're using Java SE 6, you will also need the JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) extension that provides the javax.activation package. We suggest you use version 1.1.1 of JAF, the latest release. JAF is included with Java SE 6.

JavaMail can unfortunately be a little cumbersome and difficult to configure and use. In case you have embraced the Spring framework for your applications, you will be glad to find out that Spring provides a mail abstraction layer. As the reference documentation states, "The Spring Framework provides a helpful utility library for sending email that shields the user from the specifics of the underlying mailing system and is responsible for low level resource handling on behalf of the client." Great, let's see now how to leverage this library.

Embracing the Android awesomeness: A quick overview

Almost three years have passed since Google launched the Android OS, aiming to conquer the cut-throating mobile world, after having succeeded in the internet world. Android is an operating system for mobile devices that includes middleware and key applications. However, its use is not limited to smartphones, but it can also be found Tablet Computers, E-Reader Devices, even netbooks. There is Linux under the hood after all. Initially, only a few devices were supported, with the first one being the HTC Dream, released on October 2008. The list of Android devices is growing ever since.

Java Best Practices – High performance Serialization

Continuing our series of articles concerning proposed practices while working with the Java programming language, we are going to discuss and demonstrate how to utilize Object Serialization for high performance applications.

Building your own GWT Spring Maven Archetype

Hello everyone,

While watching  this really interesting articles by Justin about Spring and GWT,i thought that it would be extremely useful to show how to build your own custom maven archetype .The archetype we will present is based on the last project of Justin and includes various technologies like Spring,GWT,AspectJ,HornetQ and Infinispan.
Enough talking ,let's get our hands dirty now.