Welcome

Welcome to our blog about all kind of topics that are related to software development. We blog about:

SOA, BPM, EDA, ECM and all the other buzz words. Beware some post might not be so common as you think. We are not scared to go against main stream thoughts.

Technologies like java, maven, springframework, OSGi and front end technologies and frameworks like jQuery, DWR, Flex.

Finally to make this happen we need tools and of course a Mac (well some of us do). So we blog about that as well.

Technorati

Add to Technorati Favorites

Linked in

We now have a linked in group, join the group if you are a regular reader and want to see who else reads this blog.

Axon Framework 0.6 released

Today, I released version 0.6 of the Axon Framework. 0.6 has many new features and is another step towards full production readiness. There is still some work to do, but first, let’s take a look at what has changed…

Continue reading Axon Framework 0.6 released

Using JMX within a spring application

Lately I have been doing a lot with JMX. I use it more and more to check what my application is doing. I use it to monitor tomcat, the cache, queue’s and other libraries and components. Now I wanted to use jmx to monitor my own application. Using the standard JMX stuff coming with the JDK is not hard, but since I use a lot of spring, I wanted to know more about spring support.

The most important question in the end will be, is it easier to use spring with jmx than the standard jmx stuff from the jdk.

Read on to find out about jmx and my answer to the question which is easier, the spring way or the standard jmx way.

Continue reading Using JMX within a spring application

Axon Framework 0.5 released

Today, I finalized the 0.5 release of the Axon Framework. There is quite a number of changes since the 0.4 version. The 0.5 version is a major step towards production readiness of the framework.

Besides some changes to existing building blocks, such as the event bus, which is now much more powerful, the 0.5 version also includes some new features.

Read on to find out more.

Continue reading Axon Framework 0.5 released

Use Grails and Axon to create a CQRS application (part II)

In this post we focus on getting the task based user interface. We have the basic building blocks in the application, but the screens are a bit stupid. How many applications would you create where you have to manually copy the identifier of a contact to an address when you want to register an address for this contact. Well in the current version of the application this is what you really have to do.

What are the tasks that we focus on right now:

  • Create a new contact
  • Remove a contact
  • Change the name of a contact
  • Register an address of a certain type for a specific contact
  • Remove an address from a contact

But before we step into creating the front-end, we install some plugins that I discussed in previous posts.

Continue reading Use Grails and Axon to create a CQRS application (part II)

Attaching flex to Axon using the new Axon CommandBus

axon_logo.pngI have blogged before about the flex client I have created for the Axon framework addressbook sample project. If you did not read it before and want to learn more about the parsley framework, check this blog.

http://www.gridshore.nl/2010/02/25/creating-a-sample-for-axon-using-flex-and-parsley/

In this blog item I am describing changes based on a new feature made available in Axon. Allard has created support for a CommandBus and command handlers. Basic idea is that you dispatch items on the bus, and a registeredhandler picks it up and handles it. This makes the command query separation also more clear on the flex side of the application.

Continue reading Attaching flex to Axon using the new Axon CommandBus

Use Grails and Axon to create a CQRS application (part I)

axon_logo.pngAllard has been working on a new framework to make it easier to create a CQRS application. CQRS is short for Command Query Responsibility Segregation. An architecture that separates data sources for storing state and querying data. The query datasource should be easy to use when creating screens. The framework Allard created is the Axon Framework. This framework makes it a lot easier to use commands, events, event sourcing. If these terms are not known to you, I suggest you start reading the reference manual that comes with axon.

grailslogo.pngWhat does grails do in this picture. Isn’t grails about rapid application creation? Well, yes. It is a good platform to rapidly create web applications using the groovy language and still be able to use existing libraries. Personally I really like the Gorm library of grails. I think that gorm would be an excellent choice to wrap the query datasource. Of course the gsp technology and the groovy language are nice to have when working with the web applications as well.

In this blog post I’ll discuss the integration between grails and axon. How can we create an application with grails that makes use of Axon to implement CQRS. I’ll discuss the way to create commands and send these to axon. I’ll also discuss responding to events coming from axon. First I have to show some aspects of a grails project that you need to know before you can use Axon. I’ll try to take you with me when I take the steps to create a good integration between Axon and Grails.

Continue reading Use Grails and Axon to create a CQRS application (part I)

Creating a sample for axon using flex and parsley

axon_logo.pngThe last weeks or maybe even months, I have spent time getting to understand the Axon Framework created by Allard. Axon is a framework that can help developers created a scalable and maintainable application based on Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) principles. Each morning Allard and I discussed the framework and the sample we wanted to have. Since I know my way around flex and Axon makes heavily use of events, I decided to create a flex client that could demonstrate some cool features of the Axon framework.

parsley-spicelib-vert.jpgThis post is mainly about flex and Parsley. We will go into depth of the architecture of the client and how to talk to the server. I will describe the communication with the application that makes use of the axon framework, but I will not go into a lot of details. If you want more information about the Axon Framework I suggest you go to the website http://www.axonframework.org. There is good documentation available in the reference manual. If you want to learn about flex and the Parsley framework in general, please read on.

Continue reading Creating a sample for axon using flex and parsley

Axon Framework – the CQRS framework for Java – version 0.4 released

logoLast week, I published the 0.4 release of the Axon Framework. Axon helps developers build high performance, scalable and extensible applications using the CQRS pattern. The 0.4 release is a major step towards 1.0, and includes transactional event handling, high-performance caching repositories and easy configuration of event sourcing support. Furthermore, we have also built a demo application that uses Flex to get real-time updates pushed from the server.

Read on to find out more.

Continue reading Axon Framework – the CQRS framework for Java – version 0.4 released