How to Build Java Applications Today: February 1, 2021
First-ever Java Champions Conference 2021, how to contribute to OpenJDK, what's new in Spring Boot 2.4, Microsoft & Google pay for updates to MDN, and WebRTC is now a standard.
Introduction
This is issue #21 of my weekly newsletter, “How To Build Java Applications Today”. The newsletter complements my site betterprojectsfaster.com.
Last week, I spent most of my time on a new project. I still don’t know if it will take off, and it’s still a couple of months away. I also began writing a new article for Baeldung. It’s been a while that I wrote one!
For the last 20 issues, I put the “Weekly Links” on my betterprojectsfaster.com. Starting with this issue, they are right in this newsletter. Now that’s convenience for you!
Weekly Links
Java
First-ever Java Champions Conference 2021
Do you know what a “Java Champion” is? It’s a “select group of passionate Java technology and community leaders sponsored by Oracle“. Now for the first time, we got a conference where just Java Champions spoke. You can view all talks on YouTube. With just champions presenting, the talks must have been amazing, right? Well, I watched one talk already, and it was remarkably bad all-around - content, structure, and presentation. And no, I’m not going to tell you which one it was! I guess there’s a reason they are called “Java Champions”, not “Presentation Champions”. 😒 I hope the other ones are better!
Conference schedule with video links
Podcast: How to Contribute to OpenJDK
In my first “Weekly Links” from September 9, 2020, I reported that the OpenJDK moved to GitHub. So now we just create a pull request to get our code into the OpenJDK, right? Wrong, on all levels. And the latest “Inside Java” podcast episode sets the record straight. And I’m not talking about the record whose second preview is in JDK 15! Anyway, your journey towards OpenJDK changes starts on the OpenJDK mailing lists. Amazingly, these mailing lists look exactly like they did when Java was born nearly 26 years ago! So there you discuss the problem that you want to solve and the solution. And then… Well, you have to listen to the podcast to find out more!
Episode 11 of the “Inside Java” podcast
Spring
Video: What's New in Spring Boot 2.4
Spring Boot 2.4 came out last November. It famously still had no GraalVM support, something that hopefully Spring Boot 2.5 will rectify to some degree next spring. Back then, it looked like few things would affect us Java developers, if at all. Two months on, this in-depth video proves it. Fortunately, the accompanying blog post has direct links to each new feature. So if you always wanted to know how you can import files without an extension, here’s your chance!
Blog post with video time codes
Across the Fence
Microsoft & Google Pay For Updates to MDN
If you’ve looked up HTML and CSS reference documentation in the past, you probably viewed the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) pages at some point. MDN recently moved its content to GitHub, but that didn’t seem to save enough money. You know, Mozilla laid off 70 employees in January 2020, and then another 250 in August 2020. 😔 So now Microsoft and Google are chipping in some money to help out. The recipient of their funds is Open Web Docs, a non-profit organization that helps existing initiatives like MDN. That’s unequivocally a good thing! And that’s hopefully the last time you’ll hear me (read me?) saying “unequivocally” because it’s rather pretentious. And that’ll be also the last time you’ll hear me… Ah, forget it.
WebRTC a Standard - Video Calls in Browsers & Apps Get Easier
After baking in the “standards oven” for 10 years, the Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) is now officially a W3C and IETF standard. 10 years is also how long it’s been since the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) last updated its press release section. I mean, look at this fellow - the line spacing, the layout, the missing sharing links, and the barely-readable font size on my iPhone. Microsoft, Google, are you ready to funnel some funds to the W3C, too?!
But back to WebRTC: It allows for real-time, browser-to-browser communication. Together with the included video & audio codecs, this enables video calls in browsers without plugins. But you can also use WebRTC to upload files, share your screen, or simply chat away. It’s not just for web apps - mobile apps can use it, too. Not sure there’s a need in Java back-ends. But who knows?!