Happy New Year to All 

One key feature of Java 6.0 is change in (Java Specification Request (JSR) 223), helps developers to integrate Java technology and scripting languages by defining a standard framework and application programming interface (API) to do the following:

1.     Access and control Java technology-based objects from a scripting environment 
2.     Create web content with scripting languages
3.     Embed scripting environments within Java technology-based applications

This article focuses on the specification’s third goal and will show you how to use an embedded scripting environment from a Java platform application. A demo application called ScriptCalc will provide a working example of how to extend your applications with user-defined scripts in the JavaScript programming language.

Basic Reasons to Use a Scripting Language

Most scripting languages are dynamically typed. You can usually create new variables without predetermining the variable type, and you can reuse variables to store values of different types. Also, scripting languages tend to perform many type conversions automatically, for example, converting the number 10 to the text “10″ as necessary. Although some scripting languages are compiled, most languages are interpreted. Script environments generally perform the script compilation and execution within the same process. Usually, these environments also parse and compile scripts into intermediate code when they are first executed.These qualities of scripting languages help you write applications faster, execute commands repeatedly, and tie together components from different technologies.

Combining scripting languages with the Java platform provides developers an opportunity to leverage the abilities of both environments. You can continue to use scripting languages for all the reasons you already have, and you can use the powerful Java class library to extend the abilities of those languages. If you are a Java language programmer, you now have the ability to ship applications that your customers can significantly and dynamically customize. The synergy between the Java platform and scripting languages produces an environment in which developers and end users can collaborate to create more useful, dynamic applications.

JSR 223 Implementation

Version 6 of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE), does not mandate any particular script engine, but it does include the Mozilla Rhino engine for the JavaScript programming language. The Java SE 6 platform implements the java.script APIs, which allow you to use script engines that comply with JSR 223.  

Ways to Use the Scripting API

 The scripting API is in the javax.script package available in the Java SE 6 platform. The API is still relatively small, composed of six interfaces and six classes, as Table 1 indicates.

 Your starting point should be the ScriptEngineManager class. A ScriptEngineManager object can tell you what script engines are available to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). It can also provide ScriptEngine objects that interpret scripts written in a specific scripting language. The simplest way to use this API is to do the following: 

1. Create a ScriptEngineManager object.
2. Retrieve a ScriptEngine object from the manager.
3. Evaluate a script using the ScriptEngine object.

That sounds easy enough, but what does the code look like? Above Example  performs all three steps, printing Hello, world! to the console.

Create a ScriptEngine object using the engine name.

Below code shows how to evaluate a file that the customer has supplied. The file name is /scripts/F1.js, and it is located under the application directory.

 The eval method can read script files.

 How to Invoke a Script Procedure 

Running entire scripts is useful, but you may want to invoke only specific script procedures. Some script engines implement the Invocable interface. If an engine implements this interface, you can call or invoke specific methods or functions that the engine has already evaluated. Script engines are not required to support the Invocable interface. However, the Rhino JavaScript technology implementation in the Java SE 6 platform does. If your script contains a function called sayHello, you could invoke it repeatedly by casting your ScriptEngine object to an Invocable object and by calling its invokeFunction method. Alternatively, if your script defines objects, you can call object methods using the invokeMethod method. Code Example 7 demonstrates how to use this interface. You can use the Invocable interface to call specific methods in a script.

 Be aware that invokeMethod and invokeFunction methods can throw several exceptions, so you must be prepared to catch ScriptException, NoSuchMethodException, and perhaps even NullPointerException exceptions.

More Information : http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/scripting/ 

By: Himanshu Poddar

Hi and Merry Christmas to All,

I am back and writting after long and really sorry for this.

Today after Christmas when i am really relax and looking forward to new year just decided to write here something interesting that is happening in industry i.e change of mindset of each and every organization to shift the layout design from table to table less design i.e. from <Table> to <DIV>.

When we in my company decided that from onwards we will be using <DIV> instead of table in our layouts, everyone asked only one question WHY and it was me and the designer were give the task of finding the answer to this big WHY as we had given this idea…lol.This is really nothing new, but rather a different way of doing things. Some pages you see around the internet do not contain any tables at all. Each section is a DIV area being positioned by CSS.

Note/Warning for all programmers: please don’t try designing the form or any layout done in DIV by yourself without asking the designers till you have good knolwdge of DIV and CSS as we been doing till today with tables (sometimes), it is because this way you will really spoil the design and yes your dear friend The Designer may lose temper.

Here is some of the reason why one should use DIV instead of tables till possible.

Tables are slow

In almost every browser out there, unless table widths are specified explicitly, all the text in the table needs to be rendered before the browser can figure out how wide to make the various table cells. This means that pages load slowly. Note that using CSS for layout doesn’t necessarily help here, since there’s the same problem if the widths aren’t specified explicit. I’m guilty of this myself.Tables don’t have to be slow if you put each row in a separate table, but then you lose the alignment between rows. For a blog, that may not be much of a problem, but for data that actually wants to be in tabular form, it’s still a problem.Simply speaking just think how much time each <td> takes at the background when page is loaded (think if u have big form and have around 50 <td>).

Tables can be inflexible

One of the common tricks to make tables load more quickly is to specify the widths for all the table columns. This means that the table renders pretty quickly, and the user can see your text right away. The problem is that you’ve just specified the width for the page. Again, note that you can have this exact same problem with CSS if you specify all the widths explicitly.

Accessibility issues are easier with CSS

Tables also mean you have to present the information in the same order you want it displayed. You have to present data in the left column before the columns to the right. Using CSS for layout, you can present the data in a logical order and use CSS to control the appearance. For example, in a three-column layout using tables, you’ll see left-column then center column then right column in that order. Using CSS, you can put whichever of the three columns is most important first, and keep the layout separate (which is the whole point of CSS). A real important point that I missed on the first pass. I don’t know what I was thinking :P.

Tables don’t degrade

The most important reason why using tables for layout is that they don’t degrade gracefully. For a good example of this, take a look at any page on any site in Table layout. If your browser window is wide enough, you get a nice, two-column layout, just the way U intended. But if you’re using a narrower browser window, the page falls down to a single column with what used to be on the right down below the more important part of the page (or at least what I think is more important to most people). Tables don’t let the page degrade gracefully, and that’s their biggest problem.

Tables don’t print as well

A huge problem with tables (pointed out by a reader, this is another one I missed on the first pass) is that they don’t print terribly well. With CSS, you can use a print style sheet to give another look to the page. This style sheet can also include page-breaks that are under your control. You can also have elements that only show up when rendered to a screen, but not to a printer (headers and footers, for example).

Just remembered to say yes also…mmmmm….Div is lighter then the aaaaa…Table…yes now I remember what I was missing in the second point…..thanks to all.

Updating a Primary Key value without dropping Foreign key constraints in Oracle 8i and later versions

Oracle 11g Launched

By Sandip Davda

On 11^th July 17, 2007 Oracle today introduced Oracle(r) Database 11g, the latest release of the world’s most popular database. With more than 400 features, 15 million test hours, and 36,000 person-months of development, Oracle Database 11g is the most innovative and highest quality software product Oracle have ever announced. 

However actual product will be released in August 2007 on Linux Platform. As of now the release date for Windows and other platform is not decided. So you need to wait before you get your hands on Oracle 11g  -  the most eagerly awaited product…

Oracle Database 11g can help organizations take control of their enterprise information, gain better business insight, and quickly and confidently adapt to an increasingly changing competitive environment. To do this, the new release extends Oracle’s unique database clustering, data center automation, and workload management capabilities. With secure, highly available and scalable grids of low-cost servers and storage, Oracle customers can tackle the most demanding transaction processing, data warehousing, and content management applications.

Real Application Testing Helps Reduce Time, Risk and Cost of Change 

Oracle Database 11g features advanced self-management and automation features to help organizations meet service level agreements. For example, with organizations facing regular database and operating system software upgrades, and hardware and system changes, Oracle Database 11g introduces Oracle Real Application Testing, making it the first database to help customers test and manage changes to their IT environment quickly, in a controlled, cost effective manner.

Increase Return On Investment for Disaster Recovery Solutions 

In Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Data Guard enables customers to use their standby database to improve performance in their production environments as well as provide protection from system failures and site-wide disasters. Oracle Data Guard uniquely enables simultaneous read and recovery of a single standby database making it available for reporting, backup, testing and ‘rolling’ upgrades to production databases. By offloading workloads from production to a standby system, Oracle Data Guard helps enhance the performance of production systems and provides a more cost-effective disaster recovery solution.  

Enhanced Information Lifecycle Management and Storage Management 

Oracle Database 11g has significant new data partitioning and compression capabilities, for more cost-effective Information Lifecycle Management and storage management. Oracle Database 11g automates many manual data partitioning operations and extends existing range, hash and list partitioning to include interval, reference and virtual column partitioning. In addition, Oracle Database 11g provides a complete set of composite partitioning options, allowing storage management that is driven by business rules.  

Advanced Data Compression 

Building on its long-standing data compression capabilities, Oracle Database 11g offers advanced data compression for both structured and unstructured (LOB) data managed in transaction processing, data warehousing, and content management environments. Compression ratios of 2x to 3x or more for all data can be achieved with the new advanced compression capabilities in Oracle Database 11g.  

Total Recall of Data Changes 

The new release also features “Oracle Total Recall,” enabling administrators to query data in designated tables “as of” earlier times in the past. This offers an easy, practical way to add a time dimension to data for change tracking, auditing, and compliance.  

Maximum Availability of Information 

Oracle has consistently led the industry in protecting database applications from planned and unplanned downtime. Oracle Database 11g continues this lead by making it easier for administrators to meet their users’ availability expectations. New availability features include Oracle Flashback Transaction which makes it easy to back out a transaction made in error, as well as any dependent transactions; Parallel Backup and Restore which helps improve the backup and restore performance of very large databases; and ‘hot patching,’ which improves system availability by allowing database patches to be applied without the need to shut databases down. In addition, a new advisor - Data Recovery Advisor - helps administrators significantly reduce recovery downtime by automating problem investigation, intelligently determining recovery plan and handling multiple failure situations.  

Oracle Fast Files 

The next-generation capability for storing large objects (LOBs) such as images, large text objects, or advanced data types including XML, medical imaging, and three-dimensional objects - within the database. Oracle Fast Files offers database applications performance fully comparable to file systems. By storing a wider range of enterprise information and retrieving it quickly and easily, enterprises can know more about their business and adapt more rapidly. 

Faster XML

Oracle Database 11g includes significant performance enhancements to XML DB, a feature of Oracle database that enables customers to natively store, and manipulate XML data. Support for binary XML has been added offering customers a choice of XML storage options to match their specific application and performance requirements. XML DB also enables manipulation of XML data using industry standard interfaces with support for XQuery, Java Specification Requests (JSR)-170 and SQL/XML standards.

Transparent Encryption

Oracle Database 11g continues to build on its unmatched security capabilities through the addition of significant enhancements. The new release features improved Oracle Transparent Data Encryption capabilities beyond column level encryption. Oracle Database 11g offers tablespace encryption that can be utilized to encrypt entire tables, indexes, and other data storage. Encryption is also provided for LOBs stored in the database.

Embedded OLAP Cubes 

Oracle Database 11g also provides data warehousing innovations. OLAP cubes are enhanced to behave as materialized views in the database. This allows developers to use industry standard SQL for data query, but still benefit from the high performance delivered by an OLAP cube. New Continuous Query Notification features allow applications to be immediately notified when important changes are made to database data without burdening the database with constant polling.

Connection Pooling and Query Result Caches 

The performance and scalability features in Oracle Database 11g are designed to help organizations maintain a highly performant, scalable infrastructure to provide users’ with the best quality of service. Oracle Database 11g further enhances Oracle’s position as the industry’s performance and scalability leader with new features such as Query Result Caches which improves application performance and scalability by caching and reusing the results of often called database queries and functions in database and application tiers, and Database Resident Connection Pooling which improves the scalability of web-based systems by providing connection pooling for non-multi-threaded applications.

Enhanced Application Development 

Oracle Database 11g offers developers a choice of development tools, and a streamlined application development process that takes full advantage of key Oracle Database 11g features. These include new features such as Client Side Caching, Binary XML for faster application performance, XML processing, and the storing and retrieving of files. In addition, Oracle Database 11g also includes a new Java just-in-time Compiler to execute database Java procedures faster without the need for a third party compiler; native integration with Visual Studio 2005 for developing .NET applications on Oracle; Access migration tools with Oracle Application Express; and SQL Developer easy query building feature for fast coding of SQL and PL/SQL routines.

Enhanced Self-Management and Automation 

The manageability features in Oracle Database 11g are designed to help organizations easily manage enterprise grids and deliver on their users’ service level expectations. Oracle Database 11g introduces more self-management and automation that will help customers reduce their system management costs, while increasing performance, scalability, availability and security of their database applications. New manageability capabilities in Oracle Database 11g include Automatic SQL and memory tuning, a new Partitioning Advisor which automatically advises administrators on how to partition tables and indexes in order to improve performance, and enhanced performance diagnostics for database clusters. In addition, Oracle Database 11g includes a new Support Workbench which provides an easy-to-use interface that presents database health-related incidents to administrators along with information on how to quickly manage the resolution of incidents.  

Summary 

Oracle Database is the only database designed for grid computing. With the release of Oracle Database 11g, Oracle is making the management of enterprise information easier than ever; enabling customers to know more about their business and innovate more quickly. Oracle Database 11g delivers superior performance, scalability, availability, security and ease of management on a low-cost grid of industry standard storage and servers. Oracle Database 11g is designed to be effectively deployed on everything from small blade servers to the biggest SMP servers and clusters of all sizes. It features automated management capabilities for easy, cost-effective operation. Oracle Database 11g’s unique ability to manage all data from traditional business information to XML and 3D spatial information makes it the ideal choice to power transaction processing, data warehousing, and content management applications.

By: Himanshu Poddar

Even though C# 3.0 is not even standardized yet, Microsoft provided a preview release at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in September so eager developers could try out some of the expected features. This article discusses the following major new enhancements expected in C# 3.0:

1. Implicitly typed local variables
2. Anonymous types
3. Extension methods
4. Object and collection initializers

1. Implicitly Typed Local Variables
 

C# 3.0 introduces a new keyword called “var”. Var allows you to declare a new variable, whose type is implicitly inferred from the expression used to initialize the variable. In other words, the following is valid syntax in C# 3.0:

var i = 1; 

The preceding line initializes the variable i to value 1 and gives it the type of integer. Note that “i” is strongly typed to an integer—it is not an object or a VB6 variant, nor does it carry the overhead of an object or a variant. To ensure the strongly typed nature of the variable that is declared with the var keyword, C# 3.0 requires that you put the assignment (initializer) on the same line as the declaration (declarator). Also, the initializer has to be an expression, not an object or collection initializer, and it cannot be null. If multiple declarators exist on the same variable, they must all evaluate to the same type at compile time. Implicitly typed arrays, on the other hand, are possible using a slightly different syntax, as shown below:

var intArr = new[] {1,2,3,4} ; 

The above line of code would end up declaring intArr as int[]. 
 2. Anonymous Types

C# 3.0 gives you the flexibility to create an instance of a class without having to write code for the class beforehand. So, you now can write code as shown below: 

new {hair=”black”, skin=”green”, teethCount=64} The preceding line of code, with the help of the “new” keyword, gives you a new type that has three properties: hair, skin, and teethCount. Behind the scenes, the C# compiler would create a class that looks as follows: 

class __Anonymous1

{

   private string _hair = “black”;

   private string _skin = “green”;

   private int _teeth   = 64;

 public string hair {get { return _hair; }set { _hair = value; }}  

 public string skin {get { return _skin; } set { _skin = value; }}  

 public int teeth {get { return _teeth; } set { _teeth = value; }}

}

 In fact, if another anonymous type that specified the same sequence of names and types were created, the compiler would be smart enough to create only a single anonymous type for both instances to use.  Now you have a class, but you still need something to hold an instance of the above class. This is where the “var” keyword comes in handy; it lets you hold a statically typed instance of the above instance of the anonymous type. Here is a rather simple and easy use of an anonymous type:

var frankenstein = new {hair=”black”, skin=”green”, teethCount=64} 
 3. Extension Methods

Extension methods enable you to extend various types with additional static methods. However, they are quite limited and should be used as a last resort—only where instance methods are insufficient. Extension methods can be declared only in static classes and are identified by the keyword “this” as a modifier on the first parameter of the method. The following is an example of a valid extension method: 

public static int ToInt32(this string s)

{  

return Convert.ToInt32(s) ;                      

}

If the static class that contains the above method is imported using the “using” keyword, the ToInt32 method will appear in existing types (albeit in lower precedence to existing instance methods), and you will be able to compile and execute code that looks as follows:

string s = “1″;int i    = s.ToInt32();

This allows you to take advantage of the extensible nature of various built-in or defined types and add newer methods to them. 
4. Object and Collection Initializers

C# 3.0 is expected to allow you to include an initializer that specifies the initial values of the members of a newly created object or collection. This enables you to combine declaration and initialization in one step.For instance, if you defined a CoOrdinate class as follows: 

public class CoOrdinate

{  

public int x ;  

public int y;

}

You then could declare and initialize a CoOrdinate object using an object initializer, like this:

var myCoOrd = new CoOrdinate{ x = 0, y= 0} ; 

The above code may have made you raise your eyebrows and ask, “Why not just write the following:

“var myCoOrd = new CoOrdinate(0, 0) ; 

Similarly, you should easily be able to give values to collections in a rather concise and compact manner in C# 3.0. For instance, the following C# 2.0 code:

List<string> animals = new List<string>();

animals.Add(”monkey”);animals.Add(”donkey”);

animals.Add(”cow”);animals.Add(”dog”);

animals.Add(”cat”);

Now can be shortened to simply:

List<string> animals = new List<string> {   “monkey”, “donkey”, “cow”, “dog”, “cat” } ;

AJAX(ASP.Net) Implemetation

By Priyank Rach

In previous article on Ajax http://techmanthan.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/ajax/, Himanshu had discussed about the Ajax web application model, how it differs from classic web application model, Advantages & disadvantages of Ajax. In this article we will see how to start with Ajax in ASP.Net.

First you will have to download ASP.Net Ajax Extension. It can be free download from web. Now go for its installation. After the successful installation of it, you will able to see a new template in wizard of creating a new web site. It would be named as “ASP.Net Ajax Enabled Website”.

In this web site you will be able to see “Ajax Extensions” in toolbar. It has the controls like script manager, Update panel which gives Ajax benefits to your web application.

As you will be able to see there form is default loaded with script manager. It loads all necessary scripts for Ajax controls. Now you can drag the Update Panel. Update panel is the control which allows asynchronous post back to your application. Means you can refresh the controls inside the panel without refreshing the whole page.

Now as this indicate, controls within the update panel can refresh the portion covered by the panel. Similarly you can refresh the panel by control which is outside of that panel also. These can be gained using “Triggers”. In trigger also you can have the option to partially refresh the page or our convential refresh (whole page). Trigger can be fired on various events like Button click, dropdown selected index change or radio button state change etc.

This was related to creating a new Ajax enabled web site, but if you already have a web application and if you want to have Ajax features in it then you may need to create a dummy Ajax enabled application through template and copy the web.config file to your web application’s web.config file. You may need to copy only the Ajax related portion from your web.config file.

Let us know how useful you find this article…

Giving SOAP a REST

By Niraj Vadher

Many developers will be surprised to learn that SOAP isn’t the only game in town for Web services interfacing. REST offers a perfectly good solution for the majority of implementations, with greater flexibility and lower overhead. Developers need to stop reaching immediately for SOAP and start choosing the right technology for the application.

For the past two years, the hype surrounding the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) has barely waned, although its opponents have gradually risen in number. While some critics are simply tired of hearing about Web services, a small handful of Internet architects have come up with a surprisingly good argument for pushing SOAP aside: there’s a better method for building Web services in the form of Representational State Transfer (REST).

REST is more an old philosophy than a new technology. Whereas SOAP looks to jump-start the next phase of Internet development with a host of new specifications, the REST philosophy espouses that the existing principles and protocols of the Web are enough to create robust Web services. This means that developers who understand HTTP and XML can start building Web services right away, without needing any toolkits beyond what they normally use for Internet application development.

Interface Flexibility
The key to the REST methodology is to write Web services using an interface that is already well known and widely used: the URI. For example, exposing a stock quote service, in which a user enters a stock quote symbol to return a real-time price, could be as simple as making a script accessible on a Web server via the following URI: http://www.somebrokerage.com/quote?symbol=QQQ.

Any client or server application with HTTP support could easily call that service with an HTTP GET command. Depending on how the service provider wrote the script, the resulting HTTP response might be as simple as some standard headers and a text string containing the current price for the given ticker symbol. Or, it might be an XML document.

This interface method has significant benefits over SOAP-based services. Any developer can figure out how to create and modify a URI to access different Web resources. SOAP, on the other hand, requires specific knowledge of a new XML specification, and most developers will need a SOAP toolkit to form requests and parse the results.

Lighter on Bandwidth

Another benefit of the RESTful interface is that requests and responses can be short. SOAP requires an XML wrapper around every request and response. Once namespaces and typing are declared, a four- or five-digit stock quote in a SOAP response could require more than 10 times as many bytes as would the same response in REST.

SOAP proponents argue that strong typing is a necessary feature for distributed applications. In practice, though, both the requesting application and the service know the data types ahead of time; thus, transferring that information in the requests and responses is gratuitous.

How does one know the data types—and their locations in the response—ahead of time? Like SOAP, REST still needs a corresponding document that outlines input parameters and output data. The good part is that REST is flexible enough that developers could write WSDL files for their services if such a formal declaration was necessary. Otherwise, the declaration could be as simple as a human-readable Web page that says, “Give this service an input of some stock ticker symbol, in the format q=symbol, and it will return the current price of one share of stock as a text string.”

Security Safeguards

Probably the most interesting aspect of the REST vs. SOAP debate is the security angle. Although the SOAP camp insists that sending remote procedure calls through standard HTTP ports is a good way to ensure Web services support across organizational boundaries, REST followers argue that the practice is a major design flaw that compromises network safety. REST calls also go over HTTP or HTTPS, but with REST the administrator (or firewall) can discern the intent of each message by analyzing the HTTP command used in the request. For example, a GET request can always be considered safe because it can’t, by definition, modify any data. It can only query data.

A typical SOAP request, on the other hand, will use POST to communicate with a given service. And without looking into the SOAP envelope—a task that is both resource-consuming and not built into most firewalls—there’s no way to know whether that request simply wants to query data or delete entire tables from the database.

As for authentication and authorization, SOAP places the burden in the hands of the application developer. The REST methodology instead takes into account the fact that Web servers already have support for these tasks. Through the use of industry-standard certificates and a common identity management system, such as an LDAP server, developers can make the network layer do all the heavy lifting.

This is not only helpful to developers, but it eases the burden on administrators, who can use something as simple as ACL files to manage their Web services the same way they would any other URI.

Not For Everything

To be fair, REST isn’t the best solution for every Web service. Data that needs to be secure should not be sent as parameters in URIs. And large amounts of data, like that in detailed purchase orders, can quickly become cumbersome or even out of bounds within a URI. In these cases, SOAP is indeed a solid solution. But it’s important to try REST first and resort to SOAP only when necessary. This helps keep application development simple and accessible.

Fortunately, the REST philosophy is catching on with developers of Web services. The latest version of the SOAP specification now allows certain types services to be exposed through URIs (although the response is still a SOAP message). Similarly, users of Microsoft .NET platform can publish services so that they use GET requests. All this signifies a shift in thinking about how best to interface Web services.

Developers need to understand that sending and receiving a SOAP message isn’t always the best way for applications to communicate. Sometimes a simple REST interface and a plain text response does the trick—and saves time and resources in the process.

Google changing their Algorithm.

By Sandip Davda

Google has just sent a report of a series of updates to their interface and algorithm, as they move towards what they call a “universal search model”.

With Google’s universal search, every time you conduct a search, Google checks across all of its search properties - web, image, video, news etc - and presents a single unified results page, that incorporates the most relevant content.

For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor - not just web pages that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones - all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic.

Google’s new universal interface is certainly the boldest change by the search engine in many years, and the company is having to significantly upgrade its technology in order to support the new roll out.

Google is also in the process of deploying a new technical infrastructure that will enable the search engine to handle the computationally intensive tasks required to produce universal search results. The company is also releasing the first stage of an upgraded ranking mechanism that automatically and objectively compares different types of information. As always, Google(TM) search results are ranked automatically by algorithms to deliver the best results to users anywhere in the world.The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users just see more accurate results, more often, in more languages, which is our primary goal

Changes in Navigation options Too….

In addition to the new algorithm, Google’s made changes to the navigation options, presenting new menu options “on the fly” depending on the type of search query

New dynamically generated navigation links have been added above the search results to suggest additional information that is relevant to a user’s query. For example, a search for “python” will now generate links to Google Blog Search(TM), Google Book Search(TM), Google Groups(TM), and Google Code(TM), to let the user know there is additional information on his or her query in each of those areas. As a result, users can find a wider array of information on their topic, including data types they might not have initially considered.

Google’s homepage and a number of applications have also been updated with a new navigation bar to provide easier access to popular Google products. Now, instead of having links above the Google.com homepage search box, users will see a navigation bar on the top left side of the page with various Google search properties and popular products including Gmail(TM), Google Calendar(TM), Google Docs & Spreadsheets(TM), and Picasa Web Albums(TM).

This is huge! Google’s basically telling users - and its competitors - that it has figured out how to identify the type of search query entered and provide a single set of results that it is confident will include all the information you could possibly want. While we’ve seen Google dip its toe in the water of predictive search - showing us images or stock prices - this overhaul of the search results page completely changes the way everyone interacts with Google.

Users will benefit, as they’ll likely find Google’s search results to be much more relevant, meanwhile seo services company will find that their job has become a lot more complex. Now, instead of focusing on web search and battling others for one of the coveted Top 10 spots for a particular search term, they’re going to find the Top 10 now includes results drawn from other indexes such as images, news and video. SEO’s will be faced with two choices. Stick with just web search, and be content that they may only have 5-6 opportunities to be in the Top 10 on Google, or, look at ways to optimize content such as photos, videos, news items, and use a broader approach to gaining page one exposure.

JAVA DESIGN PATTERN (PART-I)

By Deepak Parmar

“Pattern” as the name suggests, means series of events occurring in a definite order. The patterns can be found in Java and J2ee technologies also. Many a times, we find that there is a particular way of tackling a problem. This way is easy and has been used many times successfully by a number of people earlier also. This method becomes a pattern.

Patterns Defined: The patterns can be defined in many ways. You can find the definitions of patterns in many good books.

“Design patterns are recurring solutions to design problems.”

Patterns: According to commonly known practices, there are 23 design patterns in Java. These patterns are grouped under three heads:

1. Creational Patterns

2. Structural Patterns

3. Behavioral Patterns

Creational Patterns - Factory Pattern

Factory of what? Of classes. In simple words, if we have a super class and n sub-classes, and based on data provided, we have to return the object of one of the sub-classes, we use a factory pattern.Let’s take an example to understand this pattern.

Example: Let’s suppose an application asks for entering the name and sex of a person. If the sex is Male (M), it displays welcome message saying Hello Mr. <Name> and if the sex is Female (F), it displays message saying Hello Ms <Name>.The skeleton of the code can be given here.

This is a simple class Person having methods for name and gender. Now, we will have two sub-classes, Male and Female which will print the welcome message on the screen.

Also, the class Female

Now, we have to create a client, or a SalutationFactory which will return the welcome message depending on the data provided.

This class accepts two arguments from the system at runtime and prints the names. Running the program:After compiling and running the code on my computer with the arguments Prashant and M:java Prashant MThe result returned is: “Hello Mr. Prashant”.

When to use a Factory Pattern?

1. When a class does not know which class of objects it must create.
2. A class specifies its sub-classes to specify which objects to create.
3. In programmer’s language (very raw form), you can use factory pattern where you have to create an object of any one of sub-classes depending on the data provided.

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition – Free(Can’t Believe? Read on….)

By Sandip Davda

This is really a very good news for all Oracle fans who want to learn/use oracle but cant aford it….

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition is Free to develop, deploy, and distribute. Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that’s free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer.

Oracle Database XE is a great starter database for:

• Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, XML, and Open Source applications.
• DBAs who need a free, starter database for training and deployment.
• Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and hardware vendors who want a starter database to distribute free of charge.
• Educational institutions and students who need a free database for their curriculum With

Oracle Database XE, you can now develop and deploy applications with a powerful, proven, industry-leading infrastructure, and then upgrade when necessary without costly and complex migrations.

Oracle Database XE can be installed on any size host machine with any number of CPUs (one database per machine), but XE will store up to 4GB of user data, use up to 1GB of memory, and use one CPU on the host machine. Download Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Oracle Database XE includes Oracle HTML DB 2.1, a declarative, graphical development environment for creating database-centric Web applications. In addition to HTML DB 2.1, you can use popular Oracle and third-party languages and tools to develop your Oracle Database XE applications. Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base. Adrian Bridgwater samples a cup of this fresh new brew.

Is it really free?
Oracle Database XE really is for free development. There are no database license costs associated with developing applications for the product and it is offered using the complete integrated set of Oracle Database programming interfaces. This includes SQL, PL/SQL, Java, C and PHP, Windows .Net, Oracle Application Express, C++, ODBC and OLE DB. Developers can then freely distribute Oracle Database XE as a standalone database or as part of a third-party application or product, provided the defined criteria are adhered to.

“Oracle Database XE allows developers, DBAs, ISVs and students the opportunity to learn, develop and deploy on the world’s leading database software, at no cost,” said Thomas Kyte, vice president, Oracle. “No one has to make do anymore; everyone can now start with the best.” “Developers, DBAs, students and ISVs often look to no cost DBMSs to get started in developing and learning to develop database applications,” said Carl Olofson, research director for information management and data integration software research at analyst firm IDC. “When such a DBMS is supported by a wealth of literature, online technical material and professional experts, it allows developers to easily grow and support their applications and data needs over time without needing to convert their database later on, the result is a low risk path that offers a high potential return not only immediately, but in the long run.”

When such a DBMS is so well supported… it allows developers to easily grow and support their applications and data needs over time without needing to convert their database later on.

How do I manage Oracle Database XE?
Oracle Database XE comes complete with its own management browser interface to monitor database activity and manage database users, storage and memory. The Oracle Database 10g product family offers many different options and features across different editions.For a complete comparison, see oracle.com/technology/products/database/oracle10g/pdf/twp_general_10gdb_product_family.pdf
Registered users of Oracle Database XE get access to a free online community forum hosted and monitored by Oracle experts at oracle.com/technology/xe and the company urges all users to register and take advantage of this free resource. Users are encouraged to discuss challenges and successes in the online community forum so that the Oracle Database XE development team can respond.

So how will ISVs benefit from Oracle Database XE? With Oracle Database XE, ISVs have one of the industry’s leading database technology to power their applications. Distributing it in their applications or products without additional cost offers even greater value to their customers, this is what Oracle says – but it’s hard to argue with the fact that even ISVs who are unfamiliar with Oracle Database have an opportunity to experience the technology, validate it with their applications and freely distribute it-with zero risk and investment.

Migration situation
If your usage exceeds Oracle Database XE criteria then the company offers a choice of database editions to upgrade to. Depending on scale of application requirements, you can easily upgrade to Standard Edition One, Standard Edition, or Enterprise Edition.

Migration is pretty straightforward. Any application developed for Oracle Database XE will run completely unchanged with Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One, Standard Edition, or Enterprise Edition; application development investment is guaranteed.

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Features

• Available on 32-bit Linux and Windows
• Installs using native installers
• English (single byte character set) and International (Unicode) versions available with support for 10 major languages
• Supports up to 4GB of user data
• Executes on one processor in any size server
• Uses up to 1GB RAM of available memory in any size server
• Fully upgradeable to other Oracle Database 10g editions
• Oracle Text for efficient text-based searches
• Oracle Data Provider for .NET

Oracle Database XE Development Environments

• Oracle Call Interface for C and C++
• Oracle Application Express
• ODBC
• OLE DB
• JDBC
• PHP

The Limitations of Oracle 10gXE

• Supports upto 4GB of user data (in addition to Oracle system data)
• Single instance only of Oracle DatabaseXE on any server
• May be installed on a multiple CPU server, but only executes on one processor in any server
• May be installed on a server with any amount of memory, but will only use upto 1GB RAM of available memory