Class-less Objects in JavaScript

Java and JavaScript are very different languages, although the similarity in the names and the similar C-like syntax can confuse people sometimes. In this article by Stoyan Stefanov, let's take a look at one pretty major difference - how objects are created. In Java, you have classes. Then objects, a.k.a. instances, are created based on those classes. In JavaScript, there are no classes and objects are more like hash tables of key-value pairs. Then what about inheritance? OK, one step at a time.

Modeling Orchestration and Choreography in Service Oriented Architecture

So far, the general approach towards SOA has been that it is just a tidying-up of application integration. SOA, according to this approach, is not about building new a business functionality but about organizing existing systems. In this article by Michael Havey, we will see that, in reality, SOA is more than merely getting organized. Its principal mandate is to build something new; indeed, SOA is fundamentally about building new processes. We will consider an approach to SOA architecture that is, yes, methodical, but has the burden of actually designing new and challenging orchestration and ESB processes.

In this article, we will build examples of choreography and orchestration, study best practices for message handling in orchestration processes, and develop fundamental orchestration concepts, such as interaction, invisible hub, and deferred choice.

CUPS: How to Manage Multiple Printers

In this article by Ankur Shah, you will see how to manage multiple printers at a time. Unlike other printing systems, CUPS features a way to let you select a group of printers to print a job instead of selecting just one. In that way, if one printer is busy or down, another printer can be automatically selected to perform the job. Such groupings of printers are called printer classes.

Automation with Python and STAF/STAX

The aim of this article by Javier Collado is to show how tasks may be automated using Python together with STAF (Software Testing Automation Framework) by means of an example. We will first see a problem and then derive its solution using classical Python-only as well as Python+STAF. The implementation of the solution will evolve in different stages. This will help us in comparing both the solution in terms of simplicity and efficiency.

Introduction to Re-Host based Modernization Using Tuxedo

The re-architecture approach reduces the mainframe costs and legacy risks by migrating the application off the mainframe and re-structuring it using all the modern software tools and capabilities at our disposal. However, this very process of re-structuring the application, and essentially re-building it using knowledge and business rules mined from existing code, introduces certain risks. How can we ensure that the new application maintains functional equivalence, and operational characteristics of the original? Can we meet the performance and scalability requirements not only of the current environment, but future growth needs as well? Can we deliver the new application within the time and budget constraints agreed to at the beginning of the project? The older the application, the larger its scope and volume of code, and the fewer original developers available, the higher these risks may be.

This article by Jason Williamson, Tom Laszewski and Mark Rakhmilevich, takes a look at an alternative approach that attempts to balance these risks in a different way. Re-host-based modernization approach is focused on migrating the application off the mainframe to a compatible software stack on an open-systems platform, preserving the language and middleware services on which the application has been built. It protects legacy investment by relying on a mainframe-compatible software stack to minimize any changes in the core application, and preserve the application's business logic intact, while running it on an open-system platform using more flexible and less expensive system infrastructure. It keeps open the customer's options for SOA enablement and re-architecture, by using an SOA-ready middleware stack to support Web services and ESB interfaces for re-hosted components. And using an extensible platform with transparent integration to J2EE components, BPM-based processes, and other key tools of the re-architecture approach means you can start to re-architect selected components at will, without requiring changes to the re-hosted services running the remainder of the business logic.

Integrating Zen Cart with Content Management Systems

There are various types of Content Management Systems (CMS) which are widely used for building and managing a website. Although Zen Cart is very good for running an online shop, it cannot be used for building a company website. Your organization may have a website running a CMS, and as you are going to open an online shop, you may need to integrate Zen Cart with that existing CMS. In this article by Suhreed Sarkar, we will see how we can integrate Zen Cart with some of the existing Content Management Systems

ExpressionEngine: Creating a Photo Gallery

ExpressionEngine comes with a built-in photo gallery module included as part of the purchase fee. With the prevalence of digital cameras, having a place to upload and share photos on your website is a great feature of ExpressionEngine. In this article by Leonard Murphy we will:

• Install the photo gallery module
• Design our photo gallery to fit in with the design of the rest of our site
• Make it easy to upload new photos, add comments and descriptions, and otherwise create a very functional gallery

On our website, we can have multiple photo galleries independent of each other (the photos are in a different folder; the gallery has a different URL) or we can have one gallery for all our photos, using categories to distinguish groups of related photos.
For the purposes of this article we are going to create only one photo gallery, but if desired the same principles can be followed again to create multiple galleries.
To keep our photo gallery visually interesting, we will be straying just slightly from our toast website theme, and will not be using our photo gallery to display slices of toast.
Let's get started!