Category Archives: Development

JAXWS – Handling multi-dimensional arrays of interfaces

If you’ve exposed your value objects via interfaces in your Java service classes JAXB is unlikely to play nicely with them. Here we look at using adapters to help it map between interfaces and implementations and in particular getting this to work with multi-dimensional arrays. Continue reading

Java – Compressed serialization

Serialization may be a quick and easy way of persisting a set of Java objects but it isn’t often a very space efficient one. Here we look at using compression with serialization to reduce the footprint of our saved objects and use JUnit Theories to test our mechanism over a range of object sizes. Continue reading

JavaMail – Random NoSuchProviderException errors sending SMTP mail

The appearance of random NoSuchProviderException errors when testing a new application release turns out to be caused by a new Maven dependency’s dependency. Continue reading

CXF – Using Interceptors to process SOAP headers in a JAX-WS web service

JAX-WS Handlers are perfectly adequate for implementing simple, cross-service features of a Java web-service. For more complex scenarios though, there’s a good chance your web-service framework might have more to offer you. Here we look at using a CXF Interceptor rather than a JAX-WS Handler for header processing Continue reading

CXF – Using Handlers to process SOAP headers in a JAX-WS web service

When using SOAP headers to specify the non-functional, generic aspects of a JAX-WS web-service, handler classes can offer a more effective solution than header annotated method parameters while still retaining a high degree of portability across implementations. Here we look at a simple example of using a JAX-WS handler with Apache CXF. Continue reading

Java – Trusting HTTPS server certificates

Switching Java HTTP client code over to HTTPS can go without a hitch when hitting well-established production servers. When it comes to in-house boxes or development and test environments though, hokey server certificates can throw up a few problems. Continue reading

Linux – Building libxml2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

The pre-configuration script for libxml2 does a pretty good job, but it doesn’t quite catch one missing dependency on RHEL 5 Continue reading

PHP – Building PHP 5.4 with IMAP on Red Hat Linux

Adding IMAP support to your PHP build on Red Hat Enterprise Linux can involve navigating some pretty obscure error messages, not to mention some pretty old-school builds Continue reading

Java – Monitoring your PermGen space

Java OutOfMemory: PermGen space errors are a nasty surprise that may be lurking in your freshly deployed applications. Here we look at a couple of ways to keep an eye on your PermGen usage. Continue reading

Java Web Apps – Running regular background tasks

Wrapping a ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor with a servlet context listener provides a great, lightweight way to run regular background tasks in a Java web application. Continue reading