Comparing technologies is always fun. Not that we want to start yet another programming language war, but it is really quite interesting to take a fresh look at a familiar technology and put it into perspective. Plus, it’s quite common for developers and business owners to be faced with the choice between two or more options, be it a fresh …
Is Java Optional Only Smoke and Mirrors?
There are a lot of misconceptions in the software development world. Today we are going to address this one: “Java 8, for example, introduced the Optional class. It’s a container that may hold a value of some type, or nothing. In other words, it’s a special case of a Monad, known in Haskell as the Maybe Monad. You can now …
OOP Concepts for Beginners: What is Composition?
Composition is one of the fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming. It describes a class that references one or more objects of other classes in instance variables. This allows you to model a has-a association between objects. You can find such relationships quite regularly in the real world. A car, for example, has an engine and modern coffee machines often have …
How to Improve the Performance of a Java Application
1. Introduction In this article, we’ll discuss a number of approaches that can be helpful for improving the performance of a Java application. We’ll start with how to define measurable performance goals and then look at different tools to measure, monitor application performance and identify bottlenecks. We’ll also look at some of the common Java code level optimizations as well …
OOP Concepts for Beginners: What is Polymorphism
The word polymorphism is used in various contexts and describes situations in which something occurs in several different forms. In computer science, it describes the concept that objects of different types can be accessed through the same interface. Each type can provide its own, independent implementation of this interface. It is one of the core concepts of object-oriented programming (OOP). …
OOP Concept for Beginners: What is Inheritance?
Inheritance is one of the core concepts of object-oriented programming (OOP) languages. It is a mechanism where you can to derive a class from another class for a hierarchy of classes that share a set of attributes and methods. You can use it to declare different kinds of exceptions, add custom logic to existing frameworks, and even map your domain …
A Practical Guide to Java Remote Debugging
Introduction to Debugging Troubleshooting a problem on a remote server, especially in production, is not an easy task. Sometimes it involves debugging the application code directly on the server. But the production servers are usually run in a strict environment, where not all convenient developer tools are available. In this article, you’ll discover how to configure a running web server …
5 Reasons You Won’t Starve as a Java Developer
Despite being over 20 years old, Java is still one of the most widely-used programming languages. Just look at the stats: according to the 2017 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Java is the third most popular technology in the world. The TIOBE index, which is a ranking based on the number of skilled engineers worldwide, courses, and third-party vendors, shows an …
OOP Concept for Beginners: What is Encapsulation
Encapsulation is one of the fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP). It describes the idea of bundling data and methods that work on that data within one unit, e.g., a class in Java. This concept is also often used to hide the internal representation, or state, of an object from the outside. This is called information hiding. The general idea …
Azure WebJobs vs. Azure Functions
We are living in a golden age of programming. The language and tooling have never been better. Not a day goes by that I’m not impressed by some new programming language feature (how cool are nullable reference types in C#?); or a new technology (Live Share and Teletype are going to change the lives of remote developers); or some adaptation …
OOP Concept for Beginners: What is Abstraction?
Abstraction is one of the key concepts of object-oriented programming (OOP) languages. Its main goal is to handle complexity by hiding unnecessary details from the user. That enables the user to implement more complex logic on top of the provided abstraction without understanding or even thinking about all the hidden complexity. That’s a very generic concept that’s not limited to …
Hit the Ground Running with the Spring Security Java Configuration
Introduction to Spring Security In this article, you’ll learn how to quickly and easily configure and set up a Spring Security based web application using the Java configuration. Security is, not surprisingly, an evergrowing concern and certainly a core focus of any developer working on applications today. Project Setup The fastest way to get on track with Spring Security is …
Why, When and How to Implement Custom Exceptions in Java
We already talked a lot about exception handling on this blog and described the differences between checked and unchecked exceptions, best practices and common mistakes. If you’ve read these posts, you probably recognized a pattern. You should provide detailed information about the situation that caused the exception, and you should not remove anything that might be useful to the caller. …
How Spring Web MVC Really Works
Introduction This is an in-depth look at the powerful features and internal workings of Spring Web MVC, which is a part of the Spring Framework. The source code for this article is available over on GitHub. Project Setup Throughout this article, we’ll use the latest and greatest Spring Framework 5. We’re focusing here on the Spring’s classic web stack, which …
How To Track and Monitor Critical Java Application Metrics
Overview of Java application metrics Monitoring a running application is crucial for visibility and making sure the system is functioning as expected, as well as to identify any potential issues, tweak and optimize the running conditions, and resolve any errors that may occur. This is where Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools can make your life a whole lot easier by …
Java Virtual Machine: Critical Metrics You Need to Track
Overview of JVM Metrics In this article, we’ll cover how you can monitor an application that runs on the Java Virtual Machine by going over some of the critical metrics you need to track. And, as a monitoring tool, we’ll use Stackify Retrace, a full APM solution. The application we’ll monitor to exemplify these metrics is a real-world Java web …
Multiple Media Types in Java Microservices with RESTEasy
Today we’ll be talking about microservices in Java. While it’s true that Java EE has a robust platform for writing, deploying, and managing enterprise-level microservices, in this article I will create a RESTful microservice that is as slim as possible. Don’t worry – we won’t be reinventing the wheel by marshaling our own data or anything. We’ll be using JBoss’ …
Deep Dive into Java Management Extensions (JMX)
1. Introduction In this article, we’ll have a look at a core Java technology – Java Management Extension (JMX). We’ll start with a quick intro to exactly what JMX is, and we’ll quickly move to some interesting things you can do with the technology. 2. What Is Java Management Extension Technology Introduced all the way back in Java 2, JMX …
Top 10 Java Blogs for Programmers of All Levels
The world of information technology is an ever-changing landscape. Simply thinking back to the infrastructure and functions of a webpage 5, 10, 15 years ago can make any programmer cringe. Staying current on industry strategies and best practices is essential for developers of all levels. Blogs can provide great insight and perspective from industry peers and colleagues. All over the …
How to Monitor Java Services – Performance, Errors, and more
In the real world, a lot of mission-critical business logic lives in background services. Buying something from an e-commerce website, like Amazon, kicks off a wide array of tasks that must be completed after you click to confirm your order. Monitoring the performance of your web applications is only part of the puzzle if you want to proactively ensure your …




















