Xebia Blog

For as long as Java has been around, java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar have been nuisances. This will hopefully very soon be a thing of the past with the addition of JSR-310, the Date and Time API, to the Java API. At the basis of JSR-310 lies the Joda time library, which has been around for quite some time as a replacement for the standard Date and Calendar classes. However that this API is not without its own peculiarities need not come as a surprise, given the complexity of the human interpretation of time all over the world.
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Filed under: Java
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One of the most powerful features of Maven is it's reporting mechanism, also known as maven site. There are a lot of reports available which can give you an indication of the quality of your code. However if you overload yourself by adding too many reports or let the reports produce too much information everyone ignores them and the reports become useless.
In this blog I'll share which reports we chose in my current assignment and how you can customize certain Maven Reports to produce the information you want.

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Filed under: Java
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Quality is an everyday part of the life of a Xebia software developer. One of the ways to get insight into quality is by looking at metrics like FindBugs, PMD, Simian, Code Coverage, etc. With large software products consisting of different modules, quality assurance can become quite a trying task. This means that tools which alleviate this burden are a welcome addition to our toolbox.
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Filed under: Java, Maven, Quality Assurance
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Consider the following scenario: we want to have two select boxes and we want to add options from one to the other and back.
Currently, this is not easily possible in Wicket, even though there are a lot of extensions available.
This blog describes an easy way to create a component which does just that!

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Filed under: Ajax, Java
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In my every day work I encounter numerous management styles, ranging from HR-managers doing operational management and vice versa, to managers thinking that “divide and conquer” was a phrase written by a manager and is applicable on groups of employees. I am not saying all managers are bad at there job, certainly not, I am saying that management is one of the professional areas that is relatively easy to get in to but extremely hard to perform well. (more...)

Filed under: General, Project Management
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Bart Guijt introduces us to the world of RIA, this is part 2 of the interview!

Bart tells us about;
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Open Laszlo
- Other RIA tookits
- Future of RIA

Hosted by Robert van Loghem

So head on over to the show page or subscribe to our podcast!

Filed under: Ajax, Flex, Java, Podcast
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Staffing a new project is always a challenge. Juggling availability, experience and personal preferences, the proper mix of people has to be found that can make the project successful. Once this has happened, the project can get going and the newly formed group is expected to get on with the business of creating software.

One thing that is often forgotten is that the "project team" really isn't a team at all yet -- they are a group of people who have been put together to accomplish a goal. Chances are that at least some of the people have not worked together before and that there is no common ground for them to become a team. According to Bruce Tuckman, their evolution as a team can be divided into four stages:

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing

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Filed under: Agile, Project Management
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The biggest Java event of the year is coming up again, the JavaOne. For me this is a place of inspiration. Seeing the newest technologies in action and talking to some of the great minds in the Java world, how can one not become inspired!
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Filed under: Grails, Groovy, Java, JavaOne
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Though concurrency is not really a hobby of mine, but I do find it interesting, and once in a while, it gets me intrigued. This article is about locking, and choosing the right type of lock and what the consequences are when picking the wrong lock!

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Filed under: Concurrency Control, Java, Performance
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While I was reading some chapters from the book "Toyota way", the author was mentioning the importance on hiring the "Talented people".
I also found institute's giving training like " Job Instruction (JI) is the Toyota way for worker training and people development.".

With my recent experience on Agile-Scrum based projects, I started realizing how important is "Attitude" of the person involved in an agile team. (more...)

Filed under: Agile, Project Management, Scrum
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