a cup of java

Mastering CSS Coding: Getting Started

An amazingly simple and useful article from Smashing Magazine.

CSS has become the standard for building websites in today’s industry. Whether you are a hardcore developer or designer, you should be familiar with it. CSS is the bridge between programming and design, and any Web professional must have some general knowledge of it. If you are getting your feet wet with CSS, this is the perfect time to fire up your favorite text editor and follow along in this tutorial as we cover the most common and practical uses of CSS.

Read it here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/05/mastering-css-coding-getting-started/
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These days everyone wants to create iPhone applications. But “user retention” is the biggest challenge most the application developers or companies facing. As per some analysis report which I went through sometime back, the amount of returning users/customers is very less. Problems may be the way we (developers) develop those products, not-so-good application usability or even the confused user.

I think this Smashing magazine article – How to Create Your First iPhone Application – can help us to a great extend.

What if you had a nickle for every time you heard: "I have the perfect idea for a great application!"? It’s the buzz on the street. The iPhone has created unprecedented excitement and innovation from people both inside and outside the software development community. Still for those outside the development world, the process is a bit of a mystery.

This how-to guide is supposed to walk you through the steps to make your idea for an iPhone app a reality. This post presents various ideas, techniques, tips, and resources that may come in handy if you are planning on creating your first iPhone application.

Read the article: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/11/how-to-create-your-first-iphone-application/

A Smashing Magazine article on making a website accessible using web standards. Nice read.

Let’s take a look at 10 ways to improve the accessibility of your XHTML website by making it standards-compliant. We’ll go the extra mile and include criteria that fall beyond the standards set by the W3C but which you should follow to make your website more accessible. Each section lists the criteria you need to meet, explains why you need to meet them and gives examples of what you should and shouldn’t do.

Read the article here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/18/10-ways-to-make-your-site-accessible-using-web-standards/

This is again a small JMS configuration stuff we have to do in JBoss 5. There is considerable difference in doing it in JBoss 5 compared to JBoss 4 and don’t expect our old configuration to work well with JBoss 5 without any change. In JBoss 5 they are using JBoss Messaging in place of JBoss MQ. You can read a detailed post on migrating from JBoss 4 to JBoss 5 here.

This post is about the configuration of a simple queue. We can configure topics also like this. In JBoss 5, the configuration file is in messaging directory with in the deploy directory.

In JBoss 4.x the JMS configuration (in jms/jbossmq-destinations-service.xml) is like this:

<mbean code="org.jboss.mq.server.jmx.Queue"
 name="jboss.mq.destination:service=Queue,name=MyQueue">
 <attribute name="JNDIName">queue/MyQueue</attribute>
 <attribute name="RedeliveryDelay">10000</attribute>
 <attribute name="RedeliveryLimit">3</attribute>
 <depends optional-attribute-name="DestinationManager">
    jboss.mq:service=DestinationManager
 </depends>
</mbean>

In JBoss 5.x we should do this (in messaging/destinations-service.xml):

<mbean code="org.jboss.jms.server.destination.QueueService"
 name="jboss.messaging.destination:service=Queue,name=MyQueue"
 xmbean-dd="xmdesc/Queue-xmbean.xml">
 <depends optional-attribute-name="ServerPeer">
    jboss.messaging:service=ServerPeer
 </depends>
 <depends>jboss.messaging:service=PostOffice</depends>
 <attribute name="JNDIName">queue/MyQueue</attribute>
 <attribute name="RedeliveryDelay">10000</attribute>
 <attribute name="MaxDeliveryAttempts">3</attribute>
</mbean>

References:

JBoss Messaging:
http://www.jboss.org/file-access/default/members/jbossmessaging/freezone/docs/userguide-2.0.0.alpha1/html/performance.html

Migrating from JBoss 4 to JBoss 5:
http://venugopaal.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/jboss405-to-jboss-5ga/

You can check this URL also for configuration guidelines (JBoss Messaging 1.4.4):
http://www.jboss.org/file-access/default/members/jbossmessaging/freezone/docs/userguide-1.4.4.GA/html/configuration.html#conf.destination

It’s a very good article – 12 tips for designing an excellent checkout process – for those who involved in e-commerce related product design and development.

Building a good checkout experience is about several things. It’s about eliminating distractions to help the user focus at the task at hand. It’s about providing all the necessary information and help so that the customer understands all the stages of the process. Most important, it’s about making it easy, because after all, the quicker a customer can check out, the happier they will be and the quicker you’ll close the sale.

You can also try this article too – Shopping Carts: Examples And Best Practices – from Smashing Magazine.

Read the article here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/28/12-tips-for-designing-an-excellent-checkout-process/

Have a nice read.