RE: Building Intranet with Java & Opensource

["Tony McCune" <tmccune@crosslogic.com>]

Ron,
We (CrossLogic) have implimented an all open source build-deploy-manage infastructure as a reference implimentation for our customers who are interested in open source products and frameworks.  
 
We run all Linux servers, our applications are all Java and XML, the database is My SQL or Postgress with Tomcat or JBoss as the application server, Apache as the web server.  Our development team writes using the free Eclipse tool or Netbeans, they use CVS as the versioning tool and do automated nightly builds with Ant.  All the bug tracking and change management is done with Bugzilla, unit testing is done with JUnit.   
 
A completely open source infastructure is certianly do-able but there is a valid argument to the idea that some commercial products pay for themselves in productivity and preformance.  Many of our customers use or are considering using open source products such as Ant and CVS, development testing on Tomcat or JBoss but the staging server and production servers run WebLogic or WebSphere.  Many of the IDE tools such as TogetherSoft, WSAD or JBuilder provide productivity benefits from wizards and debuggers that far outweigh the cost of the tool.  We preach unit testing on Tomcat and JBoss because that way you know your code runs on the Java reference implimentation and should be portable and perform even better on a commercial application server.  
 
We would be happy to come meet with you and your team for a couple hours to discuss ways to best use open source tools/frameworks <warning, sales pitch coming> CrossLogic is a consulting firm that specializes in development infastructure and Java mentoring <close pitch>
 
Best Regards,
Tony McCune
770-962-1915
770-335-3241 Cell
 
From: Ron Cordell [mailto:roncordell@attbi.com] 
Sent: Mon 4/1/2002 8:59 AM 
To: ajug-members@ajug.org 
Cc: 
Subject: Re: Building Intranet with Java & Opensource



	On Monday 01 April 2002 08:39 am, Robert Persaud wrote:
	> Hi yall,
	>
	>   To help expedite the learning curve for a novice like myself, does anyone
	> know of any good references on how to build a basic intranet from scratch
	> using java technology and open source projects like apache?
	>
	> I'm interning, and I haven't fully convinced my company that java is the
	> way to go in terms of building an intranet. Using search engines have been
	> relatively helpful in finding me generic resources, but I need books,
	> magazines, or even potential seminars that show more specifically how an
	> intranet may potentially be better implemented using java as opposed to
	> other technologies.
	>
	> For those who are interested in what I'm saying, keep in mind, that java
	> would be a totally new thing for this company. But since getting a taste
	> for it in academia, I think its the best thing to happen to software
	> development. So I need my company to feel the same way, so that the whole
	> world benefits :)
	>
	> Therefore, any hints, advices, points of references, or responses to this
	> message is appreciated in advanced.
	
	Not to try to discourage you, or to dissaude you in any way. However, I would
	like to point out that the primary concern for any system of this kind is the
	users, not the technological infrastructure. The technology must support the
	needs of the users of the system. So, to re-phrase your question: what java
	resources are available that allows the people in my company to use the new
	intranet in a way that does not require them to use new resources and
	technologies?
	
	What are the business processes that the intranet will support? How will the
	users of the intranet interact with the system to do work? More importantly,
	how will the users submit content to the intranet? What tools do they
	currently use, and how will they fit into this technology?
	
	-ronc