Joint meeting with Linux Users Group

Thu, Jul 17, 2008

TBD

Thu, Jun 19, 2008

Intro to Java :- A Cup of Java

Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:30pm

Presented by Carlus Henry

Java is the most popular computer programming language for the past two years according to the Tiobe Index. With so much interest and such a vibrant open source community motivating it's growth, you can easily become lost in the minutiae. This meeting is intended for the Beginning / Intermediate Java Developers. You can expect to walk away from this meeting with a high quality Java development environment, as well as many resources that will help you hit the ground running, in the most popular computer language in the world.

files for meeting

GWT: Using Java to deliver AJAX

Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 5:30pm

Presented by Mike Burba of DevHive

Presentation from Mike's blog

Google has recently released the Google Web Toolkit, which is a library for developing AJAX-front ends for web applications. This library is very powerful, and it is gaining traction in the Java community. A developer from SE Michigan has offered to give an overview of GWT, and share lessons-learned that they have developed over the last six months while working on a mid-sized project for one of their clients.

Mike Burba went to West Point and graduated with a CS degree. After a short stint jumping out of airplanes in defense of our country, Mike left the Army to get into the software business. At that point (1999), Mike started to get into Java. He was using JEE when it was still called J2EE and before the 1.0 spec of EJB had launched. And he stayed with Java ever since. He eventually became a technical evangelist at Sun Microsystems, and then ended up at Compuware working on their Java products. Mike has presented at several Java conferences, including JavaOne, the NoFluffJustStuff series, and others. Currently, Mike and his colleagues have founded a Web 2.0, SaaS startup in SE Michigan. They are always looking for talented people, so if you're interested in the company, stop by and meet Mike after the presentation.

Integrating JRuby and Java

Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 6:00pm

Presented by Karlin Fox and Matt Fletcher from Atomic Object

A special joint meeting of the GR Ruby and Java groups! Not only will we learn from Karlin and Matt about JRuby and Java, but it is an exciting opportunity to meet and discuss with members of the Ruby User's Group

Integrating JRuby and Java - postponed

Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 6:00pm

Ruby group postponed due to weather. A few of us still got together and talked for a while.

Java Performance Tuning

Thu, Jan 17, 2008

Presented by Bill Gathen

Bill will be giving a rundown of the process he used recently in converting a large-scale XML application from DOM to SAX to reduce memory requirements. He'll focus on isolating bottlenecks, establishing repeatable baseline speed and memory usage metrics and using Ruby to generate scaled high-quality datasets on-demand.

No Meeting

Thu, Dec 20, 2007

Socializing

Thu, Nov 15, 2007

We'll get together just to socialize. We'll probably talk about next year's plan for meetings some more, too. Come, and chat with your JUG friends about Java, tech, or whatever. We may meet directly at someplace like Buffalo Wild Wings, so watch the mailing list for that.

Setting the Vision: Expectation Driven JUG 2008

Thu, Oct 18 at 5:30 p.m.

What do you like best about the GRJUG? What do you like least? How would you like to see the GRJUG grow over the next year? What are some of the expectations that you have from the GRJUG? What can you do in order to help improve the GRJUG? This month's meeting, is all about the GRJUG. Please bring your ideas and enthusiasm as we help to form the image of what we want to achieve over the next year.

Date & Room Change

Meetings will now be held on the 3rd Thursday of each month, in Science Bldg 382. Still at 5:30pm, still at Calvin College.

Evolution, Revolution, Objects, and the Java Tool Stack

Tue, Sep 18 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Matt Heusser

How do we know what works in software development? And how do we prove it? Starting with a comparison to scientific and natural evolution, Matt Heusser will discuss the evolution of the term "object oriented", along with java tools - specifically, the java test tool stack. Matt's goal is not to present the 'one true answer', but instead to challenge our thinking about how we do our work.

You may not agree with what Matt has to say, so he offers only two guarantees: (1) You'll leave the room thinking, and (2) You will not be bored.

Matt Heusser is a dev/tester/trainer who just returned from a presentation at Google's Test Automation Conference in New York City. Matt is a co-founder of the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference, the SW-IMPROVE discussion list, and author of the popular Blog Creative Chaos. (In addition to all that chest-beating, Matt has been delivering commercial software in West Michigan for over a decade, working in everything from Furniture to Telecom to Health Care ...)

UI Design Patterns (MVP, MVC, Presenter First)

Tue, Aug 21 at 5:30 p.m.

We will focus on Design Patterns for UI development, including short presentations of MVP and Presenter First. Questions and discussion comparing these patterns (and the classic MVC) will follow.

Lightning Talks & Discussion

Tue, July 17 at 5:30 p.m.

We will have lightning talks and general discussion. Think about something you could present for a quick 5 minutes, or a topic you'd like to discuss with others.

BarCampGrandRapids2

We're proud to announce our second BarCamp (dangerously close to being "annual"). BarCamp is a technology & design unconference where the campers (you) determine what's on the schedule. These ad-hoc unconferences are intense events with discussions, demos, and a chance to interact with fellow attendees. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to participate.

WHEN: Friday evening, July 20 and Saturday, July 21

WHERE: Calvin College

COST: Free! But everyone is encouraged to present something and be involved, even if you're never given a talk before.

WHAT: So far, topics ranging from opensource business to the JQuery Javascript library to next generation communications. Ultimately each camper has an opportunity to help determine the content.

You can register and find out more information about BarCamp Grand Rapids at http://barcamp.org/BarCampGrandRapids2, or about BarCamps in general at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

The Future of Java

Tue, June 19 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Dave Brondsema

New features in Java 6 (its new to those who haven't migrated from Java 5 yet), possibilities for Java 7, JavaFX (competitor to Flash and MS's Silverlight), and Java vs. the new kids on the block (e.g. Ruby on Rails)

Part II: Struts 2: Zero-conf Web Dev?

Tue, May 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Kyle Adams

Struts 2 is a culmination of several years of hard work to create a successor to the original Struts framework. We will begin by discussing the improvements Struts 2 made over Struts. After that, it is all code as we will look at migrating a Struts application to Struts 2, as well as how Struts 2 can boost development productivity.

Introduction to the Eclipse RCP

Tue, Apr 17 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Carlus Henry

Not only is Eclipse the most populate Java IDE, it also provides a platform that will allow you to build Rich Client Java Applications with a native look and feel. Eclipse RCP represents the foundational architecture that the Eclipse IDE is built upon. Join me as I walk us through RCP basics and how you can start leveraging it to build your next client application.

Download Code from Presentation

Struts 2: Zero-conf Web Dev?

Tue, Mar 20 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Kyle Adams

Struts 2 is a culmination of several years of hard work to create a successor to the original Struts framework. We will begin by discussing the improvements Struts 2 made over Struts. After that, it is all code as we will look at migrating a Struts application to Struts 2, as well as how Struts 2 can boost development productivity.

Introduction to Eclipse IDE

Tue, Feb 20 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Carlus Henry

Eclipse is arguably the most popular Java Integrated Development Environment. This fully featured tool is complete with the bells and whistles that will surely enhance your Java Development by leaps and bounds. During this presentation, I will share with you my experience with Eclipse, as well as the concepts that I initially struggled with, in an attempt to spare you the learning curve and start you down the path of productivity.

Java Puzzlers & practice

Tue, Jan 16 at 5:30 p.m.

We will probably do coding practice and challenges, using something like TopCoder.

Break for December holidays

Easy Ajax with DWR

Tue, Nov 14 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Kyle Adams

Behind all the buzz, Ajax represents a way to truly improve the usability of your web applications. The Direct Web Remoting (DWR) library provides an easy way to get started with Ajax in the Java world. This session ditches the slides and gets right into the interesting stuff--living, breathing code for working with DWR and Ajax.

Quartz

Tue, Sep 19 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Carlus Henry

Does your knowledge portfolio only include cron and Windows Scheduler as options to schedule jobs in your applications? Have you ever wondered if there was a better way to perform job scheduling internal to the application? Come and invest in your knowledge portfolio as I teach you the basics of how to use Quartz. Quartz is an open source project from www.opensymphony.com that allows job scheduling within the JSE and JEE environment.

BarCampGrandRapids

GR-JUG is hosting BarCampGrandRapids on Aug 18-19. BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees, usually centered around technology topics.

Spring Framework: Dependency Injection and Lots of Helper Libraries

Tue, Aug 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Dave Brondsema

The Spring Framework is a lightweight "dependency injection" (aka Inversion of Control) container. It also contains many helper libraries to make it easier for developers to use all sorts of Java technologies. I'll show why these are useful, and how to use them in webapps and J2SE apps.

Getting Started with Web Services with XFire

Tue, July 18 at 5:30 p.m.

Presented by Dan Diephouse

Web services have evolved into a complex mash of standards and confusing acronyms. To build SOAP services one needs to understand the fundamentals of XML, WSDL, XML Schema, SOAP, and more. Then one needs to learn the toolkit they are going to use to interact with these standards. It can sometimes be a daunting task even for professionals. The open source Codehaus XFire project can help you get your web service off the ground easily. This talk will lead you through building services with XFire. It will also help you address design decisions you will have to make in the process like how to secure your web service, how to choose the right XML/object binding, and how to plan ahead for service versioning.

Past GR-JUG Presentations

March 16, 2006 - Portal and Portlet technologies, presented by Dave Brondsema

February 16, 2006 - Appfuse, presented by Carlus Henry

January 19, 2006 - JSF, presented by Jeremy Gerrits

December 2005 - Spring framework, presented by Ken Radlick

November 2005 - Echo 1 & 2 (presentation tier technology), presented by Jeremy Gerrits