In This Issue...

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Introduction

Someone commented to me today that things seemed a bit quiet around SitePoint these days. I don't know about you, but I thought that he must have been visiting some other site. SitePoint is rockin' hard, and things are even more hectic behind the scenes than usual!

Top of the list this week is our Spotlight on Java and J2EE. SitePoint has had introductory articles on Java, Servlets and JSP for awhile now, but we decided it was high time we took a close look at some of the newer, more exciting and advanced things going on in the arena of Java Web development. With a new article every day Monday to Friday this week, we're exploring topics like JSP Custom Tags, the Java Standard Tag Library (JSTL), the Apache Struts framework, JavaServer Faces, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB).

Meanwhile, we're hard at work on some new features for sitepoint.com to appear early in the new year. The biggest news is that we're getting ready to add Web logs (blogs) to SitePoint's content line-up.

We're hiring regular columnists for a number of popular subjects who will write these blogs and keep the site stocked with relevant, up-to-date articles. If you'd like to be considered for one of these positions, drop our editor Georgina a line at editor@sitepoint.com. Stay tuned for news in the coming months!

And as if all that wasn't enough to keep us all on our toes, the ecommerce server we use to sell our books and software was crippled by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack last week. The company that maintains the system, WorldPay, is responsible for providing ecommerce services to a large number of companies including Vodafone, Sony Music Entertainment and The Register. The gritty details of the attack are described in a story from The Register.

With this issue out of the way, it's time to start packing up my computer. Our new office is all wired up and we're moving in this weekend! I'll be sure to take some photos when it's all set up so you can see how the place turned out.

Happy Reading!

Kevin Yank
techtimes@sitepoint.com
Editor, The SitePoint Tech Times

Editorial

Looming Longhorn May Threaten the Web

For those who have been living under a rock, Longhorn is the codename for the next desktop version of Windows. As reluctant as I am to jump on the bandwagon of Longhorn hype, when the likes of Eric Meyer begin to fret you've just got to sit up and take notice.

Though not slated to arrive until at least 2006, a series of leaked development releases and bizarre publicity stunts from Microsoft have the press buzzing about every planned feature of this still-distant release.

Two such features that are being discussed this week are XAML and Sparkle, both of which have been billed by some as important challenges to existing Web technology and standards.

XAML and the Future of the Web

XAML (XML Application Markup Language) will be a technology very much like XUL (XML User Interface Language), which allows you to write desktop applications using familiar Web languages like XML, CSS, and JavaScript. The XML allows you to describe the user interface elements that the application will present, the CSS lets you define their display properties, and the JavaScript controls the functionality of the application. For a good introduction to XUL, see Harry Fuecks' article series on SitePoint.

If the hype is to be believed, XAML will essentially be just like XUL, except with a foundation of Microsoft proprietary technology. The XML syntax will be different, the CSS properties will change, and the scripting language will no doubt be replaced by the .NET family of languages (including C# and VB.NET), with access to the class libraries of the .NET Framework. Whereas XUL is an open standard supported by open source software that can be implemented by 3rd parties, Microsoft will once again choose to build its own incompatible alternative from the ground up.

The user interface of Longhorn, codenamed Avalon, is said to be written in XAML, in the same way that the interface of the Mozilla browsers have been written in XUL.

Like XUL, XAML will make it much easier for non-expert developers to build rich Internet applications that overcome the traditional limitations of the Web browser model. In a blog entry, renowned CSS expert Eric Meyer explained his suspicion that the real limitations that Microsoft hope to overcome are Web standards.

Scarred by incidents like the Eolas '906 patent debacle (discussed last issue), Microsoft hopes to take the commercial benefits of the Internet and separate them from the competitive constraints of the Web. They would supplant the standards-based, open environment of the Web with a set of proprietary Microsoft technologies. Those technologies would be based on legitimate open standards like Web Services, but would not themselves be open to anyone but Microsoft and Windows developers.

We won't know if Meyer's concerns are warranted for quite some time, as Longhorn is still a very long way off, but it provides important food for thought.

Sparkle to Compete with Flash and Director?

Also high on the hype-o-meter this week is Sparkle. Longhorn's graphics subsystem is planned to take advantage of vector graphics, which among other things will enable high resolution displays to enhance the appearance of the operating system, rather than simply granting more screen real estate. Vector graphics also make the creation of animations much more efficient.

While the creation of raster graphics, which have formed the basis of the Windows graphics subsystem up until now, requires little more than an image editor, vector graphics and animations call for a more sophisticated tool. For Longhorn, that tool will be Sparkle.

Sparkle will allow developers to create not just animations, but interactive, animated XAML applications. Although this is yet to be seen, the result is expected to look a lot like the kinds of applications that can be built today using Macromedia Flash's user interface components, except that the resulting applications will of course only run on Windows.

Let's be clear: I believe Macromedia have very little to fear from Sparkle when it comes to their core user base of Web designers who use Flash to build vector animations and user interface elements into their sites. Macromedia's recent attempts to turn Flash into an application development environment (with the Macromedia Central platform, for example), however, may be more affected.

In my view, the latter market has yet to be proven as a profitable one, but Macromedia definitely have a good head start if it is. Of course, that didn't stop Microsoft from mounting a significant challenge to Sun's Java with .NET, so Macromedia will definitely want to do all they can to sell developers on their platform before Longhorn.

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Editorial

Internet Explorer to Block Pop-Ups

In an announcement more likely to affect us as Web developers in the near future, CNET reported this week that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (slated for release in Q2 2004) will include an update to Internet Explorer that causes it to block unsolicited pop-up windows by default in the same way that the Mozilla browsers do.

While pop-ups have represented a waning trend in Web marketing, they are still a popular and effective tool on many sites. This change to the most popular browser among consumers is likely to virtually kill pop-ups as a useful technique overnight.

To be clear, if this feature is implemented as expected, users will be able to allow pop-ups globally or for individual sites (as they can for all security/privacy settings in Internet Explorer), and pop-ups that are requested by a user request (i.e. by clicking a link or form button) will continue to work regardless of this setting. Pop-ups that are opened by the onload and onunload event handlers of a page, and by other unsolicited means are those that will be blocked by default.

Quick Tip

Multiple IE Versions on One PC

It's got to be the biggest, most senseless waste of time in most Web designers' working lives: testing multiple versions of Internet Explorer. Whether you use a bank of dedicated testing machines, multiple operating system partitions, or PC emulation software, it's just a ridiculous hassle. Well, boys and girls, that's all about to change!

Since Microsoft doesn't let you install different versions side-by-side, we designers have had to maintain dedicated testing machines with out-of-date versions of Windows in order to test older versions of Internet Explorer still in circulation. Alternatively, we've had to use vast quantities of disk space and/or awkward PC emulation software to boot those older versions of Windows on their development computer.

Well the Holy Grail is here: you can now run Internet Explorer 4, 5, 5.5, and 6 side-by-side on the same Windows PC.

Joe Maddalone, of Insert Title Web Designs noticed that Microsoft used a neat DLL substitution trick in order to make available test versions of Internet Explorer modified to comply with the Eolas '906 patent that could run side-by-side with the unmodified version of the browser.

With a little experimentation, he was able to use the same technique to put together copies of Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5 that would coexist peacefully on a computer with Internet Explorer 6 installed. He has published an excellent guide to the steps required to do the same.

Ryan Parman has reported on this in his blog, which provides convenient, pre-packaged downloads of Internet Explorer 3, 4.01, 5.01 SP2, and 5.5 SP2 with Maddalone's steps already applied. Simply download each of these packages, unzip it, and create a shortcut to the executable file. Just like that -- a standalone copy of Internet Explorer!

This technique isn't entirely without side-effects; the standalone copies behave a little strangely in places:

• the About boxes will display Internet Explorer 6 information in the old About boxes
• using the Favorites menu can cause a system crash
• you need to use File > Open in IE4 because typing a URL in the address bar doesn't seem to work

Given the time saved by having the different versions available to run side-by-side on one computer, though, these problems are relatively minor!

Head over to Ryan Parman's blog now to grab your copies of the ready-to-run download packages while they last! Knowing Microsoft, it will object to the distribution of their browser in this format. But you can always use Joe Maddalone's instructions to make your own stand-alone versions if need be.

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