Seam and JDK 1.4

[asookazian]

My new project is using JDK 1.4 unfortunately.  No, we are not using Seam but is it possible to not use annotations and instead use xml configs with Seam 2.x and JDK 1.4?

What is incompatible or would break with 1.4?

[cash1981]

I remember asking this question to Gavin back in 2006 when he was presenting Seam, and he said that it was not compatible with JDK 1.4

However things might have changed from those days, however I doubt it...

[luxspes]

Arbi Sookazian wrote on Sep 28, 2009 22:48:


My new project is using JDK 1.4 unfortunately.

A new project using JDK 1.4? I hope it is about maintenance of an old project, even JDK 1.5 is going to reach EOSL on October 2009 (in 1 month), so starting a new project over JDK 1.4 seems like a very bad idea to me.

No, we are not using Seam but is it possible to not use annotations and instead use xml configs with Seam 2.x and JDK 1.4?

Of course, just switch to Spring ;-).

What is incompatible or would break with 1.4?

Pretty much everything, there are many things that just can not be done with components.xml  (of course, Spring demonstrates that it would be possible to reimplement Seam in JDK 1.4, but do not think that would be an easy (or even worthwhile since even JDK 1.5 is going to be death in one month)

[luxspes]

Of course, you can see if one of this projects help you:

Retroweaver

Retrotranslator

JBossRetro

Declawer

It would be very interesting if one of this could make Seam work in 1.4, but I would not bet on it.

[asookazian]

I'm working in a new dev shop (no JBoss or Seam for now).  They're using JDK 1.4 and it will need to be upgraded to 5 or 6 next year hopefully.

I'm actually learning Oracle JDeveloper, BC4J and ADF for this project (relatively uncommon in the industry?).  But I'd much prefer to be doing Seam development of course...

Ex:

Each business component you create is represented by an XML file and one or more Java files. The XML file stores metadata (the descriptive information about features and settings of an application you declare using wizards at design time), while the Java file stores the object's code (which implements application-specific behavior). Each object is organized into a package using the directory-based semantics of packages in Java.

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/appdev.920/a96621/adx25bc4.htm

[luxspes]

Arbi Sookazian wrote on Sep 29, 2009 01:10:


I'm working in a new dev shop (no JBoss or Seam for now).  They're using JDK 1.4 and it will need to be upgraded to 5 or 6 next year hopefully.

I'm actually learning Oracle JDeveloper, BC4J and ADF for this project (relatively uncommon in the industry?).  But I'd much prefer to be doing Seam development of course...

I have also used JDeveloper and OC4J (running over JDK 1.5) but not with Seam (but with Spring). Apparently it is possible to run Seam over Oc4J 10.1.3 but it is not an easy task, I guess you are still working with Oc4j 9.x (since you are working with jdk 1.4) AFAIK there is no chance to make Seam run there unless you find the way to make one of those retro translators to do its magic.

Not used BC4J or ADF, AFAIK BC4J is getting replaced/integrated by EclipseLink/JPA in the latest versions of the Oracle AS stack (now that it is Oracle WebLogic).

Never used ADF either, but I have read somewhere that it seems to have been semi-opensourced and merged with Apache Trinidad, it could be a good idea for you to investigate that.

Ex:

Each business component you create is represented by an XML file and one or more Java files. The XML file stores metadata (the descriptive information about features and settings of an application you declare using wizards at design time), while the Java file stores the object's code (which implements application-specific behavior). Each object is organized into a package using the directory-based semantics of packages in Java.

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/appdev.920/a96621/adx25bc4.htm

JDeveloper makes a lot of automated work for you to help you handle the huge number of interrelated files that BC4J (or Oracle's WebServices) frameworks need to work, Jdeveloper is closely integrated with their frameworks and makes working with them a not so bad experience, but I have read that it can become a really unpleasant experience if you decide to drop JDeveloper and try to used another IDE.