4.0.0.ALPHA6 - another alpha for Infinispan.

Yes, we've felt the need for one more Alpha. This alpha contains a number of bug fixes over Alpha5, as well as some new minor features. Please have a look at the release notes for details.

In addition to code changes, Vladimir Blagojevic has contributed a Doclet to generate a configuration reference. Check this out here. While not all config elements are properly annotated in this release - and as such the configuration reference is somewhat sparse - thanks to this tool, a more complete and up-to-date configuration reference is something you can look forward to in future releases.

Further, Alejandro Montenegro has started compiling steps for an interactive tutorial. Making use of a Groovy shell, this tutorial guides readers through most of Infinispan's APIs in an interactive manner that would hopefully make it easy to learn about Infispan. Please do give this a try and provide Alejandro with feedback!

Please download and try out this release, and feed back with your thoughts and experiences!

Cheers
Manik

Infinispan@JBossWorld

I will be presenting on Infinispan, data grids and the data fabric of clouds at JBoss World Chicago, in September 2009. I will cover a brief history of Infinispan and the motivations behind the project, and then talk in a more abstract manner about data grids and the special place they occupy in providing data services for clouds.

In addition, I expect to pontificate on my thoughts on clouds and the future of computing in general to anyone who buys me a coffee/beer! :-)

So go on, convince your boss to let you go, and attend my talk, and hopefully I'll see you there!

Cheers
Manik

Upcoming JUG and JBUG talks on Infinispan

I will be speaking at a number of JUGs around Europe this month. In addition, other core Infinispan devs will also be making JUG and conference appearances. I've put together a calendar of events which you can track, or add to your Google calendar to monitor.

http://www.jboss.org/infinispan/talks

This is a great chance for folks to learn about Infinispan, cloud and distributed computing, and where the project is headed. Hope to see you at one or more of these events!

Cheers
Manik

Executing TestNG tests relying on @Parameters from Eclipse

If you wanna run TestNG tests relying on @Parameters like the one below from Eclipse, you need to pass some value for the 'basedir' parameter, otherwise Eclipse will complain:

@Test(groups = "unit", enabled = true, testName = "loaders.bdbje.BdbjeCacheStoreIntegrationTest")
public class BdbjeCacheStoreIntegrationTest extends BaseCacheStoreTest {

  private String tmpDirectory;

  @BeforeTest
  @Parameters({"basedir"})
  protected void setUpTempDir(String basedir) {
     tmpDirectory = basedir + TestingUtil.TEST_PATH + File.separator + getClass().getSimpleName();
  }
...

Having looked around on the web, it's not clear how to do this and some people even seem to claim that it's not doable. However, having looked at how Maven deals with this, you simply have to pass the parameter as system property and it will work. So, if you wanna run BdbjeCacheStoreIntegrationTest from Eclipse, simply pass a system property like this:

-Dbasedir=/home/galder/tmp

Otherwise, Eclipse will moan with a message like this:

org.testng.TestNGException:
Parameter 'basedir' is required by @Configuration on method setUpTempDir

High-five for Alpha5

I've just released Infinispan 4.0.0.ALPHA5. Yes, I know you were expecting Beta1 already, but it is taking a little longer than anticipated. Anyway, Alpha5 has got some cool new stuff you'd definitely want to check out.

• Migration scripts for EHCache
• Internal performance improvements
• Newer, faster JBoss Marshalling

As you know, your feedback is important to us, so please do download and try out what will hopefully be the last Alpha before we start releasing Betas.

A full changelog is on JIRA, and this release can be downloaded on our downloads page.

Cheers
Manik

Blogger and syntax highlighting of code

If you happen to write a lot of tech articles on Blogger and frequently use code examples, it can be frustrating that Blogger has no built-in support for syntax highlighting. After some frustrating initial experiments with my own styles for code snippets, I found this excellent article:

http://abhisanoujam.blogspot.com/2008/12/blogger-syntax-highlighting.html

In no time flat, I have converted all of my previous blog posts and they are now properly highlighted, complete with line numbers. :-) Lovely stuff.

Cheers
Manik

Pimp your desktop with an Infinispan wallpaper!

The boys and girls on JBoss.org's creative team have come up with a kick-ass desktop and iPhone wallpaper for Infinispan. Check these out, pimp your desktop today!

http://www.jboss.org/coolstuff/desktopwallpapers.html

Cheers
Manik