On the 31st issue of the magazine, we introduced the topic of the Internet of Things from the point of view of the Java platform. As we promised, we will continue this discussion presenting the details of creating a Java ME Embedded 8 project. This version represents an important step further, with the adoption of CLDC 8 - which is a subset of Java Standard Edition - and MEEP 8 - a specification which defines a powerful and flexible environment for small embedded systems. Along with these, we have to notice the alignment of the platform we’re talking about to Java SE 8.

The IT experts called 2014 „the Internet of Things year”, as it was one of the hottest topics of the year that just ended. The assigned title is not surprising at all if we consider that important websites such as dzone.com, jaxenter.com or oracle.com published several articles every week about the technologies that are part of the Internet of Things and the bloggers didn’t waste any chance to write about their latest IoT projects. Publishing houses were vigilant as well, dozens of titles being published in 2014, many more waiting to hit the printing press this year.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that Atlassian JIRA is the issue tracking tool used in every project I’ve been part of up until now. Although there are quite a few similar products on the market, JIRA is one of the names recognized by most of the actors involved in software projects. Together with other renowned titles such as Bugzilla or Redmine, JIRA stands out thanks to its complete functionalities set, its quality, ease of use and also its extensibility.

As Jonathan Bowen mentioned in his book “Getting Started with Talend Open Studio for Data Integration” as soon as the second computer was manufactured, systems’ integration became an essential part of IT teams’ work. Today’s systems complexity together with the fast pace that the businesses evolve at highlight the need of a set of tools that allows us to quickly execute the integration tasks. Also, we have to be able to promptly react in front of new business opportunities.

In many projects we deal with situations when we have to process text, generate reports, scripts or source code. Many times these problems can be solved with the help of certain tools called template processors. However, the most common scenario for using template processors is that of web development, where the need to separate business logic from the presentation layer was identified. When it comes to web applications developed using Java technologies, JavaServer Pages was the standard for the presentation layer for a long time.