JavaStudio Creator 2 - One large step after its previous version

Today my Java Studio Creator 2 EA 2 alarmed me that its trial license left 3 days available only. I wondered why Sun hasn't release the final product after many months of EA 2. I remembered the EA2 occured just few days after I downloaded EA and installed it on my iMac.

So, I went to SUN's website and downloaded its previous version - Creator 2004Q2 update 9. I started it and found it is so simple! Only general JSF components, no data binding. Thus I thought I understanded why the Creator didn't become popular in the world of Java web development - especially in those entry-level developers or business application developers.

back to Creator2 EA2. The data binding there depends on CachedRowSet and CachedRowSetDataProvider. The data provider exists just for component data binding, and the CachedRowSet is a sperical implementation of JDBC 2 javax.sql.RowSet only. The key point there is they implemented INSERT/UPDATE logic from original SELECT statement. This is not new. We have found it in Delphi's DataSet and M$'s RecordSet object many years ago. It looks like that any RAD tool with component data binding needs a similar facility. Can we bind data in other way? I prefer to such a way that the framework doesn't want to SQL statement stuffs, like INSERT/UPDATE statement generation, for us. Of course, the automatic generation way is simple enough for simple querys and updates, so I think it maybe not a bad idea for most cases.

Thinking about data binding again. Maybe it is not so bad like we thought it in early Delphi/VB dates. Maybe the bad feeling comes from these implementations.

The success of JSF and JSF tools like SUN Java Studio Creator depends on the amount of available components. This field is not so clear. Unlike ASP.NET, on desktop or windows development, M$ is god. There always are many small companys providing components for Microsoft's techniques and development tools. Classical Java developers have different philosophy - the RAD tool is still not accepted by them.

One big issue of Creator 2 is that it lacks documentation of its architechture, especially on its enhacements on JSF, such as data binding mechanics. A good information source of Creator 2's data provider is Joel Brown's Weblog. Although the page is uncomfortable to read, the content is valuable.