Lone Star Software Symposium: Dallas
October 27 - 29, 2006 - Dallas, TX
Ben Hale
dm Server Team Core Developer
Ben Hale is a senior software engineer with Springsource and a core developer on the SpringSource dm Server project. Ben specializes in middleware development with using technologies such as OSGi and Aspect Oriented Programming as well as directing the build and release processes for all products in the Spring and SpringSource portfolios.
His interests include middle-tier architecture and effective build and release management strategies.
Prior to joining SpringSource, Ben spent several years leading teams in architecture and development of large-scale enterprise management applications for the telecommunications industry.
Presentations
The Spring Experience (in 90 minutes)
In this interactive session Ben walks you through the experience of building a simple Spring-powered application from the ground up.
You will learn how to use Spring to assemble an application system from a set of focused, loosely-coupled components. You'll see how Spring enables agile development by allowing you to start simple, validate architectural choices early, and scale up infrastructure as requirements demand.
Expect live coding with a supporting business case. This "big picture" session focuses on teaching how to get the most mileage out of the Spring Framework as you can.
Spring Web Flow Jumpstart
Have you ever developed a web application with a long user action based on form input? Did you curse the Java community for their inability to address this very common application type? Well, attend this session about Spring Web Flow and you'll curse no more.
In this session we'll learn about a new(ish) Spring sub-project, Spring Web Flow. Spring Web Flow is an innovative new framework for declaratively modeling web application user interactions. We'll start with an exploration of some web development issues and then take a look at the value proposition that Web Flow brings to the table. Once everyone is comfortable with that, we'll jump straight to code. We'll start by exploring some of the features that SWF has and then we'll finish with a live coding example where the audience will help write the application.
Spring XML Namespaces for Fun and Profit
Spring 2.0 introduces the new concept of XML-based configuration namespaces. These namespaces allow you to define domain specific languages for configuring your applications. This session will walk through the business case behind these namespaces as well as note Spring's own use of this system to simplify common configuration tasks. The session will finish with a live coding example of how to implement an XML namespace for your own application. This will include XML Schema definition, parser implementation, and packaging in a jar file for use by consumers.
Through this session you'll learn about how Interface21 is enhancing the development experience for those building Spring based software components. You'll see how Interface21 has heard the calls for a simpler XML based configuration and developed a simple and powerful way to extend the standard configuration mechanism.

