The Baeldung Weekly Review 12
Last updated: May 21, 2020
Mocking is an essential part of unit testing, and the Mockito library makes it easy to write clean and intuitive unit tests for your Java code.
Get started with mocking and improve your application tests using our Mockito guide:
Handling concurrency in an application can be a tricky process with many potential pitfalls. A solid grasp of the fundamentals will go a long way to help minimize these issues.
Get started with understanding multi-threaded applications with our Java Concurrency guide:
Spring 5 added support for reactive programming with the Spring WebFlux module, which has been improved upon ever since. Get started with the Reactor project basics and reactive programming in Spring Boot:
Since its introduction in Java 8, the Stream API has become a staple of Java development. The basic operations like iterating, filtering, mapping sequences of elements are deceptively simple to use.
But these can also be overused and fall into some common pitfalls.
To get a better understanding on how Streams work and how to combine them with other language features, check out our guide to Java Streams:
Explore Spring Boot 3 and Spring 6 in-depth through building a full REST API with the framework:
Yes, Spring Security can be complex, from the more advanced functionality within the Core to the deep OAuth support in the framework.
I built the security material as two full courses - Core and OAuth, to get practical with these more complex scenarios. We explore when and how to use each feature and code through it on the backing project.
You can explore the course here:
Spring Data JPA is a great way to handle the complexity of JPA with the powerful simplicity of Spring Boot.
Get started with Spring Data JPA through the guided reference course:
Refactor Java code safely — and automatically — with OpenRewrite.
Refactoring big codebases by hand is slow, risky, and easy to put off. That’s where OpenRewrite comes in. The open-source framework for large-scale, automated code transformations helps teams modernize safely and consistently.
Each month, the creators and maintainers of OpenRewrite at Moderne run live, hands-on training sessions — one for newcomers and one for experienced users. You’ll see how recipes work, how to apply them across projects, and how to modernize code with confidence.
Join the next session, bring your questions, and learn how to automate the kind of work that usually eats your sprint time.
Regression testing is an important step in the release process, to ensure that new code doesn't break the existing functionality. As the codebase evolves, we want to run these tests frequently to help catch any issues early on.
The best way to ensure these tests run frequently on an automated basis is, of course, to include them in the CI/CD pipeline. This way, the regression tests will execute automatically whenever we commit code to the repository.
In this tutorial, we'll see how to create regression tests using Selenium, and then include them in our pipeline using GitHub Actions:, to be run on the LambdaTest cloud grid:
Java
Let’s start with 2 new articles over on the jOOQ blog – the first is a deep dive on using lambdas for database access, and the second – a look at the new Optional semantics in Java 8:
=> Java 8 Will Revolutionize Database Access
=> Optional Will Remain an Option in Java
As Java 8 is out and about, we’re going to see a good few articles about how it affects the way we write code going forward. This is one of these articles, and it’s a good one:
=> Abstract Class Versus Interface in the JDK 8 Era
Very useful post for the advanced Mockito user:
=> What are Mockito Extra Interfaces?
Eclipse has finally came out with the official Java 8 support – took a while to get here, but it looks good:
=> Eclipse Support for Java 8
Spring
Busy week for Spring fans – with a few interesting releases: Spring Framework 4.0.3 (Java 8 support done), Spring Security 3.2.3, Spring Data Redis 1.2.1 and Spring AMQP 1.3.0.
Also some webinar replays: Spring Framework 4.0 on Java 8, Spring LDAP 2.0.0 and Tips and Tricks for Client Side Performance.
Next – good things come in pairs – and this week we have a couple of great testing articles about working with Spring and WebDriver and HtmlUnit. Very helpful if you’re doing any kind of UI testing (let’s assume you are).
=> Spring MVC Test with WebDriver
=> Spring MVC Test with HtmlUnit
And finally, a foray into the Enterprise space, where Spring is well represented – and an early look at how Java 8 will affect that landscape:
=> Java 8 in Enterprise Projects
The third part of the excellent series about tracking errors in a Spring app is out, and of course it is makes it into this weeks review:
=> Error Tracking Reports – Part 3 – Strategy and Package Private
And finally, a great 6 part series about building a RESTful API with Spring:
Technical
Nearly every week, one thing keeps me engaged more than most other stuff I read – and this week, it’s the continuation of an article from last week – TDDing a chess game.
A few years back, before I gave TDD a proper go and decide to work though the initial pain, I had tried it a few times only to revert back because I couldn’t really make it stick. That seems to be the case with a lot of people – you somehow understand that TDD is an important practice, you may even get that it’s one of those rare things that’s going to change the way you code irrevocably for the best – but you still don’t pull the trigger.
For me, pulling the trigger was a 3 day retreat with J. B. Rainsberger and Corey Hanes – I forced myself to jump to TDD because I saw what it could do. A video series like this – solving a real problem with TDD is important – so I’m excited to follow this one as it unfolds:
=> TDD Chess Game Part 2
Couple of interesting articles about a good interview questions – some really nice points in here for anyone on the giving end of the interview process:
=> Dissecting an interview question
=> What makes a good interview question
=> Microservices
By Martin Fowler – is this the definitive word on what an Enterprise Application is? Probably.
=> EnterpriseApplication
And finally, a fun little 10 minute demo of using Google Docs as a testing environment, by J. B. Rainsberger – always teaching:
=> Google Spreadsheet as a Test-First Demo Environment
Musings
Unless you’re one of the lucky souls that has been unlikely fortunate – you probably had to sit through your fair share of go-nowhere meetings, and you’ll find this piece especially relatable:
