ksoap2-android 3.4.0 and next steps

Since April 2010 when I took over ownership of the ksoap2-android project, a lot of bug fixes and minor improvements have gone into the project from myself and other contributors. Even though the project is really only in maintenance mode it is still a major choice for anybody having to access SOAP web-services in an Android application. This is what originally got me to use, enhance and in the end adopt and manage the project.

Read more →

Android Maven Plugin 4.0.0 ships

I can’t believe how time flies. The Android Maven Plugin’s first commits happened in 2008 shortly after the Android Beta release. My first commits are from October 2009. That was when Android 1.6 was new and shiny. Since then a lot has happened in the Android ecosystem and everyone, including your grandma, knows about Android. For the Android Maven Plugin and my involvement the same applies and now it is time to celebrate our 4.0.0 release.

Read more →

Android Development Growing Up – Fireside Chat at AnDevCon 5

AnDevCon
time is here again and for the first time the greatest Android conference from developers for developers is moving to the east coast. I am back as well and will be making my way to Boston. And of course I will be running the fireside chat event again! By now the fireside chats are an important and well loved event at each AnDevCon. They allow the attendees to exchange ideas and ask their peers and a number of pros on the panel questions in an open format. This time Robert Green of Battery Powered Games fame will join me as co-host for a very interesting topic….

Read more →

Jenkins User Conference SF and JavaOne 2012

Despite plans on no more conferences this year earlier I ended up presenting about Sonatype Insight for CI at the Jenkins User Conference in SF and help with the Sonatype booth and customers at JavaOne. And my short feedback quote even ended on the conference blog as the top quote. Winston and Duncan presented about Hudson best practices with my input for the slides that you should check out as well. And last but not least if you want to find out more you should join us at the upcoming VIJUG meeting – Java One Debrief.

Update: A video recording of the talk at the JUC is now available as well!

You don’t do Repository Driven Development yet? Where have you been?

I have been doing a lot of software development and related work by now and there are some things I just don’t get. One of them is “Why are people not using repositories more?” and practice what I would call Repository Driven Development (RDD sic!). Once you are using them, the benefits are just so obvious, that it is hard to imagine why you would not want to allow easy reuse of your artifacts, seemless distribution, ease of use for your end users and more. But let’s step back for a second and start at the beginning. Read more →

Ask Your Expert Peers

As part of presenting the last couple of AnDevCon conferences I have organized and hosted so called fireside chat sessions named. They are following the concept used at the Google IO conference, where a panel of topic experts is available in an open questions and answers session. Having evolved this a bit we are now introducing these sessions at our VIJUG meetings and call them Ask Your Expert Peers. So how does it work and what is the intention?

Read more →

A fantastic opportunity to learn Git

Sometimes it takes planning and persistence for things to come together, but then when it happens you end up with great opportunities. An awesome example is the Git and GitHub workshop that is going to happen in Victoria, BC on the 29th of August 2012. The well known speaker, author, trainer and VP of Training at GitHub Matthew McCullough is coming to town to present at a joint event of the Vancouver Island Java User Group VIJUG and the Google Developer Group Victoria BC on the 30th of August. For those interested in more than just a short presentation we are hosting a full day training course of incredible value to anybody from Git beginner to long-time GitHub user.

In the interest of being able to organize a correctly sized venue and to ensure that we do not have to turn you away I would ask you all to find out more about the event on the registration page and book as soon as possible.

As the local organizer and contact person, feel free to contact me for more detail. Especially also if you are interested in sponsoring the event venue or attendee lunch/coffee!

I look forward to hear from you and see you there

manfred

Google IO 2012 Recap

So I am back from my first Google IO conference now after lucking out with the ticket purchase process (raffle?!) and missing out two year in a row before. I am glad it worked out this time, because it was a great show. In fact there were so many highlight and announcements that some products seemed to make no progress on the surface while in fact if you went to the respective sessions and paid attention you found out that LOTS is going on and I will mention some of my observations as GDG leader and long time Android developer and open source developer.
Read more →