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migrate4j is a database migration tool. Suppose you determine that you need a new database table for your project. If you develop alone, you could write an SQL script that adds a table and manually apply this to your development system. But if you work with other developers, or need to keep a test system in synch with your development system, this become tedious and error prone. Migration tools make it possible to add your new table (or make any other schema changes) in an automated fashion, ensuring all your systems are always in synch. Migration tools also make it possible to quickly and easily roll back previous changes. Unlike typing commands into an interactive SQL window or storing SQL scripts, migration tools keep a detailed history of how your database schema evolved (just in case you need to go back to a previous version). Finally, migration tools minimize or eliminate the problem of having to use vendor specific syntax - you may never switch database products, but if you do, using a migration tool will make your life much easier. The initial intent of migrate4j was to make a Java version of Ruby's db:migrate. If you've used db:migrate, you probably fell in love with it's simple syntax, easy configuration and ability to roll changes up and back effortlessly. The intent (and the challenge) of migrate4j is to bring the power and simplicity of db:migrate to Java programmers, using familiar type safety and syntax. Along the way, we're adding additional functionality that makes migrate4j more than just another Ruby tool rewritten for Java - it is a Java project intended to make other Java projects even better.

With this article, we are going to provide you a quick introduction to Java ME development tools used by offshore Java Development vendors to create MIDlet. Java ME contains small JVM and a set of Java APIs that are used for developing mobile applications. So let's start and create your first mobile app with perfection.

Does it all make sense now? Do you know how to solve every problem? Probably not, but when it comes right down to it, using Java EE can be even simpler than using Spring, and take much less time. You just have to find the right guides and the right documentation (which is admittedly a severe sore-spot of Java EE; the documentation is still a work in progress, but is getting much better, save blogs like this one.) You have to turn to a vendor like JBoss, or IBM in order to get the use-case driven documentation you need, and they do have documentation, it's just a matter of finding it. Seam 3 in particular strives to give extensive user-documentation, hopefully making things much simpler to adopt, and easier to extend. The main purpose of this article was not to bash Spring, although I may have taken that tone on occasion just for contrast and a little bit of fun. Both Spring and Java EE are strongly engineered and have strong foundations in practical use, but if you want a clean programming experience right out of the box - use Java EE 6 on JBoss Application Server 6 - JBoss Tools - and Eclipse. I will say, though, that the feeling I've gotten from the Spring forums vs the Java EE forums, is that there are far many more people willing to help you work through Java EE issues, and more available developers of the frameworks themselves to actually help you than there are on the Spring side. The community for Java EE is much larger, and much more supportive (from my personal experience.) In the end, I did get my application migrated successfully, and despite these issues (from which I learned a great deal,) I am still happy with Java EE, and would not go back to Spring! But I do look forward to further enhancements from the JBoss Seam project, which continue to make developing for Java EE simpler and more fun. Don't believe me? Try it out. Find something wrong? Tell me. Want more? Let me know what you want to hear.