Devoxx Belgium just wrapped up, and it was again a magnificent event where one could get a lot of new insights and interact with other members of the community (my favorite part). It was very nice to get updates on existing projects, and future plans (such as loom) and some nice surprises such as Serialization 2.0. As expected, there was a strong focus on AI as well as how to use it in a responsible and practical manner.
There were a lot of amazing sessions, and I would strongly recommend checking out the Devoxx YouTube channel and you can find candid pictures on the Digma Flickr or Devoxx Belgium Flickr album. Devoxx always has its usual classics I can highly recommend watching such as those by Venkat Subramiam, Ask the Architect, Josh Long bringing us the latest and greatest on Spring Boot in his usual edutainment manner, and so on, but I’d like to touch upon some other ones I highly enjoyed. Do keep in mind this is certainly far from an exhaustive list, there were just so many magnificent talks this year.
Crafting the Ultimate Docker Image for Spring Applications by Pasha Finkelshteyn
A lot of organizations are making use of docker images nowadays, but how optimalized are they really? Are there any means by which we can optimalize the process? Pasha does a great job at gradually walking us through the process.
Serialization: A New Hope by Viktor Klang, Brian Goetz
Those who have been working with Java for a while now know that serialization is riddled with its unique set of challenges, it’s certainly been a recurring topic during the Ask the Architect panels. In this engaging session, Viktor Klang gives a thorough explanation of the challenges with the current situation and a thorough look at what the plans currently look like. As of the time of writing, there’s no Java Enhancement Proposal yet, but you can always keep an eye on the mailing lists.
Jakarta Data and Jakarta Persistence by Gavin King
Most of us work with a persistence layer daily, but are we doing it properly? If there are challenges, is it on our end or the specification? In this talk Gavin gave us a thorough look at the Jakarta Data 1 and Persistence 3.2 specifications, and how they’re implemented in Hibernate 7. It was really interesting to see him walk through common pitfalls, and challenges and how we can improve things and move towards a more typesafe system.
Performance oriented Spring Data JPA & Hibernate by Maciej Walkowiak
As Maciej states, almost all of us will someday run into a project that uses Hibernate, and quite likely run into some performance issues. Maciej showed us some common pitfalls, resolutions and alternatives (at times plain SQL might be the right answer for example). We also took a look at some handy utilities such as flexy-pool, spring-boot-data-source-decorator, Hypersistence Optimizer and QuickPerf (this one does need a bit more configuration to get working with Spring Boot).
Digma itself also made a surprise appearance as a tool that can help you out with spotting issues. watch the talk: Here.
The Joy of Testing by Victor Rentea
It’s always a treat to hear Viktor talk about the subjects he’s passionate about, so this really was a session I had to attend! ( please do sign up for European Software Crafters if you like his content). Victor explained a lot of the common pitfalls in his usual, engaging manner with practical resolutions.
Find and fix performance issues in your code using Digma by Roni Dover
We certainly can’t forget the talk that Roni gave on using Digma. In it he gave us a proper look at how we can leverage observability data (using Digma) to resolve performance issues before our clients are impacted.
Rejuvenation: Devoxx Belgium
Devoxx really is a reinvigorating experience where one can truly interact with the community. Just look at the transformation Mario Fusco went through!
If you have an opportunity, I strongly recommend going to an event for cross-pollination. A lot of insights can certainly be learned from books and experimentation, but engaging with others in the community can bring you so many insights, and it’s just nice to engage and give back to the community. In case you spot me at an event, feel free to reach out, I’d love to talk!
Download Digma: Here
