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Code-centric search tool strives to reduce Java development time
IBM's jCentral among the first of a new wave of targeted search engines
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A predictable trend in response to this problem is to create vertical, information-specific search engines and data repositories. jCentral is one of the first vertical searching services. It acts like a code-specific Alta Vista -- or, as IBM Network Computing Software Division Webmaster and www.ibm.com/java Product Manager Dirk Nicol describes it, jCentral is a "crawler with attitude." Since jCentral is such new technology, Nicol encourages JavaWorld readers to try out jCentral and send him feedback at nicold@us.ibm.com. "We created jCentral for one reason: to help Java developers," Nicol notes. "We are very anxious to continue to help Java developers write code."
Distinct approach focuses on code
If the data repositories of general-purpose search engines can become clogged with massive amounts of irrelevant data, can't this also happen with vertical, specific-purpose search engines, and if so, how can this be prevented? Nicol says that this problem is prevented by the very nature of how jCentral (and other specific-purpose search engines) works. General-purpose search engines find and categorize information based on text keywords and the metatags of Web pages, which are controlled (and often abused) by Web page authors. In contrast, jCentral analyzes Java code as well as text comments; thus it searches, weighs, and indexes the inherent attributes of code rather than just the textual descriptions of code.
jCentral is both a global resource and an internal organization/intranet resource. Whereas the search mechanism at ibm.com/java is global, the jCentral search tool, IBM itself uses a private version, allowing in-house developers to search for Java materials within IBM's intranet. jCentral as a global resource is currently free and available to the public. (To date, IBM has not announced plans to license source code as a separate product to internal enterprise developers or to bundle it with another product.)
jCentral employs a combination of automated and manual approaches to growing the repository. This combination offers a distinct advantage over other Java-development services, which take only a manual approach to compiling resources.
The automated component operates by using a bank of IBM-patented 100 percent Java-based crawlers to search the Internet for Java materials and then adding the materials to the jCentral repository, analyzing and classifying the materials in the process. The repository currently houses approximately 150,000 items, including 40,000 applets and 60,000 pieces of Java code. jCentral also has added JavaWorld magazine's entire catalogue of articles and source code to the repository. The repository's growth rate is erratic and unpredictable, IBM notes, but averages several thousand additions per week.
The manual resource-compilation component of jCentral involves a more typical approach to growing a resource catalogue. Essentially, Java developers submit code to be included in the jCentral repository, and a small staff within the jCentral development team manually checks the code and approves it for inclusion. So far, the level of code-submission traffic isn't high or overwhelming. The number of Java developers is limited, so jCentral staff members don't expect to be as swamped with submissions as a general-public search engine like Yahoo! is sure to be.
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Resources
- At the official IBM jCentral Web site you can run a quick jCentral search in the text input box at the top and read about IBM's Java development news http://www.ibm.com/java/
- The jCentral Power Search offers a more detailed, free, and continually-updated input mechanism for jCentral http://jcentral.alphaworks.ibm.com/Internet/power.htm
- jCentral Power Search Help -- An excellent resource for using the power search feature, this page provides information on search categories and attributes, a full list of attribute descriptions, search guidelines and rules, and search examples http://www.ibm.com/java/jcentral/powersearch-help.html
- IBM Java Education jCentral Whitepapers, tutorials, and articles The official -- source of documentation and information on jCentral http://www.ibm.com/java/education/papers-jcentral.html
- The IBM Java Education contains links to the jCentral fact sheet http://www.ibm.com/java/education/jcentral/jcentral-facts.html
- The jCentral Whitepaper http://www.ibm.com/java/education/jcentral/jcentral.html
- Developer.com directories (formerly Gamelan) -- EarthWeb's index of Java resources. Here you can find annotated directories of Java tutorials, beans, a wide variety of tools and applets, and programming information. If jCentral is the Alta Vista of Java-related searching, Developer.com/Gamelan is the Yahoo! of looking up Java information http://www.developer.com/directories/pages/dir.java.html
- The Lake Applet, David Griffiths's GIF-processing applet that creates a watery, reflective look, appears on more than 4,000 Web pages http://www.demon.co.uk/davidg/lake.htm
- DevSearch, which indexes the content of more than a dozen sites of interest to Web developers, is but one potential interface option that IBM developers may consider mimicking in jCentral to allow Java developers to search more specific subsets of content, such as articles and tutorials that include source code http://www.devsearch.com/
- Home page for interviewee Udi Manber, Ph.D., full professor of computer science at The University of Arizona in Tucson http://glimpse.cs.arizona.edu/udi.html
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