Liferay is becoming increasingly popular, developing features to compare with their commercial rivals, and finding increased usage in professional channels. However, with its ever increasing usage and constant development comes a greater need for clear information about getting the most from its applications.

Packt aims to publish books that will make Liferay applications accessible.

Some of the topics that we are interested in are:

We are looking for authors who have an expert understanding of Liferay as well as an ability to put their knowledge into words. Although no previous authoring experience is necessary, experience writing tutorials, blogs or giving presentations on the subject would be an advantage. If you think you have a killer book idea on Liferay and fancy writing it, we are looking for you. Even if you don’t have a book idea but are simply interested in authoring a book in this domain, we are keen to talk to you!

Fantastic! Just email  [email protected] with a small note about your experience in this domain, any writing experience you may have, and your book idea if you have one.

The editorial team at Packt is keen to hear from you!

Packt publishing is reaching out to potential authors through Twitter. The @packtauthors account features the latest book ideas, topic areas, author interviews, reviews, and anything else Packt thinks authors and future authors will want to see.

March 12, 2010- Packt launched a new twitter account to tweet about new writing opportunities arising at Packt. Technical people interested in writing technical books are invited to follow @packtauthors.

Most technical publishers expect authors to deliver detailed book proposals, with very little guidance on the sort of proposals likely to be accepted. Packt is turning this on its head by openly proclaiming the sort of topics and titles they’re most interested in right now, and inviting interested authors to get in touch with a simple email.

“We are planning to publish more than 200 books this year and will be inviting authors to write them. We’ll tweet about specific book ideas that need authors, topic areas that we’re looking into, interesting links, and anything else we think authors and future authors will want to see,” said David Barnes, Author Relationship Manager at Packt Publishing. “Follow @packtauthors so you can be the first to discover our latest writing opportunities.”

Writing a book is a great way to demonstrate and share your expertise in a topic area. Packt pays an advance to its authors, as well as a generous royalty of 16%. You don’t need writing experience to write for Packt -- just as enthusiasm for the subject and an ability to put your expertise into words.

The @packtauthors account has already posted about topics such as Python, Joomla!, Drupal, Blender, Unity3D, and Lotus. As Packt continually discover new topics, and new opportunities in our established topic areas, you can expect requests for a wide variety of interesting authors.

Anybody with an interest in writing technical books follow @packtauthors on Twitter, for all the latest author news and writing opportunities:http://www.twitter.com/packtauthors

London, UK, 22nd February, 2010 – Paremus, the pioneer of OSGiTM-based cloud computing, today announced a partnership with Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the Real-Time Middleware Experts.  RTI is the industry leader in middleware compliant with the Data Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems (DDS) standard from the Object Management Group (OMG).

The Paremus Service Fabric will incorporate DDS to provide a low-latency messaging substrate for resource discovery, OSGi Alliance-compliant remote service discovery and low-latency monitoring. Initial integration work is already completed, and an RTI Data Distribution Service-powered version of the Paremus Service Fabric will be available in the second half of 2010.

Paremus Service Fabric customers and solutions providers will also have the option to leverage RTI’s low-latency messaging for their own high-performance applications. “Taking the financial services industry as an example,” said Mike Francis, Paremus Sales & Marketing Director, “customers can use the Service Fabric to address applications ranging from low-latency, front-office real-time pricing to high-throughput, elastic middle and back-office trade processing pipelines.”

Stan Schneider, RTI’s CEO, noted, “The application demands on cloud platforms are pushing performance and scalability in Enterprise environments to new limits. We are very pleased that Paremus has recognised the proven capability of our peer-to-peer messaging middleware to meet these new requirements. By further integrating our resource discovery technology into its OSGi platform, Paremus is able to deliver a far more flexible and dynamic PaaS environment.”

The Paremus Service Fabric supports a wide variety of business processing patterns and enables organisations’ software development teams to realise the component reuse and time-to-market efficiencies offered by OSGi. The model-driven runtime dramatically simplifies operational management while providing resilience and elasticity well beyond that of any Java EE application server, compute grid or ESB-centric solution, including the latest OSGi/SCA-enabled variants.

“Key to Paremus’ technology leadership is our continued focus on technology fundamentals rather than fashions,” said Richard Nicholson, Paremus Founder & CEO. “Our recently released Nimble ‘Making Modularity Manageable’ OSGi kernel is a simple and elegant solution that enables the power of OSGi to be harnessed by the modern enterprise. Likewise, the fundamentals of the OMG DDS standard and the quality of the RTI implementation made it the clear choice for the next generation of Service Fabric’s low-latency, high-throughput messaging substrate.” Nicholson concluded, “Robustness, manageability, scalability and agility are interlinked concerns, and these cannot be truly addressed without addressing the basics; technologies like Nimble and our partnership with RTI for DDS address these fundamentals and will continue to differentiate the Paremus Service Fabric—a distributed OSGi runtime like no other.”

Parties interested in the beta program for the RTI Data Distribution Service-powered version of the Paremus Service Fabric can request information via an e-mail to[email protected].

Packt is pleased to announce a new book, Apache MyFaces Trinidad 1.2: A Practical Guide that helps Java developers, develop JSF web applications using Trinidad and Seam. Written by David Thomas, this book will help developers strengthen their understanding of all the major concepts through a step-by-step approach.

Apache MyFaces Trinidad is a powerful JSF component framework that includes a large, enterprise quality component library which supports critical features such as accessibility and right-to-left languages. It also includes features such as integrated client-side validation as well as a dialog framework. Trinidad is more than just a component library because it also contains additional features which solve common development challenges.

Apache MyFaces Trinidad 1.2: A Practical Guide, will help developers combine Apache MyFaces Trinidad with Seam in-order to develop rich-client web applications. They will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to implement login, authorization, navigation, internationalization, polling, and support for browser issues with the help of these technologies.

By using this book, users will be able to develop a web application that illustrates all the standard UI types covered by Trinidad. They will learn occurring tag attributes, and will gain a complete understanding of Trinidad's AJAX technology and its partial page rendering technique. By the end of the book, they would be well-versed with all the major concepts of Trinidad.

Java developers who are beginners at JSF and experienced web developers who are looking for an introduction into the world of open source JSF technology will find this book an interesting and beneficial read. This book is out now and available from Packt. For more information, please visit: www.packtpub.com/apache-myfaces-trinidad-1-2-a-practical-guide/book

Over the last few years, Packt Publishing has become a leading Open Source technology publisher. In turn, the company has recognized the challenges and changing landscape of the Enterprise software world, and sees strong opportunities for books in Enterprise Applications, Middleware, SOA, and Implementations.

Packt is interested in developing books on the following Java EE technologies:

• Enterprise JavaBeans
• Java Business Integration (JBI)
• Java Message Service (JMS)
• JavaMail
• Java EE SDK

Packt focuses on producing cutting-edge books for communities of developers, administrators, and newbies alike. Amey Kanse, one of Packt’s Enterprise Acquisition Editors, explains: ‘Java EE is widely used for implementing enterprise-class service-oriented architecture (SOA) and creating feature rich enterprise web applications. There is a need for focused and practical advice on Java EE technologies and Packt books offer just that.'

Packt is looking for authors for its new Java EE books. Amey explains: ‘You don't need to be an experienced author to write for Packt; all you need is a passion for the subject and a willingness to share your ideas and thoughts. You could be an experienced programmer, a trainer, or someone who loves working with Java EE—our author-centric editorial process will help you get the most from writing.'

If you have a strong idea for a Java EE book that you’d love to read, but not write yourself, then please contact us with that too.

Our team of experienced editors helps develop your idea, check market potential, and give you regular feedback on how to write well and deliver excellent results without giving up all of your free time. Our marketing team also works closely with authors to help them promote the book and themselves as authors.

If you’re interested in writing Java EE books, we want to hear from you!

Please visit Packt at http://authors.packtpub.com to submit your book ideas and title suggestions.

London, UK, 3rd November, 2009 - Paremus, the company behind the Paremus Service Fabric, the first distributed OSGi(TM) Cloud Computing runtime, today announced Nimble, a lightweight, extensible and modular, OSGi-based server that makes it easy to develop and operate modular applications.

Nimble will be available as a free download from 16th November, 2009 fromwww.paremus.com/products/products.html.

Whatever the application type, favored framework (Spring, SpringDM, OSGi Blueprint Services or Guice) or JVM based language (Java or Scala), Nimble dynamically installs, assembles and manages all of the runtime components required by your application.

"Nimble provides a lightweight and effective way to cut through the complexity that comes with the development and use of highly modular applications" said Richard Nicholson, Paremus CEO and Founder, "Anyone who wants to speed up their OSGi and modular application development, simplify deployment and avoid framework and OS lock-in should take a look at Nimble."

A fast, simple to use and easily extensible dependency resolver and provisioner, Nimble:

A General Resolver – Not Just for OSGi
Nimble capabilities are not constrained to just OSGi components. Its generic dependency resolution and assembly behaviors can be applied to any number of application types. For example, presented with a CRM or ERP JEE component, when extended, Nimble can dynamically install all the required infrastructure services to support these. When presented with an ESB configuration file (Mule or Camel), Nimble responds by installing all of the required ESB infrastructure components, configuring them in the manner dictated by the configuration file.

Enabling a True Enterprise Cloud
"While Cloud Computing marketing reaches fever pitch, many of the claims are simply vaporware. From an application perspective the solutions differ little from those available in the mid 1990’s where a static image of a software stack is deployed to a compute resource," said Nicholson. "The only difference today is that the compute resource may be virtual, and may be outside the firewall - but the basic principles are unchanged."

"Yet the convergence of Cloud Computing with OSGi-based applications will radically re-shape Enterprise IT," continued Nicholson. "Paremus recognized this convergence back in 2005 when Utility Computing and Grid were in vogue. The Paremus Service Fabric offers a solution that helps our customers leverage this opportunity today, and Nimble is the keystone to realizing this."

The Paremus Service Fabric, an aggregate structure formed of Nimble nodes, provides an adaptive, re-configurable resilient Cloud runtime for distributed applications.

"A customer can start small, using Nimble as a standalone OSGi server for new OSGi-based applications, or as a cost effective runtime for Spring applications, or WAR’s, and overtime they can easily migrate to the full distributed Service Fabric" said Mike Francis, Paremus Sales & Marketing Director. "Our aggressive pricing, iscompelling for any organization that wants to adopt Cloud Computing, but also for any organizations simply wanting a cost effective runtime for their existing applications."

Nimble will be available as a free download with a free 30 day renewable license from the 16th November, 2009. A perpetual license will also be available for only $250. The free download and further details about Nimble are available fromwww.paremus.com/products/products.html.

Alfresco Developer Guide is Potts’ first book, published in October last year. His book was judged best written out of a set of 6 nominated titles, including books about Drupal, Ext JS, JavaScript, and SOA.

"I am excited and honored to win the award," said Potts, "especially because I know there were several popular and well-written books among the finalists."

Judges praised the book for "providing a strong balance of background, actionable items, and wisdom" and bringing a complex, challenging topic "down to earth".

The winner receives a $1000 cash prize and an engraved Packt Author of the Year 2009 trophy.

Any Packt author who published a book in 2008 was eligible for the 2009 award. Six finalists were selected on the basis of an open vote, where readers could nominate their favorite eligible book. Packt then sent copies of these books to expert judges, who gave their opinions and evaluation of each title. The judges' verdict put the Alfresco Developer Guide on top.

Packt strives to be a rewarding publisher to work with, and a first choice for first time and veteran technical book authors.

"We’re pleased that this award gives us another chance to reward and thank our authors for their hard work," said David Barnes, Packt Acquisition Editor and organizer of the award. "We give our authors excellent royalty terms and all the assistance we can to help them with writing and then to market their work, so that the whole process is as rewarding as possible. Most of our authors write in their limited free time alongside demanding full time jobs and this award gives us another, more fun way to reward and thank our authors."

The Packt Author of the Year Award aims to acknowledge and reward authors whose books are written to an exceptional standard, provide the most practical and useful assistance to readers, and that enrich the tech community as a whole.

The other finalists for the award were:

Packt is always keen to attract new authors to write new tech books. Anybody interested in becoming a Packt author, and perhaps winning the award in a future year,should visit authors.packtpub.com and give Packt their details.

The ‘smart’ PaaS runtime for Private Cloud based business systems.

Paremus, has announced the immediate availability of version 1.5 of the Paremus Service Fabric, the industry’s only OSGi-based Cloud runtime for the enterprise. At the heart of the 1.5 release is the new Nimble dependency engine, a state-of-the-art dependency resolver. Nimble enables the Paremus Service Fabric runtime to dynamically adapt to the requirements of the applications and business services it hosts. Driving inversion of control (IoC) to its logical conclusion, runtime policies attached to the application components enable the Service Fabric to dynamically deploy and manage all of the infrastructure services required by the business system.

“Cloud and OSGi are increasingly fashionable technologies, yet the market-hype obscures a number of fundamental operational problems that must be solved before Cloud based runtimes are ready to meet all the enterprise requirements.” said Richard Nicholson Paremus CEO. “The ability of a highly adaptive OSGi-based Cloud runtime to adapt to service requirements, as well as changing resource populations, is a fundamental differentiator of the Paremus Service Fabric. However, such capabilities must be balanced with the manageability, governance, and robustness considerations that all enterprises face. Paremus has focused on this problem area since 2003, and the 1.5 release of our second generation Service Fabric consolidates our technology leadership.”

“Take deployment of a simple WAR as an example” said Mike Francis, Sales & Marketing Director. “One business system may have a preference for the Jetty servlet container, while another may have a preference for Tomcat. At the point of deploying the WAR the Service Fabric understands that the WAR needs a Servlet container and dynamically installs the supporting infrastructure based on the defined policy associated with the application components. The net result is dramatic - an advanced composite Cloud runtime which is significantly simpler to manage than the current servers farms. The Service Fabric‘s adaptability also helps our customers avoid the expense and limitations of development framework and middleware lock-in.”

In addition to Nimble, the 1.5 release of the Service Fabric includes:

A free 30 day evaluation license of the Paremus Service Fabric is available following registration at http://www.paremus.com/registration/evaluation.html.

Packt is pleased to announce a new book on Seam 2.x that teaches developers to integrate technologies like JSF, EJB, JPA with Seam. Written by David Salter, Seam 2.x Web Development helps readers develop rich web applications using Seam 2.x, Facelets, and RichFaces, and deploy them on the JBoss Application Server.

The Seam framework from JBoss allows developers to use JSF, Facelets, EJB, and JPA to write conversational web applications. But at first they would have to learn how these standard technologies are integrated using Seam, and how they can be built upon using additional Seam components. This book will teach developers just that in order to help them build a Java web application quickly.

This book provides a practical approach to developing Seam applications highlighting good development practices. The reader will understand the fundamentals of Seam and why it is different from many other web frameworks. They will learn to test Seam components and web pages in a Seam application. 

Developers will learn how to utilize the RichFaces library to develop advanced, rich user interfaces including AJAX technologies to improve the user experience. By using the Java Persistence API (JPA), they will also learn to develop persistent applications. Users will learn to build conversational web applications that can run over multiple browser windows and secure applications, using role-based security, CAPTCHA, and OpenId.

Java EE developers interested in developing with Seam 2.x will find this book useful. The book is out now and available from Packt. For more information, please visit http://www.packtpub.com/seam-2-x-web-development/book

Packt Publishing has today launched a new series of Beginner's Guide books designed to make open source tools and other advanced software accessible and usable for Beginners.

"There are thousands of tremendous software tools out there", says series editor David Barnes. "The way they are designed, built and documented means they can often feel like they are created by experts, for experts. Newcomers often don't know what the software can even do, let alone how to do it."

Packt Beginner's Guides aim to overcome this problem. They teach newcomers a technology by presenting realistic, useful examples with clear step-by-step instructions. Packt has already announced two Beginner's Guides on their web site: Moodle Course Conversion, due out next week, and WordPress Plugin Development, due out in January.

"If you're trying to teach a new application to somebody sitting next to you, you won't just give them loads of facts about it" Barnes continued "Instead you'll guide them through some simple, useful operations before explaining them and then gradually moving on to more complex tasks. Beginner's Guides work like this. They feel more like a hands-on lab than a lecture" he concluded.

Beginner's Guides are especially suitable for tools that aren't completely geeky, and aren't completely mainstream either. Tools such as Alfresco, Moodle, WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal all suit this kind of "learn by doing" approach.

Beginner's Guides take Packt's approach a step further by providing friendly step-by-step books on topics and tools that are just starting to be adopted by mainstream users. Not long ago, if you used a computer for anything more than typing a letter, sending email and using Google you were considered an expert. But now anybody can use a computer in a wide range of creative and interesting ways -  from building web sites to making videos and music. The need for friendly Beginner's Guides on a wide range of topics and tools is greater than ever.

Packt is looking for authors to write books in the Beginner's Guide series. "A good Beginner's Guide author thinks like a teacher" says David. "They need to be well versed and comfortable with the topic, so that while writing they can focus their attention on leading the reader into the topic area. We have plenty of editorial resources, templates, and guidelines that will help authors do just that."

If you are well versed with the technology you want to write a book on and are keen to train new comers, you fit the bill. Good English skills are also a big help of course! If you are interested in writing these Beginner's Guides please approach Packt at [email protected] with the subject you want to cover, or some information on your areas of expertise.

Packt is a modern, unique publishing company with a focus on producing cutting-edge books for communities of developers, administrators, and newbies alike. Packt believe in Open Source. When they sell a book written on an Open Source project, they pay a royalty directly to that project. As a result of purchasing one of our Open Source books, Packt will have given some of the money received to the Open Source project.