Category Archives: Java Certification

oracle certification – linking existing pearson/prometric accounts

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Oracle has switched to PearsonVUE and is asking candidates past/present to migrate their history from Prometric.  I have an existing PearsonVUE account from my Spring Certification.  The steps were straightforward enough and *almost* matched the documentation.

  1. Go to the Oracle transition site
  2. Click my account
  3. Login to your existing PearsonVUE account resetting the password as needed.
  4. It asks to enter your Oracle information. (I got an error here.)  I choose the “more information” link to recover from the error.  Oracle is in pulldown now.
  5. Enter your Oracle testing id.  This is your Prometric id and was e-mailed to you on May 16th.
  6. Click save
  7. Click confirm

It now says

Your request to add Oracle Certification Program has been forwarded to our Testing Program team. If you provided a valid email address, we will notify you when your request has been processed. This typically occurs within one business day. You can also return to this site and check if Oracle Certification Program has been added to your list of Testing Programs.

Thank you for your interest in Oracle Certification Program.

on oracle requiring course for Java hands on exams

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I learned that Oracle is adding a course requirement to the developer and architect certifications. thanks to this CodeRanch thread.  I’m glad I already completed the SCEA/OCMJEA. For facts and updates see the CodeRanch thread.  The first post is being updated as we learn more about the details.  This blog post is my thoughts on it along with a comparison to other certs.

What does Oracle hope to gain by the change?

The official statement/FAQ says,

Many Oracle certifications require hands-on course attendance as a part of the certification path. The course requirement is being added to these certification paths to bring them in line with Oracle Certification Program’s standards for the levels of certification under which they fall.

Oracle blogged about this for their Oracle exams.  The gist of the blog is that less people take the test with a required course but it cuts out cheaters.

Other possibilities:

  1. It’s a way for Oracle to make more money. (Oracle denies this in the blog)
  2. It makes the certification rarer and more valuable.  (This didn’t work out for Spring – see section below)
  3. It’s a way for Oracle to quietly retire those certifications from “lack of demand” or reinvent them into something else.

Things I find odd:

  1. They aren’t the right courses!  For the architect exam, you can take Intro to Java, Intro to Modeling, JEE development or JEE architecture.  I’ve paraphrased the names to make it easy to see that only one or two are things that apply to an architect.  And all of them are something someone should know before taking the exam.  I wouldn’t have been interested in going to any of those classes as I already know that material and it would have been a waste of time/money.
  2. Oracle doesn’t require a mandatory course for their developer exams.
  3. The Oracle 11g Master exam requires a two day hands on course to pass.  I think this is what discourages cheaters, not the class.  In our world, the equivalent would be a longer exam that has you develop or design something new in person.  Incidentally, the SCJP Plus that Sun didn’t proceed with would have gone in that direction.  (alebeit not at a master level)
  4. On the Oracle side, Oracle has declared that developer exams don’t go in the master category.  The table shows they are all that professional or specialization/expert level.  And no, most of them don’t require training.  So I can be a Peoplesoft Expert without training but not a developer?
  5. An official course makes more sense for a product than development.  (Oracle knows their database better than anyone.)

But Spring requires a course

The SpringSource developer exam (see my comments) has “required” completion of their course since the exam’s inception in 2008.  Then they got rid of the grandfather option and everyone is required to take the course.  Which of course means the exam serves as a final exam for the course and is of significantly less value.  Not the best analogy.

visio uml 2 for java (scea)

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After taking SCEA part 1 and Core Spring, it is time to work on SCEA part 2.  Or should I say Oracle Certified Master, Java EE 5 Enterprise Architect part 2.  OCMJEA?  It doesn’t matter.  This post isn’t about the SCEA/OCMJEA per se.  This post is about using Visio for current Java UML modeling.  Here’s what I learned or re-learned about Visio.

Why Visio?

You may be wondering why I chose Visio in the first place.  After all Star UML is free.  My original thought was that I have Visio 2002 installed on my machine because I bought a copy when I was in grad school and I am experienced in using it.  In hindsight this wasn’t the best idea.

UML 1 vs UML 2

Visio does not support UML 2.  The SCEA wants UML 2 diagrams.   It looks like the biggest differences are conditional support for sequence diagrams and a new shape for components in component diagrams.

Luckily there are UML 2 stencils for Visio for almost every version of Visio.  Installing them was easy.  It is key to install the stencil before you start creating diagrams as Visio UML shapes can’t integrate with a UML 2 stencil diagram.   The stencils don’t have much documentation, but I found this chart helpful.

Java stereotypes

To add new stereotypes for Java to a diagram, follow these steps to register them.  Then just select the relevant stereotype in your diagram.

  • UML menu > Stereotypes
  • New
  • Stereotype = @Entity (or whatever you want to add)
  • Baseclass = Class, Component or Dependency (depending on the type of diagram)

Java types

To add Java specific types, follow these steps to register them in your diagram.  Then select them in your attributes/operations/methods.

  • UML > Packages
  • New
  • Java types
  • UML > View > Model Explorer
  • Right click java types in model explorer > new >
  • datatype > name

Hiding attributes/operations section in a class diagram

  • Right click shape
  • Shape display options
  • under suppress, click attributes or options

Add documentation to shape in component diagram

  • Right click shape
  • Shape display options
  • Check properties
  • Can add custom property (or documentation) with more detail