Tag Introduction

Many businesses and organizations use the Portable Document Format PDF because it keeps the original layout and formatting of a document across different platforms or devices. A PDF document will look the same on a MacBook, a PC, or even a tablet or smartphone. However, many users, particularly those with visual or mobility impairments, are unable to read PDF documents due to the lack of support for screen readers or other assistive technologies. Implementing PDF accessibility in your business will ensure that everyone, regardless of their disability, can read, understand, and edit vital documents.

What is PDF accessibility?

PDF accessibility is a set of best practices related to the design of PDF documents that allows individuals with disabilities to read and understand them. Accessible PDF documents are designed to support braille displays or screen readers. Adding accessibility to PDF documents involves a close look at the layout and design of the document as well as the formatting of the text. It also requires detailed testing to ensure that accessibility fixes are effective across different devices and platforms.

These best practices are codified in PDF/UA-1, which is globally recognized as the industry standard for PDF accessibility. Also known as ISO 14289-1, these guidelines get their inspiration from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In many ways, PDF/UA-1 and WCAG are closely related as many organizations use PDFs as a way to disseminate downloadable content.

Common PDF accessibility issues

While PDF accessibility is closely related to website accessibility, there are a few differences between the two formats. The most important difference is that while a user can use an accessibility widget to customize their web browsing experience, they cannot do the same with a PDF. Therefore, PDF content creators and designers should ensure that documents are already clear of PDF/UA-1 violations before posting them online. Here are some common PDF accessibility issues you will encounter as you sort through your documents.

1.   Improper page scanning

Many organizations, especially those who are new to document digitization, are prone to the mistake of scanning pages as images instead of text. While scanned documents have their shortcomings, particularly if the OCR is not advanced, a scanned image does not support screen readers. On the other hand, scanned text is readable using assistive technology and can be used by individuals with visual impairments.

2.   Missing heading and subheading tags

Adding headings and subheadings to documents involves more than just making them a different size or color. While these so-called headings are readily visible to users without visual impairments, screen readers will still recognize them as normal text. Adding heading and subheading tags to specific lines of text will help screen readers with identifying them correctly, giving users the option to skip to sections with the information they need.

3.   Missing alt text

Images embedded in PDF documents keep their formatting very well, which makes PDF the ideal format for image-heavy documents such as product catalogs or institutional brochures. However, users with visual impairments do not have the ability to view and process images. Adding alt text to PDFs will allow screen readers to describe the contents of an image to the user. Good image alt text describes the image in a detailed, accurate manner that helps the user tell the difference between two images with small but significant differences.

4.   Inaccessible form fields

Many organizations, such as government agencies or universities, use PDFs to store downloadable, fillable forms that reduce the need to print, fill out, and upload forms manually. These fillable forms should have support for logical keyboard navigation, which means that the users should be able to press the Tab key to move to the next field. Individual fields should also contain input suggestions that give the user an idea of the expected input format. Accessible forms will ensure that users can provide you with accurate information all the time.

Accessible PDFs for more inclusive documents

PDF documents allow your organization to store, distribute, and gather information while keeping the original document formatting. Implementing PDF accessibility through following PDF/UA-1 guidelines will ensure that screen readers and other assistive technologies can process your documents effectively. Following these guidelines will empower individuals with disabilities by giving them the ability to consume and comprehend your content and communicate with your organization through fillable forms. By making your PDF documents accessible, you also signify your intention to contribute to a more inclusive online community.

The United States of America commonly known as the United States or simply the U.S., is a vast and diverse country located in North America. It is comprised of fifty states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. With a population of over 331 million people, the United State is the third most populous country in the world. Renowned for its economic power, technological advancements, and cultural influence, the U.S.

Australian Government’s Relationship with the United States

The relationship between the Australian Government and the United States is one of the most enduring and important partnerships for both nations. The diplomatic ties between the two countries date back to 1940, when Australia became the first country to establish a consulate in the United States. Since then, the two nations have built a strong alliance based on shared values, mutual interests, and a commitment to democracy and freedom.

The Australian Government maintains close ties with the United States across various spheres, including defense, trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange. The treaty commits the signatories to consult and cooperate in matters of mutual security and defense.

Financial ties between the Joined together States and Australia

The economic relationship between the United States and Australia is robust and multifaceted. The United States is Australia’s third-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching billions of dollars each year. Major exports from Australia to the United States include mineral fuels, precious metals, and agricultural products, while the United States exports machinery, vehicles, and pharmaceuticals to Australia.

Investment between the two countries is also significant, with both Australian and American companies investing heavily in each other’s markets. The United States is one of the largest sources of foreign direct investment in Australia, while Australian companies have a strong presence in various sectors in the United States, such as mining, technology, and finance.

Diplomatic relations and alliances

The diplomatic relations between the United States and Australia are characterized by close cooperation and coordination on global issues. The two nations share common values and interests, including the promotion of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. They collaborate extensively in international forums, such as the United Nations, G20, and APEC, to address global challenges and advance their respective national interests.

The ANZUS Treaty remains the cornerstone of the defense alliance between the United States and Australia. It provides for mutual security guarantees and defense cooperation between the two nations. The United States has also been a key partner in supporting Australia’s defense capabilities, including through military exercises, intelligence sharing, and joint research and development programs.

Cultural exchanges and collaborations

Cultural exchanges between the United States and Australia contribute to the vibrant and diverse societies of both nations. People-to-people links are fostered through various programs, such as student exchanges, artist residencies, and sporting events. These exchanges help promote mutual understanding, appreciation of diverse cultures, and the strengthening of bilateral ties.

Australia and the United States have a long history of collaborations in the fields of arts, music, film, and literature.  These cultural collaborations enrich the artistic landscapes of both countries and contribute to the global cultural heritage.

Education and research partnerships

The United States is a popular destination for Australian students seeking higher education opportunities. American universities are renowned for their academic excellence, cutting-edge research facilities, and diverse study programs.

In addition to student exchanges, Australian and American educational institutions collaborate on research projects, knowledge sharing, and academic partnerships. Joint research programs in fields such as medicine, environmental sciences, and technology have led to groundbreaking discoveries and advancements. These collaborations strengthen the research capabilities of both nations and contribute to global innovation.

Tourism between the United States and Australia

Tourism plays a significant role in the relationship between the United States and Australia. Each year, thousands of Australians travel to the United States to explore its iconic landmarks, experience its vibrant cities, and immerse themselves in its diverse culture. Similarly, many Americans visit Australia to witness its natural wonders, experience its unique wildlife, and engage with its rich indigenous heritage.

Both countries actively promote tourism through marketing campaigns, travel partnerships, and visa facilitation. The exchange of tourists between the United States and Australia not only contributes to the economies of both nations but also fosters cultural understanding and strengthens people-to-people connections.

Defense and security cooperation

The United States is an important partner in supporting Australia defense capabilities through the provision of advanced military equipment, technology transfer, and training. The close defense ties between the two nations contribute to a strong and capable military alliance in the Indo-Pacific region.

Bilateral trade agreements between the United States and Australia have further deepened their economic ties and facilitated trade and investment flows. The United States is a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral trade agreement that includes Australia and several other Pacific Rim countries.

These agreements cover various sectors, including agriculture, services, and intellectual property. They provide a framework for increased trade and investment opportunities between the two nations.

The Spring Framework is one of the most widely used application development frameworks for Java. First released in 2002, Spring has become the de facto standard for building enterprise-ready Java applications.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the history of Spring, its architecture and key components, reasons to use it, and how to get started. We’ll also provide tips to keep in mind while you hire Java developers to build Spring-based applications.

A Brief History of Spring

Spring was created in 2002 by Rod Johnson as an alternative to the heavyweight and complex Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) development model. It aimed to simplify Java development by enabling a programming approach based on the Plain Old Java Object (POJO).

Spring provided a fresh alternative by promoting concepts like dependency injection and aspect-oriented programming to implement application components and business logic. This contrasted the boilerplate code laden model of EJBs in Java EE.

The first version of Spring focused on the IoC container and lightweight component wiring. Since then, the framework has grown tremendously to become a one-stop shop for enterprise Java development. It now spans everything from database access, security, REST APIs, microservices, reactive development, and more.

While new technologies like cloud, containers, and serverless have emerged, Spring remains incredibly relevant today. It has evolved to work synergistically with modern architecture styles.

Why Use Spring?

There are several key motivations for using Spring:

Simpler Development

Spring eliminates a lot of boilerplate code for common functionality like security, database access, transactions, and web APIs. This simplifies and accelerates development so you can focus on business logic.

Loosely Coupled Code

The dependency injection pattern enabled by Spring promotes loose coupling between application components and services. Components don’t look up dependencies but have them provided by the Spring container. This facilitates easier testing and extensibility.

Layered Architecture

Spring encourages a layered architecture with clean separation of concerns between data access, services, and presentation layers. Components within layers are decoupled.

Declarative Programming Model

Spring configuration enables a declarative style of programming. You describe application assemblage and behavior through configuration vs procedural code. This raises the level of abstraction.

Powerful Abstractions

Spring provides powerful abstractions over tasks like database access, transactions, caching, web APIs, REST services. This hides complexity and standardizes configurations.

Vast Ecosystem

Spring has a thriving ecosystem of related projects like Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and Spring Data. This provides a full-stack solution for end-to-end application development.

Improved Testability

The use of dependency injection and POJO programming model makes Spring applications very easy to unit test. Environmental dependencies can be easily mocked and stubbed.

Proven Technology

Spring has seen over 15 years of continuous improvement and stabilized into a hardened technology. It enjoys industry-wide adoption with millions of developers.

Key Components of Spring Framework

The Spring Framework comprises several major modules:

Core Container

The fundamental functionality of the core container is supplied by Spring. It contains the IoC container responsible for instantiating, configuring and assembling beans using dependency injection. The container leverages Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) internally to provide services like declarative transaction management across components.

Spring Web

The Web module provides support for developing RESTful web services and web applications. It contains Spring MVC for model-view-controller implementation and Spring WebFlux for reactive web development. Web MVC offers convenience annotations for mapping endpoints like @GetMapping, @PostMapping, etc.

Spring Data

Spring Data provides an abstraction for working with relational and non-relational databases. It offers consistent APIs across JPA, JDBC, MongoDB, Cassandra, etc. This standardized approach avoids vendor lock-in.

Spring AOP

Aspect-Oriented Programming allows you to implement common services like logging, transactions, security, caching as modular aspects applied across components. This eliminates repetitive boilerplate code in each class. AOP enables clean separation of cross-cutting concerns.

Spring Testing

The testing module provides mocks and test instances of Spring components to support unit testing and integration testing. It helps ensure components are wired properly and minimizes setup code.

Additional Modules

There are many more Spring modules like Spring Boot for rapid application bootstrapping, Spring Security for authentication and authorization, Spring Cloud for microservices and more.

Getting Started with Spring

Getting started with Spring is easy. For a web application, you can initialize a project using Spring Boot which handles auto-configuration.

To build a REST API, create a Spring Boot project add the Spring Web dependency. Annotate a controller class with @RestController, expose some endpoints, and you have a functional REST service!

For dependency injection, define beans in a @Configuration class, inject them into other components via @Autowired, and Spring weaves everything together.

There’s so much more Spring can do from here to build a real-world application. But it provides an easy starting point which you can build upon incrementally.

Things to keep in mind while hiring developers

Given its popularity, there is high market demand for developers skilled in Spring and Java. Here are some tips for hiring:

Assess Core Java Skills

Examine mastery of Java itself including object-oriented design, collections, data structures, concurrency, generics, etc. Spring builds on top of core Java.

Review Spring Module Experience

Look for hands-on experience with key Spring modules like the core container, AOP, JDBC data access, Web MVC, Spring Boot, Security. Real-world usage is critical.

Require Code Samples  

Ask candidates to submit code snippets or samples illustrating Java and Spring application design skills, proper layering, configurations, etc. Review for best practices.

Discussion Architectural Patterns

Gauge familiarity with architectural styles like microservices, SOA, event-driven architectures. Understand tradeoffs between different designs.

Examine Back End Knowledge  

Verify back-end skills including databases, SQL, ORM technologies like JPA/Hibernate. These provide persistence for Spring applications.

Test Automated Testing Expertise

Spring apps require proper automated testing practices. Ensure knowledge of unit, integration, load, and performance testing frameworks and approaches.

Focus on Problem Solving

Assess Spring competency by discussing approaches to real-world problems vs trivial examples. Evaluate ability to ask clarifying questions.

Consider Java EE Experience

While not mandatory, Java EE experience indicates comfort working in enterprise ecosystems and with skills like JMS messaging, EJBs, application servers, etc.

Review DevOps Knowledge  

Deploying Spring applications requires DevOps capabilities like CI/CD, infrastructure as code tools, containerization, orchestration, observability.

Assess Passion for Learning

The best developers are continuously expanding their skills. Look for interested in the broader Java/Spring ecosystem including emerging developments like Spring Cloud Function, RSocket, etc.

Conclusion

The Spring Framework provides an amazingly robust set of capabilities for building modern Java applications, from its core DI container to abstractions for data, transactions, security, web development, and more. Adopting Spring enables easier development, loose coupling, predictable configurations, and tremendous productivity gains. With Spring Boot reducing boilerplate, and the thriving ecosystem of related projects, any Java developer can benefit from learning Spring.

When you hire Springboot developers, be sure to thoroughly evaluate both framework-specific experiences as well as underlying competence in core Java and modern architectural styles. This results in well-rounded developers who can create enterprise solutions end-to-end.

The popularity and maturity of Spring means it will remain a critical framework for Java for many more years. Any Java developer working on enterprise applications will gain tremendous advantages by mastering the Spring Framework.