It’s still a beta so expect a few issues.

I’m working on:

• better storage to cache downloaded data
• allow saving to SD card
• better compression when setting as wallpaper
• Live wallpaper

Why not give this a whirl and resist the 1 star ratings (if you can) and instead post some feedback or feature requests below or tweet me.

Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across computers. 2GB account is free! http://db.tt/Tk9RpcD (Shameless referral alert)

There is a cut down version of Rational Software Analyzer that is integrated into Rational Application Developer (RAD) 7.5 that allows you to improve code quality and decrease the time it takes to perform a code review. Initially you’ll probably find a fair few items identified, but trust me this reduces as you move forward and start using the analyser as part of your daily routine or even better nightly build. It’ll also help developers start coding to the same standards.

Our development team took the approach that you don’t ‘have’ to fix all the issues identified in a given project/component, but as a rule you should be running the Software Analyzer on the methods and classes you’ve created or edited. So if you edit a method with an issue (e.g missing java doc) it is your duty to correct it. If it’s more complex refactoring we treated on a case by case basis (normally down to experience of the developer). The pros as that all the developers gained more exposure to Java code standard and we were able to tidying some of the older code as we went along rather than a big block of refactoring.

For our first pass analysis I selected the most critical rules plus a few extra around javadoc.  Some might be not be applicable for example there’s a critical rule states you should check a objects type before casting it, a valid rule indeed however all the RAD generated code in the JSF backing beans breaks this rule, so you’ll want to ignore it for classes in the pagecode.* package. Example of RAD generated code that breaks the casting analysis check.

protected HtmlPanelGrid getNewPremiumdetailsbox1() {
if (newPremiumdetailsbox1 == null) {
newPremiumdetailsbox1 = (HtmlPanelGrid) findComponentInRoot(“newPremiumdetailsbox1″);
}
return newPremiumdetailsbox1;
}

The idea is that you Analysed your code before submitted for code review and that if you haven’t fixed the raised issue they should be a comment explaining why. All developers were asked to pay particular attention to the Java Doc rules – can’t really think of an excuse for not adhering to those rules?

My only gripe is that Rational Software Analyzer doesn’t contain explanation of the issue raised? why is not checking an object’s type before casting just an issue? obvious to some but not others.  This enhanced functionality is included in the standalone paid Rational Software Analyzer product. However found a quick google or question on Stackoverflow explains why certain issues have been flagged.

Here’s a few screen shots on how to kick it off:

Firstly go to Run > Analysis

This will launch the Software Analyzer config window, create a new configuration and import the rule set (or select a predefined one)

Here’s the rules with there various priority levels these can be edited. Once your happy click Analyse to start.

This is what you code will look like after the see the blue underlines and ticks and crosses to the left of the code.

An error occurred while collecting items to be installed session context was:(profile=epp.package.jee, phase=org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.engine.phases.Collect, operand=, action=).

Unable to read repository at http://dy6h6xivkaprj.cloudfront.net/plugins/com.amazonaws.eclipse.sdk_1.1.1.v201012031352.jar.

Timeout while reading input stream. The following system properties can be used to adjust the readTimeout, retryAttempts, and closeTimeout

org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.retrieve.readTimeout=<default:1000>

org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.retrieve.retryAttempts=<default:30>

org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.retrieve.closeTimeout=<default:1000>

Pretty good error message it tells you what to change

If you haven’t made changes to the eclipse system properties here’s how. Edit the Eclispe.ini and add the readTimeout and closeTimeout settings after -vmargs

-vmargs

-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5

-Xms40m

-Xmx512m

-Dorg.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.retrieve.closeTimeout=3000

-Dorg.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.retrieve.readTimeout=3000

Restart Eclipse, attempt update. Problem solved!

Hope it’s worth the wait!

Update: results were announced yesterday, I passed!  I’m now a Oracle Certified Expert, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 JavaServer Pages and Servlet Developer – it just rolls off the tongue.

1. Stop the CVS service and Lock Service

2. Copy CVS Repo folder(s) to the new server

3. Install CVS on the new server – did full installation

4. Replicate the settings of the old server.

5. Add the folder as Repo location. I was able to add the repo location ok, but couldn’t connect and when I tried adding a new folder to the repo I got the following error:

cvs init: connect to 127.0.0.1(127.0.0.1):2403 failed: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. cvs [init aborted]: Couldn’t connect to lock server

So the server couldn’t connect to it’s own lockserver? Hmm… maybe the LockServer service wasn’t running or firewall interference? I checked both of these but all good. I thought let’s try stopping the lock server service, that worked! which is weird and the error seemed to say wasn’t running. Anywho I tried the telnet command again and got the CVSLock 2.0 Ready message so all seemed ok

TIP: When on the server, you can check the lock server using telnet try doing a “telnet localhost 2403″ and see what you get.  It should respond with “CVSLock 2.0 Ready” if it’s working properly.

Note: I should say I was moving both new and old server were Windows 2003, the versions of CVSNT were the same and the new server had the same name as the old one.

The UML stencil for Microsoft Visio supports all symbols of the UML 2.2, specified in OMG UML Superstructure Specification, formal/2009-02-02, as well as all previous versions, UML 2.1, UML 2.0, UML 1.5, UML 1.4, UML 1.3 and UML 1.1.

http://www.softwarestencils.com/uml/index.html

my Hero

Just a quickie blog post… my new HTC hero arrived today, yay!

Blown away by how within a few minutes of tapping in my google id I fully sync’d was contacts, calender, and email.

It’s my first touch screen and in portrait mode found the tapping a text message a little awkward. Landscape mode is fine.

Got it from Mobile Phones Direct – who supply the phones unlocked. They do some decent deals on 12m contract + free car kit. Plus in white which isn’t  avail on the network i’m on, Nice!

WebSphere uses commons-logging and so it’s in the root classloader. In addition, WebSphere 6.0 ships a commons-logging.properties with the following properties set:

org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl

org.apache.commons.logging.Log=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger

priority=1
org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl

The priority flag was introduced in Commons Logging 1.1 to allow an ordering based on priority. To ensure that an application’s commons-logging.properties will take precedence over WebSphere’s file, a priority of greater that 0.0 must be set.  I changed mine to 5 (just to be sure ).

So basically the  commons-logging.properties overrides the one packaged in websphere and returns it to the default logging system which is log4j.

NOTE: You also have to replace the commons-logging-api.jar that comes supplied with websphere, because IBM use the API and which doesn’t contain the log4j logger implementation.

Replace

Good for beginners.

This is a ideal book for someone starting Java Enterprise Edition (JEE), but also useful for those who want a brief overview of the ne features. It focuses on the changes in version 6 with examples in Glassfish. It also mentioned some of the significant changes in 5 and gives a good high level overview of the JEE platform in general. It also explains things like persistence layer, and ORM.

I’d recommend it to someone who’s new(ish) to java and whats to see what JEE/J2EE is all about. It’s not good as a reference book (but then it’s not pretending to be one.)