Reach2Ramesh

SimpleDateFormat not available with GWT

2012-01-30T18:28:00.006-06:00

Fix - Add the following lines of code in your .gwt.xml



<inherits name="com.googlecode.gwtx.Java" />

b. Add the gwtx-1.5.3.jar to your WEB-INF/lib

Unable to start Google APP Engine java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.mortbay.thread.Timeout

2012-01-30T18:28:00.003-06:00

This usual indicates problems with the classpath. Do you have multiple versions of Jetty in your classpath by any chance?

To identify duplicate classes in eclipse, hit Ctrl+Shift+T to bring the 'Open Type' dialog. Search for the class org.mortbay.thread.Timeout. Ideally it should only come in gwt-dev.jar, but I suspect in your case some other jar file would also have it.

Also open .classpath in your eclipse

GWT container comes before the APP ENGINE

<classpathentry kind="con"

path="com.google.gwt.eclipse.core.GWT_CONTAINER"/>

<classpathentry kind="con"

path="com.google.appengine.eclipse.core.GAE_CONTAINER"/>

I had the same issue and I swapped the order of the classpath

and my errors are

gone now.

Mirroring Subversion Repository

2012-01-30T18:27:00.006-06:00

Create a new repository to be the mirror:

· svnadmin create MIRROR_CONTAINER

· Create a "pre-revprop-change" action by creating a hook script by the same name.

o Go to MIRROR_CONTAINER\hooks.

o create a file named pre-revprop-change.bat

o The contents will be as follows

Change the <<SVN USER>> to the user who will be performing the sync

IF "%3" == "<<SVN USER>>" (goto :label1) else (echo "Only the syncuser user may change revision properties" >&2 )

exit 1

goto :eof

:label1

exit 0

· Save this file

· Initialize a path within the repository to contain the mirrored data, and specify the source by

o If the path has spaces then enlose them with the double quotes

o For example my remote repository (MIRROR_CONTAINER) was in my shared folder so I use like the following

· svnsync init --username <<SVN USER>> file:///"<<MIRROR_CONTAINER>>" <<BASE SVN location>> svn://162.66.224.77:48000/UFG

· svnsync sync --username <<SVN USER>> file:///"<<MIRROR_CONTAINER>>"

Eclipe SVN integration after deleting a project

2012-01-30T18:27:00.003-06:00

Once you delete a project in eclipse, the SVN sharing will automatically go OFF.

Without knowing this, I was trying to update the SVN plugin again and again.

The easy way is to right click on the Project à Share Project à Choose SVN and give your SVN location again.

Its as simple as that

Shared libraries with Tomcat 6

2011-07-26T05:55:00.001-05:00

Now that we have removed the WEB-INF\LIB folders your WAR files will not have them . So when you deploy the code into Tomcat, Tomcat will complain while deploying that these libs are not found (ClassNoutFoundException).

In order to prevent this, you can create the shared libs in Tomcat also.

The most preferred way is to put all the jar files into the location commonly used within a Tomcat 6 installation for shared code is$CATALINA_HOME/lib. JAR files placed here are visible both to web applications and internal Tomcat code.

This is because Tomcat 6.0 does not have any directory where we can put third-party jars (like our “<$pserver>/server/lib/ext” directory).

But there is the other way if you do not want to share this with Tomcat.

<<Tomcat Home>>\conf\catalina.properties

Look for the property

shared.loader=

change this to

shared.loader=<<your library folder>>\*.jar

prior to this version of Tomcat, external/third party jar could be placed inside following locations:

1) ${catalina.base}/shared/lib/ – jar needs to be shared by all the deployed applications only(to share classes across all web applications)

2)${catalina.base}/common/lib/ – jar need to be shared by web server and applications.

Easy WINDOWS commands at your finger tips

2010-11-29T15:51:00.003-06:00

CONTROL: opens the control panel window

CONTROL ADMINTOOLS: opens the administrative tools

CONTROL KEYBOARD: opens keyboard properties

CONTROL COLOUR: opens display properties.Appearance tab

CONTROL FOLDERS: opens folder options

CONTROL FONTS: opens font policy management

CONTROL INTERNATIONAL or INTL.CPL: opens Regional and Language option

CONTROL MOUSE or MAIN.CPL: opens mouse properties

CONTROL USERPASSWORDS: opens User Accounts editor

CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2 or NETPLWIZ: User account access restrictions

CONTROL PRINTERS: opens faxes and printers available

APPWIZ.CPL: opens Add or Remove programs utility tool

OPTIONALFEATURES: opens Add or Remove Windows component utility

DESK.CPL: opens display properties. Themes tab

HDWWIZ.CPL: opens add hardware wizard

IRPROPS.CPL: infrared utility tool

JOY.CP: opens game controllers settings

MMSYS.CPL: opens Sound and Audio device Properties. Volume tab

SYSDM.CPL: opens System properties

TELEPHON.CPL: Opens phone and Modem options

TIMEDATE.CPL: Date and Time properties

WSCUI.CPL: opens Windows Security Center

ACCESS.CPL: opens Accessibility Options

WUAUCPL.CPL: opens Automatic Updates

POWERCFG.CPL: opens Power Options Properties

AZMAN.MSC: opens authorisation management utility tool

CERTMGR.MSC: opens certificate management tool

COMPMGMT.MSC: opens the Computer management tool

COMEXP.MSC or DCOMCNFG: opens the Computer Services management tool

DEVMGMT.MSC: opens Device Manager

EVENTVWR or EVENTVWR.MSC: opens Event Viewer

FSMGMT.MSC: opens Shared Folders

NAPCLCFG.MSC: NAP Client configuration utility tool

SERVICES.MSC: opens Service manager

TASKSCHD.MSC or CONTROL SCHEDTASKS: opens Schedule Tasks manager

GPEDIT.MSC: opens Group Policy utility tool

LUSRMGR.MSC: opens Local Users and Groups

SECPOL.MSC: opens local security settings

CIADV.MSC: opens indexing service

NTMSMGR.MSC: removable storage manager

NTMSOPRQ.MSC: removable storage operator requests

WMIMGMT.MSC: opens (WMI) Window Management Instrumentation

PERFMON or PERFMON.MSC: opens the Performance monitor

MMC: opens empty Console

MDSCHED: opens memory diagnostics tools

DXDIAG: opens DirectX diagnostics tools

ODBCAD32: opens ODBC Data source Administrator

REGEDIT or REGEDT32: opens Registry Editor

DRWTSN32: opens Dr. Watson

VERIFIER: opens Driver Verifier Manager

CLICONFG: opens SQL Server Client Network Utility

UTILMAN: opens Utility Manager

COLORCPL: opens color management

CREDWIZ: back up and recovery tool for user passwords

MOBSYNC: opens Synchronization center

MSCONFIG: opens System Configuration Utility

SYSEDIT: opens System Configuration Editor (careful while using this command)

SYSKEY: Windows Account Database Security management (careful while using this command)

What You can do with SATRT--> RUN box

Control Panel

Windows utility and applications
Disk management
Connection management
Miscellaneous commands
JAVAWS: View the cover of JAVA software (if installed)
AC3FILTER.CPL: Opens the properties AC3 Filter (if installed)
FIREFOX: Mozilla launches Firefox (if installed)
NETPROJ: allow or not connecting to a network projector (For Vista only)
LOGOFF: closes the current session
SHUTDOWN: shut down Windows
SHUTDOWN-A: to interrupt Windows shutdown
%WINDIR% or %SYSTEMROOT%: opens the Windows installation
%PROGRAMFILES%: Opens the folder where you installed other programs (Program Files)
%USERPROFILE%: opens the profile of the user currently logged
%HOMEDRIVE%: opens the browser on the partition or the operating system is installed
%HOMEPATH%: opens the currently logged user C: \ Documents and Settings \ [username]
%TEMP%: opens the temporary folder
VSP1CLN: deletes the cache for installation of the service pack 1 for Vista
IPCONFIG: list the configuration of IP addresses on your PC (for more information type IPCONFIG/? in the CMD menu)
INETCPL.CPL: opens internet properties
FIREWALL.CPL: opens windows firewall
NETSETUP.CPL: opens network setup wizard
DISKMGMT.MSC: opens disk management utility
CLEANMGR: opens disk drive clean up utility
DFRG.MSC: opens disk defragmenter
CHKDSK: complete analysis of disk partition
DISKPART: disk partitioning tool

EPLORER: Opens windows Explorer

IEXPLORER: Opens Internet explorer

WAB: opens Contacts

CHARMAP: opens Character Map

WRITE: opens WordPad

NOTEPAD: opens Notepad

CALC: opens Calculator

CLIPBRD: opens Clipbook Viewer

WINCHAT: opens Microsoft Chat Interface

SOUNDRECORDER: opens sound recording tool

DVDPLAY: run CD or DVD

WMPLAYER: opens Windows Media Player

MOVIEMK: Opens untitled Windows Movie Maker

OSK: opens on-screen Keyboard

MAGNIFY: opens Magnifier

WINCAL: opens Calendar

DIALER: opens phone Dialer

EUDCEDIT: opens Private Character Editor

NDVOL: opens the mixer volume

RSTRUI : opens Tool System Restore (For Vista only)

%WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\RESTORE\rstrui.exe: opens Tool System Restore (for XP only).

MSINFO32: Opens the System Information

MRT : launches the utility removal of malware.

Taskmgr : Opens the Windows Task Manager

CMD: opens a command prompt

MIGWIZ: Opens the tool for transferring files and settings from Windows (Vista only)

Migwiz.exe: Opens the tool for transferring files and settings from Windows (for XP only)

SIDEBAR: Open the Windows (Vista only)

Sigverif : Opens the tool for verification of signatures of files

Winver : Opens the window for your Windows version

FSQUIRT: Bluetooth Transfer Wizard

IExpress opens the wizard for creating self-extracting archives. Tutorial HERE

MBLCTR: opens the mobility center (Windows Vista only)

MSRA : Opens the Windows Remote Assistance

Mstsc : opens the tool connection Remote Desktop

MSDT: opens the diagnostic tools and support Microsoft

WERCON: opens the reporting tool and solutions to problems (for Vista only)

WINDOWSANYTIMEUPGRADE: Enables the upgrade of Windows Vista

WINWORD : opens Word (if installed)

PRINTBRMUI : Opens migration wizard printer (Vista only)

Delete Browsing History without opening IE

2010-11-29T15:49:00.001-06:00

Create a batch file which has the following command and run the batch file from your desktop.

To use these commands, just run them from the command line, the start menu search box in vista, or a batch file.

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 16

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 255

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351

Delete All - "Also delete files and settings stored by add-ons"

Delete All

Passwords

Form Data

History

Temporary Internet Files

For XP and Vista

SPRING with and without XML

2010-11-29T15:37:00.001-06:00

com.check;
import
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanFactory;
import
org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanFactory;
import
org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext;
import
org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
import
org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
/**
* @author rkesava
* */
public
class SumRunner {public static void main(String args[]) {/* Spring IoC Without XML */
System.
System.
System.
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext context =
SummaryConfig.
GameSummary gsA = context.getBean(
System.
System.
System.
GameSummary gsP = context.getBean(
System.
System.
out.println(" ================ ");out.println(" This is to call the SPRING resources without an XML configuration" );out.println(" /* Spring IoC Without XML */ "); new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(class);"gameSummaryBean", GameSummary.class);out.println(gsA);out.println(" ================ ");out.println(" /* Spring IoC Without XML but with Properties */ ");"gameSummaryBeanWithProperties", GameSummary.class);out.println(gsP.toString());out.println(" ================ ");/* Spring IoC with XML */
System.
System.
Resource resource =
BeanFactory beanFactory =
GameSummary gsX = (GameSummary) beanFactory.getBean(
System.
System.
System.
GameSummary gsY = (GameSummary) beanFactory.getBean(
System.
System.
}
}

package com.check;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
@Configuration
public class SummaryConfig {
@Bean
public GameSummary gameSummaryBean() {
  return new GameSummary();
}
@Bean
public GameSummary gameSummaryBeanWithProperties() {
    GameSummary gs = new GameSummary();
     gs.setClientChoice("paper");
     gs.setServerChoice("rock");
     gs.setResult("win");
     return gs;
}
}

public
String[]
String[]
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}

summary.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">
<bean id="gameSummaryBean" class="com.check.GameSummary" />
<bean id="gameSummaryBeanWithProp" class="com.check.GameSummary" >
<property name="clientChoice" value="paper2"/>
<property name="serverChoice" value="rock2"/>
<property name="result" value="win2"/>
</bean>
</beans>

Run it and see what difference it makes by running SPRING with an XML and without and XML. class GameSummary {private String clientChoice, serverChoice, result;private java.util.Date date = null;choices = { "rock", "paper", "scissors" };results = { "win", "lose", "tie" };public GameSummary() {public String getClientChoice() {return clientChoice;public void setClientChoice(String clientChoice) {this.clientChoice = clientChoice;public String getServerChoice() {return serverChoice;public void setServerChoice(String serverChoice) {this.serverChoice = serverChoice;public String getResult() {return result;public void setResult(String result) {this.result = result;public java.util.Date getDate() {return date;public void setDate(java.util.Date date) {this.date = date;public String toString() {return "clientChoice = " + clientChoice + ": serverChoice = " + serverChoice + ": result=" + result + ": date=" + date;out.println(" This is to call the SPRING resources with an XML configuration" );out.println(" /* Spring IoC with XML */ "); new ClassPathResource("summary.xml");new XmlBeanFactory(resource);"gameSummaryBean");out.println(gsX);out.println(" ================ ");out.println(" /* Spring IoC with XML with Properties */ ");"gameSummaryBeanWithProp");out.println(gsY);out.println(" ================ ");

package

Hack USB drive

2010-11-29T15:35:00.000-06:00

FOR ENABLING
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesUsbStor
4. In the details pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, type 4, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
6. Exit Registry Editor.

FOR DISABLING

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesUsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, type 3, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.

Integrating SAS

2010-10-14T13:59:00.000-05:00

The SAS support team has a very good collection and design for integrating SAS with various clients like JAVA , .NET , web services etc.,

http://support.sas.com/rnd/itech/doc9/dev_guide/dist-obj/winclnt/windotnet.html

The samples code base provides many sample codes which you can download and customize it.

http://support.sas.com/kb/?nh=100&la=en&qm=3&ct=51000&qt=offering:"INTTECH"+contenttype:"sample"+"SAS+Integration+Technologies"+

Enjoy integrating SAS.

CSS compression and Image Optimization

2010-10-07T13:55:00.009-05:00

1. Introduction

There have been many instanceswhere we have struggled to increase performance of the web site because inpractical situation,

· applications become very complex with tons ofJavaScript’s and huge CSS

files and

· downloading that information takes time if thebandwidth is low.

Here we can increase theperformance using the ideas below without changing any code.

2. InstallationProcedure

Improving the engineering design of a page or a webapplication usually yields the biggest savings and that should always be aprimary strategy.

With the right design in place, there are manysecondary strategies for improving performance such as minification of thecode.

The goal of JavaScript and CSS minification isalways to preserve the operational qualities of the code while reducing itsoverall byte footprint (both in raw terms and after gzipping, as most JavaScriptand CSS served from production web servers is gzipped as part of the HTTPprotocol).

The YUI Compressor is JavaScript minifier designedto be 100% safe and yield a higher compression ratio than most other tools.

The YUI Compressor is written in Java (requiresJava >= 1.4) and relies on Rhino to tokenize the source JavaScript file.

It starts by analyzing the source JavaScript fileto understand how it is structured. It then prints out the token stream,omitting as many white space characters as possible, and replacing all localsymbols by a 1 (or 2, or 3) letter symbol wherever such a substitution isappropriate (in the face of evil features such as with, the YUICompressor takes a defensive approach by not obfuscating any of the scopescontaining the evil statement).

The CSS compression algorithm uses a set of finelytuned regular expressions to compress the source CSS file. The YUI Compressoris open-source, so don't hesitate to look at the code to understand exactly howit works.

3. ANTbuild script for compression

1. Download and Copythe following YUI Compressor jar file into the ANT LIB folder

2. Changethe following properties in the build.properties file

javascript.compress=true
jsp.compress=true

3. Hereis the sample ANT target to do the compression change the directories accordingto your needs.

<targetname="compressjsandcss" depends="init">

<taskdefname="yui-compressor"classname="net.noha.tools.ant.yuicompressor.tasks.YuiCompressorTask"/>

<mkdirdir="${web.build.dir}/war/cssmin" />

<mkdirdir="${web.build.dir}/war/jsmin" />

<yui-compressor

warn="false"

munge="true"

preserveallsemicolons="false"

fromdir="${web.build.dir}/war/css"

todir="${web.build.dir}/war/cssmin">

</yui-compressor>

<yui-compressor

warn="false"

munge="true"

preserveallsemicolons="false"

fromdir="${web.build.dir}/war/js"

todir="${web.build.dir}/war/jsmin">

</yui-compressor>

<copydirdest="${web.build.dir}/war/js"src="${web.build.dir}/war/jsmin" includes="**/*.js"forceoverwrite="true" />

<copydirdest="${web.build.dir}/war/css"src="${web.build.dir}/war/cssmin" includes="**/*.css"forceoverwrite="true" />

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war/cssmin" includes="**/*.css"/>

</delete>

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war/jsmin" includes="**/*.js"/>

</delete>

</target>

4. Othertechniques of compression

a. Compressingthe JSP pages

JSP pages when compressed are areal boom to the performance of a page

I use regular expression toachieve this.

<echo>+ Cleaning the JSP files +</echo>

<echo>+CAT View module name =${web.build.dir}/war/jsp +</echo>

<replaceregexpflags="g" byline="true">

<substitutionexpression="&>&<"/>

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.jsp"/>

</replaceregexp>

<replaceregexpmatch="\s+" replace=" " flags="g"byline="true">

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.jsp"/>

</replaceregexp>

</target>

b. Strippingwhite spaces in a Javascript file

<echo>+ Cleaning the JSP files +</echo>

<echo>+CAT View module name =${web.build.dir}/war/jsp +</echo>

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.jsp"/>

</replaceregexp>

<replaceregexpmatch="&>\n+&<" replace="&>&<"flags="g" byline="true">

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.jsp"/>

</replaceregexp>

</target>

c. StrippingLine Breaks

</filterchain>

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war">

</fileset>

</copy>

</target>

d. DeletingBlank Lines

<targetname="noblanklines" depends="init">

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.jsp"/>

</filterchain>

<replaceregexpflags="g" byline="false">

<regexppattern="\r\n[\s]*\r\n[\s]*\r\n"/>

<substitutionexpression="

"/>

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.jsp">

</fileset>

</replaceregexp>

<replaceregexpflags="g" byline="false">

<regexppattern="\r\n[\s]*\r\n[\s]*\r\n"/>

<substitutionexpression="

"/>

<filesetdir="${web.build.dir}/war" includes="**/*.js">

</fileset>

</replaceregexp>

</target>

5. BackupPlan.

1. Ifthere is an issue in any of the above techniques ensure that thebuild.properties has the parameters set to “false”.

Agile SCRUM and Pragmatic Agile development

2010-09-20T15:30:00.003-05:00

Agile Scrum - An Overview

Many of us have experienced projects that drag on much longer than expected and cost more than planned. Companies looking to improve their software development processes are now exploring how Agile can help their Enterprise more reliably deliver software quickly, iteratively and with a feature set that hits that mark. While Agile has different "flavors", Scrum is one process for implementing Agile.

So what is Agile?
According to Wikipedia, Agile software development is a conceptual framework for software engineering that promotes development iterations throughout the life-cycle of the project.

Simply put, Agile allows your team to identify the most critical features of the software that can be completed within a short time frame (normally 1 to 2 months), and it delivers a complete build with this set of limited features as the first iteration.

Once that is done, you can move those features to production or continue on to the next iteration.

By breaking the releases into shorter stints, it allows you to gain quicker releases and to capture return on investment more quickly by putting the working (but limited) features into production sooner.

This is in stark contrast to the more traditional "Waterfall" approach, where you design all features upfront, code each one, test each one, then move into production.

Agile projects are iteratively released to production months where Waterfall projects normally span a year or more before they are released to production.

So what is Scrum?
Scrum is process of implementing Agile, where features are delivered in 30 day sprints.

Scrum borrows its name from Rugby, where a sprint is the process of stopping play, then vigorously playing until the sprint ends and a new one begins.

The same idea applies here, where you define the requirements for a 30 day sprint and work on them with vigor for 30 days without being sidetracked by other things or having things re-prioritized.

A specific feature is not recognized as being completed until it is analyzed, designed, coded, tested, re-factored and documented.

At the end of the 30 day sprint, most features defined in the 30-day sprint should be completed.

If some did not get finished (because of being underestimated), the uncompleted features can be moved to a later sprint.

A sprint is considered successful if all the completed features have high quality and can be put into production (or beta) upon ending the sprint.

Do Team Member Responsibilities Change?
Managing Scrum development requires a major change in how teams work together.

In traditional Waterfall development, teams normally have

· a project sponsor,

· a project manager,

· analysts,

· designers,

· programmers,

· testers, and

· documentation specialists.

Each team member has specific duties which normally do not overlap and they have a specific reporting structure (most team members report to the project manager).

With Scrum, you have just 3 team roles and they are normally limited to 7 or less individuals (however, you can have multiple Scrum teams in sets of 7 or less):

Product Owner - This is the person that identifies and prioritizes the features that will appear in a 30 day sprint. This is normally the CEO, CTO, or some other high level stakeholder that ultimately is responsible for shaping the roadmap of their product.
ScrumMaster - The ScrumMaster is akin to the Project Manager in Waterfall environments, but does not manage the team deliverables at a micro level. Instead, this person is responsible for ensuring that the 30 day sprint stays on course, no new features are added to the sprint, code inspection, and ensuring everyone plays by the rules.
The Team - With Waterfall, a team consists of analysts, designers, testers and documentation specialists. With Scrum, each team member is empowered and expected to self-manage themselves and to participate in all duties needed to deliver a feature. This includes analysis, design, coding, testing and documentation.

So how does Scrum Work on a Day-by-Day Basis?

Scrum begins with an 8 hour Scrum Kickoff Meeting.

The Scrum Kickoff meeting is divided into (2) 4 hour segments, where you first determine what features are desired for the 30 day sprint.

The last 4 hours are used to provide rough estimates for the items identified for the sprint.

If the estimates exceed the available resources, the features are prioritized and less important features are dropped from the sprint.

An important component of Scrum is using a time-box approach, where meetings and events have a definite time period (e.g. no more than 8 hours for the kickoff meeting) and this time-box is strictly enforced.

Once the features are locked in for the 30-day sprint, no changes are allowed (new features can not be introduced until the next sprint).

When estimating features for a sprint, the estimates must include time for analysis, design, coding, testing, re-factoring, and documentation.

A feature is not considered complete until all those things are done.

Each day, a Daily Scrum Meeting is held to determine how the features are progressing. The meeting is no longer than 15 minutes, and each team member is asked 3 questions:

What have you accomplished since the last Daily Scrum Meeting?
What will you do before the next Daily Scrum Meeting?
Is there anything that is impeding your progress (and remedies are discussed)?

From a programmer's perspective, Scrum development is a new paradigm which is very empowering but does require them to follow specific rules:

Code is only checked out for the duration needed to complete a feature. No exceptions. Most code will be checked in daily, as most features are broken down into small feature sets.
Time must be entered daily. For each feature, you will have estimated hours, actual hours and hours remaining to complete the feature. This information must be updated at the end of every day so that the ScrumMaster can determine if the release progress is trending as required.
Programmers are not allowed to be pulled off on tangent projects, they must stick to the features they have been assigned for the sprint.
All team members must attend the Daily Scrum Meeting and must be on time.
Code is compiled and deployed to a test server daily. Teams can use automated build tools to speed up this process. Automated tests should be run against the daily releases to discover any issues introduced by the release.

Once a Scrum 30 day sprint is completed, all features that were completed can then be moved to a beta or production environment. Following the sprint is a Retrospective (post mortem), where team members discuss and document things that went well and things that can be improved upon in the next sprint.

There are many other things that needs to be defined, formulated and practiced like

· Team Composition - how teams work together

· Understanding the SCRUM rules – no.of hours , estimates up in front, enter time daily, daily builds, no new requirements etc.,

· Product Backlogs - set the goal for the sprint and prioritize product backlog items to determine which ones can fit within the sprint

· Daily meetings

· Reporting and Metrics

· Retrospectives

· Tailoring SCRUM to your project

More to follow

How to prevent OOM exceptions in WLS admin server with JROCKIT

2010-08-27T10:34:00.001-05:00

JAVA_OPTIONS="${JAVA_OPTIONS} -XXlargeObjectLimit=512k -XXtlasize=512k -XXexitOnOutOfMemory -XxdumpFullState -XxcompressedRefs=0"
export JAVA_OPTIONS

The TLA size needs to be adjusted based on the server machine capacity

How to read and write CLOB data

2010-08-27T10:22:00.001-05:00

The following example demonstrates the Oracle JDBC 10g enhanced features for inserting and retrieving CLOB data from the database. Using the new features, large data of more than 32765 bytes can be inserted into the database using the existing PreparedStatement.setString() and PreparedStatement.getString() methods.

public static void main(String[] args) throws SQLException {

java.sql.Connection conn = null;

java.sql.ResultSet rSet = null;
java.sql.PreparedStatement pstmt = null;

// create the driver manager

Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver").newInstance();

}

private void insertClob() throws SQLException {

String sql = "insert into MYTABLE (FILEVALUES) values(?)";

// create the connection

            if ((conn == null) || conn.isClosed()) {
                conn = DriverManager.getConnection(url, "kesavanarayanan", "kesavanarayanan");
            }

pstmt = conn.prepareStatement(sql);

// Read a big file(larger than 32765 bytes)

String str = this.readFile();

}

    private void selectClob() throws SQLException {

        // Create a PreparedStatement object
        PreparedStatement pstmt = null;

        // Create a ResultSet to hold the records retrieved.
        ResultSet rset = null;
        try {
            // Create the database connection, if it is closed.
            if ((conn == null) || conn.isClosed()) {
                // Connect to the database.
                conn = DriverManager.getConnection(this.url, this.props);
            }

            // Create SQL query statement to retrieve records having CLOB data
            // from
            // the database.
            // String sqlCall = "SELECT UIN,CLIP_NAME,FORM,
            // WRITEPLACER_PROMPTS_ID,USER_RESPONSE_TEXT,BATCH_ID FROM VUEBATCH
            // WHERE rownum<10";
            //String sqlCall = "SELECT IEC_FILE from CAT_EXPOSURE_CONTROL where test_detail_id=1";
            String sqlCall = "SELECT IEC_FILE from CAT_EXPOSURE_CONTROL where test_detail_id=2";
            pstmt = conn.prepareStatement(sqlCall);

            // Execute the PrepareStatement
            rset = pstmt.executeQuery();

            FileWriter writer = null;
            // Get the CLOB value from the resultset
            while (rset.next()) {
                Clob clobVal = rset.getClob(1);
                Reader clobStream = null;
                if (clobVal != null) {
                    /*
                    * clobStream = clobVal.getCharacterStream(); // Holds the
                    * Clob data when the Clob stream is being read StringBuffer
                    * suggestions = new StringBuffer(); int nchars = 0; //
                    * Number of characters read // Read from the Clob stream
                    * and write to the stringbuffer char[] buffer = new
                    * char[4096]; //Buffer holding characters being transferred
                    * while((nchars = clobStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {// Read
                    * from Clob suggestions.append(buffer, 0, nchars); // Write
                    * to StringBuffer }
                    * System.out.println(suggestions.toString()); writer = new
                    * FileWriter(new File("sample.txt"));
                    * writer.write(suggestions.toString());
                    */
                    int len = (int) clobVal.length();
                    String clobStr = clobVal.getSubString(1, len);
                    System.out.println(clobStr);
                }
                if (clobStream != null)
                    clobStream.close(); // Close the Clob input stream
            }
            if (writer != null) {
                writer.flush();
                writer.close();
            }
        } catch (SQLException sqlex) {
            // Catch Exceptions and display messages accordingly.
            System.out
                    .println("SQLException while connecting and querying the "
                            + "database table: " + sqlex.toString());
            sqlex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println("Exception while connecting and querying the "
                    + "database table: " + ex.toString());
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            // Close the resultset, statement and the connection objects.
            if (rset != null)
                rset.close();
            if (pstmt != null)
                pstmt.close();
            if (conn != null)
                conn.close();
        }
    }

Integrate PMD with Eclipse

2010-07-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Here are the detailed steps to integrate PMD with eclipse version 3.

Start Eclipse.
Start the installation procedure : select the Help>Software Updates>Find and Install... menu item.
Select "Search for new features to install" option and click Next.
Click New Remote Site...
Give a name (ie PMD Eclipse Site), enter the URL http://pmd.sourceforge.net/eclipse
Select this new site in the Sites to include in search list and click Next.
Select PMD for Eclipse 3 and Apache Xerces in the "Select the features to install" list and click Next.
Accept the terms of the license agreements and click Next.
Verify that the install location is your Eclipse installation directory, otherwise select the correct one, click Finish.
A warning appear telling the feature is not signed. Ignore and click Install to continue.
Accept to restart the workbench to load PMD into the workbench.
Eclipse is restarted and a PMD welcome page is displayed : the plugin is correctly installed.

How to start JRMC with production applications

2010-06-22T15:13:00.000-05:00

I always had the doubt whether you can attach JRMC with an running production application without re-starting the weblogic instances.

Here are the certain things you can do.
1) Check your license agreement with Oracle.
2) If not try downloading from http://licensecodes.oracle.com/bea.html. Look for the text "LIC-WLRT20" in this page.
3) Download the zip file named "LIC-WLRT20.zip".
4) Extract the file named LIC-WLRT20.txt and copy the same to %JROCKIT_HOME%/jre/
5) Rename the older license.bea file. In certain cases JRMC client will work with the existing version of the license.bea file itself. In that case you do not these above steps and you can proceed to download the JRMC client. If you swap the license file then you need to re-start the instances.
6) Download JRMC from the location http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/jrockit/index.html and install it (preferably jrmc-3.1.2-1.5.0) in your local machine say c:/jrmc
7) Ensure that the appropriate port number preferably 5 digit port numbers are allowed from your application servers.
8) run the following command %JROCKIT_HOME%/bin/jrcmd <process ID of the weblogic instance> start_management_server ssl=false authenticate=false port=<port number>.
9) Do a netstat -an | grep <port number>
10) You should see that the port number in LISTENING state.
11) Open C:\jrmc-3.1.2-1.5.0\bin\jrmc.exe
12) Create the connection to the application server. JRMC client will ask you for a password . Enter a master password atleast 8 characters long. Remember this password.
13) Test the connection and everything goes fine, you should be able to get to the console and start memory leak recordings.

Test SMTP from command Line

2010-06-10T12:23:00.001-05:00

Sample Steps in a nutshell

Telnet to the mail server on the correct port (by default port 25) e.g. telnet mailhost 25
Type EHLO <domain name> and press enter e.g. EHLO test.com
Type MAIL FROM:<valid sending email address> e.g. MAIL FROM:tester1@test.com
Type RCPT TO:<valid receiving mailbox to which you have access> e.g. RCPT TO:tester2@test.com
Type DATA and press enter
(Optional) Type Subject: <subject of the test email> e.g. Subject:This is a test email via telnet to port 25 on mailhost
Enter the text of the message e.g. This is a test message sent at 10:33 on 12/08/2009.
Press Enter, then a full-stop/period, then Enter again to end the message.
Type QUIT to disconnect from the mail server.
Exit Telnet as normal.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153119

Detailed description of the steps
This article only outlines information for a connectivity test for messaging with Exchange Server, if you are not able to connect to the Exchange Server, please search the KB for other symptoms or error messages you are experiencing. For additional information on troubleshooting Exchange transport issues, please refer to the following article in the Microsoft knowledgebase:

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257265/ ) General troubleshooting for transport issues in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server.

Before you start the Telnet session, you must have the full SMTP e-mail address of the destination user who you want to send this test message to. This e-mail address must be in the following format:

User@Site.Domain.com

You must also have the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address of the server computer that is running the SMTP services (for example, 10.120.159.1). If the servers are in your organization, you may already have this information. If the servers are external, the easiest way to find this information is to use Nslookup.exe to find the DNS records that contain this information.

Some Telnet applications require you to turn on local echoing to see the commands that you are typing. To do this while in a Microsoft Telnet session, type set local_echo at the command prompt.
In Microsoft Windows XP, type set localecho instead of set local_echo.

Step-1
In the following steps, you run Telnet from the command line. To open a command line, Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.You can start a Telnet session by using the Telnet command in the following format:

Note Press ENTER after you type each line.

telnet servername portnumber

For example, type:

telnet mail.contoso.com 25

Note You can replace servername with the IP address or the FQDN of the SMTP server that you want to connect to. Remember to press ENTER after each command.

If the command works, you receive a response from the SMTP server that is similar to the following:

220 site.contoso.com Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Connector <version number of the IMC>

Step-2
Start communication by typing the following command:

EHLO test.com

Note You can use the HELO command, but EHLO is a verb that exists in the Extended SMTP verb set that is supported in all current Microsoft implementations of SMTP. It is a good idea to use EHLO, unless you believe that there is a problem with the Extended SMTP Verbs.

If the command is successful, you receive the following response:

250 OK

Step-3
Type the following command to tell the receiving SMTP server who the message is from:

MAIL FROM:Admin@test.com

Note This address can be any SMTP address that you want, but it is a good idea to consider the following issues:

Some SMTP mail systems filter messages based on the MAIL FROM: address and may not permit certain IP addresses to connect or may not permit the IP address to send e-mail to the SMTP mail system if the connecting IP address does not match the domain where the SMTP mail system resides. In this example, that domain is test.com.
If you do not use a valid e-mail address when you send a message, you cannot determine if the message had a delivery problem, because the non-delivery report (NDR) cannot reach an IP address that is not valid. If you use a valid e-mail address, you receive the following response from the SMTP server:
```
250 OK - MAIL FROM Admin@test.com
```
```
  
```

Step-4
Type the following command to tell the receiving SMTP server whom the message is to.

Note It is a good idea to always use a valid recipient SMTP address in the domain that you are sending to. For example, if you are sending to john@domain.com, you must be certain that john@domain.com exists in the domain. Otherwise, you will receive an NDR.

Type the following command with the SMTP address of the person you want to send to:

RCPT TO: User@Domain.Com

You receive the following response:

250 OK - Recipient User@ Domain.Com

Step-5

Type the following command to tell the SMTP server that you are ready to

 send data:

DATA

You receive the following response:

354 Send data. End with CRLF.CRLF

Step-6

You are now ready to start typing the 822/2822 section of the message. 
The user will see this part of the message in their inbox. Type the 
following command to add a subject line:

Subject: test message

Press ENTER two times. You do not receive a response from this command.

Note The two ENTER commands comply with Request for Comments (RFC) 822 and 2822. 822 commands must be followed by a blank line.

Step-7

Type the following command to add message body text:

This is a test message you will not see a response from this command.

Step-8

Type a period (.) at the next blank line, and then press ENTER. 

 You receive the following response:

250 OK

Step-9

Close the connection by typing the following command:

QUIT

You receive the following response:

221 closing connection

Step-10

Verify that the recipient received the message that you sent.
If any error event messages appear in the application event log, or if 
there are problems receiving the message, check the configuration or the
 communication to the host

Advanced Testing

In addition to the basic testing steps that are listed in this article, you can use a delivery receipt to test mail in both directions. You can use this method to verify that the SMTP server can accept an inbound connection and generate a delivery receipt back to the sender to test outbound connectivity of the SMTP server.

To request a delivery receipt for the test message, see step 4 in the "Basic Testing" section of this article to make sure that the information provided is a valid e-mail address that can receive the delivery receipt. Then in step 5 in the "Basic Testing" section of this article, type the following command in the Telnet session:

RCPT TO:User@Site.Domain.Com notify=success,failure.

Quartz and WLS 10.3 driver problems

2010-06-04T09:16:00.001-05:00

This will be the exception to be seen when integrating WLS10.3 and Quartz.
org.quartz.JobPersistenceException: Couldn't store job: Driver's Blob representation is of an unsupported type:
weblogic.jdbc.wrapper.Blob_oracle_sql_BLOB [See nested exception: java.sql.SQLException: Driver's Blob representation is of an unsupported type: weblogic.jdbc.wrapper.Blob_oracle_sql_BLOB]

Solution
Use the WeblogicOracleDelegate driver delegate in your config
org.quartz.jobStore.driverDelegateClass =org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.oracle.WebLogicOracleDelegate (for Oracle drivers used within Weblogic)

Problem solved.

web sites to test network traces to your hosted application

2010-06-01T14:32:00.001-05:00

How do you monitor your web site by logging in and doing a trace route / ping without the need for network team (or) typical end users

https://www.sprint.net/lg/lg_start.php

http://traceroute.org/#Looking%20Glass

Enable DEBUG bind parameters in hibernate

2010-06-01T14:30:00.001-05:00

Of late we had issues when using Hibernate and not able to identify the bind parameters when using PreparedStatement.

I am giving this for JBOSS server at this point of time, but will try to capture it for WLS also.

It would be pretty good if we have a stack trace like the following

Binding the following parameter to the SQL statement.

Here are the 2 ways to do it.

Change the jboss-4.2.2.GA\server\default\conf\jboss-log4j.xml

Add the following lines of code


   <category name="org.hibernate.type">
        <priority value="TRACE"/>
        <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
   </category>

   <category name="org.hibernate.SQL">
           <priority value="TRACE"/>
           <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
   </category>

Apart from this, in your hibernate configuration set the SHOW_SQL = true

Also on the sidelines, add these to your log4j property file.

log4j.category.org.hibernate.SQL=TRACE, STDOUT
log4j.category.org.hibernate.type=TRACE, STDOUT
log4j.category.net.sf.hibernate.type=TRACE, STDOUT
log4j.category.net.sf.ps.PreparedStatementCache=TRACE, STDOUT
### direct log messages to stdout ###
og4j.appender.STDOUT=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
log4j.appender.STDOUT.Threshold = TRACE
log4j.appender.STDOUT.File=C:\\hibernate.log
log4j.appender.STDOUT.MaxFileSize=10MB
log4j.appender.STDOUT.MaxBackupIndex=5
log4j.appender.STDOUT.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.STDOUT.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %-5p [%F:%L] : %m%n

Implementing Virus scan

2010-05-10T13:51:00.002-05:00

http://www.opswat.com/products/metascan

There is a demo of the file upload with virus scan at "www.filterbit.com"

Find files recursively and remove unwanted comments

2010-04-13T15:31:00.001-05:00

I always wanted to scna whole folder and remove unwanted comments from my java codings. Here is a method which you can ready made use it to acheive this. I hope that this helps some one. Of course your javac task will remove comments from the class file but having a source file with clean code always makes an impression.

I have a string array of extensions so that this can be used for other types of files also.

If you make the variable boolean changeExt=true; then the file will be overwritten, else a new file will be created with an extension of file.java.changed

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

    private void findFilesandReplaceComment() {
        File rootDir = null;
        String[] extensions = { "java" };
        boolean recursive = true;
        String fileContent=null;
        Collection dirFiles = null;
        String encoding=null;
        Iterator fileIterator = null;
        String commentStr=null;
        FileOutputStream fout = null;
        File inputFile = null;
        PrintStream pout = null;
        boolean changeExt=true;
        String fileExt = null;
        try{
            encoding="UTF-8";
            rootDir=new File("some directory");
            commentStr = "(?:/\\*(?:[^*]|(?:\\*+[^*/]))*\\*+/)|(?://.*)";
            fileIterator = FileUtils.iterateFiles(rootDir, extensions, recursive);
            for(;fileIterator.hasNext();){
                inputFile = (File) fileIterator.next();
                fileContent=FileUtils.readFileToString(inputFile, encoding);
                // Open an output stream
                if(changeExt == true){
                    fileExt = inputFile.getName().substring(0,inputFile.getName().indexOf(".java"))+".changed";
                }else{
                    fileExt = "";
                }
                fout = new FileOutputStream(new File(inputFile.getAbsolutePath()+fileExt));
                pout = new PrintStream(fout);
                pout.println(fileContent.replaceAll(commentStr, ""));
                fout.flush();
                fout.close();
                pout.flush();
                pout.close();
            }
        }catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }finally{
            rootDir = null;
            fileContent=null;
            dirFiles = null;
            encoding=null;
            fileIterator = null;
            commentStr=null;
            fout = null;
            inputFile = null;
            pout = null;
            fileExt = null;
        }
    }

Indian T20 from IPL-3

2010-04-11T12:06:00.002-05:00

My 15 member team which can compete with any side on any given day for T-20

Murali Vijay
Shikhar Dhawan
Ambati Rayudu
Abhishek Nayar
Saurabh Tiwary
Naman Ojha (keeper)
Manish Pandey
Robin Uthappa (Alternate keeper)
Abhishek Jhunjhunwala
Irfan Pathan **
Shadab Jakati
Pragyan Ojha
Rajat Bhatia
Pradeep Sangwan
Umesh Yadav

How do I make my blog SEARCHABLE via google

2010-04-09T14:19:00.002-05:00

1) Go to Google web master tools www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
2) Login with your gmail account
3) Once logged in "add a new site".
4) It will provide you with a META TAG content. Either you can VERIFY the site at this point or you can VERIFY LATER.
5) Add it in your blog site HTML page right at the top
Do edit your blog here are the steps
Click on the Layout --> EDIT HTML
6) Add this META tag from web master.
7) Allow 3-4 days for Google to pick your blogs.

SWITCH statements on JAVA STRINGS

2010-04-09T14:12:00.001-05:00

Switch statements can only be used on ints or enums. For strings we are heavily relying on if-else-if blocks.

That said, if you really want a switch, you can provide a string switching capability with an enum.

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
public enum UserActionMapping {
    CREATE_USER("create"),UPDATE_USER("update");

    private final String token;
    private static Map<String,UserActionMapping> tokenMap;


    private UserActionMapping(String token){
        this.token = token;
        map(token,this);
    }
    private static void map(String token, UserActionMapping op){
        if (tokenMap==null) tokenMap = new HashMap<String,UserActionMapping>();
        tokenMap.put(token,op);
    }
    public static UserActionMapping forToken(String token){
        return tokenMap.get(token);
    }

    public static long getActionMapping(String[] actionMappingOps){
        long returnValue=0L;
        for (String opString : actionMappingOps){
            UserActionMapping operation = UserActionMapping.forToken(opString);
            System.out.println(operation);
            switch (operation) {
                case CREATE_USER:{
                    System.out.println("create user");
                    returnValue= 1;
                    break;
                }
                case UPDATE_USER:{
                    System.out.println("update user");
                    returnValue=2;
                    break;
                }
            }
            System.out.println ("returnValue="+returnValue);
        }
        return returnValue;
    }


    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] actionMappingOps = new String[]{"create","update"};
        getActionMapping(actionMappingOps);
    }
}

Output decoding using OWASP API

2010-04-07T09:59:00.001-05:00

It was always on the back of my mind to centralize the output encoding using OWASP API rather than changing every single page in my application,.
Following two are the possible two options to implement for output encoding. However, our recommendation is to use Option 2.
Option 1: Implementing the solution in common place:
The encode implementation can be done in a response filter level. System has to pass all the responses through this filter, before rendering in front end.
This response filter should encode only the dynamic data which are rendered in the front end and not all the “JSP” file content.
Option 2: Implementing the encoding in all JSP files.
System has to encode all dynamic data which are in the “JSP” files using the below methods based on type of data.
value = escapeHtmlFull(value);
value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTML(value);
value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTMLAttribute(value);
value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForJavaScript(value);
value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForCSS(value);

In order to implement using the Session Filter here is my class which does the output decoding and centralizes the output decoding with OWASP API.

public final class MutableHttpResponse extends HttpServletResponseWrapper {

private ByteArrayOutputStream output = null;
private FilterServletOutputStream stream = null;
private PrintWriter writer = null;

public MutableHttpResponse(HttpServletResponse response) {

super(response);

reset();

}

public String getContent() throws IOException {
flushBuffer();

return new String(output.toByteArray());
}

public void setContent(byte[] content) throws IOException {
reset();
stream.write(content);
}

public void setContent(String s) throws IOException {

setContent(s.getBytes());
}

@Override

public void flushBuffer() throws IOException {
writer.flush();

stream.flush();

output.flush();

}

@Override

public ServletOutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException {

return stream;

}
@Override
public ServletResponse getResponse() {
return super.getResponse();

}

@Override

public PrintWriter getWriter() throws IOException {

return writer;

}
@Override
public boolean isCommitted() {

return output.size() > 0;

}

@Override

public void reset() {

this.output = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
this.stream = new FilterServletOutputStream(output);

this.writer = new PrintWriter(stream);

}

@Override

public void resetBuffer() {

reset();

}

public void writeContent() throws IOException {

String content = getContent();
ServletResponse response = getResponse();
OutputStream os = response.getOutputStream();

response.setContentLength(content.length());

os.write(cleanXSS(content).getBytes());

os.close();

}

private String cleanXSS(String value) {

value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTML(value);

value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTMLAttribute(value);

value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForJavaScript(value);

value = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForCSS(value);

return value;

}

}

The Session Filter code to invoke this MutableResponse is as follows
public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,FilterChain chain) throws ServletException, IOException {
HttpServletRequest httpRequest = (HttpServletRequest) request;
HttpServletResponse httpResponse = (HttpServletResponse) response;
// do your other stuff here
chain.doFilter(request, response);
MutableHttpResponse mutableResponse = new MutableHttpResponse(httpResponse);
mutableResponse.writeContent();
}

Creating a JCAPTCHA with struts application

2010-04-07T09:45:00.001-05:00

JCAPTCHA stands for Java Completely Automated Public Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
The open source java framework for captcha definition and integration

1) Add the jcaptcha jar file into the WEB-INF/lib directory of your .war file (or) add the same into the weblogic shared libraries and create an entry in the weblogic-application.xml
<library-ref>

<library-name>jcaptcha-all-1.0-RC3</library-name>
<exact-match>false</exact-match>
</library-ref>
Also create an entry in the config.xml file
<library>
<name>jcaptcha-all-1.0-RC3</name>
<target>AdminServer</target>
<module-type xsi:nil="true"></module-type>
<source-path>servers\AdminServer\upload\APP-INF\lib\jcaptcha-all-1.0-RC3.jar</source-path>
<security-dd-model>DDOnly</security-dd-model>
<staging-mode>nostage</staging-mode>
</library>

2) Create an entry in the web.xml file
<servlet>
<servlet-name>SimpleCaptchaServlet</servlet-name>
<display-name>SimpleCaptchaServlet</display-name>
<servlet-class>com.servlet.SimpleCaptchaServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<description>passing height</description>
<param-name>height</param-name>
<param-value>30</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<description>passing height</description>
<param-name>width</param-name>
<param-value>120</param-value>
</init-param>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>SimpleCaptchaServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/Captcha.jpg</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

3) Here is the source code for the servlet. I have not implemented exception handling its up to you to integrate exception handling in this servlet
public class SimpleCaptchaServlet extends HttpServlet {
String sImgType = null;private int height = 0;private int width = 0;
public static final String CAPTCHA_KEY = "captcha_key_name";
public void init(ServletConfig servletConfig) throws ServletException {
super.init(servletConfig);
// For this servlet, supported image types are PNG and JPG.
sImgType = servletConfig.getInitParameter("ImageType");
sImgType = sImgType == null ? "png" : sImgType.trim().toLowerCase();
if (!sImgType.equalsIgnoreCase("png") && !sImgType.equalsIgnoreCase("jpg")&& !sImgType.equalsIgnoreCase("jpeg")) {
sImgType = "png";
}
height = Integer.parseInt(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("height"));
width = Integer.parseInt(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("width"));
}
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
ByteArrayOutputStream imgOutputStream = null;
byte[] captchaBytes = null;BufferedImage image = null;Graphics2D graphics2D = null;
Hashtable<TextAttribute, Object> map = null;Random r = null;String token = null;String ch = null;
Color c = null;GradientPaint gp = null;Font font = null;
if (request.getQueryString() != null&& request.getQueryString().indexOf("CSRF=") == -1) {
response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR,"GET request should have no query string.");return;
}
try {
imgOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
image = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
graphics2D = image.createGraphics(); map = new Hashtable<TextAttribute, Object>();
r = new Random(); token = Long.toString(Math.abs(r.nextLong()), 36);
ch = token.substring(0, 6);
c = new Color(0.6662f, 0.4569f, 0.3232f);
gp = new GradientPaint(30, 30, c, 15, 25, Color.white, true);
graphics2D.setPaint(gp);font = new Font("Verdana", Font.CENTER_BASELINE, 26);
graphics2D.setFont(font);graphics2D.drawString(ch, 2, 20);graphics2D.dispose();
request.getSession().setAttribute(CAPTCHA_KEY, ch);
} catch (CaptchaServiceException cse) {
response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR,
"Problem generating captcha image.");
return;
} finally {
// Set appropriate http headers.
response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-store");response.setHeader("Pragma", "no-cache");
response.setDateHeader("Expires", 0);
response.setContentType("image/"+ (sImgType.equalsIgnoreCase("png") ? "png" : "jpeg"));
OutputStream outputStream = response.getOutputStream();
ImageIO.write(image, sImgType, outputStream);
outputStream.close();imgOutputStream = null;aptchaBytes = null;
image = null;graphics2D = null;map = null;r = null;token = null;ch = null;c = null;gp = null;font = null;
}
}
protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {// Get the request params.
String parmValue = request.getParameter("inCaptchaChars");
String sessionValue = request.getSession().getAttribute(CAPTCHA_KEY).toString();
// Check validity and consistency of the data.
if (captchaId == null || incomingCaptchaId == null !captchaId.equals(incomingCaptchaId)) {
response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR,"Browser must support session cookies.");
return;
}
// Validate whether input from user is correct.
boolean passedCaptchaTest = false;
try {
passedCaptchaTest = validateCaptchaWithSession(parmValue,sessionValue);
} catch (CaptchaServiceException e) {e.printStackTrace();}
// Set flag into session.
request.getSession().removeAttribute(CAPTCHA_KEY);
// Forward request to results page.
if (passedCaptchaTest) {
RequestDispatcher rd = getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/Login.do");
rd.forward(request, response);
} else {
RequestDispatcher rd = getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/logout.do");
rd.forward(request, response);
}
}
private boolean validateCaptcha(String captchaId, String inputChars) {
boolean bValidated = false;
try {
bValidated = MyCaptchaService.getInstance().validateResponseForID(captchaId, inputChars);
} catch (CaptchaServiceException cse) {}
return bValidated;
}
private boolean validateCaptchaWithSession(String paramValue, String sessionValue) {
boolean bValidated = false;
if (!paramValue.equalsIgnoreCase(sessionValue)) {
bValidated = false;
} else {
bValidated = true;
}
return bValidated;
}
}

4) In the JSP page
<input type="hidden" name="hidCaptchaID" value="<%= session.getId() %>"/>

<tr><td class="normaltext" width="70%" valign="top">Enter the letters:
<img src="/SimpleCaptchaServlet" align="middle" alt="Enter the characters appearing in this image" border="1"/><a href="/">Click here</a> to re-generate </td>
<td width="30%" valign="top"><input type="text" name="inCaptchaChars"/></td>
</tr>


5) This is a servlet which generates a 2D image on to the screen.

There is the other way of implementing this captcha using the OWASP simple captcha servlet which you can get it from the OWASP site.
http://www.owasp.org/index.php/JCaptcha_servlet_example.
But the image will be very blurred.

weblogic: ServletContext.getRealPath doesn't work in older weblogic version

2010-01-05T14:37:00.002-06:00

ServletContext.getRealPath only works where war is exploded on the file system in case of weblogic getRealPath always returns null.

You can refer to the CR CR299135 for weblogic version 10 and above.

Use the <show-archived-real-path-enabled> flag to specify that
context.getRealPath() returns the path of the resource from the Server's
internal webapp extraction directory for archived web applications. The
flag can be configured in two ways:

At domain level in config.xml. For example:
<web-app-container>
<show-archived-real-path-enabled>true
</show-archived-real-path-enabled>
</web-app-container>
At the web app level in weblogic.xml. For example:
<container-descriptor>
<show-archived-real-path-enabled>true
</show-archived-real-path-enabled>
</container-descriptor>
The value of <show-archived-real-path-enabled> set in the web app has
precedence over the value set at the domain level. The default value of
this property is false.
Note that, if this path is used to dynamically copy some content to this
directory location, the content will end up in the Server's internal web
app extraction directory. When the web app is recompiled for any reason,
the web app may be re-extracted and previously copied content will be
lost.

For versions which are less than 10 and below

use

String rootPath = StringUtils.replace(context.getRealPath(StringUtils.EMPTY), "", "/");

That's it.

You will no longer see the issue.

Hope this helps some one who struggles with weblogic NOT AGAIN

weblogic - Invalid Bad Pad Type

2009-12-24T17:10:00.002-06:00

So many times we have hurdled into this exception when we try and start either the Admin Server or the weblogic instances.

The issue happens mostly when one of the envionment (domain) is copied.

The easy way to fix the same is to re-encrypt the password using the BEA weblogic Encrypt Tool. You can ask your weblogic administrators to do this if you do not have access for the same

java -cp ./weblogic/server/lib/weblogic.jar -Dweblogic.RootDirectory={your domain} weblogic.security.Encrypt {your plain text password}

Also note that once you have this issue, by virtue of it the boot.properties file will have "NULL" for encrypted password.

The boot.properties will be located at

<<Domain_Home>>/servers/AdminServer/security/boot.properties
<<Domain_Home>>/servers/<<Instance Name>>/security/boot.properties

Hope this helps some one struggling.

RUP simplified

2009-12-23T15:05:00.000-06:00

Symptoms of Software Development Problems

1) Not properly understandingthe end-users needs.

2) Inability to deal withchanging requirements.

3) Modules that do not fittogether.

4) Software that is hard tomaintain.

5) Late discovery of projectflaws.

6) Unacceptable softwareperformance.

7) No coordination between teammembers.

Root Causes of Software Development Problems

1) Ad hoc requirement.

2) Gap in communication.

3) Overwhelming Complexity.

4) Inadequate testing.

5) Undetected inconsistenciesin requirements, designs and implementation.

6) Insufficient Testing.

7) Failure to take care ofRisk.

Best Practices

1) Develop Softwareiteratively.

2) Manage Requirements.

3) Use Component basedarchitectures.

4) Visually model software.

5) Continuously verify softwarequality.

6) Control changes to software.

Rational Unified Process builds on these 6 bestpractices to deliver well-defined process.

Itis a software engineering process.

Itprovides a disciplined approach to assigning tasks and responsibility withinthe organization.

It is a process framework and a processproduct.

Inaddition to the 6 best practices, 3 other are important features of RUP

1) Use-Case-Driven Development– which play a major role in requirement, design, test and implementation.

2) Process Configuration – toproduce high quality software.

Process describes who, what, how and when.

Workers: who

Activities: what

The work performed by the workers. It is a unit ofwork an individual is asked to perform that role.

Artifacts: how

Is a piece of informationthat is being produced, modified or used by the process.

It can be a Source code /Executables / Document / Use – case or Design model.

Workflow: when

3) Tools Support

Use-Case Model

Use-Case is a sequence of actions the system performs.

Actor is someone or something outside the systemand interacts with the system.

Flowof Events sequence of actions betweenthe actor and the system written in simple language.

RUPis a use-case driven approach. This means that the use cases defined for thesystem are the basis for the entire development process.

Writtenin simple prose, use cases are understandable by wide range of stakeholders.

Usecases synchronize the content of various models.

Usecases are organized in use-case model, which also expresses the relationshipsamong them.

Scenariosare described instances of use cases.

Usecase drive numerous activities in RUP

· Creation and validation of the design model.

· Definition of test cases and test procedures in the test model.

· Planning of Iterations.

· Creation of user manuals.

· Deployment of the system.

Project Management Workflow

PMis the art of completing objectives by managing the risk factor and overcomingthe constraints to deliver the project.

PMWorkflow has three purposes

1. To provide framework formanaging software-intensive projects.

2. To provide practicalguidelines for planning, staffing, executing and monitoring projects.

3. To provide framework formanaging risk.

Risk is a variable, which cantake a value that endangers the success of a project.

Itcan be direct (over which the project has a large degree of control) orindirect (on which the project has less or no control)

Strategieswith Risk

1. Risk avoidance: Reorganizethe project such that it cannot be affected by risk.

2. Risk Transfer: Reorganizesuch that someone or something bears the risk.

3. Risk acceptance: Monitor thesymptoms and decide on what to do if it materializes.

· Migrate to Risk: Take immediate proactive steps to reduce the impact.

· Define Contingency plan: Determine what to do if risk becomes problem.

Goals are to

· Improve productivity.

· Improve predictability.

· Improve customer satisfaction.

· Increase revenue.

· Increase reuse.

Metrics

Is a measurable attribute or entity.It can be a raw data that is used to calculate a metric.

Each metrics has one or more collected metrics.

Planningan iterative Project

· Phase plan.

· Iteration plans.

Workers

· Project Manager.

· Project Reviewer.

Artifacts

· Software Development Plan.

Produce acceptance plan.

Risk management plan.

Problem resolution plan.

Measurement plan.

· Business case.

· Iteration plans.

· Iteration assessment.

· Periodic assessment.

· Work order.

PM Workflow

· Conceive new project

Identify and assess risks, develop business case,initiate project and project approval review.

· Evaluate project scope and risk

Done after the project is initiated to give solidbase for detailed planning

· Develop software development plan

Includes

Measurement plan

Risk management plan

Product acceptance plan

Problem resolution plan

Project organization and staffing

Monitoring and control process

Plan phases and iterations

Compile software development plan

· Plan for next iteration

To create iteration plan to guide the nextiteration. To adjust software development plan, cost estimates and availabilitydates

· Monitor and control project

Deal with change request approved by CCB. Monitorproject for progress and risks. Report project status. Dealing with issues andproblems.

· Manage iteration

To find necessary resources to perform iterations,allocate work and assess the results.

· Close-out phase

Ensure that issues are closed in that phase.Deployment problems are addressed. Project finances are settled.

· Close-out project

Readies the project for termination.

Requirement Workflow

Requirementis a condition that the system needs to meet

FunctionalRequirements are the behavior of the system with inputs and outputs.

Non-FunctionalRequirement:

Usability: user documentation,training material and other human factors.

Reliability: frequency and severityof failure, recoverability and accuracy.

Performance: transaction rate,speed, response time and memory usage.

Support: Testing and Maintenanceproblems and making the system up-to-date.

Workers in Requirements

· System Analyst

Coordinates requirements and use-case modeling.

· Use-Case Specifier

Details all or part of system’s functionality.

· User-Interface Designer

Interaction between user and the system.

Artifacts in Requirement

BusinessObject Model developed during business model, Vision Document, Use-Case Modeland Use cases.Complementary to the above, we can have

· Glossary

· Use-Case Storyboard

· User-interface prototype.

Analysis and Design workflow

Totranslate the requirements into Specification. To describe how to implement thesystem.

Analysis

To translate with use cases andfunctional requirements, the requirements into classes and subsystems.

Design:

Adapt the results of the analysis tothe constraints imposed by non-functionalrequirements.

Itis a refinement of analysis. It should be done so that the system can beimplemented unambiguously.

Workers

· Architect

· Designer

· Database Engineer

· Architect Reviewer and Design Reviewer

· Capsule designer for real-time systems

Artifacts

· Design Model blueprint ofthe system under study. It consists of collaboration of classes aggregated

into packages.

A Class is a set of objects that share sameresponsibilities, relationships, attributes and semantics.

A Package is a logicalgrouping of classes.

· Software Architecture Document

Workflow

· Define a candidate Architecture

Create an initial sketch

Identify classes

Update use-case

· Refine the architecture

Identify design mechanisms.

Identify design elements.

Incorporate existing design elements.

Describe run-time architecture.

Describe distribution.

· Analyze behavior

Use-case analysis by designer.

Identify design elements by architect.

Review the design by design reviewer.

· Design components

· Design real-time components

· Design the database

Implementation Workflow

Toimplement classes and objects. To test developed components. To integrateresults of individual implementers or teams.

Itconsists of 3 components.

· Builds

Subset of the system. Generally a part of thesystem.

· Integrate

To integrate work of different groups of the samesubsystem.

To integrate different subsystems into a large one.

Incremental integration is code written in smallpieces is combined into large one.

Phased integration is integrating multiplecomponents at the same time.

· Prototype

Directed way to reduce risk. To show somethingconcrete to user.

Workers

· Implementer

Develops components and performs unit testing

· System Integrator

Who constructs a build

· Architect

· Code Reviewer

Artifacts

· Implementation subsystem

· Component

· Integration and build plan

Workflow

To make the development ofcomponents and the build process as conflict-free as possible.

· Plan the subsystem to be implemented and their order

· Implementer writes code, adapt existing components, compile, link andexecute.

· Implementer also fixes bugs.

· Code is reviewed.

Test Workflow

To assess end product quality. Toverify interactions of components, verify proper integration of components,verify all requirements have been implemented correctly, verify that defectsare addressed before software is deployed.

Dimensions of Testing

· Quality

Reliability

Functionality

Performance

· Stages of Testing

Unit Testing

Integration Test

System Test

Acceptance Test

· Types of Test

Benchmark Test comparesto standard existing software measurement

Configuration Test functionalityin different hardware and software

Function Test executingthe required use cases

Installation Test install successfully in different conditions orconfigurations

Integrity Test verifies the reliability,robustness and resistance to failure during execution

Load Test performance under operational conditions likemax users, max transactions.

Performance Test

Stress Test performance under abnormal conditions likediminished resources.

· Regression Test

Test Model

Is a representation of what to betested and how to test.

· Test Cases

Set of test data, execution conditions derived fromuse case, design documents or code.

· Test Procedures

Set of detailed instructions for the setup,execution and evaluation of test results for test cases.

· Test Scripts

Computer readable instruction to execute theprocedures automatically.

· Test Classes and Components

· Test Collaborations

· Notes

Workers

· Test Designer

Plans, design, implement and evaluate tests.

· Tester

Person responsible for execution of test.

Artifacts

· Test Plan

· Test Model

· Test Results datacaptured during execution of the tests.

· Defects failedtest results

Workflow

· Plan Test

· Design Test

· Implement Test

· Execute Test in integration stage

· Execute Test in System stage

· Evaluate Test

Configuration and Change Management Workflow

Trackand maintain the integrity of evolving project assets like valuable artifacts.To obtain the appropriate versions.

CCM Cube

· Change Request Management

· Configuration Management

· Status and Measurement

Workers

· Configuration manager

Setting up the product structure in the CM system.Define and allocate workspaces for developers. Extract metrics and statusreport for PM.

· Change control manager

Overseas the overall change control process.

· Implementers

· Integrators

Artifacts

· Change Request

· Configuration Management Plan

· Metrics and Status Reports

Workflow

· Create an environment for CM

· Manage releases.

· Monitor and report configuration reports

· Manage change requests.

Environment Workflow

Supportthe development organization with both processes and tools.

· Tool selection and acquisition

· Set up tools

· Process configuration

· Process improvement

· Technical services

Workers

· Process Engineer

Configuring the process before the project startup.

· Business process analyst forbusiness modeling guidelines

· System analyst foruse-case modeling guidelines

· User-interface Designer

· Architect forprogramming guidelines

· Technical writer foruser manual guidelines

· System Administrator maintainhardware and software environment

Artifacts

· Development case

Describes for each process workflow, how the projectwill apply the process.

Workflow

· Prepare environment for project

· Prepare environment for iteration

· Prepare guidelines for an iteration

Deployment workflow

Turn the finished software productover to its users.

Totest the final beta version in its operational environment.

Packagethe delivery software.

Distributethe software

Installthe software

Trainthe end user

Migratethe software

Workers

· Deployment Manager

· Project Manager

· Technical Writer

· Course Developer

· Tester

Artifacts

· Installation artifacts

· Release Notes

· Support material

· Training material

· Print specs

· Release media

· Test Results

· Feedback Results

· Test Evaluation summary

Workflow

· Plan deployment customer’swillingness with his collaboration and preparation.

· Develop support material forend user to operate, maintain and use the system.

· Test product at development site

· Create release everything for the end user to install and run thesoftware

· Beta Test Release

· Package product

· Provide access

Configuring and Implementing RUP

ConfigureRUP: The organization shouldmodify the process framework

ImplementRUP: The organization shouldroutinely and successfully use RUP.

Address thefollowing areas

1. The people and theircompetence, skills , motivation and attitude

2. The supporting tools

3. The software developmentprocess

Implementing RUP step by step

· Access the current state of

The people

The tools

The process

· Set (Revised) Goals

· Identify risks

· Plan the process Implementation

· Execute the process

· Evaluate the process

How to display Fav Icon on your web site using Apache

2009-12-23T15:01:00.001-06:00

Many of us have a nightmare as to why the FavIcon does not display in the web pages properly especially with IE7 and IE8.

Here are the steps to resolve the same. I hope this will help many of you guys and get a pat from your project team mates for solving this issue.

1) Create a favIcon.ico specifically of size 16 * 16 or 32 * 32 pixels.
2) Copy this to your root folder of apache (document root).
3) Firefox will display this after step (2).
4) IE7 and IE8 wont work properly for some reason.
some one said do rewrite rule
some one said have a AddType on the web server
5) I had to break up my head and finally figured out that I had cache-control for ico files.

Header set Cache-Control "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, max-age=0, proxy-revalidate, no-transform"
Header set Pragma "no-cache"
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE

JBoss Port Binding Error

2009-12-23T14:59:00.001-06:00

1. Causeof Error

JBoss comes with many socket basedservices that open listening ports

This might be due to the reasonthat JBoss is having conflict with some of the ports with other applicationsand thus causing JBoss not to start properly.

2. Logfile to look into

<<JBOSS_HOME>>\server\default\log\server.log

3. Logmessage to look into

<<Latest Time Stamp>> WARN  [ServiceController] Problem starting service jboss:service=Naming

java.rmi.server.ExportException: Port already in use: 1098; nested exception is:

        java.net.BindException: Address already in use

        at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.listen(TCPTransport.java:243)

        at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.exportObject(TCPTransport.java:178)

        at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPEndpoint.exportObject(TCPEndpoint.java:382)

        at sun.rmi.transport.LiveRef.exportObject(LiveRef.java:116)

The above port number highlighted in bold is just a sample.This can be potentially any port number which could cause Jboss not to startupproperly.

4. Listof port that could potentially cause the problem

The suggested list of ports of JBoss which could cause theBindException is

the typical ports JBoss uses. A range of 1098-8093 certainlycovers the default port usage for jboss

Jboss-4.0.3SP1\server\default\

Additional ports found in the all configuration:

5. Sampleport configuration changes

The following sections illustrate the customer supportrepresentative with the frequent port number which might cause the conflict andtheir suggested file path.

This also enables the support personnel to identify theexact match XMl tags they need to look in from the document which is of ease.

In all these casesstop the JBoss service as given in step 6. Do the changes and then re-start theservice.

{JBoss_Install_Dir}\server\default\conf\

File Name

jboss-service.xml

Tag Block to lookfor

Port for JNP

<!-- The listening port for thebootstrap JNP service. Set this to -1

to run the NamingService without theJNP invoker listening port.

-->

<attributename="Port">1100</attribute>

This requires a change in the application too. Please escalate to thefirst level escalation.

Port for RMI

<attributename="RmiPort">1097</attribute>

Change the port 1097 by 11097

{JBoss_Install_Dir}\server\default\deploy\jbossweb-tomcat55.sar\

File Name

server.xml

Tag Block to lookfor

<Connector port="351"address="${jboss.bind.address}"

This requires a change in the applicationtoo. Please escalate to the first level

Escalation.