Thu - September 13, 2007

Web Standards Solutions & Bulletproof Web Design


The excellent Web Standards Solutions book has been around for a while, but it is still the book I most often refer to developers who are trying to move away from ugly tagitis-ridden table based layouts and who want to embrace web standards, CSS layout and styling.....

Posted at 02:35 PM     Read More  

Fri - August 3, 2007

WebObjects Feed Aggregator


I had not looked at Yahoo pipes before until Quinton from Australia posted about it on the WebObjects list. The nice thing is that you can edit anyone's feed and save a customized copy under your own profile. Here is the one I made from Quinton's original ....

Posted at 08:32 AM     Read More  

Thu - July 19, 2007

Installing MySQL on OS X 10.4 Tiger


This article details how to setup MySQL 4.1 or later on Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.x. Additionally it tells you how to add java support and configure MySQL so that all new database tables use the InnoDB transaction-safe database engine instead of the default MyISAM engine. This is essential if you are writing applications with technologies such as WebObjects that automatically utilize the ACID commit or rollback capabilities of a transaction-safe database.

Posted at 09:52 AM     Read More  

Tue - July 17, 2007

Monitoring and Resetting MySQL Replication


OK, so you have a nice replication setup, but how do you know it is actually working, and what do you do when it stops? This short article shows how to check and quickly fix replication that has stopped. This procedure takes 2 minutes and can be done remotely on the command line.

Posted at 10:51 AM     Read More  

Wed - July 11, 2007

Eclipse Regex (Regular Expression) Plugin


Came across this little gem, "QuickREx ", the other day. Up to now I have used the free open source "RegexPlor.app" for OS X, but I really like this open source Eclipse plugin ...

Posted at 11:49 AM     Read More  

Thu - July 5, 2007

Importing a WOLips Project into Subversion Repository


Simple tutorial on how to do an initial import of an existing WebObjects project into a Subversion repository using the Subclipse plugin. At time of writing I had latest subversion (1.4.4) and subclipse (1.2.3) installed.

Posted at 02:36 PM     Read More  

Setting up Subclipse for access to a Subversion Repository


This is pretty simple task, but for completeness of the Subversion articles I am doing, here it is .........

Posted at 12:55 PM     Read More  

Setting Up Subversion Repository on OS X


Subversion is becoming more popular than CVS over time as a source code version control system. Subversion is impressive in it's design goals and from the outset, it's goals and objectives appear to be very well thought out. Subversion is flexible and repositories can be made available in many flexible ways from as simple as a repository on your local hard drive to internet based repositories served over http or https protocols.

For this exercise we show how to set up a simple repository on a network server with secure shell access. The requirements of the repository are accessibility by a small stable development team of 3 trusted inhouse developers with a need to update and commit remotely outside of the local area network. The requirement for tunneling repository traffic over ssh is simply to protect the small amounts of sensitive data such as API pins or private SSL keys that are shared by the repository. Also keep in mind that there are many, many ways to set up a Subversion infrastructure. This is just one way that suits my needs and is based on the concept explained in the Subversion book in the section SSH configuration tricks . There are other ways and variations that may suit your needs better.

This article assumes that you have a basic knowledge of unix command line usage...

Posted at 12:41 PM     Read More  

Fri - June 29, 2007

WebObjects Community Survey


Please take 2 minutes (it's that fast) to do this important WebObjects community survey. Now is your chance to let your voice be heard!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Rd8PBbh0xxJh3eyuPPvdIg_3d_3d

This survey is administered by Pascal Robert who organized WOWODC this year.

Posted at 10:06 AM     Read More  

Wed - June 27, 2007

Wonder Source Download, Installation, Setup and Upgrading


I had Wonder CVS source tree on disk and also had some Wonder projects checked out directly from CVS into Eclipse workspace. Anyhow, this means I had to update both simultaneously and it made sense to have only one Wonder source tree on my hard drive, so I reconfigured for what I consider the "ideal" Wonder setup for Eclipse development. While I was at it, I decided I may as well document it for others .......

Posted at 12:17 PM     Read More  

Sat - April 21, 2007

Goodbye XCode!


At last, I am free of XCode ......

Posted at 03:58 PM     Read More  

Tue - April 17, 2007

WOWODC 2007


Agenda just posted to the mailing lists by Pascal Robert ....... nice agenda ..... can't wait to get the digital download afterward ..... great job by the usual suspects in organizing this sharing of their extensive knowledge and experience .........

Posted at 11:23 PM     Read More  

Mon - March 12, 2007

Compiling MySQL from Source


OK, I just upgraded to a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo. Generally the binary distributions are easier to work with, but I need SSL connections capability, so I have to compile from source to have that feature included. Her is how...........

Posted at 01:47 PM     Read More  

I Really Like MySQL


I really like MySQL. I definitely would recommend it for any enterprise database beginner with the only caveat being that you should configure your /etc/my.cnf paying attention to using innodb as the default table engine.....

Posted at 01:19 PM     Read More  

Fri - March 2, 2007

Templates in Eclipse


I am loving Eclipse more and more every time I use. This IDE just rocks. Yes, it has it's quirks, but it still beats XCode hands down ..... no competition whatsoever. With Eclipse, your productivity soars. Anyway enough ranting, here is a tip on making your life easy with Templates........ saving keystrokes = more productivity = "More Fun" (TM) (Mike Schrag recently trademarked the "No Fun" statement on the wolips mailing list, so I had better trademark "More Fun" before he grabs it ;-)

Posted at 09:27 PM     Read More  

Wed - January 17, 2007

Adding a Second WebObjects Host to a Basic Config


This article explains how to add another computer as a WebObjects application host to an existing simple setup. By simple setup, I mean a setup where currently one computer is running the default WO setup of being the apache web server and also hosting WO apps.

Posted at 09:59 PM     Read More  

Tue - January 16, 2007

Creating a WebObjects Framework using Eclipse


Finally getting around to refactoring my biggest XCode app by creating frameworks in Eclipse and reusing those in XCode. Creating WebObjects frameworks in Eclipse is easy....

Posted at 02:40 PM     Read More  

Mon - January 15, 2007

Nice Intro to Ant


If you are switching from XCode to Eclipse for your WO development, then understanding 'ant', the popular java build tool is very important. Check out this easy to digest PowerPoint presentation from John Munsch:

http://www.johnmunsch.com/projects/Presentations/

Posted at 11:13 AM     Read More  

Fri - January 5, 2007

Setting up Java Packages in XCode


I has a few source classes belonging to a package and I had trouble figuring out how to set up the physical folder structure on the hard drive and the group structure in XCode so that XCode would not change its mind about where it expected the java files every time I tried to build the app. Ray Kiddy had the know how .......... here is a transcript ........

Posted at 04:28 PM     Read More  

Tue - December 19, 2006

OpenSSL


Some useful links:

Posted at 12:05 PM     Read More  

Mon - December 11, 2006

Nice OS X Command Line Guide


Even though the guide is named "OS X Server Command Line Administration", anyone who is familializing themselves with unix on OS X will benefit greatly from the first 6 chapters of this handy reference manual......

Posted at 11:27 AM     Read More  

Wed - December 6, 2006

SSL Virtual Hosting


I recently implemented branding or skinning on my WebObjects app since we are allowing private label resellers to sell our product offerings. Most of the site runs thru https. For our resellers, we decided to implement host names of the form brand-name.domain.com since we could purchase a wildcard https cert for *.domain.com. If we did not need https we would just have given these resellers any domain name they could get their hands on. Anyway, I discovered that you cannot, right now anyway, do SSL virtual hosting of different domains and corresponding SSL certificates on the same IP address! The cleanest way is to use another IP address for the new SSL virtual host.....

Posted at 03:23 PM     Read More  

Tue - November 28, 2006

ssh without password interaction


OK, interacting with my build and deploy script to enter the server password for scp was a pain, so I implemented dsa authentication keys instead. Pretty easy.....

Posted at 02:54 PM     Read More  

Wed - November 22, 2006

mounting a volume in a script


diskutil requires the use of a device name to mount a disk....

Posted at 02:47 PM     Read More  

Tue - November 21, 2006

Building MySQL From Source with SSL Secure Connections Support


I needed SSL connection feature for secure offsite replication. The prebuilt binaries do not include the SSL option, so I had to build MySQL from source with the SSL option....

Posted at 02:14 PM     Read More  

EOGenerator - Referencing Prototypes in a different EOModel


Today when I ran my eogenerator script, I got an error ... it has been over 10 days since I needed to run eogenerator on my project, so I had obviously done something. After getting over the few seconds of that uneasy feeling in your stomach at the thought of losing productivity (I was in the developer coding rapidly zone .... and now I had a derailment to deal with) fixing a problem on something that has always worked reliably up to now.......

Posted at 10:33 AM     Read More  

Wed - November 15, 2006

Using 'wc' to check the size of your project.


Navigate to your project folder on the command line and ....

Posted at 12:51 PM     Read More  

Fri - November 10, 2006

Configuring Mac OS X Server Tiger for WebObjects Deployment


This are the steps to setup a brand new installation of OS X Server Tiger. This is for an "all in one" server typical for a small or startup WebObjects website or as a server used for testing. This setup is for MySQL 4.1, WebObjects 5.3, Apache webserver. The mechanics of WebObjects setup on a new installation of OS X Tiger is straight-forward and easier than with previous versions of OS X Server.

Posted at 12:16 PM     Read More  

Mon - November 6, 2006

Using launchd


Now that we have Tiger, launchd seems to be the preferred way to run regular tasks instead of cron and besides just editing the crontab file with a new task like I used to do does not seem to work, so rather than mucking around with it I decided to learn how to use launchd. Setting up a launchd task to run daily is pretty straighforward....

Posted at 11:49 AM     Read More  

Fri - November 3, 2006

MySQL Backup and Maintenance Strategy


This is a description of a simple backup strategy for MySQL. At the time of this writing, we were using MySQL version 4.1.21 in a master-slave replication configuration, described in a previous article . The replication setup forms a basis for the backup strategy and makes backup very easy while providing 24/7 planned uptime on the master MySQL server.

Posted at 04:11 PM     Read More  

Thu - November 2, 2006

MySQL built-in help


When I was upgrading from 4.0 to 4.1 I noticed the internal 'mysql' database had tables of reference data. This allows clients to get help directly from the server instead of browsign the online docs at mysql.com. This is convenient when you are not connected to the internet.....

Posted at 03:19 PM     Read More  

Mon - October 30, 2006

Setup XServe G5 with 10.4 Client as MySQL Server


Well, the new Quad Xeon 64-bit Intel XServes are shipping November 2006, so there are deals to be found on PowerPC XServes on eBay. We needed another XServe to add to our few G4 XServes, so we decided to get the fastest machine we could on eBay and use it as our dedicated MySQL server instead of the G4. We got a good deal on a cluster Dual 2.0 GHz G5 on eBay recently. It came with 10.3 Panther Server, but we want to use Tiger and I don't want to pay $499 for OS X Server Tiger right now (I'll wait a year when they are going to be $149 long after Leopard Server has shipped). So we are going to use Tiger 10.4 client on this headless G5 XServe. This article documents some of the details in getting this set up......

Posted at 01:37 PM     Read More  

Fri - October 27, 2006

"Setting up a MySQL Replication Slave" Revisited for MySQL 4.1


Ah well, since my first article on this, MySQL has had multiple version changes and I have gained more experience in using MySQL. (Off topic...... I really like the fact that I am stuck in everything from MySQL server config/support thru Apache thru WebObjects/Java development, deployment and administration ...... never a dull day in the job!). Here is my "new improved" process for setting up a replication master-slave configuration using MySQL 4.1.21. These instructions will definitely not work for version 4.0.XX and earlier and may not work for some earlier versions of 4.1. Earlier version incompatabilities are mostly related to the parameters used in mysqldump.

This article assumes a basic knowledge of unix (cd, ssh, scp, mkdir, chown) and a basic knowledge of mysql (mysqld, mysql, mysqldump, mysqladmin)

Posted at 09:51 PM     Read More  

Mon - October 16, 2006

Screenshots


Using Grab and default OS X settings can be slow when trying to construct a series of jpeg screenshots of portions of the screen associated with a tutorial article, but there are better ways to get this done without buying yet another little shareware utility...

Posted at 03:00 PM     Read More  

Mon - October 2, 2006

SIPS


sips is a great little command line utility built into OS X....

Posted at 09:50 AM     Read More  

Mon - September 18, 2006

VNC over ssh on OS X Tiger Server


Apple Remote Desktop 3 includes secure encrypted sessions for remote access. However, I use the free alternative - VNC over ssh tunnel. Here is how to get up and running.

Posted at 10:18 PM     Read More  

Sun - September 17, 2006

First-time install of MySQL 4.1 on OS X Tiger Server


Just the notes for the installation steps on a clean OS X Tiger Server 10.4.7 setup.

Posted at 06:52 PM     Read More  

Thu - August 24, 2006

One of Mike Schrag's Favorite Eclipse Commands


Mike posted this tip to the mailing list recently..........

Posted at 09:46 PM     Read More  

Understanding Class Paths


Class Paths can be confusing. Here is some info and links to info on that:...

Posted at 02:56 PM     Read More  

Wed - August 16, 2006

Eclipse/WOLips Community Tutorials, Hints and Tips


As I learn Eclipse and WOLips, I've decided that it is better by default to put the info on the WOLips wiki where others can correct and we can participate as a community in helping ourselves. If it does not belong there, then I'll put it here, but by default I will put stuff there since I definitely am a one-man-show limited resource with lots of work to do every day to pay the bills. So if...

Posted at 04:03 PM     Read More  

Tue - August 15, 2006

Editing your Properties file


After I created my first project in Eclipse, I wondered why I could not see my Properties file in the Package Explorer view.

Posted at 01:17 PM     Read More  

Getting Started with Eclipse


I've decided to have another attempt at switching from XCode to Eclipse for a few reasons:
- I keep hearing about the productivity of Eclipse
- Apple is deprecating the WO tools, and .....
- Also, Eclipse 3.2 has matured nicely and works very speedily on the new Intel Macs
- The guys on the WOLips team have to be commended for their work which makes this possible.

Posted at 01:02 PM     Read More  

Mon - June 12, 2006

Java Debugger for debugging deadlocked apps


Article can be found here
http://wocode.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WOCode.woa/2/wa/ShareCodeItem?itemId=439

Posted at 12:20 AM     Read More  

Thu - May 18, 2006

Using niutil to get user and group info


Some common niutil commands....

Posted at 12:26 AM     Read More  

Thu - May 11, 2006

Export CSV file from MySQL with headings in first row


A tip posted by Heywood in the MySQL manual on how to export headings in your CSV export....

Posted at 02:10 PM     Read More  

WOBuilder 5.3.1 - Delete key


When deleting a key in WOBuilder 5.3.1 (right-click on the key and select Delete), we get a message "The key 'aKey' is currently used in the bindings of this component. What would you like to do with those references?" and three choices: Ignore, Cancel and Unbind.

The key is deleted BEFORE that message is displayed! .... and clicking on any of the buttons has no additional effect. Specifically Cancel does NOT cancel! and Unbind does NOT unbind. In any case the key should not be deleted until AFTER a choice of Ignore or Unbind is selected.

Posted at 10:05 AM     Read More  

Thu - May 4, 2006

DarwinPorts and example installation of tcpflow port


I needed to use tcpflow the other day for the first time since I got my Intel Macbook Pro running Tiger. I downloaded and installed Marc Liyanage's Panther installer sicne no Tiger installer available. I figured it might work, but it did not. I really needed to use this excellent tool, so after a quick Google search, I came across the tcpflow port in DarwinPorts. Now I was familiar with DarwinPorts, but had never looked at it in detail or installed it. So, after understanding it a little, I just installed it and then used it to install (download, fetch, make, build, install, etc) in one easy command. This was a really simple, smooth and pleasant experience.....

Posted at 08:23 AM     Read More  

Thu - April 27, 2006

WebObjects on Rails


Pierce T Wetter shared a nice trick on global page direct actions with url query parameters. Nice tip Pierce!

Read More....

Posted at 09:02 AM     Read More  

Wed - April 26, 2006

Submitting a form when a popup menu is changed


Simply add a "onChange" attribute binding to the popup menu with a value of "this.form.submit()" as shown in the picture...

Posted at 11:34 AM     Read More  

Tue - April 25, 2006

Default Submit Action on Multiple Submit Form


This tip comes from the webobjects-dev mailing list....

"Problem: Some browsers trigger the WOForm action, whilst other trigger the first submit button action when a user hits the enter key. I've tested my test app with IE v4+, Netscape v6+, Opera and Chimera on both mac and windows and can confirm that it is a browser related issue.

After much playing about with this issue, i have decided that the best way to get the behaviour i required was to add a 1x1 pixel image as an WOImageButton at the very top of my form and bind it's action to the action that I want to trigger if the user hits the enter key, and leave the form action method unbound (thanks to Pierre Bernard for this tip). This provides consistent behaviour across all browsers mentioned above. Note that i also add an extra tag to the WOImagButton of TABINDEX="" - this means that as the user tabs through the form elements it doesn't pick up on the single pixel image and hence it is completely invisible to the user."

Posted at 08:51 AM     Read More  




















































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