Apache Commons IO File Monitoring Example

Here is another example from the archives of the mythical archana on File monitoring using Apache Commons I/O for file monitoring. I remember working on this to see if we could come up with a solution since we could not upgrade the application to Java SE 7. So this proof of concept was to try out a couple of different file monitoring options.

This example uses a FileAlterationListener to monitor file changes. It is simple to implement.

The code for the project can be found here: file-monitor

Exporting Trusted Certificates in Java

I was trying to export some trusted certificates in Java, and I discovered that the default Java keytool will not do it much to my dismay. So I decided to write a little utility class to export the certificates into PEM files from X509 certificates so it would be easier to move them around.

I thought I would clean up my little tool, and share it with the world.

It requires the GlassFish webservices-osgi.jar which is located in the glassfish-3.1.2/glassfish/modules/ directory along with Apache commons-cli-1.2 and commons-io-2.1.

The application takes a couple of command line arguments to work. It has usages, but the project properties also shows all of them in action. You will need to set that up to match your environment in the IDE. Here is an example.

java -jar certificate-manager.jar -f /Applications/NetBeans/jboss-5.0.1.GA/server/default/conf/server.keystore -i "CN=John Yeary, OU=Development, O=Blue Lotus Software, L=Greenville, ST=South Carolina, C=US" -s 4f2ac2cf -p changeit -e

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

The project was developed with NetBeans and GlassFish 3.1.2.

The NetBeans project files can be downloaded here: certificate-manager.zip

TrustedCertificatePEMExportUtility.java

---

Using Apache HTTPD (Web Server) mod_proxy with GlassFish and Mercurial

I wrote an article on how to use Secure Mercurial in GlassFish using SSL a few weeks ago. After the article was published, I was asked about URL rewriting. I had not really messed with it in the past except with PrettyFaces (which works like a champ for reference).

I tried a framework called Url Rewrite Filter which did a decent job of rewriting URLs. It is a simple library added to your project which uses a servlet filter to handle the URL re-writing. Add the filter to the web.xml, and a urlrewrite.xml which handles the rewrites. It works much in the same manner as PrettyFaces, but is targeted at JSP/Servlets.

In my case, I have an Apple G5 PPC which is the main server for my source repository for Mercurial. This presents some challenges since the Java version is limited to 1.5, and therefore GlassFish can't be upgraded to v3 from v2.1.1. I did manage to get GlassFish v3 to run with OpenJDK 1.7 (BSD Port), but the Zero VM is too slow to handle the load. Kurt Miller has a couple of the builds for Mac PPC There are a number of reasons for my interest, the primary one for URL rewriting is that GlassFish v3 supports AJP out of the box.

Enabling JK Listener (mod_jk)

Using GlassFish v3 would provide a more optimal solution as you can see from the administration console. I decided to try using the mod_jk articles I found for GlassFish v2 from Amy Roh: GlassFish supports configurable AJP Connector and Jean-Francois Arcand's Running GlassFish with Apache httpd.  I tried to combine these with mod_proxy and mod_proxy_ajp. The articles are focused on a specific build, and I was unsuccessful in using them. I am sure it has to framework versions, but I did not want spend too much time troubleshooting.

Finally, I tried using a simple mod_proxy arrangement along with mod_rewrite. This arrangement was surprisingly easy to configure, and worked the first time I tried it.

Here is the configuration I used:

httpd.conf

---

httpd-vhosts.conf

---

Those simple changes allowed me to rewrite the URL, and open only two ports on my firewall 80 and 443 which are a very good arrangement. As noted in Secure Mercurial in GlassFish using SSL, I am using GlassFish SSL and security to handle my authentication so this is truly a very good solution.

Mercurial Repositories

Multiple File Upload Examples

I received an email today from a developer who was looking for examples of how to do multiple file uploads. I had written a post previously Multiple File Upload Options which detailed some of the options available. The option I recommended was Andrew Valums ajax-upload. The developer had indicated that the servlet I contributed was not working with Internet Explorer correctly. He was correct.

The code that I provided to Andrew Vallums was expecting application/octet-stream. However Internet Explorer and Opera were sending multipart/form-data. This would not work with the servlet example I posted since the handling mechanism is considerably different.

Alan O'Driscoll and I discovered the differences using Wireshark to sniff the packets and see what was being sent over the wire. As a result, I have written a new servlet to handle the differences between browsers.

The example application I wrote has a number of different examples included with minor variations on the theme. The version most folks are interested in is example #6 which uses the ajax-upload, and the new servlet. Here is the Apache Maven project which was developed on NetBeans and tested on GlassFish v 2.1.1.

Here is a link to the Mercurial project: apache-file-upload-ee5.

Here is another resource for file upload plugins: 9 Powerful jQuery File Upload Plugins. I discovered it while I was looking for something else.

MultiContentServlet.java

---

Java Tip of the Day: Using ProcessBuilder to Make System Calls

A few years ago I posted an article on how to execute OS level system calls using the Runtime class. When I wrote that article I was using a methodology which has been around since the 1.0 days of Java. In Java 5 Standard Edition, and subsequently improved in Java 6 and Java 7, is a class called ProcessBuilder. This class is a significant improvement over using the Runtime class. It provides complete flexibilty around the system call in terms of environment including directories, input and output streams, and execution.

Here is the NetBeans 7.1 Apache Maven project: process-builder-example.zip

---

When I execute it from NetBeans I get something like this:

[exec:exec]
total 24
drwxr-xr-x  12 jyeary  staff   408B Dec 15 08:19 .hg
-rw-r--r--   1 jyeary  staff    52B Dec 15 08:08 .hgignore
-rw-r--r--   1 jyeary  staff   1.7K Dec 15 07:59 nbactions.xml
-rw-r--r--   1 jyeary  staff   2.0K Dec 15 08:19 pom.xml
drwxr-xr-x   4 jyeary  staff   136B Dec 14 23:31 src
drwxr-xr-x   4 jyeary  staff   136B Dec 15 08:35 target
Exit Status : 0

Creating a NetBeans Project from the Web

I created a simple demonstration of how to use NetBeans to open an Apache Commons CLI project directly from the Internet and build it along with the Javadocs.

This is the first of two video examples demonstrating the power of NetBeans to be more productive immediately.

Multiple File Upload Options

I was recently confronted with a question about how to do multiple file uploads from a browser based application. The HTML 4.x specification is pretty open on the file upload requirements, and all of the browser implementations are very basic.  Firefox, Safari, Web Toolkit, and Internet Explorer all provide a method to upload one file at a time, but no multiple file upload. As a result, clever coders have come up with a number of solutions. Here are a few.

• Ajax Upload; A file upload script with progress-bar, drag-and-drop - This is my pick.  Disclaimer: I contributed the servlet code to handle the requests. Here is a link to the source: File Uploader (GitHub).
• AJAX Multiple File Upload Form Using jQuery - Based on Andrew Valums original work.
• Google App Engine and File Upload - Google App Engine method.
• Safari 4 Multiple Upload With Progress Bar - Limited by by browser type.
• Upload multiple files with a single file element - a different approach. Very simple to implement.
  jQuery Multiple File Upload Plugin - This worked but was very flaky for me. The first item works better.
• FancyUpload - Swiff meets Ajax (v3.0) - I did not experiment with this one. I as told about it, but I had already decided on working with Andrew Valums on his elegant solution.

These are some approaches available to you. If you are using a JSF based framework, a number of them already include a multiple file upload component based on Apache Commons File Upload.

Apache HTTPClient 4.x Preemptive Authentication

I am using the Apache HttpClient for some work I am doing at the office. It is a really cool utility to perform web based work. A common requirement of such work is to use authentication.

The default behavior of the HttpClient is to try and connect to the resource and read the response. If the response is a 401 Unauthorized, the client sends the request again using the credentials that are set in the client. This results in an unnecessary double posting of the request. It is however compliant with RFC2616 Section 10.4.2 which describes this behavior.

In the previous version of the client (3.x), you could set the preemptive authentication with the code below:

httpClient.getParams().setAuthenticationPreemptive(true);

However, version 4.x does not support this convenient arrangement. There is a more flexible arrangement using interceptors. The client supports interceptors on both the request, and the response. The use of interceptors makes the code a little more complex, but the flexibility of using multiple interceptors, and ordering them makes up for the additional code required.

I can not provide an example of my code since it was something I created for work, but here are two examples. The first is complete, and the second is simply an example.

• PreemptiveHttpClient.java
• Preemptive Basic authentication with Apache HttpClient 4

There is an additional post on stackoverflow which indicates you may be able to use a simple addition to the header. This may work for simple clients, but it is not as flexible as the interceptor form. I have not tested the code, but have included Adam Batkin's code snippet below.

String username = ...
String password = ...
UsernamePasswordCredentials creds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password);

HttpRequest request = ...
request.addHeader(new BasicScheme().authenticate(creds, request));

Apache Commons IO 2.0

Congrats to the Apache Commons IO Team on the release of the 2.0 framework. It has been a long time coming. The latest libraries require Java 1.5 which is a quantum jump in Apache terms. The old library required Java 1.3.

The IOUtils class provides a number of convenience methods to handle most IO operations. One of my favorite methods is IOUtils.copy(InputStream input, OutputStream output). A simple method, but so very useful since it is so common.

Have you ever needed to create unit tests on methods which require a closed InputStream, or OutputStream. I am sure you have, if not you just have not gotten there yet. Apache Commons IO offers you ClosedInputStream and ClosedOutputStream.

There are some other nice classes especially for debugging like CountingInputStream and CountingOutputStream which records the number of bytes read, or written. I can see another use for cloud computing models where you are charged for data transfers. This can help you keep track of those numbers for comparison with your charges.

If you have not taken the time to look at these great tools, take a couple of minutes to just look at the javadocs. I am sure you will be impressed like me.

Apache Maven AntRun Plugin Configuration

Image via Wikipedia

I was looking for an up-to-date example of how to use the Apache Maven AntRun plugin version 1.6. The examples that I found on the plugin's home page have not kept pace with the actual development.

I have included my build.xml example file below, and the pom.xml configuration to run it. Please note the comments under the antrun plugin to understand what is happening.

build.xml

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="mavenproject1" default="default" basedir=".">
    <target name="default">
        <echo message="Hello World from build.xml"/>
    </target>
</project>

pom.xml

---

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com.bluelotussoftware.example.jsf</groupId>
    <artifactId>mavenproject1</artifactId>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>mavenproject1</name>
    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.0.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                    <encoding>${project.build.sourceEncoding}</encoding>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <encoding>${project.build.sourceEncoding}</encoding>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.6</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>compile</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>run</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <target>
                                <!-- Execute an ant task within maven -->
                                <echo message="Hello World from pom.xml"/>
                                <!-- Execute an ant task in an external build.xml file. It assumes the file is called 
                                build.xml and is located in the same directory as the pom.xml file. The target in
                                the external file is called default.
                                -->
                                <ant target="default"/>
                            </target>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>3.8.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
</project>

Disabling Apache POI Logging

Image via Wikipedia

In order to effectively disable the logging functionality in Apache POI you must use an alternative logger. This is accomplished by providing a property to the POILogFactory to override the default logger. Examining the partial code from the POILogFactory, we see that we can pass a logger name into it.

public static POILogger getLogger(final String cat)
    {
        POILogger logger = null;
        
        // If we haven't found out what logger to use yet,
        //  then do so now
        // Don't look it up until we're first asked, so
        //  that our users can set the system property
        //  between class loading and first use
        if(_loggerClassName == null) {
         try {
          _loggerClassName = System.getProperty("org.apache.poi.util.POILogger");//<<---------- Logger Name
         } catch(Exception e) {}
         
         // Use the default logger if none specified,
         //  or none could be fetched
         if(_loggerClassName == null) {
          _loggerClassName = _nullLogger.getClass().getName();
         }
        }
...

So we need to simply set the Logger property which can be accomplished from the command line. We will use the Apache Commons Logging Library to accomplish it.

-Dorg.apache.poi.util.POILogger=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.NoOpLog

Disabling Logging on Apache Commons Logger

I was looking for a quick way to disable logging on Apache Commons Logger so that I could do some testing without overhead. Here is a command line option for setting the logger to a no-op logger.

-Dorg.apache.commons.logging.Log=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.NoOpLog

Mac OS X Leopard/Snow Leopard Web Sharing Forbidden Issues

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /~username/ on this server.

Have you received an error like the one above, then I may have the solution for you. There are a number of posts on the web around permissions, and Apache configuration files, etc. I found that the solution was really simple, yet not obvious.

It has to do with File Sharing, you need to add the Sites directory to the list of directories which are shared, even if sharing is not turned on. See the example below.

Once you add the Sites directory to the list and turn on Web Sharing, you should be able to see the local sites for users on the local system.

How to contribute to the Maven books

A friend of mine from the JUG community wrote a really neat article which explains (in depth I might add) on how to contribute to the Maven community by updating and fixing issues in the Maven books. A link to his article is listed below.

How to contribute to the Maven books

Introduction to Apache Maven Presentation

This is an Introduction to Apache Maven presentation that I gave at the Greenville Java Users Group on the 11th of February.

It covers the basics of installing and configuring Apache Maven. It also demonstrates creating three projects from relatively simple to a more complex Apache MyFaces and Facelets example. I also demonstrate the power of using the Jetty plugin to deploy and test our application. Finally I create a project site which contains information gathered from the pom.xml and project files including any unit testing.

Here is a video presentation of the tutorial. The video is approximately 42 minutes long.




Here is the actual presentation.

Book Review - JSF 1.2 Components

I was offered a chance to review a copy of the JSF 1.2 Components book by Ian Hlavats and published by Packt Publishing. The book covers a number of different JSF frameworks including 1.2 Reference Implementation (RI), Facelets, Apache Tomahawk and Trinidad, ICEfaces, and RichFaces. My overall impression of the book is a 2/5 stars.

Why?

When you are trying to teach someone to use a new technology, the source code must work, and the effort to get it to work should be minimal. This is not the case with the accompanying source code. There are a number of errors in the code that a modern IDE and technical reviewer should catch. This applies to the code examples in the book. The configuration and requirements to use Eclipse for the projects are a shame for anyone wanting to use another IDE. The projects should have been set up to use Apache Maven to make them IDE neutral.

I also do not like partial code examples. I believe that code should stand on its own. If you are going to provide code snippets, then the code provided must be complete and functional. This was not the case.

Chapter Summaries

The first chapter covers the very basics of JSF RI. This is a very shallow introduction to the RI.

Chapter 2 Covers Facelets. It is one of the best explanations I have seen on Facelets and is very easy to understand and follow. This chapter makes the book worth buying if you are interested in Facelets technology.

Chapter 3 on Apache Tomahawk does a good job of representing the framework. There are a lot of great components in Tomahawk (75+) which play nicely with other JSF frameworks.

Chapter 4 covers Apache Trinidad (A.K.A. Oracle ADF Faces). It does a reasonable job of demonstrating the framework, and has inspired me to look a little further into it. I found it very easy to use, and found myself trying other components which were not covered in the book. I do have some issues around the code examples and implementation which I will cover in the detailed section below.

Chapter 5 covers ICEfaces. It is a really good example of some of the things that ICEfaces can do, and the components are very eye catching. My chief complaint with ICEfaces compared with some of the other frameworks is that it is really messy to set up tables, and sorting.

The book fumbles at the finish line. The chapters of the book on Seam (Chapter 6) and Richfaces (Chapter 7) are totally blown. The authors decision to do Seam before RichFaces and not separate the code base was a bad decision. The chapters themselves are not too bad, but the code would not run. Since Chapter 7 depends on Chapter 6 code, the result is a quagmire.

I created a Maven POM for Chapter 6 and set to work on the dependency issues. I had done the same thing for the previous chapters by converting them into Maven projects. This time the project failed to run and there were a number of issues. In fact, too many issues to overcome. I resolved to use the code and instructions provided by the author and the code failed to run as well. I am convinced that the Seam and database portions of the code examples are not configured correctly. After spending a week trying to make it work in both Maven and Eclipse, I quit. It should not require me spending hours trying to make it work. The code is supposed to make it easy for me to get a handle on these technologies and not troubleshoot it.
I can not validate that the code works as the author has written it in the book since the code does not work in the provided examples.

Summary

My overall impression of the book is a 2/5 stars. I really liked some portions of the book, like chapter 2 on facelets, and chapters 3 & 4 on Apache MyFaces component frameworks.

Two chapters (6 & 7) appear to provide some really relevant data, but the sample code provided with the book on which this chapter depends falls short. As a result, I can not really assess Chapter 6. Chapter 7 depends on the successful function of Chapter 6 for the most part, and is really short changed by the failure of the Seam and database connectivity. Some of the sample code for Chapter 6 works so that you can get a glimpse into the power of RichFaces.

I noted that I made a number of the examples into Apache Maven projects. I would offer them out to the public, but the code has no licensing noted in the source, and was really meant for my consumption. If you are the author, publisher, or an interested party, I will provide it to you on request.

I would really like it if Packt would consider requiring all of their sample code be provided in Maven projects. This would make the them IDE neutral, and ensure the quality of the projects by providing exact dependencies.

Chapter Details and Errata

These are notes, errors, comments, and impressions from the chapters. I suggest that if you encounter any errors in the book, please check here to see if I have addressed them.

Chapter 1

(Pages 28-29)
The images on pages 28 and 29 should be swapped. The image on page 29 is for the code snippet on the top of page 28, and vice versa.

(Page 31)
This note should be added to page 31.

Note: Classes which are used as select options <f:selectitem> need to have equals() and hashCode() methods implemented. Otherwise you will get a strange validation error whose description is not indicative of the true root cause of the error.

(Page 32)
The author makes mention of a potential issue with <h:selectManyMenu> having issues on many browsers. I tried it on Firefox 3.5.+ on Mac OS X 10.6 and did not see the issues the author mentions. This may be applicable to earlier versions of Firefox using other operating systems.

Chapter 2

If you are trying the code examples from the book and the html is not formatted correctly, please check the xml namespace in the facelets html tag. It should have the following xmlns in bold added so that it displays html correctly.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:t="http://myfaces.apache.org/tomahawk">
...
</html>

I would also recommend adding the correct DOCTYPE to the header to make sure that the document is well formed. The Transitional XHTML example is shown below and will work in most applications.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

(Page 51)
The web.xml file has some of the more important information in bold, but really should include descriptions of what these parameters are in the actual web.xml. See the example below which includes descriptions.

web.xml

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">
    <display-name>chapter2</display-name>

    <!-- Optional JSF-RI Parameters to Help Debug -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>com.sun.faces.verifyObjects</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
        <param-name>com.sun.faces.validateXml</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </context-param>
    
    <!-- Use Documents Saved as *.xhtml -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
        <param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Special Debug Output for Development -->
    <context-param>
        <description>
            Setting this to true will cause the FaceletViewHandler to print out debug information in an easy to use screen
            when an error occurs during the rendering process.
        </description>
        <param-name>facelets.DEVELOPMENT</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </context-param>
    
    <context-param>
        <description>
            A boolean value that tells the compiler to skip comments (default is true).
            Even if you comment out code in your page, the tags will not be compiled but expressions (EL) will be
            treated as if they were inlined-- still compiled and evaluated for output in the document.
            Skipping comments will remove all comments completely from the document.
        </description>
        <param-name>facelets.SKIP_COMMENTS</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
        <description>
            When a page is requested, what interval in seconds should the compiler check for changes.
            If you don't want the compiler to check for changes once the page is compiled, then use a value of -1.
            Setting a low refresh period helps during development to be able to edit pages in a running application.
        </description>
        <param-name>facelets.REFRESH_PERIOD</param-name>
        <param-value>1</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
        <description>
            A semicolon (;) delimitted list of resources that Facelets should use. If no resource paths are specified,
            Facelets will handle all requests (DEFAULT). If one or more paths are specified,
            Facelets will only use the ones specified, otherwise fall back on the parent or default ViewHandler (JSP).
            Note, this requires the FacesServlet in your web.xml to be mapped with a prefix for capturing multiple file types ex: /faces/*.
        </description>
        <param-name>facelets.VIEW_MAPPINGS</param-name>
        <param-value>*.xhtml</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
        <description>
        The buffer size to set on the response when the ResponseWriter is generated.
        By default the value is -1, which will not assign a buffer size on the response.
        This should be increased if you are using development mode in order to guarantee that the response
        isn't partially rendered when an error is generated.
        </description>
        <param-name>facelets.BUFFER_SIZE</param-name>
        <param-value>8192</param-value>
    </context-param>
   
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
        <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    <session-config>
        <session-timeout>
            30
        </session-timeout>
    </session-config>
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>forward.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>
</web-app> 

---

(Pages 56-57)
Note: The output from the debug does not work on facelets 1.1.14 because of a JavaScript error. You must use facelets version 1.1.11, or 1.1.15B1 for the debug to work properly. (See Facelets issue #292 on facelets.dev.java.net.)

(Page 66)
This code sample would not work for me. I needed to add <h:panelGroup> wrappers around the <ui:include> tags in the <h:panelGrid> components.

An alternative to would be to make the customerList a component and not a composition.

(Pages 77-78)
The templateClient02.jsf and templateClient02a.jsf code has a <ui:debug> components shown in the code. These will not work here. It must be in the template for it to work.

(Page 87)
The fourth paragraph has a typo which should be "Facelets and JSP..."

Chapter 3

(Page 97)
The <t:inputCalendar> component does not have a type attribute.

(Page 104)
There should be an explanation why the encoding type (enctype) is required on the <h:form> component. This is something that has been changed from the other examples and could easily be overlooked.

Note: The file:/// syntax will not work on Firefox, or Safari. It may not work on other browsers as well. This is a built-in security feature of those browsers. So this example will not work using those browsers. If you want to be able to actually click on the hyperlinks and have them work, I had to use Lynx. This is a command line browser which does not incorporate this security mechanism.

(Page 116)
The action on <t:commandNavigation> for products does not match the provided code. It should be <t:commandNavigation value="products" action="#{productBean.displayProducts}"/>

(Page 125)
The <t:jscookMenu> theme should be theme="ThemePanel" to match the provided code.

(Page 136)
Note: The <t:dataTable> component must be inside a <h:form> component for the table sorting to work.

Chapter 4

(Page 142)
Note: The installation and configuration section has an example of how to set up Apache Trinidad using facelets. This is contrary to the preferred method which is detailed on the Apache Trinidad Installation page. Below is a copy of my web.xml file which has the correct Apache Trinidad configuration.

web.xml

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">

    <!-- BEGIN Apache Trinidad BEGIN -->

    <context-param>
        <description>
            Note: TrinidadFaceletViewHander must be the alternate view handler if SessionChangeManager is used.
        </description>
        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.ALTERNATE_VIEW_HANDLER</param-name>
        <param-value>org.apache.myfaces.trinidadinternal.facelets.TrinidadFaceletViewHandler</param-value>
    </context-param>
    
    <context-param>
        <description>
            Unfortunately, Facelets provides no hook for plugging the PageResolver into the logic
            handling "facelets.VIEW_MAPPINGS". You should leave "facelets.VIEW_MAPPINGS"
            unset and use "org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.FACELETS_VIEW_MAPPINGS" instead.
        </description>
        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.FACELETS_VIEW_MAPPINGS</param-name>
        <param-value>*.xhtml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <description>
            Trinidad also supports an optimized strategy for caching some
            view state at an application level, which significantly improves
            scalability.  However, it makes it harder to develop (updates to
            pages will not be noticed until the server is restarted), and in
            some rare cases cannot be used for some pages (see Trinidad
            documentation for more information)
        </description>
        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.USE_APPLICATION_VIEW_CACHE</param-name>
        <param-value>false</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <description>
            If this parameter is enabled, Trinidad will automatically
            check the modification date of your JSPs, and discard saved
            state when they change;  this makes development easier,
            but adds overhead that should be avoided when your application
            is deployed
        </description>
        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.CHECK_FILE_MODIFICATION</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <description>
            Enables Change Persistence at a session scope.  By default,
            Change Persistence is entirely disabled. The ChangeManager is
            an API, which can persist component modifications (like,
            is a showDetail or tree expanded or collapsed). For providing
            a custom Change Persistence implementation inherit from the
            Trinidad API's ChangeManager class. As the value you have
            to use the fullqualified class name.
        </description>
        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.CHANGE_PERSISTENCE</param-name>
        <param-value>session</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.DISABLE_CONTENT_COMPRESSION</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Use client-side state saving.  In Trinidad, it is an
       optimized, token-based mechanism that is almost always a
       better choice than the standard JSF server-side state saving. -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
        <param-value>client</param-value>
        <!--param-value>server</param-value-->
    </context-param>

    <!-- Trinidad by default uses an optimized client-side state saving
       mechanism. To disable that, uncomment the following -->
  <!--context-param>
    <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.CLIENT_STATE_METHOD</param-name>
    <param-value>all</param-value>
  </context-param-->

<!-- END Apache Trinidad END -->

    <filter>
        <filter-name>trinidad</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.webapp.TrinidadFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>trinidad</filter-name>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
    </filter-mapping>

    <!-- Faces Servlet -->
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
    </servlet>

    <!-- resource loader servlet -->
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>resources</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.webapp.ResourceServlet</servlet-class>
    </servlet>

    <!-- Faces Servlet Mappings -->
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>resources</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/adf/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <!-- Welcome Files -->
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>/forward.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

</web-app>

---

(Page 144)
Note: I also found that a number of examples use <h:form> instead of <tr:form> which is also preferred.

(Page 145)
The component <tr:chooseColor> has a closing tag before the id attribute, and will not work unless it is removed.

(Page 147)
The references to commandButton and outputText should use the tr prefix instead of the h prefix since it is supposed to be demonstrating the Apache Trinidad components and not the RI.

(Page 150)
The <tr:inputListOfValues> has columns="25" in the code.

The <tr:panelGroupLayout> rendered attribute has a coding error in it. It should have a space between ne and null like this rendered="#{productBean.selectedProduct ne null}".

Also this example is incomplete since it does not show, or discuss the pop-up dialog which is part of the component functionality.

(Page 153)
The last paragraph which discusses validating using client side alerting should be a note to stress its importance.

(Page 158)
The facets which are listed under the <tr:statusIndicator> tag have incorrect attributes. They should be name and not message.

(Page 159)
The <tr:poll> component should use the slowPollListener under the pollListener attribute.

(Page 160)
The backingBean component in the first example does not contain slowNumber field.
The second example on the page uses backingBean.pollListener which should actually be backingBean.progressListener.

(Page 165)
The provided code does not contain a styleClass attribute in the <tr:panelGroupLayout> component. Also the <tr:spacer> component has a height of 10 in the provided code.

(Page 166)
The image does match the actual output unless you remove the styleClass attribute from the code.

(Page 167 and 168)
The <tr:commandButton> actionListener does not exist. It should be actionListener="#{productBean.saveSelected}".

(Page 171)
The inlineStyle of the <tr:column> component should have a semi-colon at the end of the value.

(Page 173)
This section was a total failure. The provided code does not work.

(Pages 175 and 177)
This section did not work, nor did the sample code for using XMLMenuModel items.

(Page 191)
The image does not match the code example. The image is for another component dialog.
In addition, the color chooser dialog does not convert the color back correctly. I had to modify the Customer.getFavoriteColorHexValue() to get it to work.

public String getFavoriteColorHexValue() {
String value = null;
if (favoriteColor != null) {
int rgb = favoriteColor.getRGB();
value = Integer.toHexString((rgb & 0xffffff) | 0x1000000).substring(1);
}
return "#" + value;
}

Chapter 5

(Page 196)
The <ice:inputText> for name has an error in the backingBean syntax. It should be value="#{backingBean.name}".

(Page 200)
The components require <f:dateTimeConverter>s to display the values correctly.

(Page 205)
The Toco-Toucan.jpg image name is missing the "-" so the image would not display.

(Pages 212 and 213)
This example is poorly designed and impractical. It displays column numbers at the tops of each column. Who would do that? This should be more practical and show column names for the values in the columns.

(Page 214)
The <ice:commandSortHeader> for birth date should be removed since the code is duplicated.

(Page 215)
The data model UML is not correct. It should be SortableDatamodel <T extends Selectable>.

(Page 216)
The afterPhase method has an argument arg0. This should be phaseEvent which is more descriptive in keeping with a more modern coding style. The code will work, but it is considered bad form.

(Pages 218 and 219)
The <ice:commandSortHeader> for birth date should be removed since the code is duplicated.

(Page 225)
I must admit adding data set paging using ICEfaces is very easy.

(Pages 238-239)
The code here is irrelevant here and should be removed. It is duplicated in the next section on page 239 which actually covers this component.

Chapter 6

(Page 256)
The second paragraph has a typo. It should be "...specified in advance,...".

(Page 275)
The name of the bean should be ShippingCalculatorBean. The t in calculator is missing.

Apache Commons Configuration Example

The other night at the Greenville Java Users Group meeting I asked the members of the JUG to join an open source project and make a difference. I told them that you do not need to necessarily contribute code, but providing documentation assistance would make a difference.

In the same meeting I asked how many people could tell me about any of the Apache Commons projects. I was surprised at how many people could only list a couple. No one had heard of the Apache Commons Configuration project. I use the project to load properties into some of my projects. I was surprised that so many people "roll their own" around properties files.

I decided to make an Apache Maven project which demonstrates the power and simplicity of the framework.

Here is the sample code: apache-commons-configuration-example.zip

---

/*
 * Copyright 2010 Blue Lotus Software, LLC.
 * Copyright 2010 John Yeary <jyeary@bluelotussoftware.com>.
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 *  limitations under the License.
 *  under the License.
 */
/*
 * $Id: Application.java 168 2010-01-19 03:09:36Z jyeary $
 */
package com.bluelotussoftware.example.apache.commons;

import org.apache.commons.configuration.ConfigurationException;
import org.apache.commons.configuration.PropertiesConfiguration;

/**
 * <p>Example application to demonstrate the Apache Commons
 * Configuration framework.</p>
 * @author John Yeary <jyeary@bluelotussoftware.com>
 * @version 1.0-SNAPSHOT
 */
public class Application {

    private static final String PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME = "configuration.properties";

    /**
     * <p>Default no-arg constructor.</p>
     */
    public Application() {
    }

    /**
     * <p>Main application entry point.</p>
     * @param args
     * @throws ConfigurationException
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ConfigurationException {
        Application application = new Application();
        application.createProperties();
        application.setBackground("#c53478");
        String background = application.getBackground();
        System.out.println("background-color:" + background);
    }

    /**
     * <p>Creates a property file on the local system disk.</p>
     * @throws ConfigurationException if an <code>Exception</code> is encountered.
     */
    public void createProperties() throws ConfigurationException {
        // Create a new property and save it.
        PropertiesConfiguration config = new PropertiesConfiguration();
        config.save(PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME);
    }

    /**
     * <p>Sets a property called <code>colors.background</code> to the value provided, or assigns a color
     * value{@literal #000000} if none is provided .</p>
     * @param backgroundColor
     * @throws ConfigurationException if an <code>Exception</code> is encountered. 
     */
    public void setBackground(String backgroundColor) throws ConfigurationException {
        PropertiesConfiguration config = new PropertiesConfiguration();
        config.load(PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME);
        if (backgroundColor == null) {
            config.setProperty("colors.background", "#000000");
        } else {
            config.setProperty("colors.background", backgroundColor);
        }
        config.save(PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME);
    }

    /**
     * <p>Retrieves the background property from the properties file on
     * the system disk.</p>
     * @return the background color assigned in the properties file.
     * @throws ConfigurationException if an <code>Exception</code> is encountered.
     */
    public String getBackground() throws ConfigurationException {
        PropertiesConfiguration config = new PropertiesConfiguration();
        config.load(PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME);
        String background = (String) config.getProperty("colors.background");
        return background;
    }
}