Arun Gupta, Miles to go ...

FREE Ticket to Rails Conf Europe 2008

Are you a Start up company interested in jump starting and meets the following criteria ?

In business six years or less A maximum of 150 employees, including any affiliates Based in a country in which the program is offered A verifiable company presence (website, company profile, etc.) Agree to accept the program's terms and conditions

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[1]

Typo on GlassFish v3 - Ruby-on-Rails Blogging Engine

Typo is an open-source Blogging Engine written using Ruby-on-Rails framework. It provides a lean engine that makes blogging easy. It's main attribtues are ease of use, usability, beauty and excellent support of web standards.

1. Typo can be installed as Gem or from Sources. Installing as gem gives the following error:
   
   

   JRuby limited openssl loaded. gem install jruby-openssl for full support. http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/JRuby_Builtin_OpenSSL Building native extensions.  This could take a while... /Users/arungupta/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3/lib/ruby/1.8/mkmf.rb:7: JRuby does not support native extensions. Check wiki.jruby.org for alternatives. (NotImplementedError)         from /Users/arungupta/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3/lib/ruby/1.8/mkmf.rb:1:in `require'         from extconf.rb:1 ERROR:  Error installing typo:         ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. /Users/arungupta/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3/bin/jruby extconf.rb install typo Gem files will remain installed in /Users/arungupta/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7 for inspection. Results logged to /Users/arungupta/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7/gem_make.out

   
   This is discussed here. In the meanwhile, download and unzip Typo 5.1.2 as:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby >unzip ~/Downloads/typo-5.1.2.zip Archive:  /Users/arungupta/Downloads/typo-5.1.2.zip    creating: typo-5.1.2/    creating: typo-5.1.2/app/    creating: typo-5.1.2/app/apis/    . . .   inflating: typo-5.1.2/vendor/uuidtools/lib/uuidtools.rb    inflating: typo-5.1.2/vendor/uuidtools/rakefile    inflating: typo-5.1.2/vendor/uuidtools/README

2. Create the database:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby >sudo mysqladmin create typo_dev

   
   Typo 5.1.x works with Rails 2.0.x only and so migrate as shown below:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby/typo-5.1.2 >~/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3/bin/jruby -S rake db:migrate (in /Users/arungupta/samples/jruby/typo-5.1.2) == 1 InitialSchema: migrating ================================================= -- create_table(:users)    -> 0.0377s -- create_table(:articles)    -> 0.0189s -- add_index(:articles, :permalink)    -> 0.0094s -- create_table(:categories)    -> 0.0069s  . . . == 69 AddModulesToProfile: migrating ========================================== -- add_column(:profiles, :modules, :text)    -> 0.0072s == 69 AddModulesToProfile: migrated (0.0454s) ================================= == 70 AddUsersToNonAdmins: migrating ========================================== == 70 AddUsersToNonAdmins: migrated (0.0488s) =================================


Typo 5.2 (scheduled in 3 days) will work with Rails 2.1.

3. Download GlassFish (nightly, promoted or build-your-own) and install by unzipping. I tried the nightly of 8/24 as:
   
   

   ~/tools/glassfish/v3/8-24 >unzip ~/Downloads/glassfish-snapshot-v3-prelude-08_24_2008.zip Archive:  /Users/arungupta/Downloads/glassfish-snapshot-v3-prelude-08_24_2008.zip    creating: glassfish/    creating: glassfish/docs/    creating: glassfish/docs/css/    creating: glassfish/docs/graphics/ . . .   inflating: glassfish/lib/templates/login.conf    inflating: glassfish/lib/templates/profile.properties    inflating: glassfish/lib/templates/server.policy

4. Start GlassFish as:
   
   

   ~/tools/glassfish/v3/8-24/glassfish >java -DJRUBY_HOME=/Users/arungupta/tools/rails20/jruby-1.1.3 -jar modules/glassfish-10.0-SNAPSHOT.jar Aug 26, 2008 5:56:10 PM com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.ASMain main INFO: Launching GlassFish on Apache Felix OSGi platform Welcome to Felix. ================= Aug 26, 2008 5:56:11 PM HK2Main start INFO: contextRootDir = /Users/arungupta/tools/glassfish/v3/8-24/glassfish/modules Aug 26, 2008 5:56:11 PM OSGiFactoryImpl initialize . . . INFO: APIClassLoader = Class Loader for Bundle [GlassFish-Application-Common-Module [66] ] Aug 26, 2008 5:56:13 PM CommonClassLoaderManager Skipping creation of CommonClassLoader as there are no libraries available INFO: urls = [] Aug 26, 2008 5:56:13 PM com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.AppServerStartup run INFO: Glassfish v3 started in 2176 ms

5. And deploy Typo as:
   
   

   ~/samples/jruby >~/tools/glassfish/v3/8-24/glassfish/bin/asadmin deploy typo-5.1.2 Command deploy executed successfully.

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[4]

Interested in a 30 second promotion in Rails Conf Europe 2008 ?

Are you deploying Rails application on GlassFish  in any manner (WAR-based, Gem or Technology Preview 2) ? Are you using Rails and GlassFish combination in a creative way ? Having you been following Rails/GlassFish development/deployment options and have an opinion ?

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[2]

TOTD #43: GlassFish v3 Build Flavors

Here are different flavors of GlassFish v3 builds:

• Build your self
• Nightly
• Promoted
• Stable (Technology Preview 2 as of this writing)

Posted by Arun Gupta in General  |  Comments[3]

LOTD #6: Rails Deployment on GlassFish in 4 steps and 15 minutes

Charlie describes, in 4 easy steps, how to deploy any Rails application on GlassFish:



The main steps are:

Step 1: The App Server
Step 2: Package your App
Step 3: Deploy your application
Step 4: Tweaking (Optional)

And it should only take 15 minutes on GlassFish v2!

The conclusion of the blog is:

Hopefully this walkthrough clears up some confusion around JRuby on Rails deployment to an app server. It's really a simple process, despite the not-so-simple history surrounding Enterprise Application Servers, and GlassFish almost makes it fun :)

The next version, GlassFish v3, allows Rails application to be deployed natively, i.e. no packaging is required. You create a Rails application and run it - just the way you are used to! Read all about it here.

All previous entries in this series are archived at LOTD.

Technorati: lotd rubyonrails jruby ruby glassfish

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[1]

LOTD #5: Blogging Gold for Sun - Forrester loves it!

A recent report by Forrester Research published a list of 15 companies that really get corporate blogging and produce blogs that are informative, fascinating, and a joy to read even for people who aren’t die-hard fans of the company. Here is what the report says about Sun Microsystems:

Like Adobe, Sun allows their employees to blog. They’ve been doing it for a long time, and their blog portal has over 4,500 bloggers covering over 110,000 posts. Some of their blogs, such as that of Web 2.0 and Web Services Evangelist Arun Gupta, have become quite popular on their own. That’s 110,000 posts of promotional gold for Sun and they know it.

Here are recent statistics of blogs.sun.com:


That's a comment for each post! I'm happy that this blog contibutes it's share.

All previous entries in this series are archived at LOTD.

Technorati: lotd milestogo sun forrester blogging

Posted by Arun Gupta in General  |  Comments[0]

GlassFish @ Berlin-Brandenburg JUG and TU Berlin

I'll be providing an overview of GlassFish - engineering update on v2 and v3, adoption & success stories, and the vibrant community around it at a joint Berlin-Brandenburg JUG and TU-Berlin meet on Sep 3, 2008.

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[3]

LOTD #4: Rails running on GlassFish @ LinkedIn

Light Engineering team (BumperSticker fame) at LinkedIn has chosen GlassFish for running their Rails application. One of the developers on the team reports:

Using Warbler, we successfully wrapped our Rails applications into WAR files and deployed on Glassfish (we’ll probably write a more detailed tutorial of this at a future date). A WAR file is completely self contained application that can be deployed simply by copying to an autodeploy directory. No more Apache/Nginx reverse proxy, no more Capistrano, no more installing gems on a production container, no more of any of that madness. This was a huge win, and we broke out the champagne bottles.

Read the complete entry at:

JDBC Connection Pooling for Rails on GlassFish

Stay tuned for more details!

NetBeans development and GlassFish deployment already provide an ideal environment for Rails deployment. You can read about successful deployments of Rails and GlassFish here.

All previous entries in this series are archived at LOTD.

Technorati: lotd rubyonrails jruby ruby netbeans glassfish stories

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[0]

2000 comments on "Miles to go..."

This blog has now been commented (including trackbacks) 2000 times. Here are the statistics as of this morning:



With 671 entries, that makes it approx 3 comments/entry.

And the tag cloud showing the # of blog entries on each topic. GlassFish is certainly way above others :)



And finally a tool to evaluate blog worth:

Posted by Arun Gupta in General  |  Comments[2]

TOTD #42: Hello JavaServer Faces World with NetBeans and GlassFish

This TOTD (Tip Of The Day) shows how to create a simple Java Server Faces application using NetBeans IDE 6.1. This is my first ever Java Server Faces application :) Much more comprehensive applications are already available in NetBeans and GlassFish tutorials.

The application is really simple - it allows you to create a database of cities/country that you like. You enter the city & country name on a page and click on Submit. This stores the data entered in the backend database and displays all the stored values in a new page. This application demonstrates simple JSF concepts:

• How to create a JSF application using NetBeans IDE ?
• How to populate a JSF widget with a Managed Bean ?
• How to use a Persistence Unit with JSF widgets ?
• How to setup navigation rules between multiple pages ?
• How to print simple error validation messages ?
• How to inject a bean into another class ?

1. In NetBeans IDE, create a new project
1. Create a new NetBeans Web project and enter the values ("Cities") as shown:
   
   
   
   and click on "Next".
2. Choose GlassFish v2 as the deployment server and click on "Next".
3. Select "JavaServer Faces" framework as shown below:
   
   
   
   take defaults and click on "Finish".
2. Create a Persistence Unit as explained in TOTD #38. The values required for this TOTD are slightly different and given below.
1. Use the following table definition:
   
   

   create table cities(id integer AUTO_INCREMENT,                     city_name varchar(20),                     country_name varchar(20),                     PRIMARY KEY(id));

2. There is no need to populate the table.
3. Use "jndi/cities" as Data Source name.
4. There is no need to create a Servlet.
5. Add the following NamedQuery:
   
   

   @NamedQuery(name = "Cities.findAll", query = "SELECT c FROM Cities c"),

   
   right after the highlighted parentheses shown below:
   
   
   
3. Create a new bean which will perform all the database operations
1. Right-click on "Source Packages", select "New", "Java Class..." and specify the values as shown below:
   
   
   
   and click on "Finish".
2. Create a new class instance variable for "Cities" entity class by adding a new variable and accessor methods as shown below:
   
   

   private Cities cities;          public void setCities(Cities cities) {         this.cities = cities;     }

   
   and then injecting in "faces-config.xml" as shown by the fragment below:
   
   

   <managed-bean>         <managed-bean-name>cities</managed-bean-name>         <managed-bean-class>server.Cities</managed-bean-class>         <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>     </managed-bean>     <managed-bean>         <managed-bean-name>dbUtil</managed-bean-name>         <managed-bean-class>server.DatabaseUtil</managed-bean-class>         <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>         <managed-property>             <property-name>cities</property-name>             <value>#{cities}</value>         </managed-property>     </managed-bean>

3. In "server.DatabaseUtil"
1. Inject EntityManager and UserTransaction as shown:
   
   

   @PersistenceContext(unitName="CitiesPU")     private EntityManager entityManager;          @Resource     UserTransaction utx;

2. Add a method that returns a Collection of all entries in the database table as shown below:
   
   

   public Collection<Cities> getAllCities() {         Collection<Cities> allCities = new ArrayList<Cities>();         List list = entityManager.createNamedQuery("Cities.findAll").getResultList();         for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {             allCities.add((Cities)list.get(i));         }         return allCities;     }

3. Add a method that will save a new entry in the database by using values from the injected "Cities" entity class as shown below:
   
   

   public String saveCity() throws NotSupportedException, SystemException, RollbackException, HeuristicMixedException, HeuristicRollbackException {         utx.begin();         entityManager.persist(cities);         utx.commit();                  return "submit";     }

4. Finally, right-click in the editor pane and select "Fix Imports":
   
   
   
   and click on "OK". Make sure to pick the right package name for "NotSupportedException" and "RollbackException".
4. Add Java Server Faces widgets in the main entry page
1. In "welcomeJSF.jsp", drag/drop "JSF Form" widget on line 22 as shown below:
   
   
   
2. Select "Form Generated from Entity Class" and specify "server.Cities" entity class in the text box as shown:
   
   
   
3. The generated code fragment looks like:
   
   

   <h2>Detail</h2>  <h:form>   <h:panelGrid columns="2">     <h:outputText value="Id:"/>     <h:outputText value="#{anInstanceOfserver.Cities.id}" title="Id" />     <h:outputText value="CityName:"/>     <h:outputText value="#{anInstanceOfserver.Cities.cityName}" title="CityName" />     <h:outputText value="CountryName:"/>     <h:outputText value="#{anInstanceOfserver.Cities.countryName}" title="CountryName" />   </h:panelGrid>  </h:form>

   
   It generates a 2-column table based upon fields from the entity class. We will use this form for accepting inputs by making the following changes:
   
   
1. Remove first two "h:outputText" entries because "id" is auto generated.
2. Change "h:outputText" that uses value expression to "h:inputText" to accept the input.
3. Use "cities" managed bean instead of the default generated expression.
4. Add required="true" to inputText fields. This will ensure that the form can not be submitted if text fields are empty.
5. Add "id" attributes to inputText fields. This will be used to display the error message if fields are empty.

The updated code fragment (with changes highlighted in bold) looks like:



<h2>Detail</h2>  <h:form>   <h:panelGrid columns="2">     <h:outputText value="CityName:"/>     <h:inputText value="#{cities.cityName}" title="CityName" id="cityName" required="true"/>     <h:outputText value="CountryName:"/>     <h:inputText value="#{cities.countryName}" title="CountryName" id="countryName" required="true"/>   </h:panelGrid>  </h:form>


Issue# 144217 will ensure to pick a pre-declared managed-bean or declare a new one if it does not exist already. After issue# 144499 is fixed then "id" attributes will be generated by default.

4. Add a button to submit the results:
   
   

   <h:commandButton action="#{dbUtil.saveCity}" value="submit"/>

   
   This must be added between </h:panelGrid> and </h:form> tags.
5. Add a placeholder for displaying error messages:
   
   

   <br><br> <h:message for="cityName" showSummary="true" showDetail="false" style="color: red"/><br> <h:message for="countryName" showSummary="true" showDetail="false" style="color: red"/>

   
   right after <h:commandButton> tag. The official docs specify the default value of "false" for both "showSummary" and "showDetail" attribute. But TLD says "false" for "showSummary" and "true" for "showDetail". Issue# 773 will fix that.
5. Add a new page that displays result of all the entries added so far
1. Right-click on the main project, select "New", "JSP..." and specify the name as "result".
2. Add the following namespace declarations at top of the page:
   
   

   <%@taglib prefix="f" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"%> <%@taglib prefix="h" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"%>


Issue #144218 will ensure these namespaces are declared by the IDE.

3. Drag/Drop a "JSF Data Table" widget in the main HTML body and enter the values as shown:
   
   
   
   The generated code fragment looks like:
   
   

   <f:view> <h:form>  <h1><h:outputText value="List"/></h1>  <h:dataTable value="#{arrayOrCollectionOfserver.Cities}" var="item"> <h:column>  <f:facet name="header">  <h:outputText value="Id"/>  </f:facet>  <h:outputText value=" #{item.id}"/> </h:column> <h:column>  <f:facet name="header">  <h:outputText value="CityName"/>  </f:facet>  <h:outputText value=" #{item.cityName}"/> </h:column> <h:column>  <f:facet name="header">  <h:outputText value="CountryName"/>  </f:facet>  <h:outputText value=" #{item.countryName}"/> </h:column> </h:dataTable>  </h:form> </f:view>

   
   Change the <h:dataTable> tag as shown below (changes highlighted in bold):
   
   

   <h:dataTable value="#{dbUtil.allCities}" var="item">

4. This page will be used to show the results after an entry is added to the database. Add a new button to go back to the entry page by adding the following fragment:
   
   

   <h:form>      <h:commandButton action="back" value="back"/> </h:form>

   
   between </h:form> and </f:view> tags.
6. Add the navigation rules to "faces-config.xml" as shown below:
   
   
   
   The corresponding XML fragment is:
   
   

   <navigation-rule>         <from-view-id>/welcomeJSF.jsp</from-view-id>         <navigation-case>             <from-outcome>submit</from-outcome>             <to-view-id>/result.jsp</to-view-id>         </navigation-case>     </navigation-rule>     <navigation-rule>         <from-view-id>/result.jsp</from-view-id>         <navigation-case>             <from-outcome>back</from-outcome>             <to-view-id>/welcomeJSF.jsp</to-view-id>         </navigation-case>     </navigation-rule>

• JSF Tag Library & API docs
• javaserverfaces.dev.java.net - the community website
• Java EE 5 JSF Tutorial and many more on the community website right navbar.
• Java Server Faces on SDN
• GlassFish Webtier Aggregated Feed
• Feedback
• GlassFish Webtier Forum
• GlassFish Webtier IRC
• JSF IRC

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[21]

Welcome Jacob to blogsphere!

Jacob Kessler is a new hire in GlassFish Scripting team and is blogging, welcome Jacob!

Read how he will apply Aritificial Intelligence prinicples for dynamic configuration of JRuby runtime pools in GlassFish :)

Technorati: glassfish rubyonrails dynamiclanguages

Posted by Arun Gupta in General  |  Comments[0]

LOTD #3: Rails 2.2 going multi-threaded

Rails 2.2 is slated to become multi-threaded. What does it mean for JRuby users ? Charles Nutter explains it:

Q/A: What Thread-Safe Rails Means

One of the key points from the blog is:

Rails deployments on JRuby will use 1/Nth the amount of memory they use now, where N is the number of thread-unsafe Rails instances currently required to handle concurrent requests. Even compared to green-threaded implementations running thread-safe Rails, it willl likely use 1/Mth the memory where M is the number of cores, since it can parallelize happily across cores with only "one" instance.

NetBeans development and GlassFish deployment already provide an ideal environment for Rails deployment.

All previous entries in this series are archived at LOTD.

Technorati: lotd rubyonrails jruby ruby netbeans glassfish

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[0]

TOTD# 41: How I created transparent logo of GlassFish using Gimp ?

I followed the original instructions with Gimp 2.4.5.

1. Open up the original image in Gimp. The original image has an embedded color profile and needs to be converted to RGB. Opening the original image shows the following message:
   
   
   
   Click on "Convert".
2. Select "Tools", "Selection Tools", "Fuzzy Select" as shown:
   
   
   
   and click anywhere on the white background. There are numerous types of selection tools available but mostly the background needs to be made transparent.
   
3. Select "Layer" menu item, "Transparency", "Add Alpha Channel" as shown:
   
   

If "Add Alpha Channel" menu item is disabled then proceed to the next step.
4. Select "Edit" menu item, "Clear" to make the selection transparent.
   
5. Finally save the image with default settings. Make sure to give the extension as ".png", just specifying the file type as "PNG" does not automatically provide the right extension. And the transparent GlassFish image is available here.

Posted by Arun Gupta in General  |  Comments[3]

Road Running Routes

Here are my typical road running routes:

• 2.5 miles
• 2.75 miles
• 3.47 miles
• 3.56 miles
• 4.46 miles
• 5.02 miles
• 10.13 miles
• 13.25 miles
• 13.5 miles

• Dean Karnazes on how to improve your marathon timing - mile repeats & tempo runs are the essence here
• 9 week Half-Marathon Training Plan - a plan for first-timers, elite & everybody in between

Posted by Arun Gupta in Running  |  Comments[0]

LOTD #2: Phobos - MVC framework based on JavaScript

Phobos is a lightweight, scripting-friendly, web application environment running on the Java platform. It provides a complete MVC framework where Controller is a JavaScript class, View is an Embedded JavaScript (EJS) file and Model is typically a mix of Java and JavaScript.

The tech tip explains how Phobos and jMaki can be used to create a simple Ajax-enabled application using NetBeans tooling and GlassFish for deployment.

• Building an Ajax-enabled Web application using Phobos and jMaki
  

Posted by Arun Gupta in web2.0  |  Comments[2]