JamesBranam's Blog

AWS Experience Part 2: Accessing the Cloud

Hi all,

Today I'll be write more about my experiences with Amazon Web Services. Before I continue, I'd like to provide some background information.

I signed up for Amazon Web Services. I used the Fedora LAMP AMI to create a server instance. The main reason for choosing this AMI was its inclusion of MySQL and Apache, a nice little package indeed. I ran into a few problems at first. Because I am based in Europe, I am allowed to use only the EU-West region, and the default in the US-East region. The drop down list is rather small, and i took a couple of unsuccessful instances to figure out that this was the problem. When I say "unsuccessful instances," I mean that the nothing appeared in the browser when I copied the public DNS to the browser's address bar. I attached an EBS volume to the server instance and it was OK.

Now for more on the command line.

I spent a lot of time messing around with the commands in the EC2 toolkit, which is provided by AWS. I was able to change the region by entering

export EC2_URL=http://eu-west-1.ec2.amazonaws.com

Other things worth noting:

To see which instances are running, do a

ec2-describe-instances

To run an instance:

ec2-run-instances ami-amiid -k kepairname

ssh -i ~/.ssh/my-key.pem root@host-name

I did it. I was in the cloud. Then I was able to create a MySQL database.

I'll write more tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:52AM May 13, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

AWS Experience Part 1: Setting up the Tools

Hi all,

I've just been reassigned (partially) to make sense of using a MySQL database server in the cloud, namely in Amazon Web Services. I'll be blogging about my experiences. Today is part 1.

After creating the account, I got to work. I signed up for EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud 2), Simple Storage, and EBS (storage that allows for persistence). I played around with starting an instance, terminating it, etc. Then I got started with the command line tools. This is what I did.

• I made sure that my JAVA_HOME was set correctly in my mac: I typed

  export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home/

  in the terminal. Then I typed

  $JAVA_HOME/bin/java -version

  to confirm that the JAVA_HOME was indeed set correctly.
• Then I made created a .ec2 directory in my home directory. I then added my private key and X.509 certificate to this directory. I also made sure to point to these locations

  export EC2_PRIVATE_KEY=~/.ec2/pk-123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP.pem
  export EC2_CERT=~/.ec2/cert-(98765F43dFMPONUBYGSFATAJAAJJU5SG.pem

• Then I made sure I was pointing to my EC2_HOME:

  export EC2_HOME=/Users/jb/ec2-api-tools-1.3-34128/

./

I'll write more tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 02:40PM May 12, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

Download NetBeans 6.7 Beta Today!

Hi all,

Have you downloaded NetBeans 6.7 Beta yet? Here is the press release:

The NetBeans team is pleased to announce the availability of NetBeans IDE 6.7 Beta.

• Download NetBeans IDE 6.7 Beta
• Learn More about 6.7 Beta

Posted at 09:00AM May 02, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

NetBeans 6.7 Beta Live

Hi all,

It's here! NetBeans 6.7 Beta is live for your testing.

Get it HERE.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Apr 29, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

Project Kenai

Hi all,

One new featured in NetBeans 6.7 is the ability to "share on kenai." Please keep your "Palinisms" to yourself. This has nothing to do with the Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, River, or Mountains. Kenai means something very different here. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Kenai: "Similar to a social network, Kenai encourages members to create a profile page that shows personal tags and lists all projects they follow and participate in. This makes it easy to get in contact and work with other developers who have similar interests. Members use their profile also to browse their forum and mailing history."

Some call it "Connected Developer." It think that this term sums it up quite well.

What does it mean for NetBeans users?

Wikipedia again: "Developers can use the NetBeans IDE to check out source code and commit changes, to navigate between Kenai projects and local sources, and to submit bug reports and patches directly to the integrated issue tracker. The IDE also displays which project members are currently online."

Find out more at http://kenai.com/.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Apr 28, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

New Database Connect Look in NetBeans 6.7

Hi all,

If you expand a database connection node in the Services window of the IDE, you'll notice a new look. What are all of these nodes under the connection nodes? They're schemas. For the most part, if you're using Java DB, the only schema you'll need to worry about is the app schema. I'd be interested in knowing what developers have used the other schemas for.

When you expand the MySQL conect node, what you get is a list of databases you've created in MySQL. These database are actually schemas you've created in your MySQL database.

There you have it.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Apr 27, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

NetBeans 6.7 Beta: Not Yet

Hi all,

Yesterday, NetBeans 6.7 Beta was supposed to be released for the world to see and use. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until next week to see Beta.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Apr 24, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

Three Python Tutorials

Hi all,

Python is fairly new to NetBeans IDE. We've already got three tutorials and we're still in the Early Access (EA) stage of development. As more Python stuff is added (e.g. Django and Tkinter), we'll work on getting more tutorials out there for all to use and enjoy. This is what we have so far:

• Introduction to Python EA in NetBeans IDE. This document provides an introduction to programming with the Python programming language in NetBeans IDE. Python is a very popular general-purpose high-level programming language with a design philosophy that emphasizes programmer productivity and code readability. This tutorial demonstrates how features of the NetBeans IDE can best benefit the Python programmer. Each section of the tutorial demonstrates usages of Python and identifies in the IDE features that can be used with Python programming. This tutorial is not intended to teach the Python programming language, but rather demonstrate how the NetBeans IDE can be used with Python-based applications.
• Developing a Jython Application Using NetBeans IDE. Submitted bu Josh Juneau, this document provides instructions for developing a Jython application using the Python plugin available in the NetBeans IDE. The tutorial shows you how to configure your Python installation by setting up both Python and Jython paths and manipulating module locations. This tutorial is not intended to teach the Python/Jython programming language, but rather demonstrate how the NetBeans IDE can be used with Python/Jython-based applications.
• Developing a Python Application Using NetBeans IDE. Submitted by Josh Juneau, this tutorial is designed to show you the basics of using NetBeans IDE with the Python programming language. and so that they can begin to explore it's possibilities. With it's added support for various JVM and non-JVM languages, Netbeans 6.5 opens new doors to programmers, giving them an easy-to-use environment for developing in many different languages including Python. Throughout this tutorial, you will be developing a small application (hockeyRoster.py) from the ground up. You will develop an application to contain and manage a sports team.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Apr 23, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

New Look for NetBeans Community Docs

Hi all,

As you all know, the NetBeans Community Docs program has had a new Contribution Coordinator since April 1: Kristian Rink. I've noticed that Kristian has already started some big changes in the program. One of these changes is a new look to the Community Docs wiki pages at http://wiki.netbeans.org/CommunityDocs. The main wiki page has been split up into several, each with its own purpose. It ot only looks great, it improves significantly the overall usefulness of the pages, making them very clear.

Great work, Kristian.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 12:58PM Apr 22, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

UML, Visual Web, and SOA Will Be Moved to Update Center

Hi all,

you've probably heard about three technologies that will soon be moved to the Update Center. Here is part of the official announcement that went out last week:

NB community members,

With each NetBeans IDE release, modules are moved to/from the standard distribution and to/from the Stable or Beta Update Centers. For the NetBeans IDE 6.7 release, we want to call out three modules that have been moved out of the standard distribution to the Beta Update Center: SOA, UML, and Visual Web. We want you to understand the ramifications of these changes. First, you will not see these modules in your IDE by default, if you want the them, you will have to go to the Beta Update Center and install them. Also, modules on the Beta Update Center have the following quality criteria: no P1 bugs, all tests from Tests Distribution have to pass, and a check on target platforms. For details, visit http://wiki.netbeans.org/StableModuleCriteria.

Here is the state of each specific module:

The SOA module has been removed from the standard distribution for NetBeans 6.7, BUT it is under active development for the next NetBeans release, scheduled for Fall 2009.

The UML module has been removed from the standard distribution. For NetBeans 6.7, there are no new features. For enterprise-class UML support, we recommend SDE for NetBeans by Visual Paradigm.

The Visual Web JSF module has been removed from the standard distribution, along with the Woodstock components. These modules have been released to the community for support and future development. The NetBeans IDE still supports web development with JSF and JSPs. To go beyond the standard JSF Components, we recommend you use the ICEfaces plugin.

Thank you for your support. Please join us on the NetBeans mailing lists and forums.

This is a lot easier than it sounds. I've been busy separating the Web helpset from the Visual Web JSF helpset. What a task. I just checked in a few changes today, and I wonder if I've broken the build. We'll see.

Wish me luck.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 06:05PM Apr 14, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

NetBeans 6.5: Developing a Python Application

Hi all,

As with yesterday, today I'd like to highlight a new tutorial on netbeans.org. This tutorial is a quickstart for developing Python applications in the IDE. As with yesterday's tutorial, this doc was contributed by Josh Juneau, an important member of the NetBeans Community Docs program. As I mentioned yesterday, Josh has contributed a number of high-quality docs to the program. He also publishes the Community Docs newsletter.

The scenario for this tutorial is a Hockey Roster Managing application with user input.

Check it out at http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/python/python-quickstart.html. I think you'll agree that it's another way the IDE kicks butt.

See you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 10:00AM Apr 10, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

NetBeans 6.5: Developing a Jython Application

Hi all,

We writers have been busy preparing documentation for NetBeans 6.7 Beta, which is coming up fast. I've been working on documentation for Python using the IDE, not for 6.7 per se, but in general. The documentation will officially be for Netbeans 6.5 and 6.7.

This first tutorial I'd like to talk about is a quickstart for developing Jython applications in the IDE. The original tutorial was contributed by Josh Juneau, an important member of the NetBeans Community Docs program. Josh has contributed a number of high-quality docs, the quality being so good that they are immediately converted into NetBeans tutorials on netbeans.org.

The scenario for the tutorial is a simple RSS feed reader.

Check it out at http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/python/jython-quickstart.html. I think you'll agree that it's a great way to learn how the IDE can be used with Jython.

See you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 05:15PM Apr 09, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

New Community Docs Contribution Coordinator: Kristian Rink

Hi all,

Today I have a very important announcement to make. The NetBeans Community Docs program has a new Contribution Coordinator: Kristian Rink.

Kristian has been a very active participant in the program, and has also served as Evangelist. A native of Germany, Kristian has some excellent ideas for moving the program forward.

Please join me in congratulating Kristian and welcoming him to his new position.

I would also like to thank Varun Nischal, the program's former Contribution Coordinator, for a job well done. Under Varun's leadership, the program was able to reach new milestones, including the latest milestone of 300 contributions.

We all owe our thanks and congratulations to Varun

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 01:30PM Apr 02, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

Return to Blogging

Hi all,

I apologize for being offline the last couple of weeks. A lot is happening right now. I'll try to blog some more tomorrow.

NetBeans 6.7 Milestone 3 will be coming out soon, so be certain to download it once it does come out.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 10:47AM Mar 27, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

NetBeans Governance Board

Hi all,

Well, it's official. NetBeans has a new Governance Board, at least for the next six months. The members are:

• Tom Wheeler
• Fabrizio Giudici
• James Branam

I think it's great being a part of this. I've really enjoyed working with the NetBeans Community, and now I get to be even more involved.

Great news!

Congratulations to both Tom and Fabrizio for winning the election. I look forward to working with you.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 03:24PM Mar 09, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

NetBeans Governance Board Elections

Hi all,

I suppose that we're all in the same boat, so to speak. The NetBeans Governance Board elections have ended, and the members have been chosen, but we still don't know who won.

Curious, aren't we?

Results will be announced on Monday, March 9. Regardless of who wins, I want to congratulate all of the candidates for being nominated:

• Toni Epple
• Ryan de Laplante
• Fabrizio Giudici
• Tonny Kohar
• Kristian Rink
• Tom Wheeler

Well done to all!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Mar 05, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

NetBeans and Django? It's Coming

Hi all,

I'm not just a blogger, but I'm also a blog reader. I read lots of blogs, and yesterday I cam across a blog entry about NetBeans being a good IDE for Python, but it's be nicer to have Django support in the IDE. Here's what I read in the blog:

I developed using VIM and konsole using Python and Django. Some time ago Carlos Ble suggest me to use and IDE. The I try Eclipse + PyDev for a time, but never felt comfortable with it. Since Netbeans team decide to include Python in the supported languages Netbeans could work with; I decide to give it a chance.

While Django is not fully supported itself, I feel Netbeans much more fluent than a Eclipse. Netbeans is not perfect but, on my view, fits my needs more than Eclipse do. I’ll try to use this platform for a while before claim to be THE IDE.

Using Django with it is possible using the same trick I used with Eclipse. Set manage.py as the main file and runserver --noreload as argument. I didn’t success trying to do step-by-step debugging (I didn’t spent more than two minutes trying).

To be the “perfect” platform for Django developing Netbeans needs:

• Be able to create a django project
• Be able to create django apps into a project
• Be able to run manage.py shell
• Be able to manage DB (At les manage.py dbshell
• Manage Django tests (manage.py test)
• Find method usage in templates
• WYSWYG template editor

Even lacking all this features, I think is probably the best IDE for Django I have ever tried.

This is all coming. Just be patient. Soon, nothing will be stopping NetBeans from being the best IDE in the world.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Mar 04, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[4]

Wiki Woes

Hi all,

When I'm not sitting in front of a computer for work, I find myself sitting in front of a computer when I'm not working. And usually I;m messing around with something that I shouldn't have started messing around with.

MediaWiki

I manage the alumni site for my former military unit. I started the site in 2000, and it has grown tremendously to include 250 registered alumni. Not bad, eh? I'm constantly looking for ways to improve the site. I've had a guestbook and message board since the beginning, and I've also experimented with live chat (which wasn't so popular). I work a lot of hours for Sun, and it has become increasingly difficult to keep the site updated, especially the contact information for the 250 alumni. So I had what I thought was a brilliant idea: I'll create a wiki where members can keep their own contact information updated. I was a lot of work, but I finally got it up and running. This is what I had to do:

1. First, I had to download MediaWiki.
2. Then I had to make sure I had a MySQL database up and running on the web site. Luckily for me, my hosting service provides a lot of help here in the form of FAQs, a knowledge base, and 24-hour support.
3. I had to make sure that PHP was turned on on my website. This was easily done.
4. I didn't have to format the database, MediaWiki did that. I just had to make sure that the database was in place and that MediaWiki was pointing it it. When I configured MediaWiki I was able to do this easily.

So, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 04:45PM Mar 03, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

NB Community Docs: 300 Contributions

Hi all,

Today is an important day for the NetBeans Community Docs program. The program was created officially on March 1, 2007, exactly two years ago from today.

The program also reached another important milestone today: 300 contributions. Wow!

As the program moves forward, it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Congratulations to all participants of the program for making it a huge success.

Hats off to all of you!

See you tomorrow.

--James

Posted at 08:00PM Mar 01, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[3]

NetBeans 6.7 M2: New Look and Feel for Mac

Hi all,

I've been having a great time playing around with NetBeans 6.7 Milestone 2. I have a MacBook Pro, and one of the great things about NetBeans 6.7 is the new look and feel on a Mac.

Have you tried out the new version of the IDE yet? To get it, just go to http://www.netbeans.org/downloads/index.html.

See you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 06:23PM Feb 27, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

NetBeans 6.7 Milestone 2 Now Available for Download!

Hi all,

Here is the official of announcement including reasons why you should download NetBeans 6.7.

• Maven
  • Improved code completion for Maven plugin parameters
  • Profiling of Maven based J2EE applications
  • Support for Web Services creation and consumption
• Performance Improvement ("Ergonomic IDE")
  • Download the IDE and activate only the functionality that you need, without having all parts loaded by default.
• Enhanced Self Diagnosis ("Profile Me Now!")
  • The enhanced self diagnostic tool lets NetBeans profile its own performance so you can review the profiler snapshot or send it to the NetBeans team for further analysis.
• SVG Improvements in Mobility
  • Full support for SVG Rich Components in the Visual Mobile Designer, including landscape mode.
• Profiler
  • HeapWalker supports OQL queries to analyze the contents of the heapdump.
• C++ Improvements
  • Improvements in code assistance for C/C++ projects
• New and Improved Mac OS X Look-and-Feel

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Feb 26, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

NetBeans 6.7 Milestone 2 Is Live

Hi all,

NetBeans IDE 6.7 Milestone 2 is now ready for downloading. To get it, just go to http://www.netbeans.org/downloads/index.html. Be sure to let us know what you think.

see you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 12:28PM Feb 25, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

Python Tutorial on Dzone

Hi all,

Now we can add DZone.com to the places hosting a link to the new Python tutorial I finished last week. Now it's more visible than ever.

see you tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 12:41PM Feb 24, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

Introduction to Python EA in NetBeans IDE 6.5

Hi all,

My latest tutorial has been released officially. You can read about it on the front page of netbeans.org as well as a number of others sites:

• http://developers.sun.com/scripting/python/index.jsp
• http://blogs.sun.com/SDNProgramNews/
• http://blogs.sun.com/scripting
• http://wiki.python.org/moin/Documentation

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 06:49PM Feb 23, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

It's Official: NetBeans 6.7

Hi all,

It's now official. The next version of the NetBeans IDE will be NetBeans 6.7. Here is a quick excerpt from the web site:

For those of you who have been following the NetBeans release train, you may be puzzled by the version number switch in our upcoming milestone release, from NetBeans 7.0 to NetBeans 6.7.

To get innovation and quality improvements out to the community faster, and to have the NetBeans IDE be better aligned with the release schedules of other technologies that it supports, we have decided to concentrate on a series of smaller releases rather than the traditional two big releases per year.

The announcement does a really good job explaining how releases are named. Be sure to check it out: http://tinyurl.com/agfn84.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 04:28PM Feb 20, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[4]