Insert Witty Irony Here

Thursday November 06, 2008

Are you sure you are developing Java Web Apps?

I have a short screencast that demonstrates some features of a development environment based on NetBeans 6.5 and GlassFish v3 Prelude that may lead you to question whether you are using Java to create web applications deployed on a web container.

We have come a long way from the days of the 'compile-package-deploy' napping development cycle.

And these capabilities are just the tip of the iceberg for GlassFish v3.

Tuesday November 04, 2008

No PasswordCredential found

I have seen a number of people run into problems with using databases that use an empty string as the value for a password. I have seen many of these reports coming from folks using MySQL. But I had never investigated the problem... until today.

I have been asked to prepare some training materials about the integration between NetBeans and GlassFish for folks that aren't in the thick of developing NetBeans or GlassFish. So, I decided to try out the NetBeans, MySQL, GlassFish bundle... and ran straight into the grief that others have been talking about.

I installed the bundle on my laptop and tried to retarget the JsfJpa sample to MySQL. When I tried to create the JDBC Connection Pool in the IDE, I hit the first problem. The wizard for creating the connection pool insisted that I must enter a value in the field.

I filed an issue against NetBeans so this can get fixed.

After I got the pool defined... incorrectly. I decided to try to correct it. So, I tried setting the value to an empty string via the CLI and the Admin GUI and was thwarted on all fronts.

I was lucky though. I have Kedar just down the hall... and he gave me the info that I needed.

And now, I am going to give that to you.

There is a special meta-string that can be used in property values to represent a zero length string.

This special string can be used in asadmin's set subcommand, in the Admin GUI's property table and in the IDE wizards.

(2008-11-04 13:06:20.0) Permalink