Insert Witty Irony Here

Monday May 21, 2007

New GlassFish Integration Feature: Shared Installation Registration

Many people have encountered problems when trying to register a domain, if the server bits have been installed by somebody else or via a mechanism like aptitude or Synaptic package manager on Ubuntu. The default domains are all read-only for "normal" users in these cases. That means that the list of available default local domains would be empty.

I have seen a number of pleas from folks who have tried all kinds of tricks to make the list of domains get filed in. As folks have tried more and more tricks, the resulting installation would become more and more broken.

The "correct" way to proceed has been available in the wizard for a long time. Users need to create a personal domain. I have responded to a number of e-mails with that answer and I swear I have heard the slapping of foreheads.

Well, I finally slapped my own forehead. I realized that the wizard needed to do a better job helping folks proceed past the second page. By changing the default selection from 'Register Local Default Domain' to 'Create Personal Domain' if the default local domains are not useful for this user, the user can just click Next to do the right thing. If the user has selected one of the other two options; Register Local Domain or Register Remote Domain, their choice is not disturbed.

Note: While I was writing this entry up, 
      I did find an edge case that needed
      to be addressed.  The changes to resolve
      that case were checked in yesterday.
      Using a build younger than 21 may 2007
      should function as described.