Since it is the Christmas month, where the birth of Christ is celebrated, I thought it would be appropriate to take a break from talking about programming to post my testimony as a Christian. This is a testimony that I gave in church at what feels like a few months ago, although it may actually have been a year ago. It was written to be about five minutes long. Re-reading it, I realize I used a fair amount of Christian lingo, so it might not mean the same thing if you don't know much about Christianity.
Oh yeah, in case you didn't know (or guess by now), I'm a Christian. Denominationally... I'd say I'm non-denominational, but if you need to be told a denomination, I guess you could call me methodist. I basically believe in having a close, personal relationship with the loving God/Jesus/Holy Spirit through prayer, fellowship with other Christians, and studying the bible. I don't believe I have any business judging other people or forcing my beliefs on others. However, I won't hide what I believe either and I hope my beliefs show in my everday life because they are the most important part of who I am. So read it or ignore it, this is my one of many accounts about why I belive in God. It's not meant to convert anyone or anything like that, just to let you know a little bit more about who I am. So here goes:
My parents are both Christian and they brought me up as a Christian. We had bible studies every night, where my dad read to us from some family devotions book, swapping our names in for the characters in the life application stories. I prayed before going to bed every night and before every meal. My parents brought my sisters and I to church every Sunday, where I would attend the Sunday School I enjoyed so much, especially in fourth grade. That class was focused on filling out worksheets, which was actually a lot of fun to me. You see, we'd always show up late, and I enjoyed being the first done with the most correct answers despite always coming in late.
When I was seven years old, I prayed the important prayer of asking Jesus to come into my life. Probably a few months after that, I was baptised at the beach. Things are good when you give your life up to Jesus.
But are they really? Honestly, my life has been really blessed. Did God really have anything to do with it or was that just the way it was? Things go well and I feel at peace when I pray, but is it because God is answering my prayer or is it due to self reflection? To feed those doubts was the fact that so many of the arguments against Christianity, like evolutionary debates and religious social studies, resonate quite well with me. Furthermore, I had the feeling that being a Christian and the existence of a god is stifling and inconvenient. I thought life would certainly be more efficient and fun without God. For example, praying takes up time. Figuring out and acting on what I believe to be "God's will" seemed really limiting.
With that mentality, I decided that it not only made sense not to believe in God, but it was a good decision for my life. So no more praying, no more paying attention in church (of course I'd still have to go with my parents), no more trying to figure out God's will. But... that didn't go as well as I hoped.
Without my relationship with God, something was just missing. I knew it wasn't something as simple as "I feel purposeless" or the "feeling of loss." At church recently, we talked about the fingerprints of God... touches God leaves that shows He's there, even if you can't see Him. The touch of God was missing from my life that I didn't want Him to lead. For me, the most explainable missing fingerprint was a sense of knowing my place in everything, the sense of somewhat understanding everything around me.
Soon after, I prayed to God and He spoke to me. I was inspired to pursue a deeper relationship with God. To start off, I just prayed a lot more. I studied the bible closer and would have long discussions about it with other Christians. That led me to worship more geniunely and involve myself more in God's work. I didn't feel like I was making myself do something I didn't want as I tried to followed God's will more while developing a relationship with Him. God has blessed my life greatly, with my friends, and with my wife Carrie, and with my family, and with work. There's nothing so far in my, albeit short so far, life that I really regret and a great part of that is because I truly believe God has been guiding me and I've been listening. Things don't always work out in the short term, but I've almost never minded thanks to God, and something better has always come around so far.
My story isn't very dramatic. I've spent almost all my life as a Christian pursuing a relationship with God. Having a relationship with God gives me an almost perpetual sense of fulfillment, joy, and peace in my life. Of course, even though I believe a relationship with God makes it easier, I know I could get all of that without Him. But there's still that unexplainable touch of God that only comes from a relationship with Him. And that really means everything to me... I think it might have to be experienced to really understand.
And of course, I still have doubts, although it hasn't escalated to the situation I described earlier again. But it really very much is a cycle to me. Doubt, study, and prayer continually bring me in a closer relationship with God. The thing that helps me most though doubt is that I know God exists, since I have a relationship with Him, and I've seen Him transform lives.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
TCP Monitor
At work, I've done a lot of client/server work. Whether using RMI JDBC, or SOAP Messages, or our own custom protocols, a lot of my work has involved sending messages back and forth. The easiest way for me to debug programs was with tcpmon. This incredibly useful tool sits between a client and server. It displays any data passedit recieves to the screen, then forwards the message to its destination. Go to the page to read more about it. I've really found it invaluble.
Heh heh... this post was actually just to keep up with an update a month. I'm glad I thought of something useful to post.
Heh heh... this post was actually just to keep up with an update a month. I'm glad I thought of something useful to post.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
SQL Server and JDBC
This describes how I set up JDBC to interact with a Sql Server Express 2005 database. Sql Server Express 2005 was installed on a Windows XP machine. The database was being accessed using JDBC on a remote Trusted Solaris machine running Java 1.2. The following instructions should apply to more configurations than just that though.
- Installing Sql Server Express 2005 -
1. Install Sql Server Express.
Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/trial-software.mspx#EXC. During install, selecting all the default options is fine. The only thing you would want to change is using Mixed Mode authentication instead of Windows Authentication. If you didn't select that option, I'll tell you how to do it later, so don't worry about it.
2. Allow TCP/IP Connectivity
Configure TCP/IP connectivity for use with IBM Director Server. By default, SQL Server Express Edition does not have TCP/IP connectivity enabled after installation. This means you won't be able to remotely access the database. In addition, the TCP port must be set for use with IBM Director Server. Complete the following steps:
1. Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager.
2. In the left pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, expand SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration and then click Protocols for SQLEXPRESS.
3. In the right pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, right-click TCP/IP and click Enable. Click OK to acknowledge the warning message.
4. Right-click TCP/IP again and click Properties.
5. In the TCP/IP Properties window, click the IP Addresses tab, and then expand IPALL.
6. Under IPALL, clear the TCP Dynamic Ports field and then type a port number in the TCP Port field. Usually, the port number should be set to 1433.
7. In the TCP/IP Properties window, click OK, and then click OK to acknowledge the warning message.
8. In the left pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, click SQL Server 2005 Services.
9. In the right pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, right-click SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) and click Restart.
3. Install SQL Server Management Studio
Download SQL Server Management Studio Express from https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&displaylang=en. If you didn't allow Mixed mode Authentication for the Sql Server Express earlier, complete the following steps:
1. In SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer, right-click the server, and then click Properties.
2. On the Security page, under Server authentication, select "SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode."
3. In the SQL Server Management Studio dialog box, click OK, to acknowledge the need to restart SQL Server.
4. In Object Explorer, right-click your server, and then click Restart. If SQL Server Agent is running, it must also be restarted.
5. In Object Explorer, expand Security, expand Logins, right-click sa, and then click Properties.
6. On the General page, you may have to create and confirm a password for the sa login.
7. On the Status page, in the Login section, click Enabled, and then click OK.
4. Create Your Database
- Create the database using SQL Server Management Studio. Add a user to the database by going into [database_name]/security/users.
- Give the user permissions for remote access.
a) Right Click [database_name], select properties.
b) Go into properties.
c) Select the user and grant all permissions.
- JDBC Access -
Microsoft provides a JDBC Driver for SQL Server 2005, which can be downloaded from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/data/aa937724.aspx. There's a "sqljdbc.jar" in the pack that you'll need to put on your classpath. Then you can use the following Driver and Url:
Driver: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
Url: jdbc:sqlserver://[host]:[port, default 1433];"databaseName=[database_name]"
However, I needed to use Java 1.2 for my application and Microsoft's JDBC driver does not support it. It doesn't support 1.3 either. I found another great free driver at http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=369359&group_id=33291 which fit my needs: free, supports java 1.2, and easy to use. There's a jtds.jar in the pack that you'll need to put on your classpath. Then you can use the following Driver and Url.
Driver: net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver
Url: jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://[host]:[port, default 1433]/[database_name]
I'm assuming you know how to use JDBC already, so this guide ends here.
- Installing Sql Server Express 2005 -
1. Install Sql Server Express.
Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/trial-software.mspx#EXC. During install, selecting all the default options is fine. The only thing you would want to change is using Mixed Mode authentication instead of Windows Authentication. If you didn't select that option, I'll tell you how to do it later, so don't worry about it.
2. Allow TCP/IP Connectivity
Configure TCP/IP connectivity for use with IBM Director Server. By default, SQL Server Express Edition does not have TCP/IP connectivity enabled after installation. This means you won't be able to remotely access the database. In addition, the TCP port must be set for use with IBM Director Server. Complete the following steps:
1. Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager.
2. In the left pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, expand SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration and then click Protocols for SQLEXPRESS.
3. In the right pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, right-click TCP/IP and click Enable. Click OK to acknowledge the warning message.
4. Right-click TCP/IP again and click Properties.
5. In the TCP/IP Properties window, click the IP Addresses tab, and then expand IPALL.
6. Under IPALL, clear the TCP Dynamic Ports field and then type a port number in the TCP Port field. Usually, the port number should be set to 1433.
7. In the TCP/IP Properties window, click OK, and then click OK to acknowledge the warning message.
8. In the left pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, click SQL Server 2005 Services.
9. In the right pane of the SQL Server Configuration Manager window, right-click SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) and click Restart.
3. Install SQL Server Management Studio
Download SQL Server Management Studio Express from https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&displaylang=en. If you didn't allow Mixed mode Authentication for the Sql Server Express earlier, complete the following steps:
1. In SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer, right-click the server, and then click Properties.
2. On the Security page, under Server authentication, select "SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode."
3. In the SQL Server Management Studio dialog box, click OK, to acknowledge the need to restart SQL Server.
4. In Object Explorer, right-click your server, and then click Restart. If SQL Server Agent is running, it must also be restarted.
5. In Object Explorer, expand Security, expand Logins, right-click sa, and then click Properties.
6. On the General page, you may have to create and confirm a password for the sa login.
7. On the Status page, in the Login section, click Enabled, and then click OK.
4. Create Your Database
- Create the database using SQL Server Management Studio. Add a user to the database by going into [database_name]/security/users.
- Give the user permissions for remote access.
a) Right Click [database_name], select properties.
b) Go into properties.
c) Select the user and grant all permissions.
- JDBC Access -
Microsoft provides a JDBC Driver for SQL Server 2005, which can be downloaded from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/data/aa937724.aspx. There's a "sqljdbc.jar" in the pack that you'll need to put on your classpath. Then you can use the following Driver and Url:
Driver: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
Url: jdbc:sqlserver://[host]:[port, default 1433];"databaseName=[database_name]"
However, I needed to use Java 1.2 for my application and Microsoft's JDBC driver does not support it. It doesn't support 1.3 either. I found another great free driver at http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=369359&group_id=33291 which fit my needs: free, supports java 1.2, and easy to use. There's a jtds.jar in the pack that you'll need to put on your classpath. Then you can use the following Driver and Url.
Driver: net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver
Url: jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://[host]:[port, default 1433]/[database_name]
I'm assuming you know how to use JDBC already, so this guide ends here.
MS Access and JDBC
This describes how I set up JDBC to interact with a Microsoft Access .mdb database. The MS Access Database was installed on a Windows XP machine. The database was being accessed using JDBC on a remote Trusted Solaris machine running Java 1.2. The following instructions should apply to more configurations than just that though.
- Create the Microsoft Access Database -
1. Go into Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC)
2. Click on the System DSN tab
3. Click the Add Button, choose Microsoft Access (*.mdb)
4. Choose the database name. Click the "create" button and decide on the location.
5. Click the Advanced button to give the database a username and password.
6. You can edit these options using the Configure button.
- JDBC Access for Microsoft Access -
You can use JDBC to access the MS Access database using Sun's built in ODBC driver. The Driver and the Url are as follows:
Driver: sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
Url: jdbc:obbc:[database_name]
However, I needed to access the database from a remote host. I couldn't find any direct way to do this, due to the nature of the MS Access database. So to use access the database remotely, I used RmiJdbc. You can download it at http://rmijdbc.objectweb.org/.
RmiJdbc is a bridge to allow remote access to JDBC drivers. You'll find the RmiJdbc jar in the package, which you'll need to include on your classpath. Then you can use the following Driver and Url (to connect to the mdb Access database):
Driver: org.objectweb.rmijdbc.Driver
Url: jdbc:rmi://[host]/jdbc:obbc:[database_name]
In order for this to work, RmiJdbc needs to be listening for requests. Start up the server by executing "org.objectweb.rmijdbc.RJJdbcServer" on the machine the MS Access database is located on. Remember that to put the RmiJdbc jar on your classpath.
I'm assuming that you know how to use JDBC, so I'm going to end my instructions here.
[Reference]
http://rmijdbc.objectweb.org/
http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=2691&lngWId=2
- Create the Microsoft Access Database -
1. Go into Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC)
2. Click on the System DSN tab
3. Click the Add Button, choose Microsoft Access (*.mdb)
4. Choose the database name. Click the "create" button and decide on the location.
5. Click the Advanced button to give the database a username and password.
6. You can edit these options using the Configure button.
- JDBC Access for Microsoft Access -
You can use JDBC to access the MS Access database using Sun's built in ODBC driver. The Driver and the Url are as follows:
Driver: sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
Url: jdbc:obbc:[database_name]
However, I needed to access the database from a remote host. I couldn't find any direct way to do this, due to the nature of the MS Access database. So to use access the database remotely, I used RmiJdbc. You can download it at http://rmijdbc.objectweb.org/.
RmiJdbc is a bridge to allow remote access to JDBC drivers. You'll find the RmiJdbc jar in the package, which you'll need to include on your classpath. Then you can use the following Driver and Url (to connect to the mdb Access database):
Driver: org.objectweb.rmijdbc.Driver
Url: jdbc:rmi://[host]/jdbc:obbc:[database_name]
In order for this to work, RmiJdbc needs to be listening for requests. Start up the server by executing "org.objectweb.rmijdbc.RJJdbcServer" on the machine the MS Access database is located on. Remember that to put the RmiJdbc jar on your classpath.
I'm assuming that you know how to use JDBC, so I'm going to end my instructions here.
[Reference]
http://rmijdbc.objectweb.org/
http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=2691&lngWId=2
MySQL and JDBC
This describes how I set up a MySql database to talk with JDBC. The MySql database and server were installed on a Windows XP machine. The database was being accessed using JDBC on a remote Trusted Solaris machine running Java 1.2. The following instructions should apply to more configurations than just that though.
- MySql Database and Server -
1. Download MySql Server from http://www.mysql.org. For my installation, I used MySql Server 4.1, which I downloaded from http://www.mysql.org/downloads/mysql/4.1.html.
2. Install MySql Server using all the default options. Afterwards, you can add the MySql bin path to your PATH enviroment variable for convenience if you want.
3. It's time to create your Database. I used the mysql tool, which can be found in the bin folder of the MySql installation. It's a command line tool. Here is an example of session for setting your database up.
1) C://> mysql -u root -p
2) > create database test;
3) > select host,user,password from mysql.user;
4) > GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* to 'user'@'%' identified by 'pass';
5) > select host,user,password from mysql.user;
The first line logs you in. The second line creates a database called test. The fourth line grants priviliges to the database. '*.*' means these all privilges will be granted on everything, 'user' is the username, 'pass' is the password, '%' is a wildcard for the host; Altogether, line 4 allows user to access any mysql database from any host using the password pass. You can limit the host to just localhost or a specific IP and you can limit privileges to a specific database. Lines 3 and 5 will allow you to see if your user was set up correctly: you'll see new entries in the table.
- JDBC Access for MySql -
1. Download the MySql JDBC Driver (called Connector/J) from http://www.mysql.org. It was under Downloads, Connectors, Connector/J. Because I needed to use Java 1.2, I needed to download the older Connector/J 3.0. If you're using a newer JVM, you can use a higher version.
2. Extract the archive and add the jar found at the top level to java's classpath. The mysql jar shouldn't have '-g' in its name anywhere.
3. Now you can write your java code. Use the following Driver and Url:
Driver: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
Url: jdbc:mysql://[host, default localhost]:[port, default 3306]/[database_name]
4. This isn't a JDBC guide, so I'll end here. Happy coding. And good luck.
TroubleShooting
1. Error 'Can not connect to host': You don't have permission to connect to the database from the machine you're using. This probably means you didn't grant permission to your database correctly.
2. "ClassDefNotFound: java/lang/reflect/InvocationHandler": I go this error when I was trying to use the 5.0 Connector/J with Java 1.2. The 3.0 Connector/J is the only version that supports such an old JVM.
- MySql Database and Server -
1. Download MySql Server from http://www.mysql.org. For my installation, I used MySql Server 4.1, which I downloaded from http://www.mysql.org/downloads/mysql/4.1.html.
2. Install MySql Server using all the default options. Afterwards, you can add the MySql bin path to your PATH enviroment variable for convenience if you want.
3. It's time to create your Database. I used the mysql tool, which can be found in the bin folder of the MySql installation. It's a command line tool. Here is an example of session for setting your database up.
1) C://> mysql -u root -p
2) > create database test;
3) > select host,user,password from mysql.user;
4) > GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* to 'user'@'%' identified by 'pass';
5) > select host,user,password from mysql.user;
The first line logs you in. The second line creates a database called test. The fourth line grants priviliges to the database. '*.*' means these all privilges will be granted on everything, 'user' is the username, 'pass' is the password, '%' is a wildcard for the host; Altogether, line 4 allows user to access any mysql database from any host using the password pass. You can limit the host to just localhost or a specific IP and you can limit privileges to a specific database. Lines 3 and 5 will allow you to see if your user was set up correctly: you'll see new entries in the table.
- JDBC Access for MySql -
1. Download the MySql JDBC Driver (called Connector/J) from http://www.mysql.org. It was under Downloads, Connectors, Connector/J. Because I needed to use Java 1.2, I needed to download the older Connector/J 3.0. If you're using a newer JVM, you can use a higher version.
2. Extract the archive and add the jar found at the top level to java's classpath. The mysql jar shouldn't have '-g' in its name anywhere.
3. Now you can write your java code. Use the following Driver and Url:
Driver: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
Url: jdbc:mysql://[host, default localhost]:[port, default 3306]/[database_name]
4. This isn't a JDBC guide, so I'll end here. Happy coding. And good luck.
TroubleShooting
1. Error 'Can not connect to host': You don't have permission to connect to the database from the machine you're using. This probably means you didn't grant permission to your database correctly.
2. "ClassDefNotFound: java/lang/reflect/InvocationHandler": I go this error when I was trying to use the 5.0 Connector/J with Java 1.2. The 3.0 Connector/J is the only version that supports such an old JVM.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Keep What You Stream
Streaming Video and Streaming Music are all nice and good when you have a good internet connection. But that's not always the case. Fortunetely, there's free software to help you grab your favorite online media without having to reload a web page endlessly. These are the ones I use, there may be better programs out there, but I've been fine with just these.
Download Helper
I think I've made it clear that I use firefox, this video downloader is a firefox plugin. Let's say you've just watched a YouTube video and want to save it. If you have this installed, then you can just right-click the page, go to the "Download Helper" option, and then choose the flv file. (Youtube videos are flv format, K-lite Mega Codec allows you to watch them, or there are tons of easy to find "flv to avi" programs.) I used Youtube in this example, but this Download Helper will work with just about any streaming video site. Oh yeah, here's a good tip, go to the preferences menu and add 'swf' to the MediaLink and MediaReq tabs so that you can download flash files.
Audacity or Free MP3 Sound Recorder
These two programs will allow you to record sounds, both can record to the MP3 format. Audacity doubles as an editing program, Free MP3 Sound Recorder is more limited but much simpler to use. Both seem safe to me. If you don't trust me, you can google search to find a bunch of other options. Oh yeah, you need to choose either stereo mix or wave in for the sound device if you want to record stuff playing on your computer. This is a problem for certain computers, all the fixes for it seem expensive.
Download Statusbar
And while we're talking about downloading stuff... if you're using firefox, please also be using download status bar. It's a million times better and less intrusive that that default download pop-up manager.
Download Helper
I think I've made it clear that I use firefox, this video downloader is a firefox plugin. Let's say you've just watched a YouTube video and want to save it. If you have this installed, then you can just right-click the page, go to the "Download Helper" option, and then choose the flv file. (Youtube videos are flv format, K-lite Mega Codec allows you to watch them, or there are tons of easy to find "flv to avi" programs.) I used Youtube in this example, but this Download Helper will work with just about any streaming video site. Oh yeah, here's a good tip, go to the preferences menu and add 'swf' to the MediaLink and MediaReq tabs so that you can download flash files.
Audacity or Free MP3 Sound Recorder
These two programs will allow you to record sounds, both can record to the MP3 format. Audacity doubles as an editing program, Free MP3 Sound Recorder is more limited but much simpler to use. Both seem safe to me. If you don't trust me, you can google search to find a bunch of other options. Oh yeah, you need to choose either stereo mix or wave in for the sound device if you want to record stuff playing on your computer. This is a problem for certain computers, all the fixes for it seem expensive.
Download Statusbar
And while we're talking about downloading stuff... if you're using firefox, please also be using download status bar. It's a million times better and less intrusive that that default download pop-up manager.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Fun Reads
I found some kinda fun technical reads. They're on the funny side, fun reads. Enjoy.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/article_print
Alice and Jaberwocky AI chatting with each other.
http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/The_Complicator_0x27_s_Gloves.aspx
The complicator gloves.
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/12/parabola.html
Steve Yegge writes a story.
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2007/05/many_worlds_many_treats.php
Teaching Quantum Mechanics to a Dog
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html
A Real Hacker. This one is classic, but I needed to add it anyway.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/article_print
Alice and Jaberwocky AI chatting with each other.
http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/The_Complicator_0x27_s_Gloves.aspx
The complicator gloves.
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/12/parabola.html
Steve Yegge writes a story.
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2007/05/many_worlds_many_treats.php
Teaching Quantum Mechanics to a Dog
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html
A Real Hacker. This one is classic, but I needed to add it anyway.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Java and Web Services
Today's blog goes over a bunch of web service stuff I learned for a project at work. A web service implementation was desirable because of the potential for interoperability. However, we wanted to send images and have support alerts. None of us really knew about the recent advancements in web services, so I spent a week or two doing a feasibility study. I ended up learning a lot about JAX-WS, Asynchronous Callbacks, and MTOM. So, I'm going to share what I've learned. This entry was written 1/18/2007, so it may not be all that accurate today. Don't blame me, blame our every changing technology.
-- Web Service Study --
Web services have developed a lot between 2004 and 2006. Many new features and capabilities have been added to the tools, which has also made creating and using web services more complex. The technology is still very new and although there are people using it, there isn't much documentation about it. This makes it very difficult to find information about it, especially to the depth that I wanted. At this point, I have a "pretty good" idea about what is out there and how it works. Which means that I can use the APIs and create services, but as for how it really works... I'm basically making educated guesses.
There are at least four different Java web service implementations that support asynchronous callbacks and MTOM out there:
1. JAX-WS (big name): https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/
2. Axis 2 (big name): http://ws.apache.org/axis2/
3. xFire (claims excellent performance): http://xfire.codehaus.org/
4. JibxSoap: http://jibx.sourceforge.net/jibxsoap/index.html
-- JAX-WS --
I only focused on, and will only be discussing, the JAX-WS 2.0 approach. JAX-WS 2.0 is the successor to JAX-RPC. There are two major reasons for this decision.
Firstly, JAX-WS 2.0 is included in Java 6. This means applications using it will require no third party software dependencies or additional jar files for supporting web services. Unfortunetely, the ant tasks to build web services are not included with Java 6, so we as developers still need to get a separate special JAX-WS jar for the development side. The needed classes are the ant versions of the apt and wsimport tools. However, as far as running the client goes, only Java 6, the application, and possibly some client side xml will be necessary. I have verified using a JAX-WS developed application with only JDK 6.
Secondly, JAX-WS also seems to be the most determined to follow specifications, although I'm not sure how standard or widely adopted these specifications are. JAX-WS seems to concentrate on the WS-I standards, which has no track record of adoption. JAX-WS seems to be trying to ensure interoperability with Microsoft's Indigo platform. Going beyond the interoperability provided by JAX-WS itself, the JAX-WS project also provides the foundation for the Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) that provides enterprise features that interoperate with Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation. The WSIT software works as documented, but is known to be incomplete and contain known bugs at this time
JAX-WS currently claims to support:
JAX-WS 2.0
WS-I Basic Profile 1.1
WS-I Attachments Profile 1.0
WS-I Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0
The JAX-WS team claims that the next release (JAX-WS 2.1) will support:
WS-Addressing - This standard defines a mechanism for callbacks where the client sends an address the server can send alerts to.
[Selected Relevant Links]
JAX-WS Homepage: https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/
Web Services in Java: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/ws-java1.html
-- Using JAX-WS --
I'm going to briefly describe how to create a web service and a client to access that web service using JAX-WS. Coding web service server/client applications in JAX-WS requires very specfic design decisions and code annotations. While they aren't very hard to write once you learn them, they take a fair amount of time to learn. And once you get the code running, there may still be a significant amount of effort deploying the service and debugging interoperability problems.
JAX-WS allows (actually, I think forces) you to use annotations to define a web service. Defining a web service would look like this:
import javax.jws.WebMethod;
import javax.jws.WebService;
@WebService(name = "StockQuote", serviceName = "StockQuoteService")
public class StockQuoteImpl {
@WebMethod(operationName = "getQuote")
public double getQuote(String ticker) {
double result = 0.0;
if (ticker.equals("GOOG")) {
result = 320.0;
}
return result;
}
}
Once the code is written, you need to run the apt tool on it, which provides a facility for programmatically processing the annotations added to Java. If you want to use this in an ant build, you would want to download the JAX-WS jar which includes com.sun.tools.ws.ant.apt. After you've run apt, then you need to create your war file using the war tool and a custom xml file. Deploy the war file and your web service will be ready to use.
Then, you can write some client code to use this service.
public class StockQuoteClient {
public static void main(String[] args) {
StockQuote port = new StockQuoteService().getStockQuotePort();
double result = port.getQuote("GOOG");
System.out.printf("The stock price of %s is $%f.\n", ticker, result);
}
}
Then you must use wsimport, which generates JAX-WS portable artifacts. If you want to use this in an ant build, you would want to download the JAX-WS jar, which includes com.sun.tools.ws.ant.wsimport. wsimport works by getting the wsdl and creating all the artifacts needed to use this service. In this case, it would generate the JAXB 2.0 binding classes GetQuote, GetQuoteResponse, package-info, and ObjectFactory. Furthermore, it creates the service endpoint interface StockQuote, which provides the client view of the service, and the class StockQuoteService, which allows a client to interact with the client runtime. A point to note here is that, even though the wsimport is from the RI, the artifacts it generates are portable.
With the artifacts created, you can now compile the client. Then you can run the client. Supporting asynchronous callbacks or mtom, which are addressed in the following sections, will add complexity on top of what has been described here.
[More Detailed Tutorial]
JAX-WS Example: http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2006/06/13/web-services-with-jax-ws-2.0.html
-- Web Service Asynchronous Callbacks and JAX-WS --
Asynchronous web services still imply a request-response protocol. However, asynchronous web services allow the application to do other things while it is waiting for a response from the server. So instead of a blocking operation, you have a non-blocking operation.
In the JAX-WS implementation, you tell the client application to asynchonously use web services through a combination of code and xml. The xml is actually WSDL bindings. This does not mean that the WSDL file on the server side needs special JAX-WS specific bindings that will effect interoperability. Instead it is optional and you may specify client-side xml to merge with the server obtained WSDL. Of course, this means that a .NET client accessing the service would somehow need to know to use asynchronous calls. There isn't any mechanism for that yet.
On the JAX-WS website, it is claimed that "the connection is kept open until the response is received. After that, the callback is called. client/server side handlers do not affect this behaviour." As this implies, using a web service asynchronously is implemented entirely by the client. I believe that when you make an asynchronous request to a web service, JAX-WS creates a new thread that waits for the response so that there is no blocking unless you need the returned data to continue. There isn't any massive polling, just a waiting for a response. Like I said before, the syntax for coding this isn't complicated, but it takes a lot of time to learn and the interoperability may be difficult.
There are two ways to use asynchronous services, which are polling and callback. Each approach definitely has its own benefits and disadvantages.
The polling approach allows you to poll an object that is created when you make the web service request about whether or not a response has been recieved from the server. If it has received a response, you can then request the data response from that object. As I said before, I do not believe that this actually polls the server.
The callback approach allows you to define a callback method when you make the web service request. When the response is received, the callback method is automatically executed. There is no need for you to do anything after making the request, although you can still check if the response has been received yet.
From what I understand, in all implementations, asynchronous web services is completely done on the client side and does not require the implementation to follow any standards. Using the TCPMon tool, I looked into the SOAP messages sent by a test application I developed and verified that there was no change between using the web service synchronously and asynchronously. Asynchronous callbacks are implemented by all the major web service platforms. There is no standardized way to suggest that the web service be used asynchronously, but it won't be impossible.
Java 6 also includes an embedded http server. What this means is that an endpoint can be embedded in client via the JAX-WS API. So using this, the client can send its address to the server, and the server can push information whenever anything is available to a service on the client's server. For this kind of callback, WS-Adressing has a specification about how this should work. JAX-WS does not follow this, but they say that they plan to for the next release. Oh yeah, the embedded server appears to randomly refuse requests if it receives many requests.
[Examples of Use]
JAX-WS Asynchronous Callback Example: http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2006/09/19/asynchronous-jax-ws-web-services.html
Endpoints in Mustang Example: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/jitu/archive/2006/01/web_service_end.html
-- Attachments and JAX-WS --
The built-in support for Binary Attachments in JAX-WS is MTOM (Message Transmission and Optimization Mechanism). MTOM is a method of efficiently sending binary data to and from web services. It uses XOP (XML-binary Optimized Packaging) to transmit binary data and is intended to replace both MIME and DIME attachments.
The SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism, paired with the XML-binary Optimized Packaging [XOP], was proposed to address the inefficiencies related to the transmission of binary data in SOAP documents. This solution proposes a method in which XML messages are dissected in order to transmit binary blobs as MIME attachments in a way that is transparent to the application. Since an attachment is not really part of the XML payload, binary data does not need to be base64 encoded, thus reducing its size and increasing its processing speed.
MTOM is supported by the JAX-WS API and is transparent to the user and developer. MTOM is also supported by Microsoft .NET starting in WSE 3.0. The other web service alternative is encoding the data (such as base64 conversion), which is much more inefficient. Unfortunetely, MTOM still doesn't seem all that fast.
[References]
MTOM W3C Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12-mtom/
MTOM and JAX-WS: http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/2.0/jaxws/mtom-swaref.html
MTOM Performance and Description: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/spericas/archive/2006/04/mtom_performanc.html
JAX-WS MTOM Usage Example: http://blogs.sun.com/milan/entry/using_web_service_to_send
-- From the Web Browser --
As for the web browser, there really hasn't been any outstanding development in that field. People have done funny things to allow callbacks (like using transfers for embedded video for the html requests). The methods were unreliable and very unlikely to really be adopted. Polling still seems like the best way, although it could be heavy on bandwidth.
- SOAP Thoughts -
To end off, I want to rant about SOAP:
SOAP is bloated and you can't find many people that actually like it. Sure, some businesses/people are using it, but the implementations don't work like they're supposed to. SOAP is confusing. It isn't easy to figure out what the standards are or what the standards are trying to say. Microsoft and Sun claim to be working off the same standards, but I'm not convinced they interpret them the same way. SOAP is complicated. You need compatible generation tools, WSDL files, SOAP web applications, and web clients for anything to even work. The interoperability it's designed for still isn't quite there because there are many different standards out there or the implementations of SOAP don't follow the standards correctly. I'm not convinced that it will remain popular for very long. SOAP services are incredibly difficult to create unless you have tools to do most of the work for you. If you have the right tools, it's not too hard to write applications, but the learning curve is pretty steep if you actually want to know what's going on. And you will need to know what's going on if you're writing anything more complicated than a stock-quote example. And it will be very difficult to troubleshoot any problems. SOAP still isn't very mature. A lot about it has changed in the past year and there's not much to suggest that it won't radically change in the next year.
I wonder if some of the other stuff (REST or something else altogether) will eventually replace it. I am impressed with how much web services have developed, but a lot of this development has added a lot of complexity. Web Services are easier to make (thanks to the tools) and more official standards are taking form, but they are more complicated than ever to understand and make by hand (which means they are not easy to debug.) Of course, none of this means that SOAP won't gain popularity and become increasingly important. It seems like the most in-use, buzzed up thing right now, which is good for lastibility.
[A Fun Read]
SOAP dialogue: http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/
- Conclusion -
And that's it. Sorry if it's fragmented sounding, I hope you were able to learn something useful. Like to look into REST. For more fun, look into the latest javascript advancements, as well as Adobe Flex.
-- Web Service Study --
Web services have developed a lot between 2004 and 2006. Many new features and capabilities have been added to the tools, which has also made creating and using web services more complex. The technology is still very new and although there are people using it, there isn't much documentation about it. This makes it very difficult to find information about it, especially to the depth that I wanted. At this point, I have a "pretty good" idea about what is out there and how it works. Which means that I can use the APIs and create services, but as for how it really works... I'm basically making educated guesses.
There are at least four different Java web service implementations that support asynchronous callbacks and MTOM out there:
1. JAX-WS (big name): https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/
2. Axis 2 (big name): http://ws.apache.org/axis2/
3. xFire (claims excellent performance): http://xfire.codehaus.org/
4. JibxSoap: http://jibx.sourceforge.net/jibxsoap/index.html
-- JAX-WS --
I only focused on, and will only be discussing, the JAX-WS 2.0 approach. JAX-WS 2.0 is the successor to JAX-RPC. There are two major reasons for this decision.
Firstly, JAX-WS 2.0 is included in Java 6. This means applications using it will require no third party software dependencies or additional jar files for supporting web services. Unfortunetely, the ant tasks to build web services are not included with Java 6, so we as developers still need to get a separate special JAX-WS jar for the development side. The needed classes are the ant versions of the apt and wsimport tools. However, as far as running the client goes, only Java 6, the application, and possibly some client side xml will be necessary. I have verified using a JAX-WS developed application with only JDK 6.
Secondly, JAX-WS also seems to be the most determined to follow specifications, although I'm not sure how standard or widely adopted these specifications are. JAX-WS seems to concentrate on the WS-I standards, which has no track record of adoption. JAX-WS seems to be trying to ensure interoperability with Microsoft's Indigo platform. Going beyond the interoperability provided by JAX-WS itself, the JAX-WS project also provides the foundation for the Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) that provides enterprise features that interoperate with Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation. The WSIT software works as documented, but is known to be incomplete and contain known bugs at this time
JAX-WS currently claims to support:
JAX-WS 2.0
WS-I Basic Profile 1.1
WS-I Attachments Profile 1.0
WS-I Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0
The JAX-WS team claims that the next release (JAX-WS 2.1) will support:
WS-Addressing - This standard defines a mechanism for callbacks where the client sends an address the server can send alerts to.
[Selected Relevant Links]
JAX-WS Homepage: https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/
Web Services in Java: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/ws-java1.html
-- Using JAX-WS --
I'm going to briefly describe how to create a web service and a client to access that web service using JAX-WS. Coding web service server/client applications in JAX-WS requires very specfic design decisions and code annotations. While they aren't very hard to write once you learn them, they take a fair amount of time to learn. And once you get the code running, there may still be a significant amount of effort deploying the service and debugging interoperability problems.
JAX-WS allows (actually, I think forces) you to use annotations to define a web service. Defining a web service would look like this:
import javax.jws.WebMethod;
import javax.jws.WebService;
@WebService(name = "StockQuote", serviceName = "StockQuoteService")
public class StockQuoteImpl {
@WebMethod(operationName = "getQuote")
public double getQuote(String ticker) {
double result = 0.0;
if (ticker.equals("GOOG")) {
result = 320.0;
}
return result;
}
}
Once the code is written, you need to run the apt tool on it, which provides a facility for programmatically processing the annotations added to Java. If you want to use this in an ant build, you would want to download the JAX-WS jar which includes com.sun.tools.ws.ant.apt. After you've run apt, then you need to create your war file using the war tool and a custom xml file. Deploy the war file and your web service will be ready to use.
Then, you can write some client code to use this service.
public class StockQuoteClient {
public static void main(String[] args) {
StockQuote port = new StockQuoteService().getStockQuotePort();
double result = port.getQuote("GOOG");
System.out.printf("The stock price of %s is $%f.\n", ticker, result);
}
}
Then you must use wsimport, which generates JAX-WS portable artifacts. If you want to use this in an ant build, you would want to download the JAX-WS jar, which includes com.sun.tools.ws.ant.wsimport. wsimport works by getting the wsdl and creating all the artifacts needed to use this service. In this case, it would generate the JAXB 2.0 binding classes GetQuote, GetQuoteResponse, package-info, and ObjectFactory. Furthermore, it creates the service endpoint interface StockQuote, which provides the client view of the service, and the class StockQuoteService, which allows a client to interact with the client runtime. A point to note here is that, even though the wsimport is from the RI, the artifacts it generates are portable.
With the artifacts created, you can now compile the client. Then you can run the client. Supporting asynchronous callbacks or mtom, which are addressed in the following sections, will add complexity on top of what has been described here.
[More Detailed Tutorial]
JAX-WS Example: http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2006/06/13/web-services-with-jax-ws-2.0.html
-- Web Service Asynchronous Callbacks and JAX-WS --
Asynchronous web services still imply a request-response protocol. However, asynchronous web services allow the application to do other things while it is waiting for a response from the server. So instead of a blocking operation, you have a non-blocking operation.
In the JAX-WS implementation, you tell the client application to asynchonously use web services through a combination of code and xml. The xml is actually WSDL bindings. This does not mean that the WSDL file on the server side needs special JAX-WS specific bindings that will effect interoperability. Instead it is optional and you may specify client-side xml to merge with the server obtained WSDL. Of course, this means that a .NET client accessing the service would somehow need to know to use asynchronous calls. There isn't any mechanism for that yet.
On the JAX-WS website, it is claimed that "the connection is kept open until the response is received. After that, the callback is called. client/server side handlers do not affect this behaviour." As this implies, using a web service asynchronously is implemented entirely by the client. I believe that when you make an asynchronous request to a web service, JAX-WS creates a new thread that waits for the response so that there is no blocking unless you need the returned data to continue. There isn't any massive polling, just a waiting for a response. Like I said before, the syntax for coding this isn't complicated, but it takes a lot of time to learn and the interoperability may be difficult.
There are two ways to use asynchronous services, which are polling and callback. Each approach definitely has its own benefits and disadvantages.
The polling approach allows you to poll an object that is created when you make the web service request about whether or not a response has been recieved from the server. If it has received a response, you can then request the data response from that object. As I said before, I do not believe that this actually polls the server.
The callback approach allows you to define a callback method when you make the web service request. When the response is received, the callback method is automatically executed. There is no need for you to do anything after making the request, although you can still check if the response has been received yet.
From what I understand, in all implementations, asynchronous web services is completely done on the client side and does not require the implementation to follow any standards. Using the TCPMon tool, I looked into the SOAP messages sent by a test application I developed and verified that there was no change between using the web service synchronously and asynchronously. Asynchronous callbacks are implemented by all the major web service platforms. There is no standardized way to suggest that the web service be used asynchronously, but it won't be impossible.
Java 6 also includes an embedded http server. What this means is that an endpoint can be embedded in client via the JAX-WS API. So using this, the client can send its address to the server, and the server can push information whenever anything is available to a service on the client's server. For this kind of callback, WS-Adressing has a specification about how this should work. JAX-WS does not follow this, but they say that they plan to for the next release. Oh yeah, the embedded server appears to randomly refuse requests if it receives many requests.
[Examples of Use]
JAX-WS Asynchronous Callback Example: http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2006/09/19/asynchronous-jax-ws-web-services.html
Endpoints in Mustang Example: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/jitu/archive/2006/01/web_service_end.html
-- Attachments and JAX-WS --
The built-in support for Binary Attachments in JAX-WS is MTOM (Message Transmission and Optimization Mechanism). MTOM is a method of efficiently sending binary data to and from web services. It uses XOP (XML-binary Optimized Packaging) to transmit binary data and is intended to replace both MIME and DIME attachments.
The SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism, paired with the XML-binary Optimized Packaging [XOP], was proposed to address the inefficiencies related to the transmission of binary data in SOAP documents. This solution proposes a method in which XML messages are dissected in order to transmit binary blobs as MIME attachments in a way that is transparent to the application. Since an attachment is not really part of the XML payload, binary data does not need to be base64 encoded, thus reducing its size and increasing its processing speed.
MTOM is supported by the JAX-WS API and is transparent to the user and developer. MTOM is also supported by Microsoft .NET starting in WSE 3.0. The other web service alternative is encoding the data (such as base64 conversion), which is much more inefficient. Unfortunetely, MTOM still doesn't seem all that fast.
[References]
MTOM W3C Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12-mtom/
MTOM and JAX-WS: http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/2.0/jaxws/mtom-swaref.html
MTOM Performance and Description: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/spericas/archive/2006/04/mtom_performanc.html
JAX-WS MTOM Usage Example: http://blogs.sun.com/milan/entry/using_web_service_to_send
-- From the Web Browser --
As for the web browser, there really hasn't been any outstanding development in that field. People have done funny things to allow callbacks (like using transfers for embedded video for the html requests). The methods were unreliable and very unlikely to really be adopted. Polling still seems like the best way, although it could be heavy on bandwidth.
- SOAP Thoughts -
To end off, I want to rant about SOAP:
SOAP is bloated and you can't find many people that actually like it. Sure, some businesses/people are using it, but the implementations don't work like they're supposed to. SOAP is confusing. It isn't easy to figure out what the standards are or what the standards are trying to say. Microsoft and Sun claim to be working off the same standards, but I'm not convinced they interpret them the same way. SOAP is complicated. You need compatible generation tools, WSDL files, SOAP web applications, and web clients for anything to even work. The interoperability it's designed for still isn't quite there because there are many different standards out there or the implementations of SOAP don't follow the standards correctly. I'm not convinced that it will remain popular for very long. SOAP services are incredibly difficult to create unless you have tools to do most of the work for you. If you have the right tools, it's not too hard to write applications, but the learning curve is pretty steep if you actually want to know what's going on. And you will need to know what's going on if you're writing anything more complicated than a stock-quote example. And it will be very difficult to troubleshoot any problems. SOAP still isn't very mature. A lot about it has changed in the past year and there's not much to suggest that it won't radically change in the next year.
I wonder if some of the other stuff (REST or something else altogether) will eventually replace it. I am impressed with how much web services have developed, but a lot of this development has added a lot of complexity. Web Services are easier to make (thanks to the tools) and more official standards are taking form, but they are more complicated than ever to understand and make by hand (which means they are not easy to debug.) Of course, none of this means that SOAP won't gain popularity and become increasingly important. It seems like the most in-use, buzzed up thing right now, which is good for lastibility.
[A Fun Read]
SOAP dialogue: http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/
- Conclusion -
And that's it. Sorry if it's fragmented sounding, I hope you were able to learn something useful. Like to look into REST. For more fun, look into the latest javascript advancements, as well as Adobe Flex.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Of Wiki
My wiki software of choice is currently dokuwiki. It is true that I haven't put much research into it, but I mean, once you find one good solution, do you really want to look for others? Well, I guess if it's really important... but wiki's (especially the internal project wikis we need) generally aren't. Dokuwiki is very feature-rich. It's based around PHP. My favorite template for it is battlehorse. There really anything else I need to say about it, I just wanted to mention it since I've had good success with it. I'm currently using it for our project's homepage at work and I've had no problems doing everything I want with it. It took me maybe a half hour to set up completely to my liking and I haven't had to mess with its internals since. So Dokuwiki is a big yay.
I was using JSP Wiki at first, which is also pretty nice. It was also convenient since Apache Tomcat was already all set up on our server. However, there aren't that many good looking templates for it and I didn't have the time to make my own. But JSP Wiki is a yay if you don't mind the lack of template options and want a jsp solution. But be warned, the default template isn't really pretty at all, at best I'd call it functional.
If neither of those are your cup of tea or you really want to do some serious comparisons, this is a website that compares wikis. And if you really like wikipedia, here's a guide to set up MediaWiki. And that concludes my short advice on wikis.
I was using JSP Wiki at first, which is also pretty nice. It was also convenient since Apache Tomcat was already all set up on our server. However, there aren't that many good looking templates for it and I didn't have the time to make my own. But JSP Wiki is a yay if you don't mind the lack of template options and want a jsp solution. But be warned, the default template isn't really pretty at all, at best I'd call it functional.
If neither of those are your cup of tea or you really want to do some serious comparisons, this is a website that compares wikis. And if you really like wikipedia, here's a guide to set up MediaWiki. And that concludes my short advice on wikis.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
CDisplay
Edit: Since writing this post, I've switched over to Manga Meeya, which is much, much better.
In my opinion, there's (edit: almost) no program better than CDisplay for reading downloaded sequential art (that's comics!) I use it for photos and other image browsing too. My favorite features are the smart look ahead, ability to show two pages at once, ability to view pages either left-to-right or right-to-left, automatic resizing, smart preloading, ability to automatically deal with compressed files, and easy commands. I can't think of a better sequential image viewing program. I'll tell you how to set it up and use it.
- Setting Up -
First, download CDisplay here. Extract it into "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\". Double Click on CDisplay.exe. You can press 'w' to show or hide the menu bar, whichever you prefer. I like to keep it hidden to maximize the viewing area. Now you have to customize the program. Press 'c' to open up the configuration options. Customize them however you like, these are my setting changes from the default:
- My Most Used Commands -
l: Allows you to select a file to open. It's a lowercase 'L', not a one.
Ctrl+l: Goes to the next directory or compressed file. It's a lowercase 'L', not a one.
Ctrl+Shift+l: Goes to the preview directory or compressed file. It's a lowercase 'L', not a one.
Space: Goes to the next section or page.
Ctrl+Shift+Space: Goes to the previous section or page.
- Context Menu -
I think it's very convenient to add CDisplay to the Windows XP right click context menu for zip/rar files and folder icons. This is how to do it:
- For Zip/Rar Files -
1. Open "My Computer"
2. In the menu bar, go to Tools->Folder Options.
3. Click on the "File Types" tab.
4. On the "Registered file types:" list, find and click on "ZIP"
5. In the "Details for 'ZIP' extension" area, click the advanced button. An "Edit File Type" windows will pop up.
6. Click the "New..." Button
7. For Action, type: CDisplay. For application, type: "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\" "%1"
8. Close up. Now, whenever you right click a zip file, you can choose CDisplay to open it in CDisplay. To do this for rar files, repeat steps 1-7, switching the word ZIP with RAR.
- For Folders -
1. Create "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\CDisplayFolder.bat" with the contents:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
cd %1
for %%i in (*) do set name="%~1\%%i" !name!
%2 %name%
2. Open "My Computer"cd %1
for %%i in (*) do set name="%~1\%%i" !name!
%2 %name%
3. In the menu bar, go to Tools->Folder Options.
4. Click on the "File Types" tab.
5. On the "Registered file types:" list, find and click on "Folder" (under the File Types column)
6. In the "Details for 'Folder' extension" area, click the advanced button. An "Edit File Type" windows will pop up.
7. Click the "New..." Button
8. For Action, type: CDisplay. For application, type: "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\CDisplayFolder.bat" "%1" "C:\Program Files\CDisplay\CDisplay.exe"
9. Close up. Now whenever you you right click a folder, you can choose CDisplay to open the images.
You can not edit a folder context command using the above directions. If you need to edit the newly created CDisplay context command for folders do the following. This is playing with the registry, so you shouldn't do this unless you really have to:
1. Press "win+r" for Run and type: regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/shell/CDisplay/command. Be careful to not go to ".Folder".
3. Double Click the (Default) file to the right.
4. You can now edit the command, it's the value field of the pop up window.
- Closing Notes -
The CDisplay project is no longer being actively developed and the author vanished off the face of the earth (or something ^_^.) Others try to continue his work, but I haven't given them a try yet. You can find links to them here, if you want to try them. Anyways, that's all I have to say about CDisplay. After all this explaining effort on my part, you better go try the program out! It's really nifty. ^_^ Have fun.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
And I'm Back
Wow, it's been a while since I blogged last. I got a new job which has been keeping me busy and tired. Put me in weird moods. Y'know, the kinds of moods that encourages playing Twilight Princess and not the kind of mood that encourages writing blogs that aren't read by other people. But things are calming down now, and my desire to get more stuff done has risen again. I've got a lot to post about, mostly stuff that I've learned while working at my new job. But that stuff is for later. Today, I just wanted to say that I was alive, and say I'd be posting again. Now let's see if this blog'll ever show up on google searches for Jonathan Discar.
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