ossAccounts

Using Joda Time via UserType 3 with Hibernate 4 in a GWT non Maven environment

2012-04-20T07:41:00.001-07:00

I am not going into all the steps here but this should be enough to get you going. The UserType web site is one of those that is fine if you already know what to do, hopeless if you don't.

UserType v3 has added some new features that simplifies the mapping to hibernate so all you do is:-

Download & add all the required jars (download most from the maven repo site).
Add a property "jadira.usertype.autoRegisterUserTypes" set to "true" in your hibernate.cfg.xml
Use the JodaTime data types in your Entities.

The UserType auto mapping is covered here.

Watch out for the dependency requirements for the various libs, the maven repo site makes getting them pretty easy even if you arent using Maven (which I am not since it seems to murder the environment when used with GWT) as it lists them for each jar you may want to download.

DBUnit Foreign key error when using CLEAN_INSERT InsertIdentityOperation

2012-03-28T05:00:00.001-07:00

It appears that DBUnit uses a composite command to carry out this option of DELETE_ALL followed by INSERT.

However it carries these operations out table by table.
e.g.
Table1 - Delete All
Table1 - Insert
Table2 - Delete All
Table2 - Insert
...
...

This means that it repopulates the tables before deleting the data from the next table often creating key errors.

What it should do is:

Table2 - Delete All
Table1 - Delete All
Table1 - Insert
Table2 - Insert

To get around this I have sub-classed DBTest and added a DELETE_ALL instruction to setup before using the system normally but just with INSERT.

I have also used an additional table list (a copy of the loading data that has been reversed) to control the delete. You could simply reverse the dataset for this but since I use small test datasets I prefer the flexibility.

(sorry for the poor blogger code layout!)

public abstract class DBTestExt extends DBTestCase
{
private Boolean deleteAllOnStartup = true;

@Override
protected void setUp() throws Exception
{
if (this.deleteAllOnStartup)
{
this.deleteAll();
}

super.setUp();
}

protected abstract IDataSet getDataSet() throws Exception;
protected abstract IDataSet getDeleteDataSet() throws Exception;

protected void setDeleteAllOnStartup(Boolean deleteOnStartup)
{
this.deleteAllOnStartup = deleteOnStartup;
}

/**
* Runs DBUnit in DELETE_ALL mode prior to normal operation.
*/
protected void deleteAll() throws Exception
{
logger.info("deleteAll() - start");

final IDatabaseTester databaseTester = getDatabaseTester();
assertNotNull( "DatabaseTester is not set", databaseTester );

databaseTester.setTearDownOperation( new InsertIdentityOperation(DatabaseOperation.DELETE_ALL) );

databaseTester.setDataSet( getDeleteDataSet() );
databaseTester.setOperationListener(getOperationListener());

databaseTester.onTearDown();

}

}

Maven unable to find or corrupt jar file on windows

2012-03-28T04:42:00.000-07:00

Make sure you unblock (right click->properties) your .jar file before you add it to your repository as they appear to become corrupt when they are copied.

I have been able to copy the unblocked version into the repository to fix this without deleting everything.

DBUnit Missing Table Exception on last entry of XML load file

2012-03-21T08:51:00.001-07:00

What is the difference between the following two MS SQL tables names?

1. Employees
2. dbo.Employees

The first is the table name as used by Hibernate from the annotation settings...

@Entity
@Table(name="Employees", ...

The second is the table name used in the DBUnit Jailer extraction file for my test data.

While they may refer to the same table in the real world DBUnit uses the full text to compare to its collection of known tables. It will therefore report a missing table error if you do not remove the 'dbo.' part of the name from the xml import file.

Another thing to realise is that DBUnit uses a stack to build the table requirement list so the last table in the XML is the first table checked. Thus the error appears on the last entry not the first making it look as though the earlier entries have been successful.

The HTML5 Problem

2012-03-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

For anyone pondering why there has been no development update let me say it is all my fault. Well it is my fault that I felt we had to address an issue regarding the long term suitability of our system and what we think the users (developers) are going to want.

Our original plan was to develop for Windows with C# using WPF but the fast adoption of HTML5 (albeit in a variety of flavours) made this model seem... dated.

We are looking forward about ten years in our plans. We figure we will take one to two years to become an established platform for third party developers (and some support for users looking for a simple cheap accounting solution), after that it is incremental improvements for some years and then start looking at the next generation of the system.

Where do we see WPF in the next ten years? We are struggling to see where WPF will be in 3 years with the lack of commitment MS has been displaying. So we have had to pause, take a deep breath and look (again) where we want to be and what we want to achieve. There is nothing new in this, may businesses are having to address the same issue; but it is complicated, not easy and takes time.

We have made two concrete decisions, first we will develop for a HTML5 front end only. This gives the var/developer the most flexibility.

Our second decision to to shift focus from MS SQL to PostgreSQL. This is mainly about money, the end users money and the developers money. MS SQL can be expensive whereas PostgreSQL is (without support) free. As much as possible we intend to work with both platforms, but where necessary we will favour PostgreSQL over MS SQL.

Now all we have to do is decide on a platform that meets our requirements and has a user base that will be interested in what we are doing....

Michael Hawksworth.

Unable to find Hamcrest greaterThan when using matchers in JUnit

2012-02-28T02:26:00.000-08:00

JUnit only includes some matchers when you use

import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.*;

To add the missing ones add the hamcrest jar to your build path and then static import the missing matcher.

e.g.
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.greaterThan;

While using a wild card on the import would be nice this causes a conflict with the ones embedded in JUnit.

GWT Server Side code not running debugging

2012-02-15T04:45:00.003-08:00

Make sure you have the correct "servlet" and "servlet-mapping" entries in your web.xml file (in folder war/WEB-INF).

Realbasic IP Address TextField

2011-11-29T00:51:00.001-08:00

John Ogden has produced an IP Address TextField available here. This is what his announcement had to say about it...

...a customized text field for creating a properly formatted IP address string. It forces the user to properly format the address and ends up automatically adding periods between the octets when necessary, restricting input where necessary, etc. If you would like to use this control in your projects, I have posted it in my download site: http://downloads.justaddsoftware.net/RealStuff The file is IPAddressTextField.rbo (so far it's the only thing there). If you download the control and use it, please let me know. I'd love to see if it is of use to anyone in the community.

VFP to Realbasic resource.

2011-11-28T03:39:00.001-08:00

I have stumbled upon a Real Studio, Real Basic framework developed by an ex VFPer. Definitely worth a look if only for the real version of the VFP commands (IIF!). SmoothPayGold RB Framework. Thanks to the peeps at SmoothPayGold for this resource.

Realbasic MenuItems "this property does not exist"

2011-11-22T00:09:00.001-08:00

Someone was looking for an answer to this problem recently and it is one of those things that a quick Google might have found but didn't. I can't claim credit for the fix but I'm posting it up for someone in the distant future who hits the same problem (probably me ;) ). The answer they were given was simply "assign a menubar to app.menubar in the app properties".

This class is missing one or more methods of an interface it implements

2011-11-10T06:58:00.001-08:00

This irritating message in RealStudio does not tell you which method is missing. Make sure you have saved everything so that it populates correctly and open the concrete class. Click on "Add Method" and then on the drop down next to method name. The missing method and its interface signature should be listed along with the constructor etc.

Cant find python on x64 when installing third party modules/tools etc

2011-10-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

Remember that the 64 bit implementations create entries in the 64 bit registry while your third party tool may be looking at the 32 bit registry. Use regedit to export the 64 bit version and the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder regedit to import them into the 32 bit registry.

QT Vtable erorr

2011-08-12T00:56:00.000-07:00

QTCreater does not run qmake on every build for some reason so you have to remember to do it and for those of use used to other plaforms this is a blind spot.

Having looked for the usual C++ causes of vtable errors (virtual functions etc) I found the following entry on a stackoverflow question.... (Here)

Already mentioned, but I wanted to clarify a bit more.

Qt C++ will show this error when you change a class such that it now inherits from QObject (ie so that it can now use signals/slots). Running qmake -r will call moc and fix this problem.

If you are working with others via some sort of version control, you will want to make some change to your .pro file (ie add/remove a blank line). When everyone else gets your changes and runs make, make will see that the .pro file has changed and automatically run qmake. This will save your teammates from repeating your frustration.

answered Feb 14 at 18:34

user616644
211

Append a FlowDocument to another FlowDocument (Concatenating FlowDocuments)

2010-12-09T04:03:00.000-08:00

/// <summary>
/// Append one flow document onto the end of another
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">
/// Operates only on FlowDocument
/// </typeparam>
/// <param name="argument">
/// Variable to append to
/// </param>
/// <param name="fd2">
/// The flow document to append
/// </param>
public static void Append<T>(this T argument, FlowDocument fd2) where T : FlowDocument
{
    if (fd2 == null || argument == null)
    {
        return;
    }

    // ToList() is required to avoid list updating itself and creating an exception 
    // (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/604831/collection-was-modified-enumeration-operation-may-not-execute)
    foreach (var block in fd2.Blocks.ToList())  
    {
        argument.Blocks.Add(block);
    }
}

New release of MongoDBViewer

2010-11-29T04:22:00.000-08:00

Version 0.4.0.0 sees a new UI allowing improved display of information.
The system now supports multiple servers and status information when they one is selected.

Available to download from SourceForge.

MongoDBViewer - Version 0.3.0.0

2010-09-22T02:56:00.000-07:00

This version includes the following:

(1) Fixed issue displaying null fields.

(2) Checked with MongoDB 1.6.2

The SourceForge status has been updated to Beta (from Alpha) as the program now has over 200 downloads without major problems.

MongoDBViewer

2010-06-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

While it is possible to view the documents in a collection using the command line admin functions it can be a little unfriendly. While there isn't an official equivalent of the "SQLServer Management Console" there are numerous third party options available these appear to be somewhat awkward to use on windows.

I have therefore created a very simple database viewer (MongoDBViewer) which will allow windows developers to quickly view collections/documents.

Please be warned, this is a rough and ready tool for developers not a true admin tool and as such has not had any real resilience testing.

That said, if you find any issues (or have suggestions) let me know and I will have a look (no promises).

What is (or what will be) ossAccounts

2010-05-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

ossAccounts is an open source accounts package targeted at the SME/SMA.

While initially delivering the core ledgers it will eventually grow to include traditional SOP/POP and Stock Control along with some project management tools.

While the system is open source the copyright used has been selected to deliberately allow third party developers to make the system their own and use it to deliver vertical market systems. In this way it is hoped to generate a wider acceptance of the system and build a base of knowledgable expert users/developers. (More on why this model was chosen later).

While initial plans were to use a combination of MS SQL and (Fluent NHibernate) this has recently been reviewed and the MongoDB document database is now being trialled. This database offers many advantages over the traditional SQL based database that I will go into in a subsequent post; however I will say that this offers a powerful free system that is readily tailored to meet third party developer needs.