tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:26:49 +0000JPAEclipseEclipseLinkGWTJavaGXTSeleniumToplinkHSQLDBJAX-RSRESTJAXBUnitTestExtJSJSONC#GAEServletSmartphoneArquillianMySQLNodeJSAngularJSBabyChosenJSGS4GlassfishJerseyMOXyUsabilityWMPcivilization4foreuigamesprototypinghttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)Blogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-3150554448123216069Wed, 30 Dec 2015 06:25:00 +00002015-12-29T22:25:55.113-08:00In my NodeJS application I am using the nice MySQL library node-MySQL. I have heavily used Q promises for managing the asynchronous nature of code vs. using callbacks. By using a connection pool, I can reuse connections without having to worry about re-negotiating with the database with every query. My general design is to get a connection from the pool, do whatever I need to do with it and http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2015/12/nodejs-and-promises-with-mysql.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-1748805206576672100Sun, 20 Dec 2015 04:25:00 +00002015-12-19T20:25:13.438-08:00NodeJSRecently I had to reinstall my operating system and chose Windows 10. I had an issue with my NodeJS 3.x environment and switched to NodeJS 5.x. In doing so, I had issues with the node-gyp again. It is not clear the order in which I installed everything or if the order matters, but I had to install both the "Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition" as well as the "Visual Studio C++ Build Tools". http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2015/12/recently-i-had-to-reinstall-my.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-6963688235496701602Sat, 03 Oct 2015 14:15:00 +00002015-12-29T22:25:38.229-08:00NodeJSI have noticed that some node modules come down and compile on Windows. These may be because they detect a compiler environment or because as part of their install they need to be compiled with native libraries. Either way, inevitably you may run into node-gyp trying to compile. Assuming you have the correct tool chain (see the [node-gyp github site](https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp)) you http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2015/10/installing-libraries-with-node-gyp-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-2832726230174297753Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:02:00 +00002014-10-20T08:02:26.773-07:00Since all of my open source projects are turning to HTML-5/JS based architectures, I started looking into platforms to develop stamp-webservices 4.0 that would be on the NodeJS platform. I am also supporting ng-scrolling-table which is AngularJS based. I had previously used Netbeans 8.0.X for developing ng-scrolling-table, however the lack of NodeJS debugging and support for many of the NodeJS http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2014/10/webstorm-supports-open-source-projects.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-3954473958770221507Thu, 28 Aug 2014 02:36:00 +00002014-08-27T19:36:59.608-07:00WMPIf you are like me, you don't have a lot of tools for playing video and music files. You use a few simple tools and keep in simple. In my case I primarily use WMP (Windows Media Player) on Windows 8.X and sometimes VLC Player, (esp. on my Linux systems). If you try and play .flac files in WMP they will not play because the codec is not available. No worries, as there is a great project I http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2014/08/playing-flac-files-in-wmp-windows-media.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-6529846089059935670Sat, 12 Oct 2013 21:32:00 +00002013-10-12T14:32:29.778-07:00SeleniumUnitTestI noted in a previous blog post that I was starting to write more tests in a more fluent DSL like manner. I thought I would illustrate this. Here is an example of a test that does the following (assuming you are logged in on the home screen): From the navigator (think of it as a button bar) click the "Create wantlist" - this will launch a create wantlist editor and return this solvent. We wanthttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2013/10/writing-selenium-tests-in-more-dsl-like.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-9084410911360696421Sat, 12 Oct 2013 21:17:00 +00002013-10-12T14:17:06.850-07:00AngularJSChosenJSSeleniumI had previously blogged about selection of GXT selections with selenium and figured it might be worthwhile if I posted what I was doing with my new AngularJS app that is using ChosenJS as my selection of choice (I wrapped this in a simple directive) For my selenium tests, I try and write most of the code in DSL format in a object termed a Solvent.  We use this term at my place of http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2013/10/selecting-chosenjs-values-with-selenium.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-5060598983092295611Fri, 04 Oct 2013 04:48:00 +00002013-10-03T21:48:08.962-07:00ArquillianEclipseLinkGlassfishGS4With the release of Glassfish 4 and J2EE version 7, I decided to work at upgrading my stamp web services application to the platform. An important part of my project is my 580 odd tests that include approximately 300 or so Arquillian tests. Since my application takes advantage of Container Managed transaction context and persistence providers, it is not sufficient for me to simply tests these http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2013/10/arquillian-with-glassfish-4-early-trials.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-2106517895805058092Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:39:00 +00002012-11-09T11:46:12.938-08:00EclipseLinkJAX-RSJSONMOXyAs part of my refactoring of my existing J2EE application using JAX-RS, I wanted to try and reduce the JAXB custom code in place. Previously I was using Jackson and Jersey for JSON serialization using the "Mapped" notation. This involved creating my own JAXBContext object and I was required to create some special mapping processing so that I could map an attribute as etiher an array, non-stringhttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2012/11/j2ee-application-with-moxy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-8074945124424861843Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:46:00 +00002012-11-09T07:47:23.277-08:00ArquillianEclipseEclipseLinkI have been doing some experimentation with Arquillian for testing my refactored J2EE application in embedded glassfish. I really like it so far, but I ran into an issue where me test-persistence.xml file use did not see to provide anything more than SERVERE level logging from eclipselink. I had tried setting the property <property name="eclipselink.logging.logger" value="http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2012/11/eclipselink-logging-with-arquillian-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-4023986547239986371Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:39:00 +00002012-11-01T15:40:17.486-07:00EclipseLinkJAX-RSJAXBJPAI have been silent for a long time on the blog (I have been busy - never fear) but simply have not spent the time here to document my activities. I was in the process of doing a major overhaul on my server-side JAX-RS WEB Services and their accompanying persistence services to bring things up to a little more standard approach. In particular my goals were to: Utilize more dependency injection (http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2012/11/diving-into-j2ee6-with-jta.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-2644221293815861746Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:28:00 +00002010-07-15T19:51:23.334-07:00GXTSeleniumUnitTestSo I have seen this intermittent error with my selenium tests that drives me up the wall. I'll be running a test and all of a sudden a little "Quick Find" box shows up in the lower left corner in Firefox (not the same as CTRL-F). This appears to be some sort of "old feature" of firefox that is used to quickly find links or something in the page (people have complained about it since Firefox 1.0).http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2010/07/firefox-selenium-gxt-and-nasty-quick.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-4369096436342114068Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:30:00 +00002010-03-05T20:54:56.011-08:00GXTSeleniumUnitTestFirst off, to all those who have patiently asked for my solution of GXT combo boxes and selenium, I do apologize for the long time in coming. While reading my articles is certainly not like being left with a cliff hanger in a movie sequel, I know the pain in waiting anxiously for a solution. Combo Boxes After trying many different ways to get combo boxes to work, I have worked out a pattern http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2010/03/gxt-and-selenium-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-5307560772460536245Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:24:00 +00002010-02-18T22:50:16.635-08:00foreuiprototypingRecently I have had the pleasure of working together with one of my coworkers on my Stamp Web Editor project (on our personal time of course). Like all skilled professionals she wanted a chance to try and use some new technologies and libraries (like GXT, JPA and Restful Web Services) and I realized I simply could not continue to develop my hobby application without involving more developers. Onehttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2010/02/reviewing-foreui-to-prototype-screens.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-2132619417222121541Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:09:00 +00002010-01-25T09:33:05.701-08:00GXTSeleniumI recently updated my application to use a menu hooked up to a button in which I display a GXT CheckboxListView of stamp issues. The general idea is that when defining my stamp if there are flaws (I tend to avoid collecting these) I can check-off the flaws in a drop-down like list. I added some selenium tests to capture the correct functionality, and came a across a few interesting points I http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2010/01/selenium-and-gxt-checkboxlistview.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-8774703512070945051Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:01:00 +00002010-01-17T21:10:52.519-08:00EclipseLinkJPAI had to reimage my linux server due to a catastrophic disk failure. In doing so, I had to reinstall tomcat(s) (I use two... one for running my stamp app and the stamp test app (selenium testing) and one for running hudson builds). When my ant script for my stamp application deployed to the "production" tomcat, the start target would fail. I looked in the tomcat logs and saw this: Exceptionhttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2010/01/unable-to-deploy-jpa-to-tomcat-linux.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-186892524401799552Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:57:00 +00002009-12-13T10:06:44.142-08:00GWTGXTI had to upgrade my GWT version to 2.0.0 with GXT 2.1.0. For the most part this was pretty straight forward. One change that impacted me was the usage of ImageBundle being deprecated. To convert it to the GWT version of doing things I had to do the following: extend com.google.gwt.resources.client.ClientBundle instead of ImageBundle replace @Resource with @Source (from ClientBundle) the returnhttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/12/upgrading-to-gwt-20-with-gxt-210.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-2170463250601414786Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:50:00 +00002009-12-13T10:05:40.737-08:00GWTGXTSeleniumThe following is a list of the issues I ran into when I converted from GXT 2.0.1 to GXT 2.1.0. This is not the complete exhaustive list, however these may provide others with some of the workarounds. My dialogs will cascade events to the form panels and their contents on the dialog. A change was made to Layout which requires all components which are receiving the event to have a layoutData http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/12/gxt-210-conversion.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-2941516980918395314Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:56:00 +00002009-11-07T09:00:32.644-08:00civilization4gamesIf you install and attempt to run Civilization 4 on Windows 7 you will likely receive an error similiar to the following: I was able to resolve this by downloading and installing the latest released runtime version of DirectX. I suppose if you install and play many games you likely have a newer version of the DirectX runtime, but this game was my favorite and was the first (and currently onlyhttp://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/11/civilization-4-on-windows-7.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-116095133599485120Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:19:00 +00002009-06-06T14:21:53.873-07:00I mentioned to a colleague a week ago that I wanted to provide better syntax highlighting of source code in my blog entries. He suggested I look at Pygments which is a "generic syntax highlighter for general use in all kinds of software such as forum systems, wikis or other applications that need to prettify source code.". I have to admit, I kind of like it and it is relatively easy to use (http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/06/pygments-for-source-highlighting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-6887305779236559610Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:33:00 +00002009-06-06T14:23:04.299-07:00GWTGXTSeleniumFor those of you who follow the GXT toolkit know, they are currently in the process or preparing for the release of the 2.0 version. I converted to the 2.0 M1 version a few weeks ago and other than a few issues, have been able to continue using my application (and building on it). However when I upgraded to the 2.0 M2 version, I had several key areas that no longer worked. Of course, while I http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/06/gxt-20-and-selenium.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-6982846800092119621Thu, 28 May 2009 18:28:00 +00002009-06-06T14:23:17.537-07:00GXTSeleniumIn my Stamp Editor I have a tree browser which can browse collections, albums and countries. Directly above this, I have a StoreFilterField in which I can type text to filter the tree. I wanted to write a few selenium tests for this functionality to verify the items are found. The problem I ran into is when I told selenium to type the text, the text would appear but the filter would not get http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/05/selenium-with-gxt-getting-textfields-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-224860933032522940Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:30:00 +00002009-03-26T21:48:41.129-07:00JAX-RSJAXBJerseyJSONRESTJersey 1.0.2 was released in early February and I just got around to updating to it. I was quite excited to read about the new support for JAXB marshalling to JSON formats (this was introduced I believe in an earlier release but not well detailed). Jakub Podlesak has some nice articles on this functionality on his blog and would recommend reading them. One thing I found, is initially I http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-json-with-jaxb-in-new-jersey-102.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-8684651413042299269Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:05:00 +00002009-03-14T14:09:40.431-07:00GAEThe Google App Engine revolves around keys. If you have references to other objects within your Models, it is important to understand the consequence of accessing the model (to prevent fetch statements). In particular, if you only need to Key of the item (or an attribute on the Key such as the id()) then you want to avoid inflating the persistable. There are numerous suggestions on how to http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/03/referencing-keys-of-objects-in-dbmodels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131270310109486733.post-812433500388626796Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:47:00 +00002009-03-10T12:29:20.575-07:00GAEGWTIn my previous post GWT and Google App Engine - How to Develop! I outlined an approach one could take to develop a GWT application using the Google App Engine (either from the outset or partially mapping services to GAE over time). In the article I recommended the usage of the HttpRedirectFilter. While this filter worked well using the GAE SDK, I ran into problems connecting to google's remote http://syrupsucker.blogspot.com/2009/03/gwt-and-google-app-engine-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jason Drake)0