Tips from Sony Thomas

Eclipse Luna - Good features of Eclipse 4.4 JDT / Workbench

2014-08-28T16:00:00.002+05:30

Split editors

Do you ever find yourself working in a large file and need to view or edit multiple sections at once ? You can now split / unsplit the currently active editor. Use quick access and type split to get different options.

Dark theme

A new dark window theme has been introduced. You can enable it from the General > Appearance preference page.

Show In System Explorer

If you select a resource and right click, there is now a Show In>System Explorer context menu entry that will open the folder containing that resource in your system's file explorer.

New layout for minimized views

Minimized views can have a different display mode by right-click on the "Restore" button of a minimized stack and select the "Show in the Original Location" menu item.

Filter conflicting projects during import

When importing existing projects, you can now filter out any conflicting projects (projects that are already present in your workspace).

Quick Fixes to create 'for' loops

A set of new quick fixes can create for loops that iterate over a given expression for arrays, Collections and Lists

Enabled coloring of variables

Parameter variables and local variables are now colored by default. You can change it @ Java > Editor > Syntax Coloring preference page.

Java 8 Support

The Eclipse compiler for Java (ECJ) implements all the new Java 8 language enhancements.

Improved Hot Code Replace for member types

Hot Code Replace has been improved in the Java debugger to ensure the correct method is dropped to in member types (inner / anonymous / local classes).

Eclipse plug-in - More Clipboard

2013-09-02T14:36:00.002+05:30

More Clipboard is an Eclipse plug-in which keeps track of the latest entries copied/cut into clipboard buffer and allows you to quickly access these entries.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/moreclipboard/

http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/more-clipboard

Eclipse Kepler - good features of Eclipse 4.3 ( Eclipse Kepler ) JDT / Workbench

2013-08-01T15:57:00.001+05:30

Detached windows with sash

When you detach a view or editor into its own separate window, it now has all the capabilities of a normal workbench window. They now support multiple stacks of views separated by sashes with arbitrary layouts. The detached parts will remain synchronized with the master window that they were detached from. This is especially handy for people developing with two or more monitors, so they can spread views across several monitors and keep them synchronized.

Import nested projects

The Import Projects wizard now has an option to continue searching for projects to import recursively within any project it finds. This allows you to import physically nested projects at the same time.

Open Resource dialog enhancements

The Open Resource (Ctrl+Shift+R) dialog now offers direct access to the Show In and Open With menus via drop-down buttons. On platforms that support mnemonics, the buttons are also accessible via Alt+W and Alt+H.

Whole word option on File Search page

The File Search page now allows to search for words via a new option.

Open Search dialog on last used page

The Search dialog can now be configured to open on the last used page, instead of computing the best matching page based on the current selection.

Stop thread from OSGi console

If a bad plug-in runs into an endless loop, then you usually had to kill the whole Eclipse process. Now, you can launch Eclipse with -console [[host:]port] to get a safety ring. If you're then stuck in an endless loop and Eclipse doesn't respond any more, you can just execute
osgi> threads stop main
at the OSGi prompt. This will send an IllegalStateException to the "main" thread. This is usually enough to stop the endless loop, but keep the Eclipse workbench running.

New 'Convert if-else to switch' Quick Assist

The new Convert 'if-else' to 'switch' quick assist (Ctrl+1) allows you to convert an if-else statement to an equivalent switch statement:

Content assist shows Javadoc in Display, Expressions and Variables view

Content assist in the Display, Expressions and Variables view now shows Javadoc.

Support for package Javadoc in Javadoc hover and view

The Javadoc hover and view now display package Javadoc from either the package-info.java or the package.html file.

read more @ http://help.eclipse.org/kepler/index.jsp

Eclipse Juno - good features of Eclipse 4.2 ( Eclipse Juno ) JDT/Workbench

2013-07-15T10:30:00.001+05:30

Global search bar

The workbench now has a global search field in the tool bar.

Multi-drag sash

You can now place the cursor at the intersection of two or more sashes and drag them all at the same time. When you are going to be dragging multiple sashes, the cursor will change to one with 4-way arrows. The image below indicates one such intersection with a red circle.

Ant updated to 1.8.3 and JUnit to 4.10

The bundled version of Apache Ant in the platform has been updated to version 1.8.3. The JUnit 4 version shipped with Eclipse has been updated to 4.10.

CamelCase in Quick Outline

The Quick Outline (Ctrl+O) and Quick Hierarchy (Ctrl+T) in the Java Editor now also support camelCase matching on the element name, quite similar to the Open Type dialog and Content Assist.

Quick Assist to convert enhanced for loop

Ever encountered an enhanced for loop and needed access to the Iterator or to the loop index? Now, you can just use a Quick Assist (Ctrl+1) to convert the loop.

Improved bracket matching support in Java editor

The Java editor now supports highlighting of enclosing brackets.

New options to detect resource leaks

The compiler can now detect leakage of resources i.e. local variables of type java.lang.AutoCloseable (compliance >= 1.7) and java.io.Closeable (compliance <= 1.6).

For more details, please check http://help.eclipse.org/juno/index.jsp

Eclipse Indigo - good features of Eclipse3.7 ( Eclipse Indigo ) JDT/Workbench

2013-07-10T12:27:00.001+05:30

Lightweight refresh on access

Previous Eclipse versions relied on native refresh providers (on Windows) or a polling mechanism to keep the workspace synchronized with the underlying file system. This capability can be still enabled by selecting Refresh using native hooks or polling on Preferences > General > Workspace.
Now a new lightweight mechanism is available. Files discovered to be out-of-sync by the workspace, for example while accessing the file content by an editor, will be automatically asynchronously refreshed. If you want to refresh files this way, go to Preferences > General > Workspace and select Refresh on access.

The Problems view icon shows state

The Problems view icon now indicates whether the view contains warnings or errors. This is especially useful when working with maximized editor area as it allows you to see whether there are errors or warnings without going to the Problems view.

Branch column in History view

There is now a column showing branches in the History view when using CVS.

Compare editor shows author on left side

The compare editors @ CVS now also show the author on the left side.

Undo support for breakpoints

If you accidentally removed a breakpoint from the editor's vertical ruler or the Breakpoints view, you can now get it back using the standard undo functionality - Edit > Undo Delete Breakpoint (Ctrl+Z) - in the Breakpoints view or any other view that works against the global undo history.

Open Super Implementation

The action from the Navigate menu is now also available as a hyperlink. It is enabled for overridden methods and opens the super implementation of the selected method.

Open Declared Type and Open Return Type

This link is enabled for local variables and fields. When invoked, it opens the declared type of the variable in an editor.

Join variable declaration" quick assist for variables initialized to null

The Join variable declaration quick assist is now also available for variables initialized to null.

New 'Put expression in parentheses' quick assist

The Java editor now offers a new quick assist Put expression in parentheses.

Semantic coloring for abstract classes

Abstract classes can now be highlighted separately in the source code @ Java- Editor - Synatax Coloring

Quick Outline shows inherited members for nested type

The Quick Outline shows inherited members of top-level types when Ctrl+O is pressed twice. Now, it also shows inherited members of the type that contains the current editor selection.

Navigate to 'break' and 'continue' target

To quickly navigate to the target of a break or continue statement, you can now Ctrl+click or use Open Declaration (F3) on break or continue keywords or their labels.

JDT Unavoidable generic type problems

It is really annoying to see warnings for things you cannot not change. A new compiler option has been added that suppresses unavoidable generic type problems.

Read more @ http://help.eclipse.org/indigo/index.jsp

Eclipse Kepler 4.3 is now available

2013-07-05T22:41:00.002+05:30

Check out Eclipse Kepler 4.3 @ http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

SOAP UI faster start up

2013-07-02T13:44:00.002+05:30

If you feel like your SOAP UI is starting up very slowly, check whether this is due to any start up web page call. You can check this @ Preferences - UI Settings - Show Startup Page ==> Here you can deselect this option to improve the start-up time.

How to convert your Blogger Blog to PDF ?

2013-06-22T12:13:00.000+05:30

You can use a website called "blogbooker" @ http://www.blogbooker.com/blogger.php to convert your Blogger Blog to a PDF . Please find the steps below :

1. Save your blog as an xml using Blogger Settings - Other - Export Blog option
2. Go to the website "http://www.blogbooker.com/blogger.php" and select this XML , give your blog address and select the options like date range, page size, font, ...
3. Click the "Create Your BlogBook" button to view and save your blog as PDF

ATG and XML File Combination

2013-06-16T13:13:00.000+05:30

An XML file might appear at several points in the CONFIGPATH. The ATG platform, at runtime, automatically combines all the XML files in the CONFIGPATH with the same name into a single composite file, which is then used by the appropriate component.

XML files are combined one tag at a time: in other words, tags are matched up, and the combination rules are applied to each pair of matched tags. XML file combination is controlled with an XML attribute named xml-combine. This attribute is used only in the preprocessing stage of XML file combination.

The xml-combine attribute can have the following values:

xml-combine = "replace"
xml-combine = "remove"
xml-combine = "append"
xml-combine = "append-without-matching" --> This is the same as xml-combine="append", except that embedded tags are not matched and combined recursively. The content is simply appended.
xml-combine = "prepend"
xml-combine = "prepend-without-matching"

Read more @ http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23507_01/Platform.20073/ATGProgGuide/html/s0207combiningtwotags01.html

Samples :

ATG Order update - InvalidVersionException and ConcurrentUpdateException

2012-10-29T09:43:00.001+05:30

ATG repository item descriptor can have the version property. The atg.adapter.gsa.ItemTransactionState holds this version information. For example consider the Order item-descriptor. It has the version property defined against the table dcspp_order. Means, the dcspp_order table has the column version which defines which version of order is currently in the DB. Each order update flow will update this column.

<property name="version" display-name-resource="version" data-type="int" queryable="true" readable="true" column-name="version" hidden="false" category-resource="categoryInfo" expert="true" required="false" cache-mode="inherit" writable="true">
    <attribute name="uiwritable" value="false"/>
    <attribute name="propertySortPriority" value="30"/>
</property>

-------------------------------

During the OrderManager.updateOrder() call, validation is done to compare the vesion of the Order object to the one in repository and the exception atg.commerce.order.InvalidVersionException is thrown.

2012-09-08 11:38:24,213 99015942 ERROR [nucleusNamespace.atg.commerce.order.OrderManager] (TP-Processor77:) InvalidVersionException: Unable to update order for :6226680554
2012-09-08 11:38:24,213 99015942 ERROR [nucleusNamespace.atg.commerce.order.OrderManager] (TP-Processor77:)
atg.commerce.order.InvalidVersionException: This order (6226680554) is out of date. Changes have been made to the order and the operation should be resubmitted. Order version 136, Repository item version 138.
    at atg.commerce.order.OrderManager.updateOrder(OrderManager.java:2557)

--------------------------------

During the order update @ GSAItemDescriptor, atg.repository.ConcurrentUpdateException is thrown if no row got updated based on the "where" condition. If the table is having a version property, the where condition includes the version also. And in case of Order, this exception may occurs if the version in the DB not matches with the one in order object.

Caused by: atg.repository.ConcurrentUpdateException: no rows updated oldVersion=3 for item=order:6284190656 in GSATransaction=atg.adapter.gsa.GSATransaction@1ccdb05    thread=TP-Processor86 transaction=TransactionImpl:XidImpl[FormatId=257, BranchQual=, localId=4931830]
    at atg.adapter.gsa.GSAItemDescriptor.updateItem(GSAItemDescriptor.java:6070)
    at atg.adapter.gsa.GSARepository.updateItem(GSARepository.java:949)
    at atg.commerce.order.processor.ProcSaveOrderObject.runProcess(ProcSaveOrderObject.java:180)
    at atg.service.pipeline.PipelineManager.runProcess(PipelineManager.java:453)
    at atg.commerce.order.OrderManager.updateOrder(OrderManager.java:2586)

-------------------------------

How the ATG Order flow manages a transaction

2012-09-16T12:20:00.000+05:30

See more about ATG Tx management @ http://tips4ufromsony.blogspot.com/2012/05/atg-how-to-use-transaction-manager.html

Most of the ATG Commerce form handlers extend atg.commerce.order.purchase.PurchaseProcessFormHandler. The transaction management pattern in order flow is implemented through this form handler’s beforeSet, afterSet, and handler methods.

The transaction will be started @ beforeSet method and is ended @ afterSet method.

In general, the design pattern for updating an order is as follows:

Acquire lock-manager write lock on profile id from the /atg/commerce/order/LocalLockManager
Begin Transaction
Synchronize on the Order object.
Modify Order
Call ((OrderImpl) pOrder).updateVersion(); --> atg.commerce.order.InvalidVersionException is thrown based on this
Call OrderManager.updateOrder()
Release Order synchronization
End Transaction
Release lock-manager write lock on profile id from the /atg/commerce/order/LocalLockManager

If you extend atg.commerce.order.purchase.PurchaseProcessFormHander, then steps 1,2,8 & 9 are done for you in the beforeSet and afterSet method implementations. Steps 3&7 are no longer strictly necessary, but are still good practice. Steps 3-7 should be performed manually in your application code.

Find below the screen shot of ATG doc with this details :

Find more info @ http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23507_01/Platform.20073/ATGCommProgGuide/html/s0907preparingacomplexorderforcheckou01.html

ATG - more about Forms and Form Handlers

2012-08-25T13:10:00.001+05:30

An ATG form is defined by the dsp:form tag, which typically encloses DSP tags that specify form elements, such as dsp:input that provide direct access to Nucleus component properties. Find below a sample dsp:form tag.
<dsp:form action="/testPages/showPersonProperties.jsp" method="post" target="_top">
<p>Name: <dsp:input bean="/samples/Person.name" type="text"/>
<p>Age: <dsp:input bean="/samples/Person.age" type="text" value="30"/>
<p><dsp:input type="submit" bean="/samples/Person.submit"/> value="Click to submit"/>
</dsp:form>

When the user submits the form, the /samples/Person.name property is set to the value entered in the input field.Unlike standard HTML, which requires the name attribute for most input tags; the name attribute is optional for DSP form element tags. If an input tag omits the name attribute, the ATG platform assigns one when it compiles the page. A text input field displays the component property’s current value unless the dsp:input tag also includes the value attribute. The value attribute overrides the property’s current value.

If an outer JSP has a dsp:form then the inner included page(dsp:include) can contain element tags such as dsp:input, dsp:textarea, and dsp:select only if the page is a complete JSP. Form elements cannot be embedded in a JSP fragment (.jspf) file.

ATG provides hundreds of readymade form handlers for performing all sorts of tasks, like updating a customer profile(CommerceProfileFormHandler), managing your shopping cart(CartModifierFormHandler), checking out(ExpressCheckoutFormHandler), or interacting with a repository(RepositoryFormHandler).

Following are the tasks assigned to Form Handlers by ATG :

Validate data before it is submitted.
Detect missing information and display appropriate messages to the user.
Direct users to different pages depending on form submission results.
Read and write database or repository data.

A better way to create a new form handler is to subclass a Dynamo class that implements DropletFormHandler interface. Dynamo provides three form handler base classes that implement this interface :

atg.droplet.DropletFormHandler --> inteface
atg.droplet.EmptyFormHandler --> implements DropletFormHandler
atg.droplet.GenericFormHandler --> extends EmptyFormHandler
atg.droplet.TransactionalFormHandler --> extends GenericFormHandler --> treats the form processing operation as a transaction.

Find below a sample call to /atg/search/formhandlers/SearchValidateFormHandler from a JSP :

<dsp:input bean="SearchValidateFormHandler.validate" name="validate" id="validate" type="hidden" value="DAS" style="display:none" priority="-10"/>

A handler method will be specified with the name ‘handlex’ where x represents the name of the submit. The signature of the handle method is:

public boolean handlex(DynamoHttpServletRequest request,
DynamoHttpServletResponse response)throws IOException, ServletException{}

The handler method (handlex) returns a boolean value. This value indicates whether Dynamo should continue processing the rest of the page after this handler has finished. In the above example, there is a public boolean handleValidate(DynamoHttpServletRequest pRequest,DynamoHttpServletResponse pResponse) method @ SearchValidateFormHandler.

If there are any setx methods in the FormHandler, it will be called before the handlex method is invoked. Some of the other methods used by the form handler are:

beforeSet --> This is called before any setx methods are called.
afterSet --> This is called after all setx methods are called.
beforeGet --> This is called before any tags that reference the component is rendered.
afterGet --> This is called after the page rendering gets completed.
handleFormException --> This is called when any exception occurs while trying to call the setx methods.

Following are the form handler component properties to handle form errors/exceptions:

formError --> Boolean that is set to true if any errors occur during form processing.
formExceptions --> A vector of the exceptions that occur during form processing. If your form handler is session-scoped, clear the formExceptions property after you display errors to the user.
propertyExceptions --> A read-only property that returns a Dictionary of subproperties, one for each property set by the form. For each property that generates an exception, a corresponding subproperty in the propertyExceptions Dictionary contains that exception

Use the checkFormRedirect(String pSuccessURL, String pFailureURL, DynamoHttpServletRequest pRequest, DynamoHttpServletResponse pResponse) method of GenericFormHandler to redirect to a url from the formhandler on a success/error cases. A handler that redirects the user to another page should return false.

The atg.droplet.GenericFormHandler class (and any subclass of GenericFormHandler you write) includes a handleCancel method for implementing Cancel buttons in forms. This method redirects to the URL specified in the form handler’s cancelURL property.

When a dsp:setvalue tag is rendered for a form handler property, it invokes the setX and handleX methods of the form handler (if the methods exists).

A form handler component should be either request- scoped or session-scoped.When your form handler spans several pages, such as in a multi-page registration process, you want the session-scoped form handler.It is especially important to clear error messages to ensure they do not appear in other forms where they are not relevant.

Eclipse plug-in to create Class and Sequence diagrams

2012-07-21T09:41:00.000+05:30

ModelGoon is an Eclipse plug-in avaiable for UML diagram generation from Java code. It can be used to generate Package Dependencies Diagram, Class Diagram, Interaction Diagram and Sequence Diagram.

You coud get it from http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/modelgoon-uml4java

Read more about it and see some vedios about how to create the class and sequence diagram @ http://www.modelgoon.org/?tag=eclipse-plugin

Find some snapshots below which gives an idea about the diagram generation.

ATG - quick reference to commonly used DSP Tags

2012-06-29T03:54:00.001+05:30

In this blog, I would like to give a quick reference to the most commonly used DSP Tags.Note that in this DSP tag details :

bean refers to a Nucleus path, component name, and property name
param refers to a Page parameter
value refers to a Static-value
var refers to a EL variable
id refers to a scripting variable

==============================================================
1.dsp:importbean

example: <dsp:importbean bean="/atg/dynamo/droplet/Switch"/>

==============================================================

2.dsp:page

usage: It encloses a JSP. The dsp:page invokes the JSP handler, which calls the servlet pipeline and generates HTTPServletRequest.

example: <dsp:page> ..... </dsp:page>

==============================================================

3.dsp:include

usage: Embeds a page fragment in a JSP.

example: <dsp:include src="/myPage/ResultPage.jsp" flush="true">
<dsp:include page="../common/i18nInclude.jsp">

==============================================================

4.dsp:setvalue

usage: Lets you set a bean property or page parameter with a value copied from another bean property, page parameter, or constant

syntax: <dsp:setvalue target-spec [source-spec] />
target-spec --> bean or param
source-spec --> beanvalue="property-spec" or paramvalue="param-name" or value="static-value"

example: <dsp:setvalue param="currLocale" beanvalue="/atg/userprofiling/Profile.locale" />
<dsp:setvalue bean="Student.name" paramvalue="currentName"/>

==============================================================

5.dsp:getvalueof

usage: Creates an EL variable or a scripting variable

syntax: <dsp:getvalueof source-value var-spec [data-type] />
source-value --> bean or param or value
var-spec --> var="EL variable" or id="scripting variable"
data-type --> vartype="java.lang..." or idtype="java.lang..."

example: <dsp:getvalueof id="locale" bean="/atg/userprofiling/Profile.locale">
.....<%=locale%>...
</dsp:getvalueof>
<dsp:getvalueof var="backgroundcolor" bean="Profile.preferredColor" vartype="java.lang.String">
<body bgcolor="${backgroundcolor}" >
</dsp:getvalueof>

==============================================================

6.dsp:droplet

usage: Lets you invoke a servlet bean from a JSP page

syntax: <dsp:droplet [var-spec] name="servlet-bean" >
...
</dsp:droplet>
var-spec --> var="EL variable" or id="scripting variable"
var --> Names an EL-accessible Map variable, which holds a servlet bean’s parameters and parameter values.

example: <dsp:droplet var="fe" name="/atg/dynamo/droplet/ForEach">

==============================================================

7.dsp:param

usage: Stores a value in a parameter to a servlet bean (mainly droplets) or as a page parameter

syntax: <dsp:param name="param-name" param-value />
param-value --> bean or param or value

example: <dsp:droplet name="/atg/dynamo/droplet/IsNull">
<dsp:param name="value" param="locale"/>
<dsp:include src="/myPage/ResultPage.jsp" flush="true">
<dsp:param name="results" bean="ProductCatalogQueryFormHandler.results"/>

==============================================================

8.dsp:oparam

usage: Specifies content to be rendered by an enclosing dsp:droplet tag. dsp:oparam (open parameter) takes the value supplied to it in a JSP and passes it to the current dsp:droplet tag. Each servlet bean maintains a set of open parameters which the servlet bean can set, service, and deliver as output to a JSP.

syntax: <dsp:oparam name="param-name">
...
</dsp:oparam>

example: <dsp:droplet name="Switch">
<dsp:param name="value" param="person.hasCar"/>
<dsp:oparam name="false">
No vehicle
</dsp:oparam>

==============================================================

9.dsp:form

usage: Lets you set up a form that accepts user inputs, which are saved as component properties.

syntax: <dsp:form method="{get|post}" [action="jsp-page"] [synchronized="component-spec"]
[formid="id"] [requiresSessionConfirmation="{true|false}"]/>

synchronized --> Specifies the Nucleus path and name of a component that is blocked from accepting other form submissions until this form is submitted.
formid --> Assigns a unique identifier to the form. Forms require unique identifiers when a page specifies multiple forms and conditionally displays only one of them.
requiresSessionConfirmation --> If set to true, prevents cross-site attacks

example: <dsp:form method="post" action="servbeantest.jsp" synchronized="/samples/Student"/>

==============================================================

10.dsp:input

usage: All dsp:input tags must be embedded between <dsp:form>..</dsp:form> tags, which are either in the same JSP or a parent JSP.

syntax: <dsp:input [type="input-control"] [name="input-name"] bean="property-spec" ["source-spec"]
[checked="{true|false}"] [default="value"] [priority=integer-value]/>

type --> text or checkbox or radio or hidden or submit or image(defines a submit control that uses the image)
name --> For all input types other than radio and checkbox, the assigned name must be unique.
bean --> The bean attribute for a submit control can also specify a form handler operation such as cancel or update
source-spec --> Specifies to prepopulate the input field from beanvalue or paramvalue or value . If source-value is omitted, the input field contains the target property’s current value.
checked --> If set to true, displays a checkbox or radio button as selected.
default --> Specifies a default value to save to the component property if the user neglects to supply a value
priority --> Specifies the priority of this input field during form processing

example:
<dsp:input bean="StudentFormHandler.updateSuccessURL" type="hidden" value="index.jsp"/>
<dsp:input tabindex="2" type="text" id="searchinput" name="searchinput" bean="SearchValidateFormHandler.searchString" maxlength="1000" priority="10" value="<%=defaultKeyword%>" onfocus="clearTextArea(searchbutton,searchinput)" />
<dsp:input bean="SearchValidateFormHandler.validate" name="validate" id="validate" type="hidden" value="DAS" style="display:none" priority="-10"/>
<dsp:input type="submit" bean="StudentFormHandler.create" value="Register"/>
<dsp:input type="radio" name="sex" id="male" bean="SearchValidateFormHandler.gender" />
<dsp:input type="radio" name="sex" id="female" bean="SearchValidateFormHandler.gender" />

==============================================================

11.dsp:valueof

usage: renders a value in a bean property or page parameter

syntax: <dsp:valueof value-source>
[default-value]
</dsp:valueof>
value-source --> bean or param or value

example: <dsp:valueof param="currentName">Happy User</dsp:valueof>
<h4><dsp:valueof bean="SearchDisplayDroplet.departmentLabel"/></h4>
<input type="hidden" name="firstFacetLabel" value="<dsp:valueof param="firstFacetLabel"/>" id="firstFacetLabel"/>

==============================================================

12.dsp:textarea

usage: lets you create an extended text box that for multi-line input

example: <dsp:textarea bean="Student.disciplinaryAction" default="None"/>

==============================================================

13.dsp:a

usage: It can also update a servlet bean property value and pass a page parameter to the destination page.

syntax: <dsp:a link-destination> link-text [param-list] [property-settings] </dsp:a>

link-destination --> href ( resolves absolute paths using the Web server doc root as a starting point) or page ( resolves absolute paths using the Web application root as a starting point)
param-list --> One or more embedded dsp:param
property-settings --> specifies settings for one or more bean properties.

example: <dsp:a href="homepage.jsp">Go to your home page
<dsp:param name="city" beanvalue="Profile.homeAddress.city"/>
</dsp:a>

==============================================================

14.dsp:select and dsp:option

example: <dsp:select bean="Student.Summerhobbies" multiple="true" nodefault="true" priority="10">
<dsp:option value="hiking">hiking</dsp:option>
<dsp:option value="biking">biking</dsp:option>
<dsp:option value="swimming">swimming</dsp:option>
</dsp:select>

==============================================================

ATG - how to use the Transaction Manager

2012-05-24T14:47:00.001+05:30

Basic concepts of Java transaction

In its simplest definition, a transaction is a set of actions that is treated as an atomic unit; either all actions take place (the transaction commits), or none of them take place (the transaction rolls back).

Managing transactions is one of the primary tasks of an application server. The application server keeps track of transactions, remembering which transaction is associated with which request, and what transactional resources (such as JDBC or JMS connection) are involved. Each active transaction is represented by a transaction object, which implements the interface javax.transaction.Transaction.

A transaction is usually associated with a thread and only one transaction can be associated with a thread at any one time. A central service, called the Transaction Manager, is responsible for keeping track of all these transactions. The Transaction Manager is implemented through the Java Transaction API (JTA).

Transaction and Dynamo applications

In Dynamo applications, the TransactionManager object is represented by a Nucleus component, /atg/dynamo/transaction/TransactionManager. Nucleus components can get a pointer directly to the /atg/dynamo/transaction/TransactionManager component. Dynamo also exposes this component to standard J2EE components, such as servlets and EJBs, through the JNDI name dynamo:/atg/dynamo/transaction/TransactionManager.

In order for a transaction to keep track of all the resources, those resources must be enlisted with the transaction. Application server does this when we get the resource connection through a conection factory. These factory objects are available in Dynamo as Nucleus services. For example, the standard Dynamo DataSource object is found at /atg/dynamo/service/jdbc/JTDataSource. Nucleus components should acquire resources through these proper connection factory services, rather than accessing drivers directly from their managers. Dynamo’s default configuration uses a JDBC driver configured to simulate two-phase commits to work with JDBC drivers that do not support the two-phase commit protocol.

Best practice in dynamo transaction handling

The application should not attempt to acquire the resource once and pass it around from component to component in the interest of avoiding the code for acquiring or closing the connection. The application server make sure that same Connection object must be returned each time a connection is requested throughout a single transaction. Application components are required to close JDBC connections when they finish doing their individual portion of work. Rather than actually closing the connection to the database, the application server intercepts these close requests and interprets them as signals from the application that it is done with the connection for the time being. The application server then responds to that signal by returning the connection to a pool, or by maintaining the connection’s transactional association.

Transaction demarcation : doing small and complete tasks

For doing some small set of tasks by a thread which is already in a transaction, the thread can suspend the current transaction. After suspending, the transaction still exists and keeps track of the resources it has used so far, but any further work done by the thread does not use that transaction. After the transaction is suspended, the thread can create a transaction. After ending this new transaction, the previously suspended transaction can be resumed. An application server can suspend and resume transactions through calls to the TransactionManager object , but individual applications should not perform these operations directly. Instead, applications should use J2EE transaction demarcation facilities.

Transaction demarcation always wraps a sequence of actions. The demarcation initializes some transactional behavior before the demarcated area begins, then ends that transactional behavior when the demarcated area ends. The application server uses these demarcations to determine the appropriate calls to the TransactionManager object.

following are the differetn transaction demarcation modes ---> Required, RequiresNew , NotSupported , Supports , Mandatory , Never.

The class atg.dtm.UserTransactionDemarcation can be used by J2EE components and Nucleus components to perform basic transaction demarcation. This class accesses the UserTransaction object to perform its operations. The class atg.dtm.TransactionDemarcation can be used by Nucleus components to demarcate areas of code at a fine granularity. J2EE components cannot use this class, because it accesses the TransactionManager object directly.

Demarcation Code Sample

try{
try{
atg.dtm.TransactionDemarcation transactionDemarcation = new TransactionDemarcation();
.....
if (isTransactionMarkedAsRollBack()){
getTransactionManager().getTransaction().rollback();
}
transactionDemarcation.begin(getTransactionManager(),transactionDemarcation.REQUIRES_NEW);
.....
}finally {
transactionDemarcation.end();
}
}catch (TransactionDemarcationException transactionDemarcationException) {
<handle the transactionDemarcationException>
}

Demarcation in Pages

The DSP tag libraries dsp:beginTransaction, dsp:commitTransaction, dsp:demarcateTransaction, dsp:rollbackTransaction, dsp:setTransactionRollbackOnly, dsp:transactionStatus are available for transaction management. Also the droplets /atg/dynamo/transaction/droplet/Transaction and /atg/dynamo/transaction/droplet/EndTransaction can be used to start and transaction in pages.

Debugging rollbacks

To debug the transaction rollbacks, in the TranasactionManager component, set debugTracesForRollbacks to true. So that application throws the rollback details, else you will never know which component actually set transaction to rollback.

ATG features and ATG OOB modules

2012-05-23T09:10:00.000+05:30

Features supported by ATG:

Product Catalogue --> Custom Catalogue Creation, Localized Catalogs
Order Management --> Customize Order Management Process, Integrate with 3rd Party Order Management Tool (Yantra), Partial Order Fulfillment
Promotions --> Custom Promotion Creation, Integration with Ad Server (NetGravity)
Campaigns --> Custom Campaign Development, Marketing Campaigns, Targeted Campaigns
Personalization --> Profile Extensions, Explicit Rule Based Personalization, Implicit Dynamic
Personalization Commerce --> Shopping Cart Customization, Shopping List Creation, Customize Checkout process
Payments --> Integration with Payment Gateway (Cybercash,ClearCommerce), Bulk Payment
Collaboration --> Chat, Discussion Forum, Message Board, Net Meetings
Reporting --> Click Stream Analysis, Site Analytics, Integration with 3rd Party Tools (HitBox, Netstat)
Search --> Integration with Search Engine (Verity, Autonomy), Database/Document Search, Catalog Search
Performance Management --> Load Testing and Optimization, Fail Over, Performance optimization
ATG Migration --> JHTML to JSP conversion, DB Access mechanism migrated from Relational Views to Repository way (for 4.x to 5.x migration), Component Mapping and migration

Main ATG modules:

Module	Description
`Admin.Init`	Adds missing administrative accounts for the ATG Control Center.
`Admin.Reset`	Resets the default login accounts for the ATG Control Center.
`DAF.Search`	Enables the ATG platform to use ATG Search to index and search content from product catalogs and other repositories.
`DAS-UI`	Enables Dynamo to accept connections from the ATG Control Center. Note: This module must be running if you want to use the ATG Control Center.
`DCC`	Runs the ATG Control Center in the same JVM used by the application server that the Nucleus-based application is running on.
`DPS`	ATG Personalization
`DSS`	ATG Scenarios
`RL`	Repository Loader. Takes files that are stored in a file system, converts them into repository items, and loads the items into the repository.
`SQLJMSAdmin`	Browser-based administration interface for Dynamo’s SQL JMS message system.

Content Administration modules

Module	Description
`AssetUI`	Supports the building of browser-based user interfaces for an ATG Content Administration (versioned) environment. The module includes the Asset Picker and functionality related to it. Requires the `WebUI`module
`BizUI`	The ATG Business Control Center. Includes the Home page functionality and the View Mapping system.
`PublishingAgent`	Publishing Agent. Runs on production and staging servers and performs content deployment operations by communicating with the ATG Content Administration server.
`PublishingWebAgent`	Publishing Web Agent. Runs on the production and staging Web servers and performs Web content deployment operations by communicating with the ATG Content Administration server.
`Publishing.base`	ATG Content Administration.
`Publishing.WebAppRef`	The source module for the Web Application Reference Implementation provided with ATG Content Administration.
`Publishing.WebAppRefVer`	The versioning module for the Web Application Reference Implementation provided with ATG Content Administration.
`PubPortlet`	Supplies the portlets that make up the ATG Business Control Center interface. Including this module also causes the `Publishing.base`,`AssetUI`, and `BizUI` modules to be included. Include this module to perform most basic tasks in ATG Content Administration, such as product evaluation.
`WebUI`	Contains support for browser-based user interfaces. Examples are the tree-based asset browsing feature and a calendar widget.

Commerce modules

Module	Description
`B2BCommerce`	ATG Business Commerce Note: To run ATG Commerce, you must use one and only one of the following modules: `B2BCommerce,B2BCommerce.Versioned, B2CCommerce`, or`B2CCommerce.Versioned`. Including this module also includes `DCS.CustomCatalogs` and its modules.
`B2BCommerce.Search`	Enables Business Commerce extensions to the ATG Commerce Search.
`B2BCommerce.Versioned`	Use instead of `B2BCommerce` module if running ATG Merchandising. (Requires the `DCSUI.management` and `PubPortlet` modules also.) Note: To run ATG Commerce, you must use one and only one of the following modules:`B2BCommerce,B2BCommerce.Versioned, B2CCommerce`, or`B2CCommerce.Versioned`. Including this module also includes `B2BCommerce`,`DCS.DynamicCustomCatalogs.Versioned`, and their modules.
`B2CCommerce`	ATG Consumer Commerce Note: To run ATG Commerce, you must use one and only one of the following modules:`B2BCommerce,B2BCommerce.Versioned, B2CCommerce`, or`B2CCommerce.Versioned`. Including this module also includes `DCS` and its modules.
`B2CCommerce.Versioned`	Use instead of `B2CCommerce` module if running ATG Merchandising. (Requires the `DCSUI.management` and `PubPortlet` modules also.) Note: To run ATG Commerce, you must use one and only one of the following modules:`B2BCommerce,B2BCommerce.Versioned, B2CCommerce`, or`B2CCommerce.Versioned`. Including this module also includes `B2Commerce`, `DCS.Versioned`, and their modules.
`DCS`	Base ATG Commerce module Including this module also includes `DSS`, `DPS`, and their modules.
`DCS.AbandonedOrderServices`	Provides tools for dealing with abandoned orders and shopping carts. Including this module also includes `DCS` and its modules.
`DCS.CustomCatalogs`	Runs custom catalogs in an ATG Commerce production environment. Including this module also includes `DCS` and its modules.
`DCS.DynamicCustomCatalogs`	Runs custom catalogs in an ATG Commerce development environment. Including this module also includes `DCS.CustomCatalogs` and its modules.
`DCS.DynamicCustomCatalogs. Versioned`	Runs custom catalogs in an environment running ATG Commerce and ATG Merchandising. (Requires the `DCSUI.management` and `PubPortlet`modules also.) Including this module also includes `DCS.DynamicCustomCatalogs`,`DCS.CustomCatalogs.Versioned`, and their modules.
`DCS.PublishingAgent`	Use instead of the `PublishingAgent` module on the target server if Commerce repository items are deployed to that server. Including this module also includes `PublishingAgent`, `DCS`, and their modules.
`DCS.Search`	Enables ATG Commerce to use ATG Search to index and search content from product catalogs and other repositories.
`DCS.Versioned`	Use instead of `DCS` module if running Commerce with ATG Merchandising. Including this module also includes `Publishing.base`, `DCS`, and their modules.
`Fulfillment`	ATG Commerce order fulfillment Including this module also includes `DCS` and its modules.

JBoss - know more about the JBoss directory structure

2012-04-24T12:17:00.003+05:30

Fundamentally, the JBoss architecture consists of the JMX MBean server, the microkernel, and a set of pluggable component services - the MBeans.

The JBoss Application Server ships with three different server configurations. Within the <JBoss_Home>/server directory, you will find three subdirectories: minimal, default and all. The default configuration is the one used if you don’t specify another one when starting up the server.

If you want to know which services are configured in each of these instances, look at the jboss-service.xml file in the <JBoss_Home>/server/<instance-name>/conf/ directory and also the configuration files in the <JBoss_Home>/server/<instance-name>/deploy directory.

JBoss 4.0 features an embedded Apache Tomcat 5.5 servlet container.

conf --> The conf directory contains the jboss-service.xml bootstrap descriptor file for a given server configuration. This has the jboss-log4j.xml file which configures the Apache log4j framework category priorities and appenders used by the JBoss server code.
data --> The data directory is available for use by services that want to store content in the file system. It holds persistent data for services intended to survive a server restart. Serveral JBoss services, such as the embedded Hypersonic database instance, store data here.
deploy --> The deploy directory contains the hot-deployable services (those which can be added to or removed from the running server). You deploy your application code by placing application packages (JAR, WAR and EAR files) in the deploy directory. The directory is constantly scanned for updates, and any modified components will be re-deployed automatically.
lib --> This directory contains JAR files (Java libraries that should not be hot deployed) needed by this server configuration. You can add required library files here for JDBC drivers etc. All JARs in this directory are loaded into the shared classpath at startup.
log --> This is where the log files are written. JBoss uses the Jakarta log4j package for logging and you can also use it directly in your own applications from within the server. This may be overridden through the conf/jboss-log4j.xml configuration file. The file boot.log logs the JBoss startup and shut down notifications. This log is overwritten each time JBoss is (re)started.
tmp --> The tmp directory is used for temporary storage by JBoss services. The deployer, for example, expands application archives in this directory.
work --> This directory is used by Tomcat for compilation of JSPs.

ATG CA - different activity sources used @ BCC

2012-04-23T09:31:00.001+05:30

Read about how a new link can be added in BCC home page @ http://tips4ufromsony.blogspot.com/2012/03/atg-ca-bcc-home-screen-how-to-add-new.html

Normally an ActivitySource.properties file define the set of actions that it supports under a genericActivityDefinitionFile. But some ActivitySource.properties define the actions using the workflowActivityDefinitionFiles.

For example consider the default "Content Administration" , "SearchAdministration", " Merchanding " and "Personalization" options in BCC homepage. Below I listed the ActivitySource.properties and other properties for these links. To get all these activitysource names, just take the /atg/bizui/activity/ActivityManager component @ dyn/admin.

Content Administration
ActivitySource --> /atg/bizui/activity/PublishingActivitySource
genericActivityDefinitionFile

Search Administration

ActivitySource --> /atg/bizui/activity/SearchingActivitySource

genericActivityDefinitionFile

Personalization

ActivitySource --> /atg/web/personalization/activity/PersonalizationActivitySource

workflowActivityDefinitionFiles and genericActivityDefinitionFile

Merchanding
ActivitySource --> /atg/commerce/web/CommerceActivitySource
workflowActivityDefinitionFile

Consider the tasks under Merchandising, Administer Commerce Search and Manage Commerse Assets and a Browse option. These are defined in the workflowActivityDefinitionFile @ /atg/commerce/web/CommerceActivitySource. You could find the details in the below screen shot.

Also consider the tasks under Search Administration , these are defined in the genericActivityDefinitionFile @ /atg/bizui/activity/SearchingActivitySource. You could find the details in the below screen shot.

The PublishingActivities.xml file is checked at intervals for modifications, so you can make changes to it without needing to restart the server. The interval is set to 5 minutes by default and is defined by the genericActivityFileModificationInterval property in the /atg/bizui/activity/PublishingActivitySource.properties component.

When you create a workflow in the ATG Control Center, it automatically displays in the ATG Business Control Center under Merchandising in the Operations list as long as you save the workflow in the /atg/registry/data/epubworkflows/Commerce directory. If you’d prefer to keep the workflow in a different directory, you need to update the /atg/commerce/web/CommerceActivitySource component workflowDirectories property to with the new directory name and path.

ATG Search - high level overview of product-catalog-output-config.xml and XHTMLs

2012-04-09T12:23:00.002+05:30

The definition file format begins with a top-level item element that specifies the repository and item descriptor to use, and then lists the properties of that item type to include.
The top-level item element has the is-document attribute set to true. This attribute specifies that an XHTML document should be generated for each item of that type (in this case, each user item).
Property values that come from standard JavaBean properties of the RepositoryItem object (rather than dynamic bean properties) are specified using a dollar-sign ($) prefix.
The item element has an is-multi attribute for specifying multi-value properties. If a property is an Array, Collection or Map you should set this attribute to true.
Eeach ATG Search document is uniquely identified by a URL (typically the path name of the file on the file system).
In the XHTML documents that the ATG platform generates from repository items, meta properties are represented by meta tags in the head of the document, while text properties are represented by div tags in the body of the document.
ATG uses a URL of the following form to uniquely identify each document: atgrep:/repository-name/item-descriptor-name/repository-id
In addition to the properties you specify in the definition file, the output document also includes certain properties that provide sufficient information to identify the repository items represented in the document. The output for each item automatically includes the properties $repositoryId, $repository.repositoryName, and $itemDescriptor.itemDescriptorName.
The output for the document-level item also includes a $url property and a $baseUrl property, where each contain the URL representing this repository item. (The difference between these properties is that if a VariantProducer( Eg: locale specific) is used to generate multiple documents from the same repository item, the $url property for each document will include unique query arguments to distinguish the document from the others.)
At a minimum, you need to set the following properties on each IndexingOutputConfig component: bulkLoader , definitionFile.
The IncrementalLoader component uses an implementation of the PropertiesChangedListener interface to monitor the repository for add, update, and delete events. It then analyzes these events to determine which ones necessitate updating XHTML documents and creates a queue of the affected repository items. When a new incremental update is triggered, the IncrementalLoader processes the items in the queue, generating and loading a new XHTML document for each changed repository item.
PropertyAccessor defines how the document loaders obtain property values
VariantProducer specifies logic for creating multiple XHTML documents from the same repository item.

ATG Search - how to configure multiple language search

2012-04-03T17:43:00.003+05:30

Here I am going to explain the steps involved in configuring the multi-language ATG Search if your site support multiple language. I have given the different steps in indexing and search flows.

Indexing flow :

You could configure different search projects for different locales to support parallel search indexing for each locale.
You could setup search environment for the search projects so that the indexing host is different for the two projects.
Configure the LocaleVariantProducer @ ProductCatalogOutputConfig to specify the locale for the new language.
Include the language dictionaries you need in Search Admin on the Search Projects which can be used for indexing and searching in multiple languages.
Specify the locales @ \atg\search\config\LanguageDimensionService so that you could configure the search configurations for each language.
When you create the search configuration tree, specify the "Contents vary by" as Language, to configure the search configurations like search redirection, result exclusion,... for each language.
You need to configure the facet values as locale specific.

Search flow :

Search Formhandlers must ensure that the correct language is specified in the query requests, that it submits to Search Routing.
The language input to the search engine is set in the search request from the OOB ParserOptionsXMLBuilder class. It gets the locale from the /atg/dynamo/servlet/RequestLocale and gets the language associated with the locale. The RequestLocale component is a session-scoped component that attaches locale information to the requests of the session.
In eStore (commerce) FormHandlers/Droplets set the corresponding siteName based on the current locale in /atg/dynamo/servlet/RequestLocale.
You need to configure the Facet Labels specific to the locales.

ATG CA - BCC home screen : how to add a new link

2012-03-30T09:54:00.004+05:30

Activity source is the property which controls the links on the left nav on the BCC home screen. All activity sources are registered with the ActivityManager component at /atg/bizui/activity/ActivityManager. When rendering the BCC home page, the ActivityManager cycles through all the registered ActivitySource components and displays left navigation links for each of them on the BCC home page.

For example if I want to add a new link "My New Link" , below screen shots exaplins how this can be done

1. Add activityManager.properties to specify the activityresources. In this activityManager, I specified one MyActivitySource.

2. Add MyActivitySource.properties to specify the name of the link and the other details . Here it refers to a bundle properties file.

3. Add the bundle properties file to specify the name of the link.

4. Now you could see the new link @ BCC home page .

Each activity source has the following important functions:

Specifies the links on the left nav used for browsing repositories (via a genericActivities.xml file)
Specifies the links on the left nav used for creating a project to create and/or edit assets (via a workflowActivities.xml file)
Destination page to go to after the project has been created in step (2)

Search engine shutdown call from the Estore instnace

2012-03-29T14:41:00.003+05:30

When the estore or commerce instances are restarted the routing system service can send shut down requests to stale engines, this can be caused because of any of the following.

1. Some other instance marked the engine as stopped in the DB (This can be caused because the machine could not reach the host running the engine)
2. The eStore instance is using a different search schema that has data about the search engine host and is marked as stopped in that DB.

To avoid this overrride \atg\search\routing\RoutingSystemService.properties by setting
cleanUpStrayEng=false.

JBoss - how to take thread dumps

2012-03-28T21:34:00.001+05:30

Following are the different options in JBoss to take the thread dump.

1. Using JBoss jmx-console : Got to http://localhost:8080/jmx-console and search for the mbean "serverInfo" and click on that link. Click the invoke mbean operation under listThreaddump() method. This will give you the current snapshot of threads which are running in your JBoss jvm.

2. By using twiddle : In the commnad promt go to <JBOSS-HOME>/bin and run the command twiddle.bat invoke "jboss.system:type=ServerInfo" listThreadDump > threadDump.html and you could find the threadDump.html with the JBoss thread dump.

3. Using "Interrupt" signal : Use kill -3 <process-id> to generate thread dump. You will find the thread dumps in server logs.

ATG Search - performance decisions in Enterprise search

2012-03-22T11:42:00.002+05:30

Read more about the basic design decisions for a commerce search setup @ http://tips4ufromsony.blogspot.in/2012/03/basic-design-decisions-for-commerce.html

Read more about search engine tuning @ http://tips4ufromsony.blogspot.in/2012/02/atg-search-search-engine-tuning.html

Following items will affect search performance: number of items to be searched, quantity of content for each item, number of meta tags, number of facets, Search Merchandising settings, constraints, number of returned results,... You could find a detailed analysis below :

1. Decide how many search engines you need : Based on the performance requirement of the ecommerce site, create the Search Project @ BCC - Search Admin and add the search engine hosts. Read more about search project creation and search engine host set up @ http://tips4ufromsony.blogspot.com/2012/01/atg-search-how-to-create-search-project.html.

2. Decide the search indexing properties : Search indexing time and search response time are dependent on the index file size. As part of verification process, the irrelevant attributes from search index definition file should be removed. As a result, users will view relevant results with less number of attributes and also will get improvements in search indexing time.

3. Decide how many search projects you need : If your application is a multi locale application, you could create multiple search project for each locale. This will give you more options for each locale and a separate search engine can support a locale. Read more about search project creation @ http://tips4ufromsony.blogspot.com/2012/01/atg-search-how-to-create-search-project.html.

4. Decide whether you need to do parallel search indexing : If you have multiple search projects, you could do parallel search indexing and improve search indexing performnace.

5. One search engine per box : Search engines should always run on their own machine, with no other applications running. This is critical for machines responding to search queries to ensure proper and consistent user experience.

6. Indexing engine box : The search engine used for indexing should not be run on the same server as an engine used for query response. The search engine used for indexing is preferred to be run on its own machine (with no other applications), but can be run on the CA/BCC. If this is done, the CA machines should be deployed with extra power (CPU speed and cores, RAM) so that indexing does not affect BCC user experience.

ATG - how to prevent Cross-Site attacks using _dynSessConf parameter

2012-03-21T08:36:00.003+05:30

Cross-site scripting attacks take advantage of a vulnerability that enables a malicious site to use your browser to submit form requests to another site.

In order to protect forms from cross-site attacks in ATG, you can enable form submissions to automatically supply the request parameter _dynSessConf, which identifies the current session through a randomly generated long number. On submission of a form (using dsp:form tag) or activation of a property setting (using dsp:a tag), the request-handling pipeline ( DAFDropletEventServlet ) validates _dynSessConf against its session confirmation identifier. If it detects a mismatch or missing number, it can block form processing and return an error.

To disable this functionality, we could give the following properties (@ /atg/dynamo/Configuration to disable it globally)
enforceSessionConfirmation = false --> specifies whether the request-handling pipeline requires session confirmation in order to process the request; the default value is true.
warnOnSessionConfirmationFailure = false --> specifies whether to issue a warning on a confirmation number mismatch; the default value is true.

You can control session confirmation for individual requests by setting the attribute requiresSessionConfirmation to true or false on the applicable dsp:form or dsp:a tag. If this attribute is set to false, the _dynSessConf parameter is not included in the HTTP request and the request-handling pipeline skips validation of this request’s session confirmation number.