Vasanth Dharmaraj's Blog

Running standalone Groovy scripts

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:40:55 +0000

As I mentioned in my post Learning Groovy, I am writing Groovy scripts to automate some simple tasks. Now I want to share the scripts with others. I did not want them to install Groovy just to run the scripts. I had the groovy-all-1.8.0.jar, so I typed the following in the command prompt:

1 2	C:\temp>java -jar groovy-all-1.8.0.jar Hello.groovy Hello

It worked. Simple. Now I tried to run my script that retrieved the XMLs from a database.

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C:\work\FetchData>java -jar groovy-all-1.8.0.jar FetchData.groovy
Caught: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
at FetchData.fetch(FetchData.groovy:51)
at FetchData.run(FetchData.groovy:3)

Of course I need the driver jar in the classpath. So I added the sqljdbc.jar to the classpath.

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C:\work\FetchData>java -cp sqljdbc.jar -jar groovy-all-1.8.0.jar FetchData.groovy
Caught: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
at FetchData.createCSV(FetchData.groovy:51)
at FetchData.run(FetchData.groovy:3)

Looks like the script is run with a different classloader and the java classpath is not passed to it. I did some lazy googling but did not find the answer I was looking for. So I looked at how eclipse is doing it. Eclipse used GroovyStarter and GroovyMain to run scripts. Not knowing which to use, I just used GroovyMain:

1 2	C:\work\FetchData>java -cp lib/groovy-all-1.8.0.jar;lib/sqljdbc.jar groovy.ui.GroovyMain FetchData.groovy Fetched Data!

It worked! I just added the command in a batch file to share the script.

Infinitest: A continuous test runner for Java.

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:48:49 +0000

Infinitest is a continuous test runner for Java.

Infinitest is an Eclipse plugin that runs the JUnit tests instantly when you save a Java file. Check out the demo above. It smartly runs only the test affected by the file you just saved. This is cool. You can immediately know if you broke something as soon as you save your code. Of course, your test cases should be comprehensive. Improving Works developed this plugin and has released it as a open source project.

Learning Groovy

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Tue, 31 May 2011 03:50:37 +0000

I have dabbled a bit with scripting languages before but for some reason never really used one long term. I think that might change with Groovy. A colleague of mine got me interested in it and I have been picking up all the cool things Groovy can do by reading Dustin’s “Inspired by Actual Events” blog. Come to think of it Groovy could have saved me a ton of time I spent in writing small tools to help me in development.

I like the how concise and simple writing groovy scripts are. Here is a snippet of code to print rows retrieved from a database.

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// Get instance of Groovy's Sql class
// See http://marxsoftware.blogspot.com/2009/05/groovysql-groovy-jdbc.html
import groovy.sql.Sql

def sql = Sql.newInstance("jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:orcl", "hr", "hr", "oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource")

// iterate over query's result set and "process" each row by printing two names
sql.eachRow("SELECT employee_id, last_name, first_name FROM employees")
{
println "Employee ${it.first_name} ${it.last_name} has ID of ${it.employee_id}."
}

At work I needed to retrieve about 100 XMLs stored in a database, strip out some tags from it and write it to a file. It took about 15 lines of Groovy code to do it. Probably could have done it in less but I am just learning Groovy.

Here is another way to use Groovy that I wish I knew before. Embedding Groovy in Ant:

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  id="found" src="foobar.jar"

             includes="**/*.xml"/>

 >

     project.references.found.each {

         println it.name

     }

 >

Though the above snippet is simple, it shows how the Groovy script is aware of the Ant references. Pretty powerful.

I will showcase just another snippet before I am off to learn more Groovy. Invoking a web service:

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@Grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules', module='groovyws', version='0.5.2')
import groovyx.net.ws.WSClient

proxy = new WSClient("http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx?WSDL", this.class.classLoader)
proxy.initialize()

result = proxy.CelsiusToFahrenheit(0)
println "You are probably freezing at ${result} degrees Farhenheit"

Droid Save/Droid Save IP Updated

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:39:02 +0000

I have updated a couple of my Android applications in the Market. The apps are simple. They save any links you share to either Instapaper or Read It Later services. The main new feature is offline capability. You can save links even when you have no internet connection and once the connection is back the apps will save the links. Here are the change logs and where you can get them:

Droid Save [Product Page | Market | AppBrain]

Version 1.6

1. Added offline capability. If there is no internet connection the URLs are saved locally and then sent to Read It Later when connection is back.
2. Added support for special characters in passwords like ”<”, “|”.

Droid Save IP [Product Page | Market | AppBrain]

Version 1.2

I developed these applications for me to use plus to learn Android development.

Android App Spotlight: Smooth Calendar

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:37:08 +0000

One main reason I like Android over iPhone is widgets. With widgets I can, at a glance, look at the information I need. In iPhone I had to open an app, waiting for it to load and then finding the information I need. Calendar information is something I want to quickly get to. Smooth Calendar is the widget I like the most. And it is free. Try it out.

The following screenshot has the Smooth Calendar below the weather time widget. The weather widget is Beautiful Widgets.

Smooth Calendar for Android on AppBrain

Beautiful Widgets for Android on AppBrain

Motorola Atrix 4G @ CES 2011

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:01:43 +0000

I have been following CES 2011 as any geek would. As expected there announcements of Android Tablets, 3D TVs, glassless 3D TVs, 3D laptops… But the one thing that caught my attention is Motorola Atrix 4G. It is a Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 phone with a 960 x 540 resolution, fingerprint reader and HSPA+. But it is not the most interesting part of it.

The coolest thing is that it has a Laptop Dock! What? Well the concept is not new. Remember Redfly? Or Palm Foleo? But this is better. When docked on to the laptop, you can use the full phone UI and all its apps plus a full desktop Firefox browser and more! See the screenshot below.

Still don’t know what the Webtop OS is but what it offers is pretty cool. It also has a multimedia dock. Looks like I have to start saving for this!

Catch the video of this at laptopmag.com.

Android App Spotlight: Callend Vibrate

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:58:13 +0000

Callend Vibrate is a super simple app. All it does is vibrates the phone when a call ends. iPhone does this by default. I kind of missed this in Android. This app fills this missing feature on my phone. Saves me from talking on the without realizing that the call got disconnected. This should be a built-in feature in Android.

Callend Vibrate for Android on AppBrain

Android App Spotlight: DailyStrip

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:41:12 +0000

I like reading a few comic strips like Dilbert, Garfield. I used to subscribe to them via a RSS feed. But I sometimes miss reading them because there are so many posts in my Google Reader. DailyStrip is a comic strip reader that has access to more than 100 comic strips. I can select my favorites and view them everyday. If I miss a day I can step back and view them too. Check it out if you are into comic strips.

DailyStrip for Android on AppBrain

Android App Spotlight: AppBrain

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:24:40 +0000

Google has a site for Android Market which list all the apps available in the Market. But it is not a very user friendly site to navigate and find apps. I does not even have a search feature! Whats Google’s main claim to fame again? Anyway once you stumble on an interesting app there is no way to get the app. You will have to go to Market on your phone and search for the app from there. Clumsy! The other shot comings are: no rating, no comments, no sorting on popularity etc.

Here is where AppBrain steps in and shows Google how it should be. AppBrain has three key components:

AppBrain – The site.
AppBrain App Market – The App
Fast Web Installer – Another App

The site makes up for all the things lacking in the official site. It has search, ratings, sorting, comments (from the market and its own comments). It also has the ability to add apps to your device(s). There are two ways to do this. First add it to your phone’s app list and then sync with the first AppBrain App Market. Second it to use the Fast Web Installer and send the app to your phone instantly. I use this a lot.

AppBrain also has a slew of social features. You can share the apps in your phone or just create a list of apps to share. I have created a list of all the apps I have talked about in this blog. It is available in here and in the side column in the blog. You can follow users and find the apps they are using.

It also provides a lot of useful statistics for developers about the OS versions and demographics of the users.

Try it out. Read more about it at Lifehacker.

Android App Spotlight: Tasker

Vasanth Dharmaraj — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:34:57 +0000

It does not matter if there are only 100,000 apps in the Android Market or 300,000 in the Apple App Store. There are some great Android apps out there. Some apps do stuff only iPhone apps can dream off. The kidding aside, I am planning to write a series of blog posts spotlighting cool apps in the Android Market. The posts will not be complete reviews just highlights and I will try to link to a moew through review.

The first one is my favorite app: Tasker. Tasker can completely automate just about anything on your Android phone. The basic stuff I use it for are:

1. Setting my phone to only vibrate when at work, chruch, movie theaters etc. automatically based on time or location
2. Silencing my phone completely during sleep time, removing all visual notifications too
3. Automatically launch the music player or Google Listen when I connect my phone to my car stereo
4. Turn off WiFi at work
5. Make Your Phone Quiet Down When Face-Down

Here are some more use cases from the Tasker site:

passcode-lock sensitive applications (e.g. for child safety)

change phone settings by

application: long screen timeout in a book reader

time: screen brightness lower in the evening

location: ringer volume high at the office, turn off ke yguard at home

wake up with a random song from your music collection

Text-to-speech; read out loud: incoming SMS/ phone number, WiFi/Bluetooth status, when it’s time for an appointment, when the battery is low etc etc (Android OS 1.6+ only)

launch a music application when your music SD card is inserted, otherwise a file browser

start the day with a particular application showing

change all your home icons and wallpaper every day, or in particular locations

turn the phone upside down to return to the home screen, tilt 90 degrees to the left and back to toggle speakerphone during a call

create a Home widget to

toggle bluetooth/wifi on/off

launch wireless settings dialog

show a menu of tasks to choose

send an emergency SMS with your GPS location

remap camera etc buttons to other applications, or show a menu of applications and/or actions

decrypt/encrypt and/or zip/unzip application data on the fly when an application is launched/exits

pause music playback while in a particular application, restart on exit

change the Home icon for any application

take a time-lapse photo series (possibly ‘secretly’)

make a regular backup of a file on the SD card

track your phone location via SMS in case of theft

extend the use of the media button on your headset: take a picture from a distance or go to the previous media track with a long press

record call times and destinations to the SD card

show a popup when an SMS arrives from a particular phone number

setup a birthday SMS to be sent months before it happens so you don’t forget

record battery levels over time to a file on SD card

make automatic recordings of what you say during phone calls to SD card

during the night, turn on airplane mode to conserve battery/reduce radiation, but turn it off every 15 minutes to check for SMS/voicemail.

setup a vacation SMS message, with different messages for different callers

launch a music application when headphones are connected

Read more about its awesomeness at lifehacker.

Get it: [AppBrain] [Market]