Weblog of Andreas Hochsteger

Howto categorize JUnit test methods and filter them for execution

2011-11-20T00:37:00.001+01:00

I was looking for a solution to categorize test methods select them in a flexible way for running.

The closest thing I found was the article by Romain Linsolas which was very helpful for me:http://linsolas.free.fr/wordpress/index.php/2011/02/how-to-categorize-junit-tests-with-maven/

Romain's requirement was to categorize test classes and run a subset of them.

My test classes map directly to their implementation classes using the convention Test.java.Some of the test methods in the same class run very fast, some slow and others require a network connection.So I needed the ability to categorize tests on the method level and search for classes by file name convention (similar to the way the surefire maven plugin does it).

My approach combined the approach from Romain with the class Categories from JUnit.The modifications were that test suites can be annotated with a package name (@TestScanPackage), class name prefix (@TestClassPrefix), class name suffix (@TestClassSuffix) and a test method annotation (@TestMethodAnnotation) to scan for matching test classes in the class path.It is also possible to annotate test methods with multiple categories (e.g. slow and requires an internet connection).

Here's a description of the relevant files:

SlowTestCategory.java: Category class to mark slow tests.
OnlineTestCategory.java: Category to mark test which require an internet connection.
SampleTest.java: Example JUnit test class which uses the categories from above using the standard junit Category annotation.
MyTestSuite.java: Example test suite which uses FlexibleCategories as test runner.
FlexibleCategories.java: Test runner which does all the magic
PatternClasspathClassesFinder.java: Helper class for FlexibleCategories to find all classes in the classpath which match the annotations (@TestScanPackage, @TestClassPrefix, @TestClassSuffix, @TestMethodAnnotation)

If you find this useful make you may be interested in the issue I filed for JUnit here:https://github.com/KentBeck/junit/issues/363

Here is an example that shows how to use it ...

SlowTestCategory.java

/** This category marks slow tests. */
public interface SlowTestCategory {
}

OnlineTestCategory.java

/** This category marks tests that require an internet connection. */
public interface OnlineTestCategory {
}

SampleTest.java

public class SampleTest {
 @Test
 @Category({OnlineTestCategory.class, SlowTestCategory.class})
 public void onlineAndSlowTestCategoryMethod() {
 }

 @Test
 @Category(OnlineTestCategory.class)
 public void onlineTestCategoryMethod() {
 }

 @Test
 @Category(SlowTestCategory.class)
 public void slowTestCategoryMethod() {
 }

 @Test
 public void noTestCategoryMethod() {
 }
}

MyTestSuite.java

/** MyTestSuite runs all slow tests, excluding all test which require a network connection. */
@RunWith(FlexibleCategories.class)
@ExcludeCategory(OnlineTestCategory.class)
@IncludeCategory(SlowTestCategory.class)
@TestScanPackage("my.package")
@TestClassPrefix("")
@TestClassSuffix("Test")
public class MyTestSuite {
}

FlexibleCategories.java

import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;

import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.experimental.categories.Categories.CategoryFilter;
import org.junit.experimental.categories.Categories.ExcludeCategory;
import org.junit.experimental.categories.Categories.IncludeCategory;
import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
import org.junit.runner.Description;
import org.junit.runner.manipulation.NoTestsRemainException;
import org.junit.runners.Suite;
import org.junit.runners.model.InitializationError;
import org.junit.runners.model.RunnerBuilder;

/**
 * This class is based on org.junit.experimental.categories.Categories from JUnit 4.10.
 *
 * All anotations and inner classes from the original class Categories are removed,
 * since they will be re-used.
 * Unfortunately sub-classing Categories did not work.
 */
public class FlexibleCategories extends Suite {

 /**
  * Specifies the package which should be scanned for test classes (e.g. @TestScanPackage("my.package")).
  * This annotation is required.
  */
 @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
 public @interface TestScanPackage {
  public String value();
 }

 /**
  * Specifies the prefix of matching class names (e.g. @TestClassPrefix("Test")).
  * This annotation is optional (default: "").
  */
 @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
 public @interface TestClassPrefix {
  public String value();
 }

 /**
  * Specifies the suffix of matching class names (e.g. @TestClassSuffix("Test")).
  * This annotation is optional (default: "Test").
  */
 @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
 public @interface TestClassSuffix {
  public String value();
 }

 /**
  * Specifies an annotation for methods which must be present in a matching class (e.g. @TestMethodAnnotationFilter(Test.class)).
  * This annotation is optional (default: org.junit.Test.class).
  */
 @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
 public @interface TestMethodAnnotation {
  public Class<? extends Annotation> value();
 }

 public FlexibleCategories(Class<?> clazz, RunnerBuilder builder)
   throws InitializationError {
  this(builder, clazz, PatternClasspathClassesFinder.getSuiteClasses(
    getTestScanPackage(clazz), getTestClassPrefix(clazz), getTestClassSuffix(clazz),
    getTestMethodAnnotation(clazz)));
  try {
   filter(new CategoryFilter(getIncludedCategory(clazz),
     getExcludedCategory(clazz)));
  } catch (NoTestsRemainException e) {
   // Ignore all classes with no matching tests.
  }
  assertNoCategorizedDescendentsOfUncategorizeableParents(getDescription());
 }

 public FlexibleCategories(RunnerBuilder builder, Class<?> clazz,
   Class<?>[] suiteClasses) throws InitializationError {
  super(builder, clazz, suiteClasses);
 }

 private static String getTestScanPackage(Class<?> clazz) throws InitializationError {
  TestScanPackage annotation = clazz.getAnnotation(TestScanPackage.class);
  if (annotation == null) {
   throw new InitializationError("No package given to scan for tests!\nUse the annotation @TestScanPackage(\"my.package\") on the test suite " + clazz + ".");
  }
  return annotation.value();
 }

 private static String getTestClassPrefix(Class<?> clazz) {
  TestClassPrefix annotation = clazz.getAnnotation(TestClassPrefix.class);
  return annotation == null ? "" : annotation.value();
 }

 private static String getTestClassSuffix(Class<?> clazz) {
  TestClassSuffix annotation = clazz.getAnnotation(TestClassSuffix.class);
  return annotation == null ? "Test" : annotation.value();
 }

 private static Class<? extends Annotation> getTestMethodAnnotation(Class<?> clazz) {
  TestMethodAnnotation annotation = clazz.getAnnotation(TestMethodAnnotation.class);
  return annotation == null ? Test.class : annotation.value();
 }

 private Class<?> getIncludedCategory(Class<?> clazz) {
  IncludeCategory annotation= clazz.getAnnotation(IncludeCategory.class);
  return annotation == null ? null : annotation.value();
 }

 private Class<?> getExcludedCategory(Class<?> clazz) {
  ExcludeCategory annotation= clazz.getAnnotation(ExcludeCategory.class);
  return annotation == null ? null : annotation.value();
 }

 private void assertNoCategorizedDescendentsOfUncategorizeableParents(Description description) throws InitializationError {
  if (!canHaveCategorizedChildren(description))
   assertNoDescendantsHaveCategoryAnnotations(description);
  for (Description each : description.getChildren())
   assertNoCategorizedDescendentsOfUncategorizeableParents(each);
 }

 private void assertNoDescendantsHaveCategoryAnnotations(Description description) throws InitializationError {
  for (Description each : description.getChildren()) {
   if (each.getAnnotation(Category.class) != null)
    throw new InitializationError("Category annotations on Parameterized classes are not supported on individual methods.");
   assertNoDescendantsHaveCategoryAnnotations(each);
  }
 }

 // If children have names like [0], our current magical category code can't determine their
 // parentage.
 private static boolean canHaveCategorizedChildren(Description description) {
  for (Description each : description.getChildren())
   if (each.getTestClass() == null)
    return false;
  return true;
 }
}

PatternClasspathClassesFinder.java

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.List;

/**
 *
 * Modified version of ClasspathClassesFinder from:
 * http://linsolas.free.fr/wordpress/index.php/2011/02/how-to-categorize-junit-tests-with-maven/
 *
 * The difference is, that it does not search for annotated classes but for classes with a certain
 * class name prefix and suffix.
 */
public final class PatternClasspathClassesFinder {

 /**
  * Get the list of classes of a given package name, and that are annotated
  * by a given annotation.
  *
  * @param packageName
  *            The package name of the classes.
  * @param classPrefix
  *            The prefix of the class name.
  * @param classSuffix
  *            The suffix of the class name.
  * @param methodAnnotation
  *            Only return classes containing methods annotated with methodAnnotation.
  * @return The List of classes that matches the requirements.
  */
 public static Class<?>[] getSuiteClasses(String packageName,
   String classPrefix, String classSuffix,
   Class<? extends Annotation> methodAnnotation) {
  try {
   return getClasses(packageName, classPrefix, classSuffix, methodAnnotation);
  } catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
  return null;
 }

 /**
  * Get the list of classes of a given package name, and that are annotated
  * by a given annotation.
  *
  * @param packageName
  *            The package name of the classes.
  * @param classPrefix
  *            The prefix of the class name.
  * @param classSuffix
  *            The suffix of the class name.
  * @param methodAnnotation
  *            Only return classes containing methods annotated with methodAnnotation.
  * @return The List of classes that matches the requirements.
  * @throws ClassNotFoundException
  *             If something goes wrong...
  * @throws IOException
  *             If something goes wrong...
  */
 private static Class<?>[] getClasses(String packageName,
   String classPrefix, String classSuffix,
   Class<? extends Annotation> methodAnnotation)
   throws ClassNotFoundException, IOException {
  ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread()
    .getContextClassLoader();
  String path = packageName.replace('.', '/');
  // Get classpath
  Enumeration<URL> resources = classLoader.getResources(path);
  List<File> dirs = new ArrayList<File>();
  while (resources.hasMoreElements()) {
   URL resource = resources.nextElement();
   dirs.add(new File(resource.getFile()));
  }
  // For each classpath, get the classes.
  ArrayList<Class<?>> classes = new ArrayList<Class<?>>();
  for (File directory : dirs) {
   classes.addAll(findClasses(directory, packageName, classPrefix, classSuffix, methodAnnotation));
  }
  return classes.toArray(new Class[classes.size()]);
 }

 /**
  * Find classes, in a given directory (recursively), for a given package
  * name, that are annotated by a given annotation.
  *
  * @param directory
  *            The directory where to look for.
  * @param packageName
  *            The package name of the classes.
  * @param classPrefix
  *            The prefix of the class name.
  * @param classSuffix
  *            The suffix of the class name.
  * @param methodAnnotation
  *            Only return classes containing methods annotated with methodAnnotation.
  * @return The List of classes that matches the requirements.
  * @throws ClassNotFoundException
  *             If something goes wrong...
  */
 private static List<Class<?>> findClasses(File directory,
   String packageName, String classPrefix, String classSuffix,
   Class<? extends Annotation> methodAnnotation)
   throws ClassNotFoundException {
  List<Class<?>> classes = new ArrayList<Class<?>>();
  if (!directory.exists()) {
   return classes;
  }
  File[] files = directory.listFiles();
  for (File file : files) {
   if (file.isDirectory()) {
    classes.addAll(findClasses(file,
      packageName + "." + file.getName(), classPrefix, classSuffix, methodAnnotation));
   } else if (file.getName().startsWith(classPrefix) && file.getName().endsWith(classSuffix + ".class")) {
    // We remove the .class at the end of the filename to get the
    // class name...
    Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(packageName
      + '.'
      + file.getName().substring(0,
        file.getName().length() - 6));

    // Check, if class contains test methods (prevent "No runnable methods" exception):
    boolean classHasTest = false;
    for (Method method : clazz.getMethods()) {
     if (method.getAnnotation(methodAnnotation) != null) {
      classHasTest = true;
      break;
     }
    }
    if (classHasTest) {
     classes.add(clazz);
    }
   }
  }
  return classes;
 }
}

Java goes GPL

2006-11-13T22:22:00.000+01:00

Today, Sun has released the details about the open-sourcing of Java using the GPL v2. The project OpenJDK contains the HotSpot Virtual Machine and the Javac compiler. The FAQ answers many questions. Seems like Sun really takes the open source community seriously which is highly appreciated!

GanttProject 2.0 released

2006-02-11T21:47:00.000+01:00

GanttProject 2.0 has been released recently.
It is a project scheduling application written in Java and has been re-written, as Eclipse RCP application.
Downloads are available from Sourceforge.

WebsiteTips.com

2006-01-28T01:22:00.000+01:00

Websitetips.com is an educational resource, provides CSS, HTML, and XHTML tutorials, graphics tutorials, articles, tips, information and resources to build or improve your Web site presence.

You'll also find over 2,400 annotated resources around the web to HTML, CSS and color charts, font sites, search engine optimization sites, graphics and HTML tutorials and programs, usability and information architecture sites, informative articles, tips, and more.

Eclipse 3.1.2 released

2006-01-27T14:23:00.000+01:00

Eclipse 3.1.2 has just been released to the public.
You can download it from the Eclipse Project Downloads page.
Details can be found in the Release Notes.

Eclipse BIRT 2.0 released

2006-01-27T14:21:00.000+01:00

Version 2.0 of the Eclipse Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) have just been released.
You can download them from the Eclipse BIRT Downloads page.
You can read about the changes from the New and Notable Features page.

Portable OpenOffice.org

2006-01-06T10:40:00.000+01:00

VeryVito writes on Slashdot:

"Portableapps.com has released Portable OpenOffice.org 2.01 -- the complete office suite you can run from a USB drive for complete access to both your files and your office apps -- anywhere you go. More than just a neat idea, some say it's a perfect example of "the kind of innovation developers can make when they don't have to worry about selling as many licenses of their work as possible." I don't imagine we'll see a portable Microsoft Office suite any time soon."

I can fully agree with him and welcome the innovation taking place in this area.

K Desktop Environment (KDE) 3.5 Released

2005-12-01T22:27:00.000+01:00

The 29th of November was a great day for x.5 releases. After Firefox KDE too has released a new major release. Details can be taken from the release announcement.

My first impression after installing it on my AMD64 notebook with OpenSuse 10 was that it is significantly faster (in terms of starting new programs) than 3.4.x.

Firefox 1.5 released

2005-12-01T22:22:00.000+01:00

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 has been released yesterday. It provides many great new features as you can read in the release anouncement.
Both Firefox and Thunderbird have a new home now at http://www.mozilla.com/.

Custom Eclipse Builder

2005-10-29T10:44:00.000+02:00

Custom Eclipse Builder: "The Custom Eclipse Builder is a lightweight Ant-based project to build a company/personal customized Eclipse distribution including company/personal relevant plugins, preferences and settings."

Remember The Milk

2005-10-25T18:20:00.000+02:00

Remember The Milk: "Never forget the milk (or anything else) again.
Remember The Milk is the easiest and best way to manage your to-do lists online."

Found through this blog entry.

It provides the following, according to their website:
* Features galore: Sharing, publishing, notes... we've got it all.
* Get reminded: Receive reminders via email, instant messenger, and SMS.
* It's free: Hard to believe, we know, but it's true.

MyProgs - find new software, keep your program list online

2005-10-25T18:08:00.000+02:00

MyProgs - find new software, keep your program list online: "This site allows you to keep a social list of the programs you use. After you sign up you can add programs to your unique list. You can view anyone else's programs and they can view yours. Extra user-defined data can be added to each program entry to organize and describe the program further such as program descriptions, a link to the program's homepage, and tags. You can use tags to categorize (and thus organize) programs so that you and others using this site will have an easier time finding new and interesting programs.
RSS feeds are available at almost every page which allows you to track new programs using your news aggregator."

This is really a great site!
I just added some of my programs. More to come ...

Log4sh

2005-09-29T11:19:00.000+02:00

Log4sh: "Log4sh runs along the same lines as the other excellent logging services from the Apache Software Foundation. It adds to that list the ability to integrate powerful logging capabilities into a shell script."

Jakarta Commons Email 1.0 released

2005-09-29T11:18:00.000+02:00

Jakarta Commons Email: Commons-Email aims to provide a API for sending email. It is built on top of the Java Mail API, which it aims to simplify.
There are also some examples which show how simple it is to use.

Eclipse WTP 0.7 / BIRT 1.0.1RC1 released

2005-07-30T08:19:00.000+02:00

The long awaited final release of the Eclipse Web Tools Platform 0.7 has been released. You can download it on the download page.
Additionally the Eclipse Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools 1.0.1RC1 have been released too: Download them here.

Abrüsten!!!

2005-06-01T21:47:00.000+02:00

"Abrüsten" is the german word for "disarm" which I finally did today and now I can continue my life with the usual freedom I had before ;-).

Orangevolt Ant Tasks

2005-05-19T23:02:00.000+02:00

SourceForge.net: Project Info - Orangevolt Ant Tasks: "Orangevolt Ant Tasks (successor of ROXES Ant Tasks) provides 17 custom tasks for the famous Apache Jakarta Ant (http://ant.apache.org/) targeting java application deployment for *nix/windows and macosx. It is licensed under LGPL"

F-Spot

2005-05-19T22:21:00.000+02:00

F-Spot: "F-Spot is an application designed to provide personal photo management to the GNOME desktop. Features include import, export, printing and advanced sorting of digital images."

Looks a bit like Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Photoshop Elements 3.0 Organizer which I'm using now to organize my photos. Perhaps it evolves to a good Open Source alternative, which I can use :-).

Andreas Hochsteger @ Blogs Rating

2005-04-02T15:08:00.000+02:00

I just got a Google Alert for this page: Andreas Hochsteger @ Blogs Rating.
I didn't know that I was listed there and have already 140 votes. Curently the rating is at 6.41 - let's see if it's getting more, when I'll be writing more again :-).

Starting my Master Thesis

2005-03-04T21:45:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I had a very interesting meeting with Gerald Reif about my master thesis. The provisional working title is "Ontology visualizations for the Semantic Web".
This work will be a small piece for the WEESA project (Web Engineering for Semantic Web Applications) which aims to provide semantic information for web pages and integrate this development as part of the web engineering process for XML/XSLT based web applications. WEESA defines a flexible mapping between the application's XML schema and one ore more ontologies for automatic semantic annotation.

My part will be to do a comparative evaluation of existing ontology editors and visualization tools which allow easy selection of classes and properties of different ontologies and makes the absolute URI available for the WEESA mapping definition. One tool will then be chosen and extended to the provide needed functionality.

Depending on the effort it takes to implement the missing features of the chosen tool it might be possible to implement a prototype of the mapping editor too.

Personally I'll try to cover some more things which I am interested at too:
* Version control of all artifacts concerning the master thesis (notes, emails, documentation, source code, ...) using Subversion and experimenting with decentral version control using SVK for offline development.
* Project automation using Cruise Control or a similar tool.
* Unit Testing using JUnit and related frameworks.

All three concerns are described in the excellent books of the Pragmatic Bookshelf which I read recently:
* Pragmatic Version Control using Subversion
* Pragmatic Unit Testing: in Java using JUnit
* Pragmatic Project Automation: How to Build, Deploy, and Monitor Java Applications

Stay tuned for further updates ...

Joda Time - Java date and time API

2005-02-22T20:07:00.000+01:00

Joda Time - Java date and time API - Home: "Joda-Time provides a quality replacement for the Java date and time classes. The design allows for multiple calendar systems, while still providing a simple API. The 'default' calendar is the ISO8601 standard which is used by XML. The Gregorian, Julian, Buddhist and Coptic systems are also included, and we welcome further additions. Supporting classes include time zone, duration, format and parsing."

Production-ready release 1.0 with Apache License 2.0 has just been released!

Got GMail account

2005-02-19T10:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I got this lucky mail from google, starting with the following message:

Hi there,

Thanks for signing up to be updated on the latest Gmail happenings. We hope it's been worth the wait, because we're excited to finally offer you an invitation to open a free Gmail account! Just click on this link to create your new account:

After a long time waiting I got one finally, thanks!

mSpace - Exploring The Semantic Web | mSpace

2005-02-18T20:43:00.000+01:00

mSpace - Exploring The Semantic Web | mSpace: "mSpace is an interaction model designed to allow a user to navigate in a meaningful manner the multi-dimensional space that an ontology can provide. mSpace offers potentially useful slices through this space by selection of ontological categories.

mSpace is fully generalised and as such, with a little definition, can be used to explore any knowledge base (without the requirement of ontologies!)."

Trac

2005-02-17T21:09:00.000+01:00

Edgewall Software: Trac: "Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects."

Particularly interesting is, that it integrates a bug tracking system with Subversion.

MindRaider - Semantic Web Outliner

2005-02-01T17:29:00.000+01:00

MindRaider - Semantic Web Outliner: "MindRaider is Semantic Web outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to organize not only the content of your hard drive but also your cognitive base and social relationships in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing."

That's a really interesting piece of software for organizing your mind!

the open source team work management software

2005-01-22T22:41:00.000+01:00

teamwork - the open source team work management software: "Teamwork is a software application specifically for team work management. If your company works in teams then this is the application for you, as you can manage large volumes of information and operate effectively with your team members on complex projects. Teamwork will improve worklife quality, helping production cycle information flow management, via stage coordination and allocating tasks to everyone involved. As an application, Teamwork combines document management, groupware and project management features in a new perspective."

It really looks promising to me, especially when looking at the screenshots.

In the army now ...

2005-01-22T18:14:00.000+01:00

Perhaps you recognized, that I didn't post anything since end of September. The reason is, that I finally have to do my military service which started on October 4th 2004 and "erases" 8 months of my life :-(.

The base training was in Weitra and took 5 weeks. It was a bit hard for me - not because the training was so tough (it was more like Baby sitting ;-) but because I could see my family only on the weekend.

About 5 weeks later I have been relocated back to Vienna, taking driving lessons to become a military truck driver.(you see, here in Austria the recruits get jobs which have nothing to do with their skills). This time it wasn't like Baby sitting at all. It took me 3 days to get the permission to sleep at home, just because the topkick of the barracks was such an a**h***.

Another 5 weeks later I managed to get my driving license and have been relocated to my final destination in an office. Here I don't have much to do and the office hours are really pleasant ;-).

Now things have setteled down a bit and I find enough time again for things like starting my master thesis, playing with Cocoon-, Java- and XML-related things and of course some reading.

Stay tuned for more regular posts ...

J2SE 5.0 released

2004-09-30T23:25:00.000+02:00

J2SE 5.0 has just been released.
Some highlights of J2SE 5.0:
* New language updates: Metadata, Generics, Enumerated types, Autoboxing of primitive types
* New JVM Monitoring and Management API
* Improved out-of-box performance
* New (but compatible) default Java look and feel

More details can be found in "J2SE 5.0 in a Nutshell".

Download it here.

JBoss 4.0 Final has been released

2004-09-21T23:22:00.000+02:00

JBoss 4.0 Download

The File Sharing Report

2004-09-19T10:52:00.000+02:00

Nuclear Elephant: The File Sharing Report: "Cashing In On File Sharing
A Report from the File Sharing Experiment"

Better Cygwin Terminal

2004-09-09T01:42:00.000+02:00

I just searched for a better cygwin terminal and found the following resources:
* Better Cygwin Terminal
* How can I copy and paste into Cygwin console windows?
* Setting up RXVT

My cygwin.bat currently looks like this:


@echo off
C:
chdir C:\cygwin\bin
start rxvt -sr -sl 10000 -fg white -bg black -fn "Lucida Console-10" -tn cygwin -e /bin/bash --login -i

Update 2004-09-09:
I still was not really satisfied. The colsole behaved good, but I wanted to have the same comfort putty is giving me.

Fortunately I found the solution:
* PuttyCyg
It is a patched version of putty and adds 'cygwin' as alternative protocol to raw, rlogin, telnet and ssh and is just what I was looking for a long time!

Using it is really simple:
* Download, extract and start puttycyg.exe
* Select the 'cygwin' protocol and enter '-' as hostname

If you want to directly start a terminal window without GUI interaction (as I like it) use the following command:

puttycyg.exe -cygterm -

Apache Portable Runtime 1.0.0 Released

2004-09-04T21:52:00.000+02:00

Apache Portable Runtime 1.0.0 Released: "The mission of the Apache Portable Runtime Project is to create and maintain software libraries that provide a predictable and consistent interface to underlying platform-specific implementations. The primary goal is to provide an API to which software developers may code and be assured of predictable if not identical behavior regardless of the platform on which their software is built, relieving them of the need to code special-case conditions to work around or take advantage of platform-specific deficiencies or features."

TheServerSide.com - Redirect After Get

2004-09-04T21:42:00.000+02:00

TheServerSide.com - Redirect After Get: "All interactive programs provide two basic functions: obtaining user input and displaying the results. Web applications implement this behavior using two HTTP methods: POST and GET respectively. This simple protocol gets broken when application returns web page in response to POST request. Peculiarities of POST method combined with idiosyncrasies of different browsers often lead to unpleasant user experience and may produce incorrect state of server application. This article shows how to design a well-behaved web application using redirection."

Using Hibernate3 as JDBC Framework

2004-08-26T07:02:00.000+02:00

Using Hibernate3 as JDBC Framework by Gavin King.

The Top Ten Subversion Tips for CVS Users

2004-08-25T07:30:00.000+02:00

The Top Ten Subversion Tips for CVS Users by Brian W. Fitzpatrick -- If you've been contemplating a switch from CVS to Subversion, there's more to it than simply learning Subversion's new features. You'll need to unlearn some bad habits CVS has instilled in you as well. Brian Fitzpatrick, coauthor of Version Control with Subversion, offers ten Subversion tips that will help users break bad CVS habits and form good Subversion ones.

JDocs.com

2004-08-12T07:22:00.000+02:00

JDocs.com: "JDocs is a comprehensive online resource for Java API documentation. All the javadocs for a variety of popular packages are loaded into our db-driven system, and users can contribute their own notes to virtually any class, field, method. In short, JDocs provides a knowledge base defined around the major Java api's themselves, so you can find the information you're looking for right where it should be... in the documentation!"

Java Technology Concept Map

2004-08-05T21:36:00.000+02:00

Java Technology Concept Map: "The Java Technology Concept Map 1.0 is an interactive diagram, a web of linked terms, to show the relationships among and uses of the Java technologies. You can use the Map to get an overview of the Java landscape as well as learn more about the details of its components. Launch the Map using the button below."

C-JDBC 1.0 released

2004-08-05T21:04:00.000+02:00

C-JDBC: "C-JDBC provides a flexible architecture that allows you to achieve scalability, high availability and failover with your database tiers. C-JDBC instantiates the concept of RAIDb : Redundant Array of Inexpensive Databases. The database is distributed and replicated among several nodes and C-JDBC load balance the queries between these nodes."

Spring 1.1rc1 - java/j2ee Application Framework

2004-07-29T07:40:00.000+02:00

Spring - java/j2ee Application Framework: "Spring is a layered Java/J2EE application framework, based on code published in Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development by Rod Johnson (Wrox, 2002)."

Version 1.1rc1 has just been released.

G-System - The Evolving Universe

2004-07-29T07:38:00.000+02:00

G-System: "Ever dreamed of a nice piece of software that actually tries to simulate the evolution of an universe? Ever thought it would be possible?
The G System tries to do exactly this. It is both a free framework for simulation as well as a virtual reality itself which is growing to an universe in which life's evolution takes place."

JaxMe 2 Apache Projects

2004-07-29T07:36:00.000+02:00

Welcome to JaxMe 2: "JaxMe 2 is an open source implementation of JAXB, the specification for Java/XML binding."

There are the first official releases since incubation from Apache available:
* JaxMeXS 0.3 (JaxME XML Schema Parser)
* JaxMeJS 0.3 (JaxME JavaSource generation framework)
* JaxMe 0.3 (Java/XML binding framework)

Articles, Resources on Software Architecture, Software Development Process Consulting Service

2004-07-27T22:28:00.000+02:00

Articles, Resources on Software Architecture, Software Development Process Consulting Service

the Degree Confluence Project

2004-07-27T21:27:00.000+02:00

the Degree Confluence Project: "The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted here."

IPv6 added to root server

2004-07-20T21:25:00.000+02:00

Internet News Article | Reuters.com: "Vinton Cerf of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said the next-generation protocol, IPv6, had been added to its root server systems, making it possible for every person or device to have an Internet protocol address."

Twister - Open Source Business Process Management

2004-07-19T21:06:00.000+02:00

Homepage - Twister: "Twister's aim is to provide a new generation, easily integrable, B2B oriented workflow solution in Java, based on the latest specification efforts in this field. The process engine is based on the BPEL business process specifications and Web Services standards."

Maven 1.0 released!

2004-07-17T14:43:00.000+02:00

Maven: "Maven is a Java project management and project comprehension tool. Maven is based on the concept of a project object model (POM) in that all the artifacts produced by Maven are a result of consulting a well defined model for your project. Builds, documentation, source metrics, and source cross-references are all controlled by your POM. Look here to see the full list of Maven's features."

Jakarta Lucene 1.4 released

2004-07-16T07:17:00.000+02:00

Jakarta Lucene: "Jakarta Lucene is a high-performance, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform."

PHP 5 Released

2004-07-14T20:33:00.000+02:00

PHP 5 has just been released.

Some of the key features of PHP 5 include:
* The Zend Engine II with a new object model and dozens of new features.
* XML support has been completely redone in PHP 5, all extensions are now focused around the excellent libxml2 library
* A new SimpleXML extension for easily accessing and manipulating XML as PHP objects. It can also interface with the DOM extension and vice-versa.
* A brand new built-in SOAP extension for interoperability with Web Services.
* A new MySQL extension named MySQLi for developers using MySQL 4.1 and later. This new extension includes an object-oriented interface in addition to a traditional interface; as well as support for many of MySQL's new features, such as prepared statements.
* SQLite has been bundled with PHP.
* Streams have been greatly improved, including the ability to access low-level socket operations on streams.
* And lots more...

phpLDAPadmin: LDAP browser to manager your LDAP server

2004-07-14T20:10:00.000+02:00

phpLDAPadmin: LDAP browser to manager your LDAP server: "phpLDAPadmin is a web-based LDAP client. It provides easy, anywhere-accessible, multi-language administration for your LDAP server. Its hierarchical tree-viewer and advanced search functionality make it intuitive to browse and administer your LDAP directory. Since it is a web application, this LDAP browser works on many platforms, making your LDAP server easily manageable from any location. phpLDAPadmin is the perfect LDAP browser for the LDAP professional and novice alike. Its user base consists mostly of LDAP administration professionals."

ReadySET - Ready-to-use Software Engineering Templates

2004-07-14T19:58:00.000+02:00

"ReadySET is an open source project to produce and maintain a library of reusable software engineering document templates. These templates provide a ready starting point for the documents used in software development projects. Using good templates can help developers work more quickly, but they also help to prompt discussion and avoid oversights."

Butterfly XML 1.1 - Elegant XML Editor

2004-07-14T19:57:00.000+02:00

Butterfly XML - Elegant XML Editor: "The Butterfly XML IDE is built on top of a new real-time incremental XML parsing algorithm. The DOM is updated in real-time as the user types and not in a separate thread. The editor features syntax and error highlighting, incremental validation, intelligent code completion (based on XML Schema, DTD, or document analysis), XSLT pipelines, DTD and Schema Generation, and side by side DOM and source viewing. Built-in support for XHTML, XSL, XForms, XMLSchemas, XSP, and Cocoon sitemaps is included. Support for other XML types can also easily be added. The editor is capable of parsing XML documents that are not well-formed and showing the source of the errors. Errors in documents are highlighted in the source as well as marked inthe DOM view. This allows for easy conversion of HTML to well-formed XML. The side by side DOM and source viewing allows for the tree view ofthe XML to be instantly updated as the user types. The source can also be navigated and updated from the DOM tree. XSLT pipelines make building up and visualizing complex transformations easy."

Version 1.1 has just been released.

OpenChange Project

2004-07-14T19:53:00.000+02:00

OpenChange Project: "Openchange intends to provide an Open-Source implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 under Unix Platforms. The Openchange Project is developed in C language under the BSD license, and will primary work on NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Linux platforms. The project time line has been defined to approximatively one year, and we believe the project will be in a complete stable state at this time. Openchange wishes to integrate the enterprise working environment and to substitute to an Exchange Server in a transparent way, so final users may continue to use Outlook, or any other mail client."

XMLStarlet Command Line XML Toolkit

2004-07-14T19:49:00.000+02:00

XMLStarlet Command Line XML Toolkit: Overview: "XMLStarlet is a set of command line utilities (tools) which can be used to transform, query, validate, and edit XML documents and files using simple set of shell commands in similar way it is done for plain text files using UNIX grep, sed, awk, diff, patch, join, etc commands."

ActiveBPEL Engine - Open Source BPEL Server

2004-07-12T22:46:00.000+02:00

ActiveBPEL Engine - Open Source BPEL Server: "ActiveBPEL, LLC is an open source software organization that licenses and distributes the ActiveBPEL? engine technology. The ActiveBPEL engine is a robust runtime environment that is capable of executing process definitions created to the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS, or just BPEL) 1.1 specifications."

Rx4RDF

2004-06-09T23:01:00.000+02:00

Rx4RDF: "Rx4RDF is a set of technologies designed to make W3C's RDF more accessible and easier to use."

monotone: distributed version control

2004-06-09T08:43:00.000+02:00

monotone: distributed version control: "monotone is a free distributed version control system. it provides a simple, single-file transactional version store, with fully disconnected operation and an efficient peer-to-peer synchronization protocol. it understands history-sensitive merging, lightweight branches, integrated code review and 3rd party testing. it uses cryptographic version naming and client-side RSA certificates. it has good internationalization support, has no external dependencies, runs on linux, solaris, OSX, and windows, and is licensed under the GNU GPL."

Problems of logging-wrappers

2004-05-30T17:40:00.000+02:00

Ceki Gülcü wrote an excellent article (Think again before adopting the commons-logging API) about what's wrong about logging wrappers. It's not very new (November 2002 with updates in April 2003) but gives some very interesting points.
Although he's a bit biased towards log4j he gives some valid points though.
(Found through Ugo's post on the Cocoon Developer's Mailinglist)

Eclipse 3.0 M9 is out

2004-05-23T08:37:00.000+02:00

Eclipse.org: "Like a bouquet of late spring flowers, a host of new and interesting things round out milestone build M9 (May 21, 2004) which is now available for download. See the M9 build notes for details about bugs fixed and other changes. M9 is the final milestone build of the Eclipse 3.0 development cycle, and marks the official start of the 3.0 endgame."

Greatest highlights from my perspective:
* Now code-folding is part of eclipse
* Search/replace with regular expressions
* Semantic highlighting (e.g. static fields, local variables, static method invocations)
* Java editor shows overridden methods
* Proposals for templates
* Highlight method exit points
* Quick menus for source and refactoring actions
* Early preview of J2SE 1.5 support
* One editor for plugin description (gets written to multiple files)
* CVS commit set layout
* CVS date tags
* Last synchronization in Progress view
* Launch shortcuts in all applicable views
* Refactorings update breakpoints
* Debugging in current perspective
* Better code assistance for custom Ant tasks
* Full template support for Ant

More details of the changes from M8 to M9 can be found here:
* New and noteworthy
* Printer friendly version (all on one page)

TheServerSide.com - The State of Workflow

2004-05-23T08:22:00.000+02:00

TheServerSide.com - The State of Workflow: "If database systems are like a respected, wise man telling a clear story, then workflow must be a buch of spoiled brats shouting their own truth at each other. With this statement I would like to point out that workflow management systems are at the very initial phase of the technology hype curve. We are heading for some exciting times in this area."

Flow4J - Process flow modelling plugin for Eclipse

2004-05-17T22:52:00.000+02:00

Flow4J - Overview: "Flow4J is an Eclipse Plug-in for modeling process flows in a drag and drop manner. A process flow can contain process steps (I call them flowlets), which can be linked together to a complex flow. All flows can contain the following types of flowlets:

* Control Flowlets like Start-, Decision- and Jump-Flowlets which are configurable in Eclipse, and tell 'how' the process should flow.
* Task Flowlets accomplish a specific task that is wrapped in a java class. The wrapped functionality can be everything like an EJB call or even JNI call."

Rasqal RDF Query Library

2004-05-16T23:18:00.000+02:00

Rasqal RDF Query Library: "Rasqal is a free software/Open Source C library that handles RDF query syntaxes, query construction and query execution returning result bindings."

DoubleType - Graphical Typeface Designer

2004-05-16T23:17:00.000+02:00

FrontPage - DoubleType: "DoubleType is an open source graphical typeface designer that builds TrueType font file.

Written in Java, DoubleType runs on platforms supported by Java, including Windows, Linux, and Macintosh.

Glyphs are stored in XML based file to aid collaboration using existing tools such as CVS.

DoubleType allows efficient glyph design by combining existing glyphs and modules."

XStream - Java to XML serialization, and back again

2004-05-16T23:11:00.000+02:00

XStream - Java to XML serialization, and back again: "XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again."

Hammurapi - Java code review system

2004-05-16T23:10:00.000+02:00

Hammurapi is a tool for automated Java code reviews which can be integrated in an ant build script.
If you want to know what the generated code review documentation looks like you kann have a look at the self review of Hammurapi.

Comments enabled ...

2004-05-11T23:43:00.000+02:00

Blogger.com just did a relaunch of their blogger software which now allows you to post comments on my weblog.
Additionally it's now possible to have real permalink URLs for individual posts.
Here are the details:
http://www.blogger.com/knowledge/2004/05/great-blogger-relaunch.pyra

Enjoy,
Andreas.

Creating custom 404 error pages

2004-04-30T07:44:00.000+02:00

What should you take into account when you create custom 404 (Not Found) error pages?
That's the question I just asked myself and did some "Google Research".
I got lots of results how you have to configure Apache or IIS, but that's not what I'm interested in.

Here are some results which cover what I want to know:
* Useful "Page not found" error pages
* Implementing Sensible 404 Pages With Apache

Java-based Argument Parsers

2004-04-17T13:16:00.000+02:00

I just was in the need of an java-based argument parser.

That's what I found:
* JSAP (pretty active; seems to be the most advanced incl. usage generation, support for datatypes and Unix-style cascaded configuration files with default values)
* jcmdline (not as active as JSAP; aims for standardized commandline options, allows more sophisticated validations, displays usage and error messages)
* JArgs (not much active, very simplistic and easy to use)

It's hard to say which one is the best, since all suite different needs.
If you wonder, for my task I chose JSAP, but I'll keep an eye on all of them.

Update 2004-04-23:
Phil Wilson pointed me to one more:
* Apache Jakarta Commons CLI (seems to be similar in functionality and usage like JSAP)

OutlookContacts2AdobePSA v0.5 released

2004-04-15T11:00:00.000+02:00

The new version v0.5 of the macro which exports Outlook contacts to Adobe Photoshop Album 2 contacts can be found here:
http://stud4.tuwien.ac.at/~e9625392/psa/OutlookContacts2AdobePSA-0.5.zip

Changes:
* Use ALLUSERSPROFILE and APPDATA for parts of the initial contacts.xml location (thanks to DPX)
* Print error message, if folder for contacts.xml does not exist

Feedback is very appreciated!
Please go to the Adobe Photoshop Album forum at www.adobeforums.com and look for a thread with the subject "Tool: Import Outlook Contacts into PSA2" for this task.

OutlookContacts2AdobePSA v0.3 released

2004-04-14T16:11:00.000+02:00

Here's the version v0.3 of the macro which exports Outlook contacts to Adobe Photoshop Album 2 contacts:
http://stud4.tuwien.ac.at/~e9625392/psa/OutlookContacts2AdobePSA-0.3.zip

Changes:
* Fixed handling of empty names (thanks to Alexander)
* Fixed bug when backup is chosen and original file does not exist

Feedback (especially from other PSA language versions than german) is very appreciated!
Please go to the Adobe Photoshop Album forum at www.adobeforums.com and look for a thread with the subject "Tool: Import Outlook Contacts into PSA2" for this task.

OutlookContacts2AdobePSA v0.2 released

2004-04-13T22:12:00.000+02:00

Here's the new version (v0.2) of my little software which exports Outlook contacts to Adobe Photoshop Album 2 contacts:
http://stud4.tuwien.ac.at/~e9625392/psa/OutlookContacts2AdobePSA-0.2.zip

Changes:
* A GUI which allows you to set some options
* Optionally ignore entries without email address
* Optionally ignore entries without name
* Change location of contact file (unfortunately a file dialog is not supported from within Outlook - help is very appreciated!)
* Change encoding format of XML file (for other languages)
* Optionally make a backup of the existing contacts.xml file
* Fixed bug in generated XML format

Feedback (especially from other PSA language versions than german) is very appreciated!
Please go to the Adobe Photoshop Album forum at www.adobeforums.com and look for a thread with the subject "Tool: Import Outlook Contacts into PSA2" for this task.

Update of my FOAF profile

2004-04-09T19:13:00.000+02:00

I just did an update of my FOAF profile.

Groovy : a powerful dynamic for the Java Platform

2004-04-01T22:24:00.000+02:00

Groovy really seems to be a promising new agile dynamic language for the JVM.
You don't know how simple programming can be if you don't have a look at the syntax of Groovy.

TheServerSide.com - Cocoon as a Web Framework

2004-03-31T22:34:00.000+02:00

TheServerSide.com - Cocoon as a Web Framework

Birth of "Jonas"

2004-03-21T22:25:00.000+01:00

Today my son Jonas was born.
My energy now has to be directed to Jonas and my wife and therefore the frequency of blog entries will be lower.
If you want to see pictures of Jonas and want to know what's happening in his young life, you can read the dedicated blog Spring 04 (in german).

Cluster Installation and Infrastructures

2004-03-19T08:40:00.000+01:00

I read a very interesting article about FAI in the german computer magazine iX. This software allows you to plan and manage installations for large clusters just the way I always wanted to do it. It is primary written (but not limited) for Debain Linux systems.
Until now I've written something by myself, but I think I'll blast it for FAI!

Here are all interesting links mentioned in the article:
* FAI
* Infrastructures.org
* Cfengine
* Cross Install HOWTO for Debian
* FAI BootCD for Debian GNU/Linux
* Compiling kernels The Debian Way

Atom Feeds

2004-03-18T10:57:00.000+01:00

I just found out, that Blogger supports Atom feeds and promplty changed my blog to make use of them (my Atom-feed).

If you don't know what Atom is, here's a list of references:
* The Atom Wiki
* AtomEnabled

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Working Draft

2004-03-17T07:35:00.000+01:00

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

JSR 241: The Groovy Programming Language

2004-03-16T20:26:00.000+01:00

The Groovy Programming Language has been submitted as JSR 241 to the Java Community Process.

Here are some more infos:
* http://radio.weblogs.com/0112098/2004/03/16.html
* http://weblogs.java.net/pub/wlg/1125
* http://jroller.com/page/cv/20040316

The Open For Business 3.0.0 Released

2004-03-16T20:22:00.000+01:00

This release of Open For Business includes hundreds of new features and now has nearly all functionality required for a retail fulfillment based business and many other types of businesses to operate. It is an excellent foundation for custom in-house projects and commercial derivative works, or as a basis for applications provided as a service. It includes:
* advanced e-commerce
* catalog management
* promotion & pricing management
* order management (sales & purchase)
* customer management (part of general party management)
* warehouse management
* fulfillment (auto stock moves, batched pick, pack & ship)
* accounting (invoice, payment & billing accounts)
* manufacturing management
* general work effort management (events, tasks, projects, requests, etc)
* content management (for product content, web sites, general content, blogging, forums, etc)
* and much more all in an open source package!

ECCMA.org

2004-03-12T19:18:00.000+01:00

ECCMA.org: "The eOTD is an Open standard descriptive language that contains over 60,000 Standard Item Names and over 30,000 Standard Attribute Names, with definitions, multilingual translations and classification tables to the UNSPSC, CPV, eClass, FSC and HTS classifications. The eOTD is used to create standardized language independent descriptions of individuals, organizations, locations, goods and services using simple attribute-value pairs."

RuleML - Rule Markup Language

2004-03-12T19:10:00.000+01:00

"The Rule Markup Initiative has taken initial steps towards defining a shared Rule Markup Language (RuleML), permitting both forward (bottom-up) and backward (top-down) rules in XML for deduction, rewriting, and further inferential-transformational tasks."

The Non-Expert: Lift

2004-03-03T21:17:00.000+01:00

Vadim Gritsenko posted an URL to a really funny page: The Morning News - The Non-Expert: Lift. I'm sure you already met that guy from the story ;-)

OpenWFE - Open WorkFlow Engine

2004-03-03T21:03:00.000+01:00

OpenWFE is an OpenSource workflow engine with web-based graphical workflow designer written in Java. License is BSD-style.

RDQLPlus

2004-02-29T09:34:00.000+01:00

RDQLPlus is a tool for querying RDF graphs, featuring graphical results in a zoomable user interface (ZUI). It can work with existing RDF files, Jena2 RDF databases, and a native-Java database called Mckoi (included).

IBM Challenges Sun to Team on Open-Source Java

2004-02-28T11:50:00.000+01:00

The eWeek article "IBM Challenges Sun to Team on Open-Source Java" has some interesting news about a possible Open Source Java implementation.

This would be a very gentle step form Sun, if they really would do it and would give Java an even better chance to compete against the MS .NET framework.

One Year Blogging

2004-02-22T22:40:00.000+01:00

It's been exactly a year since my first blog entry.

I'm happy, that I still find some time to write some lines for it, though much has changed in my life: I married my love, Maria, in July 19th (her birthday) after living together with her for over 6 years and now we're awaiting our first child in the following weeks. If you want to know what happens around this great event take a look at "Spring 04" (in german), where our son tells the story with his own words ;-).

Enjoy,

Andreas Hochsteger

MySQL Administrator

2004-02-21T11:54:00.000+01:00

MySQL Administrator: "MySQL Administrator is a powerful visual administration console that enables you to easily administer your MySQL environment and gain significantly better visibility into how your databases are operating. MySQL Administrator now integrates database management and maintenance into a single, seamless environment, with a clear and intuitive graphical user interface."

Live Linux CDs

2004-02-18T22:53:00.000+01:00

Live Linux CDs

Momento

2004-02-16T21:21:00.000+01:00

Momento is an XML document object model. It is designed to permit large XSLT transforms and XUpdate queries, larger than in memory document object models will allow. In addition, it stores transaction based modifications to XML documents that are recoverable in the event of a system failure.
It was designed with Cocoon in mind and fits nicely in Cocoon pipelines.

Eclipse 3.0 M7 released

2004-02-15T22:18:00.000+01:00

Eclipse 3.0 M7 has just been released with yet again many new features.

ESR: Let Java Go

2004-02-15T11:15:00.000+01:00

Eric S. Raymond has written an Open Letter to Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun, responding to remarks at Sun's February 2004 analyst meeting.
The essence of the letter is: Let Java Go

2004-02-14T20:59:00.000+01:00

formsPlayer has just been released. It's a 100% XForms compatible XForms processor plugin for Internet Explorer.

htmlArea

2004-02-08T10:26:00.000+01:00

htmlArea is a WYSIWYG editor replacement for textarea formfields. It supports IE 5.5+ and Mozilla 1.3+. It is written in Javascript and works with any server-side software.
It is now also available from within Cocoon as a special widget for the Cocoon Forms framework.

JFig - Java Configuration Solution

2004-02-05T23:28:00.000+01:00

JFig gives developers a simple yet powerful tool to manage their applications’ configuration. It allows them to:
* Store application configuration in one common repository of XML files
* Access configuration data using one common, convenient interface
* Easily define multiple configurations, dynamically modifying those variables that need to change in different situations
* Eliminate the error prone practice of defining the same configuration variables in multiple locations
* Ease the management, deployment, and control of configuration files

XMLStarlet Command Line XML Toolkit: Overview

2004-02-05T23:21:00.000+01:00

XMLStarlet is a set of command line utilities (tools) which can be used to transform, query, validate, and edit XML documents and files using simple set of shell commands in similar way it is done for plain text files using UNIX grep, sed, awk, diff, patch, join, etc commands.

phpFormGenerator

2004-02-05T23:18:00.000+01:00

phpFormGenerator is an easy-to-use tool to create reliable and efficient web forms in a snap. No programming of any sort is required. Just follow along the phpFormGenerator wizard and at the end, you will have a fully functional web form!

KDE 3.2 Final Released

2004-02-05T09:39:00.000+01:00

The final version of KDE 3.2 has been recently released. Here's the announcement.
It has many new features and integrates even more into the enterprise environment.
I've already installed it on my Linux machine at work and can recommend it to everybody else.

Eclipse Plugin Central

2004-02-05T07:53:00.000+01:00

There's a new Website about Eclipse Plugins:
* The Eclipse Plugin Central
Until now I only used this eclipse plugin site.
Let's see how they will compare.

Update: The number of plugins currently compares 57 (for Plugin Central) to 471 (for Eclipse Plugins).

Mars Rover Blog

2004-01-31T08:36:00.000+01:00

There's a Mars Rover Blog with many pictures about the activities of Opportunity and Spirit.

Jakarta POI 2.0 Released

2004-01-28T22:46:00.000+01:00

The Jakarta POI team announced the availability of the version 2.0.
The POI project consists of APIs for manipulating various file formats based upon Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format using pure Java. Support for reading and writing Microsoft Excel files and property information is mature and work continues on reading and writing the MS Word format.