Android App : iBoincStats

A while back I did an iOS app iBoincStats which has since been downloaded about 2300 times.

I have recently submitted another tiny game to Apple, and in the doldrums that is the app store approval process I 

set myself a little challenge: download, learn, write and publish iBoincStats for Android be the other application get approved.

I have to give Android full credit, if you are a Java developer, developing for Android is really simple. I tried getting it all

up and running a couple years back, but with the simulator taking 20 minutes+ to start up, I deleted it very quickly. This time with the latest SDK and intelliJ 11 it was just a little slower than the iOS environment and much more usable.

The default "look and feel" on Android really takes a lot more work to make it look as good an iOS app, I didn't really spend

enough time on that.

If anyone actually downloads it, I'll dedicate a little more time to it.

  

iBoincStats (For Android)

This is a simple stats client to view your BOINC project processing statistics.
Enter your cross project id and access your latest stats.
Some of the popular BOINC projects include:
Seti@home
climateprediction.net
Einstein@home
POEM@home
rosetta@home

More information regarding the BOINC project can be found at:
BOINC home
Wikipedia - Berkely Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

Screen Shots:

sun.* Packages

Came accross this the other day when a coworker used sun.misc.Base64Decoder, something didn't feel right about the package name, but I had no justification on why he shouldn't use it. After a bit of searching I found the following link:
Sun Packages FAQ  

Quote:
The java.*, javax.* and org.* packages documented in the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition API Specification make up the official, supported, public interface.
 If a Java program directly calls only API in these packages, it will operate on all Java-compatible platforms, regardless of the underlying OS platform.


 The sun.* packages are not part of the supported, public interface. A Java program that directly calls into sun.* packages is not guaranteed to work on all Java-compatible platforms. In fact, such a program is not guaranteed to work even in future versions on the same platform.

Makes obvious sense now, but it was actually something I was not aware of.

Drop all DB objects - Oracle

Created this for future reference. This SQL goes and drops all user objects in the current DB, great when messing with local Oracle XS DB

declare

v_str1 varchar2(200) := null;

cursor get_sql is select 'drop '||o.object_type||' '|| o.object_name|| DECODE(o.OBJECT_TYPE,'TABLE',' CASCADE CONSTRAINTS PURGE') v_str1
from user_objects o
where o.object_type in ('TABLE','VIEW','PACKAGE','TYPE','PROCEDURE','FUNCTION','TRIGGER','SEQUENCE') order by object_type,object_name;

begin

open get_sql;

loop

fetch get_sql into v_str1;
if get_sql%notfound
then exit;
end if;
execute immediate v_str1;
end loop;
close get_sql;
end;

Little handy Maven build helper plugin

Recently had to work on a project where the Maven codehaus axis plug was being used to generate a webservice client.

problem was everytime it built my IDE would moan about missing the generated classes, so I went searching and found this useful Build Helper plugin to help your IDE integration out.

iOS App : iBoincStats

My latest app iBoincStats has just been approved by Apple.  Releasing software (even something this small) is always a rush, it never gets old.

I decided to do an app instead of a game for a change, just to see what the interface builder, XML and "work" type development would be like. It turned out being a lot faster and simpler than I expected. I have also always been a big fan of BOINC, and checking my "stats" for many years now, all the way back before there was a BOINC platform, and it was only the SETI@Home project.
 (An added bonus: unlike games this one it would actually be available on the South African App store as well as the international ones)

During my development career I have never really spent a lot of time designing and developing UIs, I always ended up on the backend side of development projects. So take the next statement in that light:
I think Apple has actually done a pretty good job (after some initial learning frustration) with their interface builder and storyboard shipped with XCode. I sat down and after a good couple of hours of struggling, something eventually clicked and it all finally came together. I restarted my project, copied over the backend code and in literally 15 minutes the storyboard and 3 UIs were done. Awesome.

I had a couple "funnies" while still using XCode 4.2, but just upgraded to 4.3 and those particular issues seem to have been corrected.


iBoincStats

This is a simple stats client to view your BOINC project processing statistics.
Enter your cross project id and access your latest stats.
Some of the popular BOINC projects include:
Seti@home
climateprediction.net
Einstein@home
POEM@home
rosetta@home

More information regarding the BOINC project can be found at:
BOINC home
Wikipedia - Berkely Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

Screen Shots:

iOS App Store Validation Error

I was attempting to submit an update for Wordballs when I run into an archive validation issue:
iPhone/iPod Touch: Icon.png: icon dimensions (0 x 0) don't meet the size requirements.

The solution ended up being simple enough:
Select Project then go to Build Settings, select All, under Packaging set Compress PNG Files to NO.

I have no idea why this all of a sudden started on my 3rd update, just glad it was simple enough to solve

Spring 3, Spring Web Services 2 & LDAP Security.

This year started on a good note, another one of those "the deadline won't change" / "skip all the red tape" / "Wild West" type of projects in which I got to figure out and implement some functionality using some relatively new libraries and tech for a change, well Spring 3 ain't new but in the Java 5, weblogic 10(.01), Spring 2.5.6 slow corporate kind of world it is all relative.
Due to general time constraints I am not including too much "fluff" in this post, just the nitty gritty of creating and securing a Spring 3 , Spring WS 2 web service using multiple XSDs and LDAP security.
The Code:

The Service Endpoint: ExampleServiceEndpoint
This is the class that will be exposed as web service using the configuration later in the post. The Code: CustomValidationCallbackHandler

This was my bit of custom code I wrote to extend the AbstactCallbackHandler allowing us to use LDAP. As per the comments in the CallbackHandler below, it's probably a good idea to have a cache manager, something like Hazelcast or Ehcache to cache authenticated users, depending on security / performance considerations.
The Digest Validator below can just be used directly from the Sun library, I was just wanted to see how it worked.


The service config:
The configuration for the Endpoint, CallbackHandler and the LDAP Authentication manager.
The Application Context - Server Side:
The Security Context - Server Side:

The Web XML:
Nothing really special here, just the Spring WS MessageDispatcherServlet.
The client config:
To test or use the service you'll need the following:
The Application Context - Client Side Test:

The Security Context - Client Side:

As usual with Java there can be a couple little nuances when it comes to jars and versions so below is part of the pom I used.
The Dependencies:

Wordballs Release

Finally, Wordballs is live! 
My latest physics based word game. Please check it out if you have an iOS device, and let your friends know. 

It's Free (with ads) and 16mb to download. 
Please take a couple seconds to rate it as well, it will be much appreciated

This game actually took me some time to do. Crazy deadlines and some nasty hours at work meant for some slow going and some very late nights at times. 

I would just like to thank the teams from:

Chipmunk Physics
Cocos 2D

Without their awesome libraries / code this Wordballs would have been impossible.

Free Universal Version - In App Purchase available to remove ads
http://www.wordballs.com/

ccColor3B constants.... A whole bunch of them.

This is bound to save everyone some time when looking at defining custom colors for cocos2d. Found this list on the cocos2d forums (thanks to a member there called Yeti):

Cached Property File Enum

We had a little need to dynamically enable and disable features on our current project and I sorta left it for the last day, came up with a simple little solution that ended up quite neat.

A cached property file enum:

 How it looks being used:
Code:
Test:
The .properties file:
FEATUREA=true
FEATUREB=false
FEATUREC=true

How it works:

The Pragmatic Programmer - Review / Summary Notes.

I recently finished The Pragmatic Programmer, to be completely honest this had been the 3rd attempt to read it, although the book is good and well worth the read, I had unfortunetly learnt most of the lessons the hard way on my own over the last decade or so of being a software developer, so I found often myself easily distracted.

I have to add, had I read this when it was published it would have undoubtedly saved me some pain, but even with that it's always good to reaffirm some of your good habits, and keep your bad ones in check. It covers 46 sections with 70 different tips that are generally useful to any programmer. Jeff Atwood - coding horror made a list of all 70 tips.

As with most things some tips are "more equal" than others, the ones that really stick out and probably can't be emphasized enough are:

  Care About Your Craft
Why spend your life developing software unless you care about doing it well?
  Think! About Your Work
Turn off the autopilot and take control. Constantly critique and appraise your work.
  Don't Live with Broken Windows
Fix bad designs, wrong decisions, and poor code when you see them.
  Invest Regularly in Your Knowledge Portfolio
Make learning a habit.
  DRY - Don't Repeat Yourself
Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.
  Make It Easy to Reuse
If it's easy to reuse, people will. Create an environment that supports reuse.
  Prototype to Learn
Prototyping is a learning experience. Its value lies not in the code you produce, but in the lessons you learn.
  Don't Panic When Debugging
Take a deep breath and THINK! about what could be causing the bug.
  "select" Isn't Broken.
It is rare to find a bug in the OS or the compiler, or even a third-party product or library. The bug is most likely in the application.
  Design with Contracts
Use contracts to document and verify that code does no more and no less than it claims to do.
  Crash Early
A dead program normally does a lot less damage than a crippled one.
  Minimize Coupling Between Modules
Avoid coupling by writing "shy" code and applying the Law of Demeter.
  Don't Program by Coincidence
Rely only on reliable things. Beware of accidental complexity, and don't confuse a happy coincidence with a purposeful plan.
  Refactor Early, Refactor Often
Just as you might weed and rearrange a garden, rewrite, rework, and re-architect code when it needs it. Fix the root of the problem.
  Design to Test
Start thinking about testing before you write a line of code.
  Some Things Are Better Done than Described
Don't fall into the specification spiral at some point you need to start coding.
  Don't Be a Slave to Formal Methods.
Don't blindly adopt any technique without putting it into the context of your development practices and capabilities.
  Don't Use Manual Procedures
A shell script or batch file will execute the same instructions, in the same order, time after time.
  Test Early. Test Often. Test Automatically
Tests that run with every build are much more effective than test plans that sit on a shelf.
  Coding Ain't Done 'Til All the Tests Run
'Nuff said.
  Test State Coverage, Not Code Coverage
Identify and test significant program states. Just testing lines of code isn't enough.
  Find Bugs Once
Once a human tester finds a bug, it should be the last time a human tester finds that bug. Automatic tests should check for it from then on.