Momentum is everything

2010-05-06T21:47:00.001+10:00

My little Shapefile Viewer

Little time killer on a weeknight.

Matt

2010-04-26T16:33:00.002+10:00

Brava Free DWG Viewer

Stumbled across this and was nicely surprised. Very cool tool.

Available here.

Matt

2009-07-26T21:59:00.004+10:00

Super-splitting, family law and QT

The Australian government introduced a scheme to split superannuation as part of divorce settlement. And formulae to determine how this should be done.

Makes for some interesting work.

Matt

2009-07-18T20:34:00.004+10:00

QT just gets better and better

I always found desktop app development using VC++ 6 and MFC a bit... tedious, especially next to many of the alternatives.

Years and years ago I found VB really easy. Years ago I found Delphi easy. In the last 10 years I've mostly been using Java Swing and I feel I can be very productive without much pain as well.

Well, surprisingly QT is a smooth ride. I never really checked it out until recently but I have to say I really like it.

QT Creator just gets better and better.

Matt

2009-07-08T07:35:00.007+10:00

Showing/Hiding Maximize/Minimize buttons on QMdiSubWindow

The documentation for both the API and an example usage is great, but I thought I'd post this Blog Entry in any case because when you go Googling for a problem solution the more chances of finding the answer the better.

Update: Some code text for copy and pasting

QMdiSubWindow *win = new QMdiSubWindow;
win ->setWidget(child);
win ->setWindowTitle("Black Scholes");

Qt::WindowFlags flags;
flags = Qt::WindowMinimizeButtonHint;
win->setWindowFlags( flags );

Matt

2009-04-16T09:51:00.007+10:00

Drupal : Another site up and running - Test Drive the Arts

I'm starting to knock out more and more Drupal work. This one in Drupal 6, with the use of Panels2, Views2 and some Custom Module development. I can't take credit for the graphic design. That was done before I came along.

2009-02-18T22:23:00.008+10:00

Drupal : MP3 Music Site using Directory, MP3 Player and LiteJazz

Using the Directory Module

Using the MP3 Player Module

Directory is a great little Drupal Module for setting up directory views. What's great about this latest version is that it is based on Taxonomies. So it's pretty easy to set up Genres for something like music. The next really cool Drupal Module is the MP3 Player module. It in turn uses something else which is pretty cool which is the WordPress Audio Player.

CCK comes in pretty handy when you create your own Content Type and add an audio file as a custom field.

LiteJazz is just a cool Drupal Theme that bundles Suckerfish Menus which is also cool.

This little piece is something very quick and simple but shows off some really cool stuff that can be used with Drupal to do other cool stuff.

Lot of 'cool' in this post....

Matt

2009-02-16T07:11:00.002+10:00

Passing of Toompani
(extracted from The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 14th of September 1886)

THERE are not a few who will regret to hear of the death of Toompani, the well-known aboriginal, of Amity Point, Moreton Bay. Toompani was chiefly known for his bravery
at the wreck of the steamer Sovereign, on 11th May, 1847, near the South Passage, when he and some of the boys of his tribe entered the surf and rescued several of the passengers. Toompani wore a plate on which was recorded his gallantry on that occasion. Although he occasionally visited Brisbane and tho town-ships on the shores of Moreton Bay, his home has been at Amity Point, where, in a boat presented by the Government-a gift renewed as often as required-he gained his livelihood by fishing. It is conjectured that his age was between 60 and 70 years. He had been ailing for some time past, and his extreme ago gave small hopes of his recovery. He died on Sunday, 5th instant, and was buried by his aboriginal brethren on a high ridge near Amity Point.

2009-02-15T19:50:00.006+10:00

Heroics of Toompani
(extracted from The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 6th of September 1871)

AN ACT OF JUSTICE UNPERFORMED.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRISBANE COURIER.

SIR,-Through the medium of your columns I wish to draw the attention of your readers, and also certain authorities in Brisbane, to an incident in the early days of this colony, and to an act of injustice and neglect which has been perpetrated, and repeated year after year, to a very deserving race of people. ln the early part of the month of March, in the year 1847, the steamer Sovereign started from the settlement of Brisbane on her way to Svdney, and had on board an unusually large number of passengers, amongst whom were some of the most wealthy und influential people of this part of the colony. I have not before me at this moment sufficient information to give the names of all, but amongst others I remember a Mr. Gore, a brother of the late Hon. St. George R. Gore, together with his wife and child (or children), Mr. Berkeley, Mr. Stubbs, and a number of other prominent gentlemen of those times.

It was usual then for sea going vessels to take the South Passage, as the Northern entrance was not so well known. The Sovereign with (56) fifty-six souls on board lay weather bound in Moreton Bay for several days, and the passengers became restive, and murmured against the captain, whom they blamed, wrongfully, as the sequel will show, for the delay. Captain Cape was a great favorite on the coast, and a perfect gentlemen, and he resented their interference. This led to recriminations on both sides, and at last the passengers accused him of being in collusion with the steward, whose interest it was to keep them on board as long as possible. Upon this state of affairs arising, Cape said,-"Well, gentlemen, I will take you to sea tomorrow morning, whatever be the consequences." Accordingly on the following morning, the 11th March, 1847, the Sovereign attempted the passage. A heavy gale had been blowing, and the sea was rolling mountains high, and to get out it was necessary to take a line of three enormous breakers; the little steamer took the first and shivered like a living thing; took the second and her machinery broke down, and she lay a helpless hulk in that tremendous sea. The anchors were immediately let go, with the hope of keeping her head to it, but the breakers made a clean breach right over her and swept her crew and passengers in troops from the deck; in a very few minutes the vessel became a total wreck, and was so rotten that she actually broke up into small pieces, leaving fifty-six unfortunate people and her cargo floating about at the mercy of the waves, and more than a mile from any land. This was one of the most disasterous wrecks that ever occurred in the Southern hemisphere. There was not a family in town Brisbane that did not mourn the loss of a friend or a relation. You, who live in these times when the city is large, can never realise the consternation of the handful of people who were the then inhabitants of Brisbane, when the news of this appalling disaster reached them. I was a child at the time but remember vividly the alarmed faces and the low tones in which the event was discussed, and then one of the survivors came to our house. He was a strong and healthy young man, and an excellent swimmer, and was in the habit of relating his life experiences as follows (his name was Mr. Richard Stubbs) :-

"When the first breaker struck the vessel it swept a number of the passengers off the deck, and amongst others myself. I saw men raising their arms wildly in the water round me, shrieking for help, and going down never to rise again, and I struggled hard to get up to the steamer; when near to her another wave struck her, and she actually crumbled to pieces. I had dived down as the breaker came, but when I came up again there was no ship visible, but around me were scattered dead and drowning people who struggled with each other, and with anything they could get hold of, such as pieces of wreck, bales of wool, and all sorts of things. I saw Mrs. Gore's maid floating near me still alive, and I swam to her, and helped her on to a bale of wool, but when the wool became saturated it sank, and she was never seen alive again. The tide was coming in at the time, and had drifted me, and a few people who clung to a spar, clear of the breakers, and when on the crest of a wave we could see Moreton Island, but it looked a hopeless distance off. We were fearfully torn about by pieces of wreck, with nails in them, striking against us in the water, so much so, that I have thirty-two nail holes in various parts of my body. About this time I became almost insensible, and we must all have perished had not assistance come to hand A number of blacks had brm-tcd I lit breakers, and when we were more than half a mile from shore they surrounded us, and taking hold of us, three or four to each white, they swam with us to land, took us up to their camp, tended our wounds, wrapped us up in their blankets while they dried our clothes, set food before us, and treated us with every mark of the most heartfelt pity and commiseration. I shall never forget the debt of gratitude we owe to those poor blacks, or the risks they ran in saving us, for I have no doubt but what a large number of the lives lost were owing to sharks, which were to be seen in all directions."

This, Sir, is a simple relation of facts, and the writer can produce proofs of the truth of every word he has advanced. The aborigines who saved these people were led on by a black, who is now an old man, and his name is Toompani. He is the only one left out of all those who assisted to save their lives, and was the man who first called upon his tribe to swim out and help the people. They were afraid to start until he set them the example and had gone out some distance from shore, when the rest followed him. In proof of this I have before me, as I write, the only reward this man ever received for his heroic and humane conduct. It is the shape of a plate of brass in the form of a half-moon, from which I read the following inscription : -

TOOMPANI
OF
AMITY POINT.

REWARDED BY THE GOVERNOR

For the assistance he afforded with several of his countrymen to the survivors of the wreck of the steamer "Sovereign" by rescuing them from the surf on Moreton Island.

On the 11th of March, 1847,

Upon which meloncholy occasion in 46 persons were drowned, and by the aid of the natives 10 were saved.

The piece of injustice I wish to call your attention to is this : Every now and then a boat is given to the blacks of entirely another tribe, and who were not in any way concerned in this or any other rescue of shipwrecked people; and on this occasion were not even within thirty miles of the scene of the disaster. These boats have been regularly given to a tribe that belongs to the mainland, and who are very seldom down further in the bay than Lytton. They sometimes go to the Logan River, but are very seldom out in the bay anywhere they could be useful in case of shipwreck, and have little or no intercourse with the Amity Point tribe, in fact they are hostile to them. The whole of the aborigines are given to understand that these boats aro presented by the Government as a reward for their ellorts in rescuing shipwrecked crews, for on two other occasions besides the wreck of the Sovereign the Amity Point blacks have been energetic in saving life; and further, the tribe which receives these boats under false pretences has two boats already, and they do not in the least require either of them, whilst the man Toompani, who certainly ought to have one for his tribe, has no boat at all, and in the event of a wreck taking place on Moreton or Stradbroke Island, would be almost powerless to render assistance And all this arises simply from his not having the ear of the authorities in Brisbane, and not being able to speak sufficiently good English to make himself understood. However, the plate he carries speaks for itself, and I trust that the next time a boat is given away it will be given to the proper tribe, and not to the impostor who already has two. -

Your's, &.c,

F. F. CAMPBELL.

2009-02-15T15:24:00.006+10:00

Drupal : Financial Calculator (Black Scholes)

I wrote this as a Drupal Module using hook_block(), hook_form(), the Drupal Forms API and the Black Scholes equation.

Matt

2009-02-10T20:28:00.018+10:00

Drupal : Hello World Module

Some developers are like me... impatient. I've got to learn something new, like Drupal, I want some book, tutorial, or colleague to give it to me quickly, logically and in a format I understand.

I'm a NetBeans user and do my PHP work in NetBeans 6.5.

So start me with 'Hello World' and let's take it from there.

Step 1 : Create your <module> directory.

Step 2 : Create your <module>.info file.

Step 3 : Create your <module>.module file.

NOTE : For more information about the use of the 'hook' hook_block() go here.

Step 4 : Enable <module> in Modules list.

Step 5 : Position <module> Block in Block list.

Step 6 : Block positioned saved the <module> Block is now visible.

Step 7 : After logging out the <module> Block is now shown as visitors would see it.

I'll be adding more tutorials as I learn Drupal myself...

Matt

2009-01-17T23:06:00.003+10:00

Perseus Digital Library @ Tufts University

Fantastic resource to find many classics in English and Latin.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

Matt

2009-01-15T21:55:00.006+10:00

LGPL Licence Option Added to Qt

This is great news! I love Qt.

There a new website as well, http://www.qtsoftware.com/.

Here's the news here.

Pretty cool list of software using Qt, here.

Matt

2008-09-03T10:36:00.004+10:00

NetBeans 6.1 with Developer Collaboration and OpenFire

The Team Lead on my current project was relocated to another part of the office and thinking it would be handy to catch him on an IM I thought I would install the Developer Collaboration Plugin. So I did the following;

1. In NetBeans open Tools > Plugins > Available Plugins
2. Checked 'Developer Collaboration' and clicked 'Install'

Then, since we firewall off most of the outside world, needed a local collaboration server and installed OpenFire.

3. Downloaded OpenFire 3.6 here.

SCRATCH THAT! After installing OpenFire 3.6 I discovered it didn't work with NetBeans 6.1. I had to hunt around for OpenFire 3.3.1

Happy to note that with OpenFire 3.3.1 installed and NetBeans 6.1 Collaboration Plugin worked with it very nicely.

Ah! But where to get OpenFire 3.3.1?

Ignite Realtime, the site where you can find OpenFire, do not make previous versions available for download so I had to hunt around on the net for OpenFire 3.3.1. It wasn't easy to find but it's out there.

Hope this helps anyone trying to get started quickly with the NetBeans 6.1 Collaboration Plugin and OpenFire on their LAN.

Matt

2008-05-05T11:35:00.002+10:00

JavaFX docs you can't work without

The Current Build JavaDoc
http://openjfx.java.sun.com/current-build/javadoc/

JavaFX Script Language Reference
http://openjfx.java.sun.com/current-build/doc/JavaFX-Language.html

Converting JavaFX Code from Interpreted to Compiled Syntax
https://openjfx.dev.java.net/migration.html
(In case you've been working with the interpreted syntax already)

Matt

2008-04-14T22:40:00.002+10:00

Flex Best Practices

Who is Kapil Viren Ahuja?

Kapil has a nice little blog entry listing some Flex Best Practices which are worth a read. Thanks Kapil.

http://scrtchpad.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/flex-best-practices/

Matt

2008-04-13T22:57:00.003+10:00

A snippet of JavaFX

It's not bad. I've been using NetBeans and it's made it pretty easy to code and test. The dynamic preview in preview window comes in pretty handy.

..............
Frame{
title: "JavaFX Example"
width: 400
height: 400
onClose: operation(){ System.exit(0);}

content: BorderPanel {
center: bind mapKit

bottom: BorderPanel {
top: GridBagPanel {
border: CompoundBorder {
borders:
[EmptyBorder {
top: 5
left: 5
bottom: 5
right: 5
}]
}
cells:
[GridCell {
anchor: EAST
gridx: 0
gridy: 0
content: SimpleLabel {
text: "Latitude: "
}
},
GridCell {
anchor: WEST
fill: HORIZONTAL
weightx: 1
gridx: 1
gridy: 0
content: TextField {
value: bind latitude
}
},
..............

I chopped off the end to keep it brief.

Matt

2008-04-13T20:36:00.003+10:00

Katowice represent!!

I put a map of Brisbane in my blog and the homies from my old hood says me, "you'se forgot where you'se from brudda!".

Katowice represent!!

2008-04-13T20:23:00.002+10:00

Applets might come back... no prediction, just an interesting prospect.

2008-03-21T16:11:00.012+10:00

A little homework

The other day I got asked to do a little smart form for product pricing for a print shop. Three dropdowns, plus a label showing the price based on the selection.

First I thought I would do it in PHP with HTTP Post. Then I thought I would do it with PHP and AJAX. Then I thought I could just do it all in DHTML/AJAX. Then I thought I could just to it in Flex. (In the middle there I did consider doing it with Flex and PHP.)

Anyway, doing it with Flex was quick and ... nice.

Matt

2007-11-26T15:03:00.002+10:00

Little fix for the Flight Reservation sample app for Flex Builder 3

I used to work on http://www.qantas.com and thought this might be a cool little thing to check out. In fact we had some small talks about Adobe Flex when I was there.

Anyway, I downloaded this sample app and discovered a small bug that prevented me from giving it a whirl. The following error existed :

1067: Implicit coercion of a value of type int to an unrelated type Array

Here's the code :

private function formatDistance(km:Number):String
{
var distanceConversionFactor:Number =
resourceManager.getNumber(MY_BUNDLE, "DISTANCE_CONVERSION");

return resourceManager.getString(MY_BUNDLE, "DISTANCE_FORMAT",
int(km * distanceConversionFactor));
}

This is my change :

private function formatDistance(km:Number):String
{
var distanceConversionFactor:Number =
resourceManager.getNumber(MY_BUNDLE, "DISTANCE_CONVERSION");

var result:Number = km * distanceConversionFactor;
var parameters:Array = new Array();
parameters.push(result);

return resourceManager.getString(MY_BUNDLE, "DISTANCE_FORMAT", parameters);
}

Matt

2007-11-22T14:23:00.000+10:00

Joel Johnson on the Fujitsu u810

I've been thinking about getting a Fujitsu U1010/U810. Really enjoyed this review.

Matt

2007-11-08T20:44:00.001+10:00

Flex Builder 3 CRUD App Generation Demo Video

By accident I stumbled across this cool little demo video of the CRUD app generation feature in Flex Builder 3.

It's pretty cool.

Seems to handle server-side code generation for J2EE, ASP.NET and PHP back-ends. As well as a nice little CRUD GUI for Flex at the front.

I haven't started yet but I wouldn't mind to investigate the feasibility of using this as a starter for beginning a more serious project. I've used such things before and things can get tricky when your data model relations get complex and code generation won't always translate them nicely.

Although can't comment yet.

Anyway, I wanted to make this link available here for friends alike.

Regards,

Matt

2007-11-02T21:48:00.003+10:00

The Latin Library @ Ad Fontes Academy

Great resource for many classic writings in their original Latin text. Right here!

Matt

2007-10-31T15:35:00.002+10:00

Black-Scholes Pricer as a Yahoo! Widget

Yahoo! Widgets are pretty cool.

Main site is here.

Gallery of widgets here.

Building is not too hard. There's a Software Development Kit (SDK) available for download which includes both the Widget Dock and documentation.

Each widget is scripted using XML, using the file extension '.kon'. After that there's just JavaScript. You can embed JavaScript in your XML file or create separate JavaScript source files and import them into your XML file.

My Option Pricing Calculator widget uses AJAX to talk back to some PHP code which does the fancy maths.

Lots of fun.

Matt

2007-10-21T11:59:00.000+10:00

return undefined; flexmdi

I was just trolling through the flexcoders mailing list and found this announcement from the blog return undefined; that Ben Clinkinbeard, Brian Holmes and Brendan Meutzener are releasing the flexmdi project.

Announcing flexmdi: Robust, extensible MDI framework for Adobe Flex

Here's an online demonstration of it working.

flexmdi Example Explorer

There also a cool little 'getting started' intro which illustrates how simple it is to work with.

flexmdi: Starting out simple with MDICanvas

It's really cool.

Matt

2007-07-07T15:54:00.000+10:00

1023 Incompatible override.
((and EffectInstance) and Flex 2.0.1)

I got this error message when opening up a project developed last year in Flex 2.0 in my new install of Flex Builder 2.0.1 (with Flex SDK 2.0.1).

Simply there's a change in the API that I hadn't noticed. At least not till the time it mattered. Here it is :

import mx.effects.EffectInstance;

....

override protected function initInstance(instance:EffectInstance):void

should be changed to :

import mx.effects.IEffectInstance;

....

override protected function initInstance(instance:IEffectInstance):void

No big drama, although had to think about it for a second and this head's up might help someone else.

Cheers

Matthew

2007-06-29T07:53:00.000+10:00

Using Hibernate in OC4J 10.1.3.x

This is as much a note for my own future reference as well as a couple tips for others.

Here's my trail of discovery :
- Using Hibernate with Applications in OC4J

- Removing and/or Replacing an Oracle Shared Library Imported by Default

- Load Local Classes in WAR Module in Preference to Classes loaded at Higher Level

So starting from the top, you need to fix the conflict where OC4J's TopLink loads a version of Antlr not compatible with the version Hibernate requires. This is done with a change to orion-application.xml. I thought that this change would suffice but found that a change was needed in orion-web.xml as well.

I didn't know this stuff without some investigation. These entry might be a quick start for others using Hibernate in OC4J.

orion-application.xml

<imported-shared-libraries>
<remove-inherited name="oracle.toplink"/>
</imported-shared-libraries>

orion-web.xml

<web-app-class-loader search-local-classes-first="true" include-war-manifest-class-path="true" />

Cheers

Matt

2007-06-21T22:02:00.000+10:00

Monte Carlo, Derivative Pricing and Adobe Flex

Some test values
Expiry : 10.0
Strike : 54.0
Spot : 30.0
Volatility : 0.4
Risk-free Rate : 0.1
Number of Paths : 6

:-)

Matt

2007-06-17T12:13:00.000+10:00

Candlesticks, Quote Histories, Volume and Adobe Flex

Fun stuff this.

Bit better this one.

;o)

Matt

2007-06-12T11:57:00.000+10:00

Candlesticks, Quote Histories and Adobe Flex

Flex makes it really easy to grab some data and pump it into the nice charts in its API. Check out this baby.

Cool hey.

Matt

2007-05-28T22:41:00.000+10:00

C(omp)++
A Portal for the Computational Finance Community

Just stumbled across this cool Portal for computational finance.

http://www.compplusplus.com/

The MatLab section is my poison.
http://www.compplusplus.com/matlab/index.html

Cool stuff. :-)

Matt

2007-05-17T12:51:00.000+10:00

DisplayTag/Struts/Spring/Hibernate + Lots of data

I've been working on a project for sometime with just a very small set of test data while developing. Anyway, I just imported actual data for some preliminary system testing and one of my 'list' pages using DisplayTag for presenting and paginating data ground to almost a halt.....

Thousands of objects in a collection, dropped into the request object and being loaded up in DisplayTag. I really like the pagination functionality in DisplayTag but didn't want to have DisplayTag take all my data in one go.

I knew I had a lot of means to skin this cat. Find another tag library... Write my own tag library... I did know, however, that DisplayTag's pagination supported requests on sets of data per page refresh. So that's what I decided to do.

At the same time I knew there was pagination support in Hibernate which I had never looked at.

Before coding from scratch I did a quick 'google' and found exactly what I needed to do on Matt Raible's website.

Raible Designs - DisplayTag And Hibernate Pagination

I have Spring inject service classes into my actions but basically, after some inspiration from the code in the link above, I was up and running very quickly and smoothly in no time.

Hooray for DisplayTag!!

And Matt Raible. :-)

Matt

2007-05-14T22:41:00.000+10:00

Loan Calculator

Matt

2007-04-21T23:06:00.000+10:00

Stock Quoter using AJAX and PHP

Something to keep me amuzed on a Saturday evening.

:-)

Matt
----------------------
Some test values
Symbol : ADBE (Adobe)
Symbol : CSCO (Cisco)

2007-04-21T14:57:00.000+10:00

Black-Scholes Derivative Pricer using AJAX and PHP

Something to keep me amuzed on a Saturday afternoon.

Not quite as nice as my Black-Scholes derivative pricer using Adobe Flex, but Flex is pretty nice. :-)

Matt
----------------------
Some test values
Spot Price : 60
Strike Price : 65
Riskfree Rate : 0.08
Sigma : 0.3
Time to Maturity : 0.25

2007-04-03T09:45:00.000+10:00

AutoSizer : A handy little Windows app

I've start to prepare tutorials using Wink and have needed to capture Windows in 800 x 600 resolution. The resolution I work in most has either 1440 or 1600 pixel width.

The problem I had was I wanted to resize my Windows windows.... without changing my screen resolution and doing a maximize on the window I want to use.

Then I found AutoSizer.

I can leave the resolution I normally work with, set the size of the IDE I am creating a tutorial from, fire up Wink and I'm off.

Pretty cool tool.

Matt

2007-03-24T22:42:00.000+10:00

Needing PHP5's simplexml_load_file function but have PHP4?

If you are using PHP Proxy to deal with Cross Domain Security issues with Adobe Flex for things such as RSS feeds but have PHP4 instead of PHP5 you can do the following.

PHP5 makes it looks so nice

<?php
$url = $_POST['url'];
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url, "r");
echo $xml->asXML();
?>

PHP4's equivalent

<?php
$url = $_POST['url'];
$handle = @fopen($url, "r");
if($handle)
{
while(!feof($handle))
{
$buffer = fgets($handle, 4096);
echo $buffer;
}
fclose($handle);
}
?>

Cheers

Matt

Additional Reading
TechNote : Loading data across domains

2007-03-24T21:09:00.000+10:00

ABC Indigenous News RSS Feed (using Adobe Flex)

Great news feed.

Matt

2007-03-24T00:24:00.000+10:00

Interest Calculator

I had an job interview recently at one of the local financial institutions. As part of the application process I left the interview with a small exercise, asked to use a couple hours on it and send it back in. The exercise was to use a small high level specification, along with a table of rates data, to do a modest small technical design document and implementation of a calculator sitting behind a web service. I did the exercise and sent it in but thought to myself why not chuck a Flex interface on it.

For intended audience.

Matt

2007-03-22T21:34:00.000+10:00

Dealing with asynchronous events in Adobe Flex

Sho Kuwamoto has a couple fantastic blog entries introducing the topic of asynchronous events with Adobe Flex, the options and pros and cons there of.

Asynchronous calls explained

Dealing with asynchronous events, part 1

Dealing with asynchronous events, part 2

Dealing with asynchronous events, part 3

Great stuff!

Matt

2007-03-17T07:19:00.001+10:00

Flex Stock Tracker

Some test values
Symbol : ADBE (Adobe)
Symbol : CSCO (Cisco)

Yahoo!!!

Matt

2007-02-23T22:55:00.000+10:00

Flex Builder editor cheat sheet
from David Zuckerman

David's done a handy little cheat sheet. Check it out here.

Matt

2007-02-23T12:01:00.000+10:00

Black-Scholes derivative pricer using Adobe Flex

Some test values
Spot Price : 60
Exercise Price : 65
Riskfree Rate : 0.08
Sigma : 0.3
Time to Maturity : 0.25

Try it out!! :o)

Matt

2007-02-20T19:52:00.000+10:00

New Flex book! Professional Flex 2

authors : Rich Tretola, Simon Barber, Renaun Erickson

Have to wait till May 2007 to see it though. :o(

Can't wait to see it!!!! :o)

Matt

2007-02-18T15:45:00.000+10:00

UML Modeling on NetBeans

A couple cool posts here by Nipawit Luangaroon.

Part I: Installation

Part II: Create a Use Case Diagram

Part III: Generate code from a diagram

Matt

2007-02-17T14:33:00.000+10:00

Using Spring with Flex, and Flex Remoting

Pretty cool post here.

Another cool thing from Christophe Coenraet's blog is the Flex Test Drive Server For Java Developers (Tomcat based).

Pretty cool stuff. :o)

Matt

2007-02-17T14:05:00.000+10:00

Flex.org

Can't believe I didn't find this site sooner.

http://flex.org

Another site I happened along recently is Adobe's list of Flex blogs. Found here.

Matt

2007-02-12T09:00:00.000+10:00

Stop / Start / Restart OC4J 10.1.3.x

I use the standalone version and have scripts for this.

In 'OC4J_installation/j2ee/home' directory.

Start
java -jar oc4j.jar

Stop
java -jar admin_client.jar uri adminId adminPassword -shutdown

Restart
java -jar admin_client.jar uri adminId adminPassword -restart

Taken from this Oracle document here.

Cheers

Matt

2007-02-11T08:35:00.000+10:00

Error: Expression Language not supported in compile time attribute value

Traps for young players

JSTL 1.0 in JSP 2.0 Pages

Didier Laurent explains the problem and solution well enough here.

Matt

2007-02-02T08:07:00.000+10:00

Quant Code

Another cool site I found recently.

http://www.quantcode.com/

"Welcome to Quant Code . This website serves to be a directory of free source code and resources useful for Quantitative Finance."

Matt

2007-02-02T08:03:00.000+10:00

Java Quant - Quantitative Financial Algorithms

Cool site I found a yesterday.

http://www.javaquant.net/

"Here you will find information about the evaluation of financial options and the theory, definitions and models behind.

This webpage provides Java Applets to calculate the price of complex financial options, using the Monte Carlo technique, Binary Trees, among others."

Matt

2007-01-24T11:30:00.000+10:00

Monte Carlo for a Vanilla Call Option on the NetBeans Platform

Another little doodle.

Matt

2006-12-01T14:04:00.000+10:00

Java Studio Creator 2 Portlets and Jetspeed-2

On David Botterill's Weblog is an entry Java Studio Creator 2 Portlets and Jetspeed-2.

This was a pet project of mine that a while back when support for Jetspeed-2 in NetBeans was not yet present. I created a NetBeans module for a skeleton project for Apache Pluto with a build script for a quick and easy start into Apache Pluto. Then I moved to Jetspeed-2 but never updated the module I had worked on.

Now it's not even necessary.

Even for me. I haven't used Jetspeed-2 on the last half dozen projects.

Matt

2006-11-27T14:24:00.000+10:00

JSF pages from Entity Class

I've been evaluating tools for Rapid Application Development (RAD) for small J2EE CRUD-like apps over the last few days. My workplace is pushing the move for the latest JDeveloper and I, being the devil's advocate, have taken a good look at NetBeans 5.5.

The kick-ass feature that NetBeans 5.5 has over JDeveloper is the 'JSF pages from Entity Class' feature.

Very hard to ignore this feature. It's very straight-forward and easy to use.

Additional tutorials,having seen Edgar's, illustrating the usefulness of this feature.

Using Java Persistence in a J2EE 1.4 Web Application

Java Persistence in the Java EE 5 Platform

The Best Feature of the Upcoming NetBeans IDE 5.5 (Part 3)
(Brian Leonard's Blog)

Using Hibernate with the Java Persistence API

NOTE
A friend has reminded me that using the EntityManager in a Presentation Layer class such as a JSF BackingBean, or even a Struts Action, is not a Best Practice and this at the very least should sit behind a Delegate. Keeping in form with logical separation of presentation and business/service, and/or persistence layers.

Matt

2006-11-23T14:38:00.000+10:00

NetBeans Demo: Using TopLink with JavaServerFaces with NetBeans 5.5

Edgar Silva has added a post and a great demo for using TopLink with JSF and Netbeans 5.5.

I am adding this link here mainly for my own reference although visitors to this site might find it useful too.

NetBeans Demo: Using TopLink with JavaServerFaces with NetBeans 5.5 (Blog Entry)

NetBeans Demo: Using TopLink with JavaServerFaces with NetBeans 5.5 (Actual Demo)

I've been doing Struts 1 and Struts 2 (WebWork 2) for some time and recently asked to review JSF and tools for streamlining development with JSF. I've tested JDeveloper 10.1.3.1 and NetBeans 5.5 and found working with NetBeans pretty easy and straight-forward.

I haven't built a full-blown application yet using these tools so the jury is still out.

I will add an entry when I do.

2006-07-31T19:55:00.000+10:00

Very quick start with the NetBeans Platform #4

At this point you have removed IDE-related bits and pieces from the interface however there are a few lingering items in the menu and the toolbar. I won't repeat was are very good instructions on this webpage. Specifically, you will need to edit the layer.xml file. Check it out!

NetBeans IDE 5.0 FeedReader Tutorial - Branding the Application

Matt

2006-07-12T10:23:00.000+10:00

Black-Scholes on the NetBeans Platform

I've had a little pet interest in derivative pricing for a while and thought I would make a quick little Black-Scholes option pricing tool on the NetBeans Platform. Probably not useful to anyone. Just a quick little thing to keep me amused with the short little spirts of free time I get.

Call

Put

2006-07-05T12:15:00.000+10:00

Very quick start with the NetBeans Platform #3

Here is how to pull away the NetBeans IDE 'stuff' out of the example application I've been showing. It's almost too easy to grant showing but here it is.

Step One : Go to the Module Suite project application properties

Select 'Create Standalone Application'. You will then be prompted with a dialog box asking whether you would like to 'exclude' the IDE-related modules. Click 'Exclude' and they are gone.

Step Two : Hit 'F6'

I've added quite a number of screenshots in these posts but really the whole process of starting a Module Suite project and a quick Module project takes just a couple minutes.

To see really interesting uses of the NetBeans Platform and catch the latest news the best places to go are to the blogs of Roumen and Geertjan.

I'm just a backyard NetBeans enthusiast. They are the real deal. :-)

2006-07-05T11:55:00.000+10:00

Very quick start with the NetBeans Platform #2

In the last entry I showed how to kick-start a NetBeans Platform, or Module Suite, project. Quite simple.

This entry is about adding a very quick little Module to that new project.

Step One : Start a new Module Project

Step Two : Give the project a name and add it to your existing Module Suite project

Step Three : Give the Module a display name and name the packages

Step Four : Here you can see the project in the Project Explorer

Step Five : Add a Window Component

Step Six : Choose Window Position. I chose 'editor' and to open on start-up

Step Seven : Write a class name prefix

Step Eight : Form Builder opens ready for you

Step Eight : I made a little Login Form.

Matisse is absolutely fantastic to work with. Belissimo.

Step Eight : Hit 'F6'

Now you will see the NetBeans Platform 'shell' start up with your Module. This example is very simple but hey man it's a panel. You can make anything you want there and bundle the Module in your Module Suite.

In the next post I will pull out the NetBeans IDE Modules so you get a cleaner looking application of your making.

2006-07-05T11:12:00.000+10:00

Very quick start with the NetBeans Platform #1

A friend at work was telling me he didn't understand what the NetBeans Platform was and what was the difference between the NetBeans IDE and the NetBeans Platform. So I explained this to him. I then very quickly I showed him how quickly you could start an application built on the NetBeans Platform. It took literally a couple minutes with a few clicks, a few drag and drops, and a little typing.

I thought that a few screenshots on the blog would help people take those first few steps. Otherwise, like many persons I've met who have said, "I just don't have the time to investigate what the NetBeans Platform is."

Here we go.

Step One : Create a new Module Suite Project

Step Two : Give the project a name and set it as the Main Project

Step Three : Here you can see the project in the Project Explorer

Step Four : Hit 'F6'

You won't see much but you will see the beginnings of a desktop application built on the NetBeans Platform. In my next post I will add some steps to getting a first sample module started and bundled with this application.

2006-06-27T22:54:00.000+10:00

WebWork 2 and Internationalization

I've been super keen on WebWork of late. Years ago I had friends mention WebWork to me but I didn't even give it the remotest looking. I was working with Struts 1 all day everyday and that's all I did.

Anyway, today I wanted to try Internationalization with WebWork and was stuck. To my rescue in the WebWork Forums came Philip Luppens. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without his help and want to share the fruit of the results here.

Update: I am using the I18nInterceptor because I want the ability to change locales to others than what the browser is telling the server. It's not needed if you want the server to simply pick up the appropriate properties file based on the browsers locale. Thanks to Jason Carreira for pointing that out to me.

Step One : Make sure you have I18nInterceptor available

In xwork.xml I have the default package and the defaultStack set.

Step Two : Set properties file in webwork.properties

Step Three : Set label values in properties files

Step Four : Use tags to getTexts

Update: I'm using i18n tags because I want the ability to change locales. If not the server would know the locale, pick up the appropriate properties file and allow me to use straight ww:property or ww:text tags.

My Login JSP

Login JSP after changing Locale

Added parameter : ?request_locale=pl

Bingo!

2006-06-11T23:04:00.000+10:00

Deploying WebWork 2 Portlet into Jetspeed 2 Portal

A quick step by step guide.

1) Download Jetspeed 2.0 installation binary here.

2) Download WebWork 2.2.2 here.

3) Run the Ant build. (It may take a while for Ivy to download the required jar files.)

4) Run the Ant build for the WebWork sample Portlet, it's under the 'webapps' directory. The command is 'ant build-portlet'.

5) A 'webwork-portlet.war' will appear under the 'webapps/dist' directory but you will need to check that the 'WebWork-2.2.2.jar' is under the '/WEB-INF/lib' in the war file.

6) Copy the 'webwork-portlet.war' to the '<jetspeed2-server-directory>/webapps/jetspeed/WEB-INF/deploy' directory.

7) Add the following to 'default-page.psml' under the '<jetspeed2-server-directory>/webapps/jetspeed/WEB-INF/pages' directory.

<fragment id=“dp-8” type=“portlet” name=“webwork-portlet::WebWorkPortlet”>
<property layout=“TwoColumns” name=“row” value="“1” />
<property layout=“TwoColumns” name=“column” value=“0” />
</fragment>

(of course not conflicting with any used fragment id or anything that might be using the same row or column)

8) A couple refreshes on the page and the Portlet showed up nicely.

Matt

2006-02-02T22:01:00.000+10:00

NetBeans 5.0 Release is here!!!!

Main Page here.

Download it here.

Get it!

Matt

2006-01-30T11:51:00.000+10:00

Navaneeth Krishnan's cool online demo for creating JSF Portlets
in Sun Java Studio Creator 2

This is a blog of Navaneeth's going back to August last year where he has link an online demo he has created for creating JSF Portlets using Sun Java Studio Creator 2.

You can find the blog here.

The direct link to the Online Demo is here.

You can see from the demo that Apache Pluto is bundled and provides a means for testing the Portlets from the IDE.

Matt

2006-01-29T21:47:00.000+10:00

Roads previously travelled

It's funny how sometimes in life ideas pop into your head, you pursue them on some courses or tangents, after some parts of these journeys you feel satisfied that some of your investigations have yielded fruits of new knowledge. And then you find someone else has been down those roads and left juicy fruits you could have savoured before you started your journeys.

A while ago I start to explore and test the various Portlet Containers, commercial and open licensed. This is where I spent a lot of time, travelling in straight paths, down some alleys, around in a couple circles, backwards at times, and momentarily pausing and tracking off on other endeavours.

I still had plenty of testing and evaluating in front of me when I discovered Jing Xue's Blog and the reviews he has done. Timesaving stuff.

If you are into this Portlet stuff you can check out the following. Half a year is almost a lifetime when it comes to particularly active projects however I believe there is still some value in these insights.

Liferay Pro 3.5.0, Tomcat 5.5, and Spring Portlet Sample
Wednesday, July 27th, 2005

First Impression on Liferay 3.5.0
Wednesday, July 25th, 2005

Open Source Portal Servers - Jetspeed
Wednesday, July 6th, 2005

Open Source Portal Servers - GridSphere
Tuesday, July 5th, 2005

Open Source Portal Servers - JBoss Portal & Liferay
Sunday, June 26th, 2005

Big thanks to Jing Xue. Time is valuable and he has done us a great service.

Matt

2006-01-28T20:07:00.000+10:00

NVPortal from NodeVision is pretty cool

I was having a look around on the Manageability.org website and came across a list of Open Source Portal Servers written in Java. On this list I found the NVPortal.

NVPortal is an enterprise portal solution and a pretty cool one at that. It's JSR-168 Portlet Specification Compliant and it's based on the BSD license.

Check it out here.

Let me give a quick preview of what you get.

A cool Main Page to kick you off.

A cool subtle Admin start page.

A cool means to edit the main JSP's. (Part one : The File Tree)

A cool means to edit the main JSP's. (Part two : The Editor)

A cool Portlet Admin tool.

Pretty cool. Worth a look.

Matt

2006-01-24T19:17:00.000+10:00

Don't you get it?

100's of people are flocking to this site everyday, obviously interested in NetBeans development. I want to welcome you all.

If you haven't already downloaded NetBeans 5.0 Release Candidate 2 then don't waste anymore time. Get it here.

Matt

2006-01-24T06:54:00.000+10:00

'Build it and they will come....'

NetBeans 5.0 has made it so easy to create Modules for NetBeans everyone is doing it now. ;-)

A new NetBeans Module website has popped up on the radar as well.

http://www.nbextras.org

Roumen has a Module in there already. A ProjectPackager module that will let you zip up your project ready for emailing or backup in a jiffy.

http://www.nbextras.org/2006/01/20/1137795966838.html

Very exciting things happening in the NetBeans realm of late.

Matt

2006-01-22T16:01:00.000+10:00

Quickstart an MDI application using NetBeans 5.0

This is a quick tutorial showing how quick and easy it is to start an MDI application project and add one JInternalFrame.

1. Start a 'New Project' and choose 'Java Application'.

2. Give you project a name and a location.

3. From 'Source Packages' create a 'New - MDI Application'.

4. I have added a JToolBar and a JButton.

5. Create a 'New - JInternalFrame Form'.

6. Here you are ready to use the Matisse GUI Builder to design the JInternalFrame.

7. I have added a JToolBar and a JButton, with some sample form elements.

8. On the JDesktopPane I am adding an Event to open the JInternalFrame.

9. I have added the following code to the btnOpenIFrameActionPerformed method of the MDI Frame to open the JInternalFrame.

private void btnOpenIFrameActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
IfrmMyIFrame frm = new IfrmMyIFrame();
int width = 400;
int height = 300;
frm.setSize(width, height);
frm.setVisible(true);
desktopPane.add(frm);
}

10. I have added the following to the constructor of the IfrmMyIFrame class.

super("My little JInternalFrame",true,true,true,true);
setLocation(50, 50);

11. I have added the following code to the btnHelloWorldActionPerformed method of the JButton on the JToolBar in the JInternalFrame.

private void btHelloWorldActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Hello World!", "Message", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
}

12. Hit the 'F6' and Run Main Project and you're on your way.

In Summary, you can quickly create an MDI application, use the Matisse GUI Builder to do what you like with the main JDesktopPane, then create individual JInternalFrames which you can in-turn use the Matisse GUI Builder to layout and do what you like with as well. Pretty cool stuff.

Matt

2006-01-18T00:28:00.000+10:00

Humble Beginnings

I am a person who loves to talk about things I am passionate about and I now have a new medium at my disposal, my blog.

One of the things I am most passionate about is programming so I will probably blog most on topics related to programming.

I 'burn the midnight oil' most nights tinkering with and testing nearly anything and everything that is Java and/or NetBeans related. Each day I am talking up the cool things I have been played with or discovered with my colleagues and programming mates.

This blog acts as a centre point for which friends, new or old, can check up on what I have been playing with and maybe enjoy some of the fruits of my labour.

Get ready everyone. Matt is here!