Eclipse shared install on a Windows Server 2003/2008

I did develop this solution at work for our internal purpose at www.innoveo.com. Going away from the paradigm “As a developer I run everything locally” isn’t easy to accept but in some rare cases, it make sense. Below I list what I consider to be the main advantages and drawbacks.

Stability

• Not everybody is changing the developer environment as you need admin right to be able to do changes, more stability.
• The developer environment is standardized: convention over configuration always pays like in Apache #Maven.

Sharing

• you can work from anywhere as long as you have an internet/VPN connection
• You can move your working place around, show your workspace to a colleague, reduce your coupling to Windows, use #Linux, use a Mac!

Security

• The source code stay on the server, if someone steal notebooks you don’t loose your software assets.

Efficiency

• Somebody maintains the developer environment and settings for you, some developers can still beta test a new eclipse version before till it is considered stable.
• Rollout is limited to a minimum loss of time, as you will see below 
• Setting up a new developer account is basically settings up a new account on the shared server, running 3 lines of shell.
• The server  is not full of unwanted applications running in background, only java.exe. eclipse.exe, databases can still run on another server (MYSQL, Oracle), runtime environment (Tomcat).

Speed, speed and speed

• A server is cheap compare to one big notebook for every developer.
• Server is most of the time fully 64bits, may have up to 8 cores, RAID 5 typically  output 350Mb/s read (a good notebook: 32 bits, 2 cores and 80Mb/s without SSD)

Drawbacks

• A shared developer environment is a Single point of failure –> you need a very good backup, and eventually hardware fallback machine in hot standby!
• You can not work if developer have no or limited internet access, in train for example.
• It required a bit of initial engineering, hence this article.

Jazoon 2010 in Zurich Sihlcity

Tomorrow I will be tweeting from the international industry conference on #Java technology

Jazoon is an international industry conference on #Java technology in Zurich. It addresses software developers and architects, IT decision-makers and consultants throughout Europe and around the world. Jazoon gives #Java experts a platform in the heart of Europe where they share their ideas and experiences.
From 1 to 3 June 2010, Zurich will be the meeting place for the international #Java community. By presenting a comprehensive conference program and creating a communicative atmosphere, Jazoon helps personal contacts grow and transcend technical, geographical and cultural boundaries. A supplementary program including an exhibition of solutions, tools and continuing education as well as career opportunities and various networking events ensure added benefits for every target group.

I am planning to attend the following conferences:

When using Maven jetty:run, CSS and JavaScript files are never updated

I was getting mad because jetty was refusing to redeploy my static files (xhtml, css) in #Eclipse until I find the reason

The Jetty Web Server provides a HTTP server and Servlet container capable of serving static and dynamic contend either from a standalone or embedded instantiations.

Jetty buffers static content for webapps such as html files, css files, images etc and uses memory mapped files to do this if the NIO connectors are being used. The problem is that on Windows, memory mapping a file causes the file to be locked, so that the file cannot be updated or replaced. This means that effectively you have to stop Jetty in order to update a file.

To fix this, add a line with to your #maven-jetty-plugin configuration:

org.mortbay.jetty  maven-jetty-plugin  6.1.5       ...    src/main/resources/webdefault.xml     

The default webdefault.xml file is found in the lib/jetty.jar at org/mortbay/jetty/webapp/webdefault.xml. Extract it to a convenient disk location and edit it to change useFileMappedBuffer to false:

      useFileMappedBuffer       false     

Copy the changed file into src/main/resources/ of your project.

The problem is explained more in Jetty’s documentation.

Why I won’t buy an Apple iPad yet

Just coming back from the Zurich Bahnhofstrasse Apple store where I did play 35 minutes with an IPAD, the shop were not crowed nor full of potential customer as I was also downstair checking accessories.

I was interested by the 64Gb, Wifi + 3G iPad

• I don’t like the current operating system: the “desktop” look really empty: it has way too much space between icons,
• I did not see any special killer application made for the iPad, a lot are currently just scaled up. The gallery, the shop are nothing special at all.
• The size make it a device I wont have in my pocket, making my iPhone 3GS still relevant in most cases,
• 700 grams is heavy, try 25 minutes lifting it!
• I miss a camera (front AND back camera with Flashlight please),
• The GPS is only available on the 3G version, not on all 3 WIFI models,
• Ridiculous 3G Data plan at 19CHF for 300MB and 39CHF for 2GB,

 

---

To confirm my first impressions, I went through Google to check what others are saying

• Why You Shouldn’t Buy an iPad (Yet) “If you’ve already got a smartphone and a laptop, the gap in your workflow that the iPad might fill isn’t obvious” + “Next year’s iPad will be faster, cheaper, less buggy, and have better apps and worthy competitors.”
• 12 reasons why I won’t buy an Apple iPad
• Boing Boing: Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)
• Gizmodo:  8 Things That Suck About the iPad
• Daily Finance: Apple Tablet: 10 Things We (Already) Hate About You

If you have bought one, you may be interested in

• For Fun: Installing iPad Wi-Fi Battery Replacement
• My favorite sport: Jailbreaking! you can use Spirit now

Spirit is an untethered jailbreak for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch on the latest firmwares
Any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch on firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3, or 3.2.

Joomla_1.5.18-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip

 

User of #Joomla! 1.5.17 with patch “Joomla_1.5.17-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip” you can skip this update: no need to install since patches are identical

• Joomla_1.5.17-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip = #Joomla_1.5.18-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip

 

Only for SecurityImages 5.1.x and #Joomla! 1.5.18

Allow login views, login modules, register, lost password, lost user account and contact section to be
protected by SecurityImages

• Are for #Joomla! 1.5.18 only and SecurityImages 5.1.x or later
• 14 files has been altered, mostly views, and com_contact/com_user controller, click on picture below
  for more details
• Download file Joomla_1.5.18-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip (33kB) and
  overwrite file on your server
• Go to #Joomla! control panel and HIT at least SAVE configuration once, this will add a new boolean value
  (true or false) in #Joomla! configuration for using SecurityImages.

Keep up to date with the Joomla! 1.5 patches RSS

Download

How to install documentation

Joomla! 1.5.18 released

The #Joomla Project announces the immediate availability of #Joomla 1.5.18 [Wojmamni ama wojnaiki]. This is a security release and also corrects one priority issue in version 1.5.17.

The Development Working Group’s goal is to continue to provide regular, frequent updates to the #Joomla community.

Statistics for the 1.5.18 release period:

• Joomla 1.5.18 contains:
  • 1 issues fixed in SVN
  • 3 commits
• Tracker activity resulted in a net increase of 21 active issues:
  • 29 new reports
  • 7 closed
  • 1 fixed in SVN
• At the time the 1.5.18 release was packaged, the tracker had 337 active issues:
  • 195 open
  • 105 confirmed
  • 37 pending

Click here to download #Joomla 1.5.18 (Full package) »

Click here to download #Joomla 1.5.18 (Upgrade packages) »

TeamCity updated to 5.1.1 and a Joomla! module soon available :-)

I did upgrade from TeamCity 5.0.1 to TeamCity 5.1.1 In no time, just drop the war in my Tomcat container 🙂

At this address you will always find the latest snaphosts of some (I would need 44 builds to display them all!) of my PHP projects for #Joomla!

http://teamcity.waltercedric.com

I will also upgrade tomorrow early morning our TeamCity Licensed server at www.Innoveo.com .

Continuous build for #Joomla!

By the way I have still to deliver (HERE and HERE) what i promised on the Joomla! development group, aka a full solution for developing #Joomla! using #Maven for PHP and Teamcity/Bamboo/Husdon. You can see the documentation I made in my WIKI (work in progress)

TeamCity integration in #Joomla!

At the same time, #Joomla! users that are using TeamCity, search no more, I will be providing you the first GPL module for #Joomla! that let you display in your site the status of all your builds/projects! The code is heavily using the REST API with PHP CURL and a bit of XML parsing. If you have any requirements, it is still time to drop me an email 😉

Joomla_1.5.17-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip

 

Only for SecurityImages 5.1.x and #Joomla! 1.5.17

Allow login views, login modules, register, lost password, lost user account and contact section to be
protected by SecurityImages

• Are for #Joomla! 1.5.17 only and SecurityImages 5.1.x or later
• 14 files has been altered, mostly views, and com_contact/com_user controller, click on picture below
  for more details
• Download file Joomla_1.5.17-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.1.x_v01.02.00.zip (33kB) and
  overwrite file on your server
• Go to #Joomla! control panel and HIT at least SAVE configuration once, this will add a new boolean value
  (true or false) in #Joomla! configuration for using SecurityImages.

Keep up to date with the Joomla! 1.5 patches RSS

Download

How to install documentation

Joomla! 1.5.17 released

 

The #Joomla Project announces the immediate availability of #Joomla 1.5.17 [Wojmamni ama woobusani]. This is a priority release to correct two issues in version 1.5.16. Although there are no security issues fixed in this release, we consider it a security release because a security-related bug has been fixed and because many sites may be upgraded directly from 1.5.15 to 1.5.17.

 

Statistics for the 1.5.17 release period:

• Joomla 1.5.17 contains:
  • 6 issues fixed in SVN
  • 6 commits
• Tracker activity resulted in a net increase of 4 active issues:
  • 10 new reports
  • 0 closed
  • 6 fixed in SVN
• At the time the 1.5.17 release was packaged, the tracker had 307 active issues:
  • 171 open
  • 105 confirmed
  • 31 pending