Chat to Bugzilla from Java using Apache XML-RPC

05.03.2011 – Connecting to the Bugzilla instance from Java code should be relatively simple, since Bugzilla provides an XML-RPC web-service interface. One of the ways to call XML-RPC methods from Java is by using Apache XML-RPC client classes.

However, the official documentation on the Apache XML-RPC website does not compile and contains // TODO comments. Therefore, it is relatively hard to get started with XML-RPC calls quickly. This post proposes a simple wrapper class with a hint on how to subclass it for individual XML-RPC methods of the Bugzilla web-service.

Build web-startable NetBeans RCP application (even on MacOS X)

21.02.2011 – The NetBeans RCP is indeed a great tool for building the rich client desktop applications. But there is one even more stunning feature hidden – you can build the JNLP (web-startable) applications built on the NetBeans platform. How cool is that?

OK, if you now ask „What does it mean?“, here it is in plain English: You can make a magical package with your NetBeans RCP application. If you place this package on the web, users can launch your application without installation, by simply clicking a magic button on your page… Now – how cool is that? :)

Mimidoo – Kids pictures on the fridge? Old-school…

14.08.2010 – Social apps are sometimes surprising in their aim… Some of them are for wine lovers, some of them helps you lose weight. The one we released just recently – Mimidoo – is hopefully determined to success as it targets a very large social group: The babies! :-)

Installing Bugzilla on Apache Tomcat 6

09.08.2010 – While Bugzilla is running fine on the traditional Apache server, it is possible to install it on Apache Tomcat (version 6). In the case you already use Tomcat, it might be better not to have two servers running on the machine in order to to reduce the costs of maintaining both of them. This how-to covers steps needed to configure Bugzilla 3.2.6 to run on Tomcat 6 with Ubuntu 10.04 and MySQL 5.

ČT24 - Máme časové díry v aplikaci…

23.04.2010 – Někteří uživatelé nás upozornili na chybu v naší pravděpodobně zatím nejlepší iPhone aplikaci, v appce „ČT24 – Zpravodajství“. Jsou v ní prý „časové díry“… Nemusíme ale naštěstí zběsile koumat, co to znamená…

Namířit – palte! Aneb proč nemáme živé vysílání ČT24 na iPhone

17.04.2010 – Tuhle otázku potkávám tak často, že už o tom musím zablogovat, jinak bych se asi upsal k smrti. To, že živé vysílání televize Z1 na iPhone funguje krásně, ale že vysílání ČT24 se na iPhone v dohledné době nedostane, to je něco, co se běžnému uživateli nevysvětluje snadno. „Vždyť co je na tom těžkého?!“ – slýchávám…

Dobýváme svět zpravodajství

15.04.2010 – Již je tomu tak – po čtečce pro ČT24 se nám rodinka iPhone aplikací rozrostla o nový přírůstek – o iPhone čtečku ekonomického deníku E15.

Aplikace vlastně demonstruje uplný základ naší obecné zpravodajské čtečky – obsahuje správně nastavené feedy a pozměněnou grafiku (čili jen jsme překreslili pár obrázků).

Jak rychle se píše na iPhone?

15.04.2010 – Nezřídka se mi stává, že sedím v němém překvapení nad tím, jaké statistiky mohu někdy reálně potřebovat. Do jedné z naší social appek pro iPhone jsem právě úspěšně naimplementoval vyhledávání s našeptáváním. Data pro našeptávač se tahají z webové služby – vše tedy musí fungovat asynchronně a není navíc reálné prostě jen střílet dotazy na server…

ČT24 Zpravodajství – měsíc poté

10.03.2010 – Je tomu již něco přes měsíc co jsme ve spolupráci se společností Futuroom vyvinuli pro Českou televizi (pro portál ČT24) zpravodajskou aplikaci pro iPhone. Myslím tedy, že právě přišel čas na první zhodnocení…

Marry Christmas, to everyone who cares

21.12.2009 – In my office, on my table…

What it looks like: A bit bored IT guy (Petr Dvorak;o)) wants to check how fast he can complete 50-piece SnowWhite puzzle after drinking 3 litres of vodka with juice (ehm… juice with vodka)…

What it is: We will have a small private party in the end of the day with the NetBeans QE guys, everyone gets a „welcome shot“, the weak ones get a juice too… Yeah, and I almost forgot I have a 3-years-old sister and I was looking for some creative present in the last minute…

A quick JFileChooser demo

18.12.2009 – Today, I noticed that many new NetBeans users have a difficulty of implementing a file chooser functionality. Usually, you just write all the code by hand, but there is also a way how to achieve several goals using the designer in the NetBeans IDE.

This tutorial should demonstrate how to leverage the NetBeans GUI Builder for implementing a custom file chooser. As a setup, we will also create a small Java desktop application.

How Glassfish powers Eqyptian seafood restaurants

15.11.2009 – Me and my friend were walking in the streets of Luxor, desperately looking for something to eat in an early night. In spite of being the center of an Egyptian tourism, it is quite hard to find a clean restaurant in the city.

Suddenly, I glimpsed a seafood restaurant and – well – the picture on its board was at least quite familiar to me…

Use the new Netbeans.org site the right way - from the IDE

15.11.2009 – A story of a young boy's dream… When I was a young boy, I wanted to be a NetBeans developer. Since the age of five, I dreamt of writing my first line of the NetBeans code. (Well, when I was five, there was no NetBeans nor Java but since I am trying to advertise a bit, the story doesn't really have to make sense, right?)

I had to wait until I was 23 before the guys from the NetBeans team picked me for a tester, and half a year more before they allowed me to touch the code („Hey, you, could you fix that typo in the message there? I am having a lunch and I don't want to touch my keyboard…“). Now, I am trying to learn how to write a code without hearing smart boys' (translate as „Jesse Glick's“) remarks on what strange thing my code does – I am trying to become a good occasional NetBeans programmer…

During the wonderful time I spent in the NetBeans team so far, I learned almost all the stuff around the NetBeans community and majority of the NetBeans related processes. I learned how to submit an issue with a description that actually makes sense (hopefully, no developer reads this…) and how to work with the IDE's sources. I slowly got accustomed to the ancient idea of mailing lists and I happily observed how we introduced the forums integrated with them. I almost started to understand why we have a wiki that looks completely different from the website. I became a young but already a bit gray NetBeans wolf… Well – now, these days of beautiful complexity are gone…

Another step further - Kenai services on NetBeans projects

15.08.2009 – While the Kenai integration in the NetBeans IDE works pretty well overall, we are not resting on one's laurels. There are still many things that have to be done to make this marriage perfect. After we released NetBeans 6.7, a wild discussion on this matter started: „The UI is not cool enough!“, „I don't like it done this way!“, „It is not working together closely enough!“, etc..

But this would lead us nowhere. As we are rational people at Sun, we had several very productive meetings (with several very unproductive moments) and we collected the set of use-cases for the NetBeans/Kenai integration. Subsequently, we have requested some new server API's, we started to slightly rethink the concept of the Kenai dashboard to make it more comprehensive and – the most important thing – we started to integrate Kenai services in the NetBeans stuff (and vice versa, indeed). An improvement from the last category is what I am going to show you today.

Issue recognition in the chat window - Freshly baked!

07.08.2009 – Today, I am faster than the last time I was writing about the chat feature as I am writing about it before you can try it yourself. The changes I have made in the Kenai chat window are not in the trunk builds yet, they are pushed just a few minutes ago… But since it is Friday and I might not survive tomorrow (it's a „paintball war“ day), I am going to share the new feature with you right now…