Raible Designs

Hibernate Enhancements

For you Hibernate users/lovers, here's some good news for you (THANKS GAVIN!):

1. [Hibernate Forum] For XDoclet users its well-worth grabbing a CVS update now, I have fixed a bunch of issues and made improvements including Hibernate2 support (thanks to Matt Raible) and joined-subclass support.

2. [Hibernate Dev List]

 After a bit of research and thinking, I have settled on an approach to
 query by Criteria that hopefully is flexible enough for 80-90% of use
 cases, but still simple enough to fit in sufficiently few lines of code.
 
 The proposed new API is based loosely upon the Cayenne API. Queries may be
 expressed as follows:
 
 
 List cats = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
     .add( Expression.like("name", "Izi%" ) )
     .add( Expression.between("weight", minWeight, maxWeight) )
     .add( Expression.eq( "mate", mate ) )
     .addOrder( Order.asc("age") )
     .setMaxResults(20)
     .list();
 
 
 Which is approximately equivalent to:
 
 from Cat cat
 where cat.name like 'Izi%'
 and cat.weight between :minWeight and :maxWeight
 and cat.mate = :mate
 order by cat.age
 
 
 This API is marked "experimental", but I would like to stabilize it fairly
 soon, so early feedback is very welcome. This is all in CVS.

How do I remove duplicates in a List?

I have a List that may contain duplicates and I need to filter out the duplicates (so I don't get a foreign key violation when inserting records). Are there any Jakarta' Commons utilities to do this? I can see a few solutions to my problem:

• Present it on the UI. This might be tough since I'm using a select box JavaScript library. Hmmm, I am using a custom setter for the String[] that gets sent in, maybe I can do it there - checking to see if the ArrayList I'm setting already contains the given String.
• Filter it out in the business layer.
• Use a type of List that doesn't allow duplicates, and just ignores a duplicate value when you try to add it.

I just thought of #1 while writing this post. It's cool how talking about your problems can help solve them - no wonder shrinks get paid so much. I'm still interested in any proposed utility classes.

Debugging JUnit tests in Eclipse - how?

Does anyone know how to run JUnit tests using Ant and debug them in Eclipse? I have the JUnit/Ant part figured out, it's the debugging I'm having issues with. I'm able to run debug (using breakpoints) in Eclipse while running Tomcat, but not while running a simple JUnit test from Ant. Man that would be cool. If I could run Ant (from w/in Eclipse or on the command line) and set breakpoints in Eclipse - I could sure speed up my development time.

No Fluff, Just Stuff - I'm In!

If I play my cards right, I'll be either (1) flying back from Florida for this conference, or (2) moving to Florida shortly afterwards.

------------------------------------------------------
Confirmation number: 338104
Name: Matt Raible

------------------------------------------------------
Rocky Mountain Software Symposium 2003: Spring Edition

Date: Friday, May 16, 2003 - Sunday, May 18, 2003

Sheraton Denver West
360 Union Blvd
Lakewood, CO  80228

Struts Validator: Validating Two Fields Match

In the Struts Validator Guide, there is a section on how to create a pluggable validator that matches two fields. I've been using this server-side validator (as shown in the example) to do password/confirm password validation. This has worked great for me, but I've always wanted the Validator to have the client-side JavaScript method for it too. I wrote my own that just compared the two fields, but it's not the same as having one rendered for you (from validator-rules.xml). So yesterday, I did some tinkering and figured out how to add the JavaScript method to validator-rules.xml. So here's how to configure the whole thing (most of this is contained in the Validator Guide, save the JavaScript).

How To Add a TwoFields Validator

Step 1: Create a class with a validateTwoFields method. In my code, my class is ValidationUtil and has the following method:

public static boolean validateTwoFields(Object bean, ValidatorAction va,
                                        Field field, ActionErrors errors,
                                        HttpServletRequest request) {
    String value =
        ValidatorUtil.getValueAsString(bean, field.getProperty());
    String sProperty2 = field.getVarValue("secondProperty");
    String value2 = ValidatorUtil.getValueAsString(bean, sProperty2);

    if (!GenericValidator.isBlankOrNull(value)) {
        try {
            if (!value.equals(value2)) {
                errors.add(field.getKey(),
                           Resources.getActionError(request, va, field));

                return false;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            errors.add(field.getKey(),
                       Resources.getActionError(request, va, field));

            return false;
        }
    }

    return true;
}

Step 2: Edit validator-rules.xml to contain the "twofields" rule.

<validator name="twofields" 
    classname="org.appfuse.webapp.util.ValidationUtil" method="validateTwoFields" 
    methodParams="java.lang.Object,
                  org.apache.commons.validator.ValidatorAction,
                  org.apache.commons.validator.Field,
                  org.apache.struts.action.ActionErrors,
                  javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest" 
   depends="required" msg="errors.twofields">
    <javascript><![CDATA[
        function validateTwoFields(form) {
            var bValid = true;
            var focusField = null;
            var i = 0;
            var fields = new Array();
            oTwoFields = new twofields();
            for (x in oTwoFields) {
                var field = form[oTwoFields[x][0]];
                var secondField = form[oTwoFields[x][2]("secondProperty")];
            
                if (field.type == 'text' ||
                    field.type == 'textarea' ||
                    field.type == 'select-one' ||
                    field.type == 'radio' ||
                    field.type == 'password') {
            
                    var value;
                    var secondValue;
                    // get field's value
                    if (field.type == "select-one") {
                        var si = field.selectedIndex;
                        value = field.options[si].value;
                        secondValue = secondField.options[si].value;
                    } else {
                        value = field.value;
                        secondValue = secondField.value;
                    }
                
                    if (value != secondValue) {
                    
                        if (i == 0) {
                            focusField = field;
                        }
                        fields[i++] = oTwoFields[x][1];
                        bValid = false;
                    }
                }
            }
            
            if (fields.length > 0) {
                focusField.focus();
                alert(fields.join('\n'));
            }
            
            return bValid;
        }]]></javascript>
</validator>

Step 3: Configure validation for your form in validation.xml:

<field property="password"
     depends="required,twofields">
  <msg
    name="required"
    key="errors.required"/>
  <msg
    name="twofields"
    key="errors.twofields"/>

  <arg0 key="userForm.password"/>
  <arg1
    key="userForm.confirmPassword"
  />
  <var>
    <var-name>secondProperty</var-name>
    <var-value>confirmPassword</var-value>
  </var>
</field>

Where errors.twofields=The '{0}' field has to have the same value as the '{1}' field. An alternative to Step 3 is to use XDoclet to generate your validation.xml. This requires (1) configuring XDoclet (of course) and (2) adding some @struts tags to your form on the setPassword method.

/**
 * Returns the password.
 * @return String
 *
 * @struts.validator type="required" msgkey="errors.required"
 * @struts.validator type="twofields" msgkey="errors.twofields"
 * @struts.validator-args arg1resource="userForm.password"
 * @struts.validator-args arg1resource="userForm.confirmPassword"
 * @struts.validator-var name="secondProperty" value="confirmPassword"
 */
public String setPassword() {
	return password;
}

I've sent this as a proposal to the struts-dev mailing list yesterday, but haven't heard anything yet. Enjoy!

Update: You'll need to update ValidationUtil.java and validator-rules-custom.xml for Struts 1.2. Full files: ValidationUtil.java and validation-rules-custom.xml.

Moblogger works with Roller!

I did some testing with Russ's Moblogger this morning and it works great with Roller! I haven't tested attaching images, but sending a plain text message worked like a charm. The hardest part was setting up the e-mail address. I'll try to document my setup procedures tonight for other Roller users.

Hopefully, I'll be setting this up on this site so I can post with my T68i. What does that give me? Nothing, absolutely nothing - simply the ability to post 1 liners or something like that. Of course, I could also be motivated to get the phone's camera - that might make it a little more worthwhile. Good excuse for new gadget. I dig the software/idea - thanks Russ!

Hibernate Upgade: 1.2.3 to 2.0 (My Story)

I'm upgrading struts-resume to Hibernate 2.0 tonight. I thought I'd blog my adventure and what I needed to change.

Skiing Yesterday

Yesterday was an epic day of skiing at Breckenridge. Knee-deep powder, no lift lines and skiing with a good friend made the day perfect. The two hour drive up there and the 45 wait for a bus in the parking lot wasn't even too bad. I left my house at 8:30 and was on a lift at 11:30. Keep in mind, this is usually a 1 hour, 15 minute drive. My buddy, also named Matt, talked me into skiing all the way until 4. I was beat, but I'm glad I did it 'cause the snow was awesome.

The way home was a whole different story. We knew traffic was going to be bad, since it was awful on the way up. So we stopped and had some dinner and left Frisco (near Breckenridge) at 7:00 p.m. The freeway (I-70) seemed pretty good until I hit Loveland pass, about 10 miles from Frisco. There, traffic ground to a halt. It was the worst traffic jam I have ever seen - it took me 3 hours to go 15 miles! By the time I got home last night it was 11:00!! Yikes - so I'm going to skip skiing today even though they got 16 inches at Vail. [Colorado Web Cams]

The good news is that I have tomorrow off, so I hope to go again. The reason I'm off is because Comcast hasn't paid my contracting company since we started there. Supposedly, the check is in the mail, but my contracting company is tired of floating our paychecks (can't blame them), so they've asked us to stay home until they receive the check. I don't mind, but I will if I'm still not working my mid-week. Now would be the perfect time to find a job in Florida! Oh wait - it is a perfect time - it's dumping snow in the mountains and I don't have to go to work!!

Finishing Chapters: Almost Lost It

In the course of the past week, while editing my chapters, Word (XP) has crashed on me a number of times. Every time I've been able to get my work back and lost nothing more than a few minutes. I'm very impressed as I once lost 10 pages in college. As I was finishing up - running spellchecker at 1:00 this morning - I received the following error and I almost lost it. I had to click OK a number of times before it finally recognized it. Picture me sitting here going "no, No, NO!!" ;-)

StrutsCX: Updated

I received the following e-mail from Berny, the author of StrutsCX.

Thanks Matt for hosting a StrutsCX sample. As the author of StrutsCX I do have some news for you: There is a new release with support of FOP/PDF, client side XSLT, XSL pipelineing and included Struts Validator. Check out http://it.cappuccinonet.com/strutscx.

Would be great if you could update on the latest version. Would you mind if I put a link on the StrutsCX Homepage to the Demo?

Thanks,
Berny

I actually upgraded my demo site when I received his e-mail on Saturday, but didn't get around to returning his e-mail until today. I dig the Validator stuff - only seems to be server-side though.