A while back I was messing around with GData java-client, but with command-line access it’s even easier to use googles services in my own little projects…

My browser is estimated to have a fingerprint that conveys at least 16.08 bits of identifying information.

I created a very simple log4j-appender which used notify-send (commandline-tool for libnotify) to report errors. This way I will get a visual notification when something went wrong, immediately showing the class of the error and the message.

As an example, I use my favorite Application Server, JBoss AS, but any java-app using log4j (or commons-logging on top of log4j or slf4j-log4j) will do.

Step 1

Make sure notify-send is installed on your machine. You can check this by running this command in your terminal:

notify-send -i info "Hello world"

Step 2

Place the notify-send-log4j.jar in the classpath of your application. In case of JBoss, it’s in the node’s /lib/ folder.

• Download notify-send-log4j-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar OR
• Download notify-send-log4j.zip, containing a tiny maven-project and build it yourself (so little code isn’t worth being checked in in SVN ;))

Step 3

Configure Log4j to use the appender. For JBoss, the jboss-log4j.xml is found in the server-node’s /conf/ folder. Add a new appender, at ERROR-level using onlyOnceErrorhandler:

<appender name="SEND-NOTIFY"
  	 class="be.stacktrace.log4j.notifysend.NotifySendAppender">
     <errorHandler class="org.jboss.logging.util.OnlyOnceErrorHandler"/>
     <param name="Threshold" value="ERROR"/>
</appender>

Add the appender to the root-category:

<root>
     <appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
     <appender-ref ref="FILE"/>
     <appender-ref ref="SEND-NOTIFY"/>
</root>

Step 4

Cause an error

Step 5 (optional)

If you’re using compiz, you can add a custom effect to the notification-popup. For example, use the ‘Burn’-effect when appearing (see screenshot on top of post):

• Open compiz-config
• Open “Animations” in tab “Animate when opening”
• Add new animation, use window-match: (type=Notification)

When I was using the flags in an app, I noticed that (accoring to the XML’s I downloaded from iso.org containing all country-data) 5 flags where missing. One was Antarctica, but makes sense since it has no official flags. The other I created myself, trying to use the same “style” as the original ones, see below:

: Antarctica (AQ)
: Guersney (GG)
: Saint Barthélemy (BL)
: Saint-Matrin (MF)
: Jersey (JE)
: Isle of Man (IM)

Feel free to use these (was only 10 minutes of work anyway…):
Dowload zipfile containing extra flags

Using this popup is very easy:

1. Add org.eclipse.mylyn.commons.ui as dependency for your plugin (see screenshot below)
2. Create a class that extends the (internal) class AbstractNotificationPopup (org.eclipse.mylyn.internal.provisional.commons.ui.AbstractNotificationPopup), see code snippet 1. Note the “SupressWarnings” annotation, to get rid of the annoying compiler-warnings bugging us about “restricted” use… We know what we’re doing
3. You can show the popup the same way you should treat another Dialog, have a look at snippet 2.

Code snippet 1

package be.stacktrace.notification;
 
import org.eclipse.mylyn.internal.provisional.commons.ui.AbstractNotificationPopup;
import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
 
import be.stacktrace.jfarse.Activator;
 
@SuppressWarnings("restriction")
public class MyNotificationPopup extends AbstractNotificationPopup {
 
	public MyNotificationPopup(Display display) {
		super(display);
	}
 
	@Override
	protected void createContentArea(Composite composite) {
		composite.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, true));
		Label testLabel = new Label(composite, SWT.WRAP);
		testLabel.setLayoutData(new GridData(GridData.FILL_HORIZONTAL));
 
		testLabel.setText("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. "
				+ "Maecenas nunc elit, vulputate vel sollicitudin nec, vehicula ut est. Sed diam risus, "
				+ "dignissim eu sodales vitae, vestibulum et libero.");
		testLabel.setBackground(composite.getBackground());
	}
 
	@Override
	protected String getPopupShellTitle() {
		// Return a custom title
		return "Stacktrace.be ";
	}
 
	@Override
	protected Image getPopupShellImage(int maximumHeight) {
		// Use createResource to use a shared Image instance of the ImageDescriptor
		return (Image) Activator.getImageDescriptor("/icons/information.png")
				.createResource(Display.getDefault());
	}
}

Code snippet 2

...
 MyNotificationPopup popup = new MyNotificationPopup(window.getShell().getDisplay());
 popup.create();
 popup.open();
...

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /opt/eclipse/plugins/org.mozilla.xulrunner.gtk.linux.x86_1.8.1.3-20070904/xulrunner/libjavaxpcomglue.so: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1751)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1647)
at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:769)
at java.lang.System.load(System.java:968)
at org.mozilla.xpcom.internal.JavaXPCOMMethods.registerJavaXPCOMMethods
(JavaXPCOMMethods.java:57)
at org.mozilla.xpcom.internal.MozillaImpl.initialize(MozillaImpl.java:48)
at org.mozilla.xpcom.Mozilla.initialize(Mozilla.java:668)
…

XULRunner needs libstdc++5 and it seems that it’s removed from the Karmic repository when upgrading from Jaunty. To get JBoss Tools back online, install the .deb file yourself from the jaunty repo:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/i386/libstdc++5/download

A word processor including a native XML file format is provided. The well formed XML file fully represents the word-processor document, and fully supports 100% of word-processor’s rich formatting. There are no feature losses when saving the word-processor documents as XML. A published XSD file defines all the rules behind the word-processor’s XML file format. Hints may be provided within the XML associated files providing applications that understand XML a shortcut to understanding some of the features provided by the word-processor. The word-processing document is stored in a single XML file. Additionally, manipulation of word-processing documents may be done on computing devices that do not include the word-processor itself.

newState.setCredentials(AuthScope.ANY,
       state.getCredentials(AuthScope.ANY));

Even te kort door de bocht… Commons-httpclient veralgemeent authenticatie zodat de method-signatures van setCrendentials() en setProxyCredentials() exact dezelfde is.

Gefixed op de update-site. Als je de laatste versie (0.0.2) al hebt geinstalleerd, gaat eclipse deze fix niet binnenhalen. Best gewoon de jar manueel downloaden en in “/eclipse/plugin/” kopieren!

Het duurde wat langer dan verwacht, maar hij is er “Traffide Buggy Bison”.

Meer info hier