Tomcat 7 With Serlvet 3 Annotations – Note To Self

Posted by Wally Atkins on January 11, 2013 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

I made a quick web servlet application that uses the new annotations available (like @WebServlet) and had everything working just fine until I did something rather bone headed. I am using Maven for my dependency management and from the command line I was using the following command to create a WAR file for deployment:

$ mvn clean war:war

This works absolutely fine and creates the WAR file as expected but when I would deploy the file on Tomcat 7 the application would start successfully but none of the servlets that I had created with annotations would show as being registered with the application and I would get a 404 when I tried to access them. So, after researching and looking at adding things into the web.xml I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. If you know Maven better than I do you probably already know the problem.

When I ran the above Maven command it would delete the ‘target’ directory and then recreate the WAR file from the resources needed for the web application. One critical thing was missing from this sequence of Maven events – and that would be the compilation the application’s source files. The ‘clean’ command was deleting the ‘.class’ files and the war:war command does not auto-magically know that they are not there and compile them for you. So, the Maven command that should I should run from now on for this application is:

$ mvn clean compile war:war

Hopefully this helps me remember how to do things correctly and might save someone else out there some headache as well.

Using a Non-Standard Port With Subversion

Posted by Wally Atkins on August 31, 2012 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

This post is more of a note to myself more than anything else but finding the answer to this problem has been a thorn in my side for a while so I have decided to write it down for future reference.  It may serve as something useful to someone else as well so I am publishing this in my blog too.   Here is the basic issue:  I want to read/checkout/commit/whatever against a remote subversion repository using ssh+svn.  To do this I should be able to use a simple command:

$ svn co svn+ssh://wally@192.168.1.100/var/svn/repo
svn: E210002: Unable to connect to a repository at URL 'svn+ssh://wally@192.168.1.100/var/svn/repo'
svn: E210002: To better debug SSH connection problems, remove the -q option from 'ssh' in the [tunnels] section of your Subversion configuration file.
svn: E210002: Network connection closed unexpectedly

As long as the port for ssh is the default (port 22) then there is no problem and life is good.  As you can see above this is not the case for me.  Why? Well, for some crazy reason (security in my case) the port for ssh has been changed from the default port.  Finding the right key words to Google might be elusive and, like me, you will eventually be kicking and screaming at the computer asking why it hates you so much.  To fix this problem one would think that you could specify the port to use in the URL like so:

$ svn co svn+ssh://wally@192.168.1.100:2222/var/svn/repo
svn: E210002: Unable to connect to a repository at URL 'svn+ssh://wally@192.168.1.100:2222/var/svn/repo'
svn: E210002: To better debug SSH connection problems, remove the -q option from 'ssh' in the [tunnels] section of your Subversion configuration file.
svn: E210002: Network connection closed unexpectedly 

Using the typical pattern for URL format (protocol://user:host:port/path) I expected the above command to work but at least with my svn client this is not the case.  I do remember spending some time researching this quirk and I believe that there are some differing implementations of the supporting svn libraries and basically specifying the port in this manner is not supported.  FYI – the client I am using is the command line subversion tools available via Cygwin.

So how do I get around this irritating problem?  First things first – read the error message for clues.  I did not initially realize this but the hint of “[tunnels] section of your Subversion configuration file” is exactly what we need to use to in order work around this issue.  It should be obvious that Subversion has a handy dandy configuration file that allows for tweaking of run-time settings but I have usually been fine with the out-of-the-box defaults.  Using svn over ssh is relatively new to me in my development process (I have usually accessed svn repositories over http or https) so using tunneling like this was new as well.  After gleaning the necessary configuration from the web I added two lines to my Subversion configuration file:

$ cat $HOME/.subversion/config
[tunnels]
sshtunnel = ssh -p 2222

That’s all that is needed really. This defines a new tunnel that I can use with svn and specify whatever I want – here I just specify the different port. Now I can connect to my remote subversion repository just like I wanted in the first place but with just a small twist:

$ svn co svn+sshtunnel://wally@192.168.1.100/var/svn/repo

Many thanks to Per Olsen of Denmark for being the blog where I finally found the answer to this problem.

Reference: http://www.techper.net/2009/01/11/changing-port-number-of-svnssh-subversion-protocol/

Redmine + Gitolite

Posted by Wally Atkins on August 24, 2012 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

I finally got the repository browser to work happily in Redmine for my git repositories which are setup through gitolite. I kept getting an error when I would go to the “Repository” tab for my projects which said:

The entry or revision was not found in the repository.

Well, thanks to a kind user sharing his knowledge on Stack Overflow I now have all of my git repositories as a working part of my Redmine project management web site! To most this is probably not a huge deal but it was an annoying thing to me and now I am happy because it is working like it should

Here is the magic that makes this happen…

Edit the .gitolite.rc file which should be located in your git user and add this towards this top:

$REPO_UMASK = 0027;

Make sure that the user that is running your web processes is in the right group (i.e. gitolite) and then recursively add read and execute permissions on the repositories directory for the group:

chmod -R g+rx $HOME/repositories

Reference Link:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5205637/accessing-git-repositories-with-redmine-permissions-problem

The Last Crusade – GC2M066

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 18, 2012 under Geocaching, Geospatial | Be the First to Comment

This is a great example to other geocachers out there for inspiration of assembling a wonderful geocaching experience. The initial find is simple enough but from there thought and effort will challenge the explorer and lead them through an amazing theme-based journey. Not to mention … how could you go wrong with an Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade geocache?

Picture 1 – Once you find the ammo box you will see that it is marked with a symbol used in the movie called the grail cross. It was the symbol of those that protect the Holy Grail in the movie.

Picture 2 – Inside the ammo box you will discover the Grail Diary of Dr. Henry Jones.

Picture 3 – Inside the book you will first see the shield of the knights templar.

Picture 4 – On the next page is what appears to be a drawing of a knights templar and on the side of the figure are these markings – “MCM.LXXIII” and “MGM.VXIXLLV”. The guess is that these would be Roman Numerals and could possibly be coordinates of some sort but the “G” in the second one is confusing because the letter “G” is not a valid Roman Numeral. Maybe MCM.LXXIII = 1900.73 and MGM.VXIXLLV = ???.79 … perhaps this is 1973 to 1979?

Picture 5 – X.DCCCXXXIII = 10.833 and XXXII.DCVI = 32.606

Picture 6 – “tres numero erit probations” = three in number, shall be proof. Challenges will number three.

The Holy Place N 31 46.702 E 35 13.792

The QR Code contains the text “X marks the spot”

The Body Electric – GC2M066

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 9, 2012 under Geocaching, Geospatial | Be the First to Comment

I like the puzzle geocaches that folks will put out there. This clever one uses binary to tell you how to get the coordinates and will lead you directly to the cache. So, if you know how to read binary then read this.

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01100011 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101100 01101111 01100011 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001110 00100000 00110011 00110111 00100000 00110001 00110110 00101110 00110110 00111001 00110101 00101100 00100000 01010111 00100000 00110000 00110111 00110110 00100000 00110100 00110100 00101110 00110101 00110100 00110010

If not, then you need a binary translator. I’m sure you can figure it out … or I could just give you a spoiler:

“The cache is located at N 37 16.695, W 076 44.542“

http://coord.info/GC2M066

My First Mission Trip

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 7, 2012 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

To Those That Visit My Website:

I will be heading down to Ensenada, Mexico to build a house with my brother and sister (and about thirty more people) in June 2012. I’m sure it will be a fun time to reunite with my siblings since we all live apart from one another these days but it will be even greater to see God at work through throughout this experience. What will we be doing, you ask? Well, the group that is going will split into three teams and each will build a modest house for families in need within a week’s time.

So, why am I writing about this on my blog? First of all, it’s not free to travel down there and to build a house so I am asking for donations if you feel lead to give. If you do feel like donating to this cause then please use the PayPal button to send as little or as much as you would like. More importantly than money is that if you feel lead to pray for myself and the team that is travelling along with those that we will encounter – please do. I also posted the letter that I am sending out to friends and family if you would like to read that for more details.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, prayers and generosity. If you have any questions please leave a comment on this thread.

Wally Atkins

Experts Exchange BETA – Version 10

Posted by Wally Atkins on November 9, 2011 under Computers, Web Stuff | Be the First to Comment

I don’t know if I have mentioned Experts Exchange on here before but I used to be an avid user and contributor to the site. Well, to their credit they are moving along with technology and have upgraded their site once again. They have a beta version that is open to private invite only so here is a way to check it out if you are interested.

Beagle Boys Reference

Posted by Wally Atkins on September 24, 2010 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

When was the last time that you sat down and enjoyed the adventures of Duck Tales or came across a reference to the Beagle Boys? Well, for me … once again SlashDot has provided a nostalgic look back into my youth with a crazy story of burglars over in France. I will have to do some more research when I get a chance to try and find the exact episode that this appeared in but there was a very similar scenario where the Beagle Boys used a vacuum to steal gold and money and surely it must have been the inspiration for this group.

Anyway, here is a grab of the post and link to the Vacuum Burglars article on Slashdot:

Why I Read Slashdot

Posted by Wally Atkins on September 17, 2010 under Web Stuff | Be the First to Comment

I guess I could be grouped into the category of “nerd” and claim that I am interested in “stuff that matters” but more often than not I find myself coming back to /. to read the witty and sarcastic comments left by the very large and intriguing community that the site maintains. So, I’m betting that it would be helpful if I gave an example of this humour instead of leaving you to wander over to the site and find some on your own … so wait no longer … here is a screen capture from my Google Reader:

There you have it – an absolutely classic example – where a snippet from a technology article on harvesting sound for energy and *BOOM* right off the bat a commenter takes the stereotypical jab at his jabber jaw wife claiming that he has an endless source of power right at home.

Funny? Well, depending on your stance or gender you may or may not find this example as LOL as I did but the joke is relatively clean and apparently quick because it was the first post on the article.

The Internet is full of this kind of stuff and even though you may have to peruse the comment threads a bit to find them, personally, I find that Slashdot is usually good for a few quips per topic. If you happen to come across any please share them!

Facebook Is Like Televesion – In Reverse

Posted by Wally Atkins on August 11, 2010 under Computers, Web Stuff | 2 Comments to Read

From one of the commenters at Slashdot on an article about Social Data:

The funny thing about Facebook is that it is similar to television: You’ve been given the impression you’re the customer, but you’re actually the product being sold to the real customers – advertisers.

Facebook just takes it another step, because you’re voluntarily giving them extensive data about who you are as an individual, as well as involuntarily (or unknowingly for most people) letting the technology create profiles of your browsing habits. If that weren’t enough, there is the further twist – at least on TV there are professional artists and actors and creative types who are producing the content you enjoy. On Facebook, the content is created by you and your friends and given away for free to the website owners.

So all they have to do is create a database infrastructure, then you and your friends come along and do almost all the Data Entry, and while you’re doing it they’re watching you and adding meta-data to their private database, then they can turn around and sell all the aggregate data to their customers. Profit!

At the peak of the show “Friends”, Jennifer Aniston was getting paid a million dollars for pretending to be Rachel whatsherface for each 30 minute episode. The million dollars ultimately came from advertisers who bought airtime from the network.

We are now self-creating global databases with billions of entries and in return are getting… the ability to “poke” someone from your 10th grade Health class. Meanwhile, how much money is Google, Facebook, BlackPlanet, etc. making from both the ads already on their sites, and the immediate/future revenue from the data we are giving them?

Quite an interesting insight and food for thought. Any comments on this comment?