Category Archives: Java/Java EE

eclipse 3.6 (helios) – four good, 1 bad feature

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Last summer, I wrote “eclipse 3.5 – four good, 1 bad feature“.  A year later and Eclipse 3.6 is out.   I didn’t try it earlier because I was busy with the SCEA part 1 and Core Spring 3 certifications.  While I may not be part of the official blogathon this time, I decided to use the same format as I did last year for Eclipse 3.5.  Another big difference is that I’ve only been using Eclipse 3.6 for a couple days this time.

Getting started

Quick install with favorite plugins:

My Eclipse 3.5 workspace was in a good state so I decided to use it for 3.6 development.  I did make a copy of it in case I wanted to go back to 3.5.  It wasn’t too time consuming to download/install “Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers”.  The download was 206 MB, so I left that alone for a little while.  I also installed the plugins I use regularly as I wanted them installed before switching to do development in the new workspace.

  1. Sysdeo – For Tomcat with Eclipse.
  2. Ecl emma – For code coverage.
  3. PMD – For static analysis.
  4. Subversive – For Subversion connectivity.

Workspace setup:

None!  That’s right.  My settings were preserved.  Even settings for the plugins.  I was impressed with how smoothly this went.

Features

Favorite feature #1 – Subversive

The Subversive plugin was updated quite extensively with the Helios release train.  I have a lot to say on this so it is a whole other blog post.

Favorite feature #2 –Virtual Folders

Virtual folders are like a folder of shortcuts.  While you can’t put any “real” files under them, you can put other virtual folders and linked resources.  This has potential.  It means I can put related data together even if it lives in disparate places.

Favorite feature #3 – WORKSPACE_LOC

When you create a linked resource, you can define variables.  This has been the case in past releases too.  The difference is that you had to create a variable for the workspace location yourself.  Now it is built in.  Minor, yes.  But nice to not have to do.

Favorite feature #4 – Multiple quickfix

When writing Java code, “quick fix” is a convenient way to clean up your code.  Now if you have multiple instances of the same issue in a class, Eclipse offers to clean them all up at the same time.

And the worst feature

Code formatting. What happened? This used to work intuitively and well in Eclipse 3.4.  Yes 3.4.  You may have noticed it is my exact same pet peeve from Eclipse 3.5.  I was hoping they would fix it in Eclipse 3.6, but no such luck.  At least they introduce something new that bothers me more.

In Java, it gets rid of my careful placed (for readability) whitespace between lines. I checked the preferences and “number of empty lines to preserve” is set to one. HTML is much worse. If I format a bunch of lines containing one <input> per line, Eclipse turns this

<input type="hidden" name="action" value="moveAllSave" />
<input type="hidden" name="module" value="${moduleName}" />
<input type="hidden" name="source_forum_id" value="${sourceForumId}" />
<input type="hidden" name="log_type" value="0" />
<input type="hidden" name="log_description" value="bulk move from admin console">
into this
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="moveAllSave" /> <input
type="hidden" name="module" value="${moduleName}" /> <input
type="hidden" name="source_forum_id" value="${sourceForumId}" /> <input
type="hidden" name="log_type" value="0" /> <input type="hidden"
name="log_description" value="bulk move from admin console">

Huh? That didn’t happen before. I tried setting “never join lines” but it doesn’t take effect for HTML. I guess I’m not relying on the code formatting. Unfortunate as it will slow things down. But yuck. Just look at it.

If you tried Subversive before, it’s time to try it again

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Helios’ Subversive release is a vast improvement over previous versions!  If you’ve tried Subversive before and didn’t like it, it is time to try it again.

For those who aren’t aware, Subversive is an Eclipse client for accessing Subversion.  In March 2009, I blogged about both choices of Eclipse client: Subversive and Subclipse.

Installing Subversive in Helios

  1. Launch Eclipse
  2. Help > Install new software
  3. Choose “Subversive SVN Team Provider” and “Subversive Revision Graph”.
  4. Eclipse prompts you to restart the workspace
  5. Go to Subversion perspective
  6. Eclipse launches the “Subversive Connector Discovery” for you to pick a connector.  I chose SVN Kit 1.3.2.  Be careful.  The latest versions of the connectors are not at the top.

New Features

All the new features are documented on the wiki.  The biggest things:

  • Subversive is an incubator project and in the Helios release train.  This means it was designed to work at the launch of Eclipse 3.6.
  • Better tag awareness – I can now do a compare with tag and see list of tags for project.  It is also fast.  Not CVS level fast, but that is because of the way SVN data is stored – something a plugin can’t do anything about.  It is faster than before which is appreciated.
  • Can compare by tag/date/revision or generate a diff file
  • Revision Graph optional feature (see screenshot up top).  This was pretty much the only thing I switched to Tortoise SVN for and now it is in my main tool.  It is also easier to use than Tortoise’s version.  It has the following features:
    • Handles tags/branches/etc
    • If you mouseover a box, you see author, date and full commit comment
    • If you right click a box, you can compare to the trunk (which it calls ‘HEAD’ oddly enough), show history or branch/tag from that revision.
    • The image scrolls well.

What is still missing?

It’s still a pain to look at all the changes to a file.  This is something that is easy in CVS, but not SVN.  It is better than it was in the past release, but still a pain.  I recognize this is a number of operations in SVN, but it would be nice if a tool could automate it.  Since none of the other Subversion plugins have this feature either, I can’t call it a fault of Subversive though.

Comparison with Subclipse

In fairness to Subclipse, Subclipse also has an optional revision graph feature at this time.  Most of the logic from my previous post still applies.  I still like Subversive “just a bit better.”

What’s next?

I think the big question is whether Subversive will get promoted to actually be part of Eclipse.  It looks a lot more promising than 18 months ago.

—-

See my review of Eclipse 3.6 itself.

registering for the scea part 2

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Note: Oracle no longer uses Prometric so this procedure is no longer valid.

 

Registering for Oracle Java Enterprise Edition 5 Enterprise Architect Certified Master Downloadable Project was a nice little adventure.  I expected it to take 5-10 minutes.  Instead it took close to a half hour to figure out what to do.  I’m writing up the tricks here to expedite the process for others.

As regular readers of this blog know, I took a break from the SCEA while taking the Core Spring certification.  (To read about part 1 see Jeanne’s SCEA part 1 experiences.)  Now I’m ready to buy the assignment portion – part 2.

In theory, what you need to do is well documented by Sun/Oracle.  The names of things are in a state of flux.  But that’s to be expected given the certification names are switching from Sun to Oracle in four days.  That was not a problem.

Let’s walk through the procedure together.

Click First Time Registration and create your web testing profile. You must have your Prometric ID you used when you took 310-052 at Prometric when you create your web registration here. Without this Prometric ID your certification records will not merge. Your Prometric ID will start with “SR” followed by 7 characters.

Issue #1: Looks like I need my prometric id before I get started.  That should be in my e-mail confirmation for part one, right?  No such luck.  I found it in two places.

  1. Logon to prometric and choose “update personal information”. Then it shows your SR_______ id.  (It is not located in candidate history under prometric which is another place I looked.)
  2. It is on the score report for part 1.  Had I registered for part 2 right after part 1, this would have been more readily apparent.

Issue #2 : I looked high and low on the prometric site for a “first time registration” link.  (Added confusion that this can’t be your first time registring – you’ve already taken and passed part 1.)  Eventually, I decided to read the SCJD instructions in hopes of a clue.  And voila – the “first time registration” link is underneath that on the same page with the instructions!  I do not find this obvious at all.  Once you are done reading the SCEA instructions, one would think everything else on the page is about the SCJD.  Why it isn’t a clickable link in step one of the instructions is beyond me.

Issue #3: After entering my prometric id, I need to “Select a Test Provider or Program”.  My choices are “Certification” and “Sun Partner Advantage Certification.”  I’m going to assume it is the former because I would have heard of the later if it applied to me.

Issue #4: Prometric already has a lot of this information (address/phone/etc).  Why do I have to enter it again?  It should be linked from my candidate id, no?

I’ve now spent about twenty five minutes just on step 1.  I certainly hope it goes smoother from here on out.

Once you have created your profile by First Time Registration you will be at the candidate menu, click the Public Tests Submit button.

Issue #1: There is no “public tests” link after creating my profile.  There is a “take tests” link.  And once I click that, there is a “public tests” link.  Not an important missing step – at least here it was obvious what to do.

Choose the SCEA 310-301A exam. There is no promotion or voucher code.

This step went smoothly.

Your SCEA assignment is randomly chosen from a pool of assignments. You must print your assignment. The exam session will stay valid for 2 hours after which time you will not be allowed to relaunch the exam assignment. You have up to one year to complete the assignment and the essay. The Part 3 exam (310-062) is an essay which you should take immediately after completing your work on the assignment. The essay exam asks you questions about your assignment, so it is important that you take 310-062 while your assignment is fresh in your mind. You must take 310-062 at Prometric, like you did with 310-052. We cannot grade 310-301A without the completion of 310-062.

Almost.  Oracle’s page says you get two hours to print the assignment.  Prometric’s page says you get two hours in the test summary and one hour in the description.  It really is two hours.  The two hours begins from when you choose “begin test.”  Printing was easy – everything is on one web page so it is just browser print.  It was a four page printed document.  I also printed a copy to my installed Primo PDF driver to save it as a PDF file in case I want to print another copy later.

And done!  Now I can actually read the assignment.

A finally interesting note – while registering for the exam, it said the passing score is not disclosed.  But the passing score is in the exam description.  Odd.