Bogeyman's Blog

Book Review : Drupal e-commerce With Ubercart 2.x

2010-05-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

In March 2010, Packt Publishing published the first book about Ubercart which titled Drupal e-commerce With Ubercart 2.x. The book that writen by George Papadongonas and Yiannis Doxaras is very interesting and has a complete explanation. This book explains Ubercart from the beginning, so anyone who has no experience in Ubercart can follow the explanation relatively easy. Generally, the explanation in this book consists of the installation of Drupal and Ubercart, managing store, and enhancing store functionality.

The Beginning

One of interesting things in this book is the final store is shown in the first chapter. This is a good way to start this book because the readers will have a "picture" in their mind about how the store will look like and what will they do to achieve it.

Installation And Basic Configuration

The installation and basic configuration of Drupal and Ubercart are written in two chapters (2 and 3). The explanation in this part includes installing the required and optional Drupal modules. Something need a special attention in here is the installation should be done in sequence, Drupal and the required modules first and then the Ubercart. If not there will be a problem like the undisplayed image field when creating product. Also there is no example in the later chapters about how to use Content Creation Kit (CCK) and ImageCache module to add image field for product manually.

Store Management

The store management part is writen in four chapters (4, 5, 6, and 7). The fundamental jobs like managing products, shipping, payment, customers, and orders are discussed here. These chapters are the most important part of this book and should be read thoroughly to gain a strong knowledge about managing the online store.

Some interesting topics which can be found in these chapters are:

Creating product kit to bind two or more products as one package.
Importing products from textfile or CSV file to save your time when inserting a large number of products.
Adding product attributes like color or memory size to let customers choose their preferred product variant.
Using product classes for a more efficient product attributes management.
Managing the shipping quote using flat rate and also connecting your store with the transport companies like UPS and USPS.
Integrating payment method using different payment gateways like Paypal and Google Checkout.
There is also a brief explanation about installing CiviCRM, Drupal module for CRM system.

Something did not appear in this part is the explanation about testing the payment system using the Paypal Sandbox which is very important when the site is still under development. There is also no explanation about using Paypal Website Payment Standard for the payment method. The discussed method is just the Paypal Website Payment Pro that only usefull for people who live in United States.

Enhancing Store Functionality

This part consists of three chapters (8, 9, and 10) and it will explain how to enhance the look and feel and functionality of our store. In these chapters, we will learn how to make our store more attractive and user friendly so the visitor will keep coming to our store. Not only the human visitor, but also search engine.

The interesting topics which can be found in these chapters are:

A very good theme design tutorial. We will learn how to use and customize the available Drupal theme, building theme based on Zen, creating theme from a pure HTML theme, and also creating theme from Photoshop template.
Using product cross-selling to give suggestion or recommendation to customers about certain products.
Improving the shopping cart by using the pictured shopping cart and AJAX shopping cart.
Adding the discount to the products.
Giving the different price the products according to country or user role.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips. We will learn how to make our store more search engine friendly by using Drupal modules like Pathauto, Global Redirect, Meta Tags, XML Sitemap, etc..

There is also something you have to read in the appendix chapter. It is an example about using Hotel Booking System for Ubercart. This is also a great thing we can do with Ubercart.

Conclusion

Overall, this book is really great and has the detailed explanations and examples. This book is very recommended for the people who want to build an e-commerce website using Drupal and Ubercart. The complete explanation inside it can guide the readers to build an e-commerce website that not only has a strong foundation but also expandable.

Anyway, some cases like Drupal installation, configuration, installing modules are very large topics and they are enough to be writen in separated book. The explanations on those topics are very compact. Therefore user's experience and basic skill in using Drupal is required.

The detail information about this book can be seen here.

Book Review : iReport 3.7

2010-04-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is a review of book titled iReport 3.7 written by Shamsuddin Ahammad and published by Packt Publishing. This book tells us about designing and producing report for Java application with iReport 3.7. Shamsuddin Ahammad writes this book with a very clear step-by-step visual explanation which makes this book is very nice to read and easy to understand. Reading this book while practising the examples in the computer is very recommended because the screenshots in this book are really helpfull so we wouldn't get 'lost' while exploring the 'crowded' interface of iReport Designer.

From Chapter To Chapter

Now, let's see what will we learn from each chapter.

The first chapter will introduce us about iReport especially for someone that never heard about it before. This chapter tells us about what is iReport, what it used for, and also the main interface and features of it.
In chapter 2 until 10 we will explore and learn deeper about using iReport Designer for creating the report. These chapters are the most important part of this book. Reading these chapters thoroughly can give us a strong basic and skill in using iReport Designer.

There are so many interesting techniques in these chapters which can be applied while we creating the report such as:
- Using one or more parameters to produce the dynamic report.
- Grouping the report data which can make the report provides clearer information.
- Working with subreport to create a report with a master-detail relation.
- Working with chart so the report can be displayed in visual shape and easier to read.
- Displaying images in the report so the report will not only display text as the information but also the images.
The last two chapters, 11 and 12, might be the chapters which most Java developers look for. We all know that the report can't stand alone by itself because it needs the other application to run. Because of that, this book also explains about how to call the report from Java desktop application. Although there is no detail example or sample application about how to call the report from web application like JSP, the method to do that, by exporting the report to HTML or PDF document, is still discussed here. Besides that, we will also learn how to install iReport Designer plugin in Netbeans IDE. By doing this, we can design the report inside the Netbeans IDE. This is important for Java developers because the application development process can become more convenient.
The Appendix chapter of this book is about the sample database which is used by all examples in this book. The sample database given here is also a good example for sample cases because we can practise to create the report from a simple one to a complex one based on that database. This chapter also explains how to use MySQL GUI tools for the basic MySQL database administration like creating database and also backing up and restoring the database.

Conclusion

This book will be a very good guidance for iReport beginners and also Java developers who want to learn about iReport and build Java application that needs a reporting feature. All explanations and examples in this book can give the readers strong basic and skill in using iReport and integrating the report with the Java applications.

More Detail Information

The detail information of this book can be found here.

And, the sample chapter about "Report Layout And Formatting" is available for download at Packt Publishing website.

How To Know The Popular Pages In Your Blog

2009-05-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

In my previous tutorial about blogging tricks, I have writen about adding Google Page Rank, Traffic Map, and Visitor Counter to our blog. But, maybe there is something else that we need to know. We might want to know what pages or articles which have a good popularity rank in our blog. This is a good information to trace what our visitors like to read from our blog.

Get The Code

Where can we get this tool? Once again, the site http://feedjit.com/joinjs saves our life. So, open that site and find the part of that site says Page Popularity. Then, copy the HTML code.

Paste It

Log in to blogger. In your blogger dashboard, click Layout then click the Add Widget link and the popup window will appear. Choose HTML/Javascript option then another popup windows will be shown. Give the title for it like Popular Pages or something else. Then, paste the HTML code and click Save when you're done.

The detail of these process is the same like my previous tutorial about adding visitor counter.

Place It Nicely

Place it by dragging and dropping it to your desireable place. Click Save if you feel satisfy with the result.

The detail of these process is still the same like my tutorial about adding visitor counter.

See The Result

Now, open your blog. The Page Popularity will be looked like this.

Formatting HTML Table Rows With Javascript

2009-04-23T02:29:00.001-07:00

If we are working with PHP we can easily formatting even and odd table row's color with looping. But, what if we are working with the pure HTML table? Can we format even and odd row with different color without typing it manually inside the <tr> tag? Yes, we can. Just use Javascript to do that job.

The basic concept is we must loop through the all of the rows of an HTML table that we want to format and then add the class attribute for each row. That class attribute will contain the name of CSS class for an even or odd row.

Sample Code

This the sample code.

<html>
<head>
    <title>Table</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        /* DEFINE THE CSS CLASSES */
        .table_header{
            background-color:#AAAAAA;
            color:#FFFFFF
        }
        
        .even{
            background-color:#DDDDDD;
        }
        
        .odd{
            background-color:#EEEEEE;
        }
        
        #table1{
            background-color:#777777;
        }
    </style>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
        /* THIS IS THE FUNCTION FOR FORMATTING ROW */
        function formatRow(table_id){
            var table=document.getElementById(table_id);
            for(var i=1;i<table.rows.length;i++){
                var className="";
                if(i%2==0){
                    className="even";
                }
                else{
                    className="odd";
                }
                
                table.getElementsByTagName("tr")[i].className=className;
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <table width="300" id="table1" border="0" cellspacing="1">
        <tr class="table_header"><th>&nbsp;</th><th>&nbsp;</th><th>&nbsp;</th></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
        <tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
    </table>
    <script language="javascript">
        /* FORMAT THE TABLE */
        formatRow("table1");
    </script>
</body>
</html>

How Does It Look Like?

Detecting IP Address Behind The Proxy

2009-04-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is the short tutorial for detecting the IP address of website's visitors. If you familiar with PHP, you can use the $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] superglobal variable to detect the visitor's IP address. What if the visitor is browsing from behind the proxy. Of course you will only get the proxy IP address not the real IP address of the visitor.

There is one more superglobal variable to detect the real IP address of the visitor. It is the $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'].

This simple program will demonstrate the detection of IP address and the IP address that "hidding" behind the proxy.

<?php
echo "<p>You came from <b>".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."</b>.</p>";

if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])) {
  if (preg_match("/^(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)$/i", $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])) {
    echo "But, your real IP address is <b>".$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']."</b>.";
  }
  else{
    echo "But, your real IP address is unknown.";
  }
}
?>

This is the screenshot while the script was running.

Creating The Web Services Client (Part 3)

2009-04-06T17:22:00.001-07:00

We have created the desktop and web applications as the clients of web service. There one more application that we are going to create. The mobile application. This mobile application is based on Java (J2ME).

The Code

You need a supporting library to make your job easier. In this tutorial, I will use the Wingfoot SOAP or WSOAP as the supporting library. You can download WSOAP from www.sourceforge.net. The other SOAP implementation for mobile application is KSOAP.

WSOAP came in zipped file. Inside the zip file there are two essential files such as kvmwsoap_1.06.jar and j2sewsoap_1.06.jar. The one that we are going to use is the first one. So, copy the kvmwsoap_1.06.jar file to the lib folder inside your J2ME project folder.

import javax.microedition.midlet.*;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;
import com.wingfoot.soap.*;
import com.wingfoot.soap.encoding.*;
import com.wingfoot.soap.transport.*;

public class wsclient extends MIDlet implements CommandListener,Runnable{
    private Form form;
    private TextField txtName;
    private StringItem strResult;
    private Command cmdOk;
    private Command cmdExit;
    private Display display;
    
    public wsclient(){
        form=new Form("Web Service Client");
        txtName=new TextField("Name","",10,TextField.ANY);
        strResult=new StringItem("","");
        cmdOk=new Command("Ok",Command.OK,1);
        cmdExit=new Command("Exit",Command.EXIT,2);
        
        form.append(txtName);
        form.append(strResult);
        
        form.addCommand(cmdOk);
        form.addCommand(cmdExit);
        form.setCommandListener(this);
    }
    
    public void startApp(){
        display=Display.getDisplay(this);
        display.setCurrent(form); 
    }
    
    public void pauseApp(){
    }
    
    public void destroyApp(boolean unc){
    }
    
    public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable d){
        if(c==cmdOk){
            new Thread(this).start();
        }
        if(c==cmdExit){
            destroyApp(false);
            notifyDestroyed();
        }
    }
    
    public void run(){
        try{
            // THE LOCATION OF WEB SERVICES
            String url="http://localhost:8080/axis/services";
            
            Call c=new Call();
            
            // SET THE THE METHOD NAME, SERVICE NAME, AND THE INPUT PARAMETER
            c.setMethodName("greeting");
            c.setTargetObjectURI("helloService");
            c.addParameter("name",txtName.getString());
            
            HTTPTransport transport=new HTTPTransport(url,null);
            transport.getResponse(true);
            
            // CALL THE WEB SERVICE
            Envelope res=c.invoke(transport);
            
            strResult.setText("Response : " + String.valueOf(res.getParameter(0)));
        }
        catch(Exception ex){
            strResult.setText(ex.toString());
        }
    }
}

Save this file with name wsclient.java under the src folder of your project.

Build and Run It!

Build your application and run it. This is the screenshot of this application while running.

Creating The Web Services Client (Part 2)

2009-03-31T17:33:00.001-07:00

The web services can be accessed by anykind of applications such as desktop application, web application, even mobile application. In the previous tutorial, we have learnt how to create a desktop application to access the web service. Now, we are going to create a web application with PHP to access that web service.

The Code

This is the PHP script. But, there is a requirement before you can run this script. You need a supporting library named NuSOAP. You can find it from www.sourceforge.net.

NuSOAP came in a zipped file. So, unzip it and copy the nusoap.php file to the same location with this script so it can be included with this script.

<html>
    <head><title>Web Service Client</title></head>
<body>
    <form action="<?= $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" method="post">
        <input type="text" name="name"><input type="submit" name="submit" value="SUBMIT">
    </form>
    <div id="result" style="font-weight:bold;">
    <?php
    if($_POST['submit']){
        include("nusoap.php");
        
        // THE LOCATION OF WEB SERVICES
        $client=new soap_client("http://localhost:8080/axis/services");
        
        // CALL THE WEB SERVICE WITH THE METHOD NAME, INPUT PARAMETER, AND SERVICE NAME
        $result = $client->call('greeting', array("name" => $_POST['name']), 'helloService');
        if($client->getError()){
            echo $client->getError();
        }
        else{
            echo $result;
        }
    }
    ?>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Run It!

This is the screenshot of this application while running.

Creating The Web Services Client (Part 1)

2009-03-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

In the previous tutorial, we've learnt how to create a simple web service with Apache Axis. Now, we're going to learn how to create a simple client application to access that web service. This application is a simple desktop application made with Java programming language.

The Code

This is the source code of this application. Save this file with name helloClient.java

import org.apache.axis.AxisFault;
import org.apache.axis.client.Call;
import org.apache.axis.client.Service;
import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import org.apache.axis.encoding.XMLType;
import javax.xml.rpc.ParameterMode;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class helloClient extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
    private JButton btnSend;
    private JTextField txtParameter;
    
    public void initComponent(){
        btnSend=new JButton("SEND");
        btnSend.setMnemonic('S');
        btnSend.addActionListener(this);
        txtParameter=new JTextField(10);
    }
    
    public void design(){
        setTitle("Web Service Client");
        getContentPane().setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        getContentPane().add(txtParameter);
        getContentPane().add(btnSend);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        pack();
        setVisible(true);
    }
    
    private String sendRequest(String name) throws Exception{
        Service  service = new Service();
        Call call = (Call)service.createCall();
        String result;
        
        // SET THE LOCATION OF WEB SERVICE
        String endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/axis/services";
        call.setTargetEndpointAddress( new java.net.URL(endpoint));

        // SET THE SERVICE NAME AND THE METHOD TO BE CALLED
        call.setOperationName(new QName("helloService", "greeting"));
        
        // ADD THE INPUT PARAMETER
        call.addParameter( "name", XMLType.XSD_STRING, ParameterMode.IN );
        
        // SEND REQUEST TO WEB SERVICE
        String response = (String) call.invoke(new Object[]{name});

        return response;
    }
    
    helloClient(){
        initComponent();
        design();
    }
    
    public static void main(String [] args){
        new helloClient();
    }

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
        if(ae.getSource()==btnSend){
            try{
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this,sendRequest(txtParameter.getText()), "Response", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
            }
            catch(Exception ex){
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this,"Error : " + ex.toString(), "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
            }
        }
    }
}

Compile

This application needs some Axis' libraries. So, don't forget to set the required environment variables. I have write about this in the previous tutorial. After that, compile the helloClient.java file with this command.

javac -classpath %AXISCLASSPATH% helloClient.java

Run

If your compilation process didn't output any error, you can run this application with this command.

java -classpath .;%AXISCLASSPATH% helloClient

This is the screenshot of this application.

Creating Web Services With Apache Axis

2009-03-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

The Environment Variables

Before you start, you have to set up some environment variables. You can set them from Windows System Properties or using the MS-DOS batch file (.bat)like this.

set AXIS_HOME=C:\apache-tomcat\webapps\axis\WEB-INF
set AXIS_LIB=%AXIS_HOME%\lib
set AXISCLASSPATH=%AXIS_LIB%\axis.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\commons-discovery-0.2.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\commons-logging-1.0.4.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\jaxrpc.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\log4j-1.2.8.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\saaj.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\wsdl4j-1.5.1.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\activation.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\mail.jar;%AXIS_LIB%\xmlsec.jar

If you are using Linux, you can use the following executable shell script (.sh) to set those environment variables.

#!/bin/sh
AXIS_HOME="/usr/local/apache-tomcat/webapps/axis/WEB-INF"; export AXIS_HOME;
AXIS_LIB="$AXIS_HOME/lib"; export AXIS_LIB;
AXISCLASSPATH="$AXIS_LIB/axis.jar:$AXIS_LIB/commons-discovery-0.2.jar:$AXIS_LIB/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar:$AXIS_LIB/jaxrpc.jar:$AXIS_LIB/log4j-1.2.8.jar:$AXIS_LIB/saaj.jar:$AXIS_LIB/wsdl4j-1.5.1.jar:$AXIS_LIB/activation.jar:$AXIS_LIB/mail.jar:$AXIS_LIB/xmlsec.jar"; export AXISCLASSPATH;

The Web Service

To create a web service with Apache Axis, you have to put all your code under webapps/axis/WEB-INF/classes folder. To make your project seems more organize, you can create one folder for each project. In this example I will create a folder named hello to store my files. And, this is the source code of helloService.java.

package hello;

public class helloService{
    public static String greeting(String name){
        return "Hello, " + name + "!";
    }
}

Compile it with this command.

javac helloService.java

Deploying Web Service

After compiling your web service, you need to deploy it. Before deploying it, you need to create a file called deploy.wsdd.

<deployment xmlns="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/" xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/providers/java">
    <service name="helloService" provider="java:RPC">
        <parameter name="className" value="hello.helloService"/>
        <parameter name="allowedMethods" value="*"/>
    </service>
</deployment>

Now, you can deploy it with this command (Don't forget to set the required environment variables before deploying it).

java -classpath %AXISCLASSPATH% org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient deploy.wsdd

Or with this command if you are using Linux.

java -classpath $AXISCLASSPATH org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient deploy.wsdd

Open the address http://localhost:8080/axis/services/helloService?wsdl with your web browser. This is the WSDL document of your helloService web service. If you see this, it means you have succesfully created your web service with Apache Axis.

Undeploying Web Service

To undeploy your web service, you have to create a file named undeploy.wsdd.

<undeployment xmlns="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/" xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/providers/java">
    <service name="helloService" />
</undeployment>

Undeploy it with this command (Once again, don't forget to set the required environment variables before undeploying it).

java -classpath %AXISCLASSPATH% org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient undeploy.wsdd

Or with this command if you are using Linux.

java -classpath $AXISCLASSPATH org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient undeploy.wsdd

Installing Apache Axis

2009-03-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Apache Axis is a very usefull software if you want to create web services with JSP. Apache Tomcat must be installed first if you want to install Apache Axis. In this tutorial, I assume you have installed Apache Tomcat. If you haven't installed Apache Tomcat, you can read my other tutorial about installing Apache Tomcat.

These are some steps for installing Apache Axis.

Supporting Libraries

Before installing Apache Axis, you also need these files as the supporting libraries.

Installing Apache Axis

Download the latest version of Apache Axis from ws.apache.org/axis.
Extract the axis-bin-1_4.zip in anywhere you like.
Copy the axis folder inside the webapps folder of the Axis distribution folder, to your Apache Tomcat webapps folder.
Extract those 3 supporting libraries and copy the .jar files to the lib folder inside the WEB-INF folder of your Axis installation folder.
Start your Apache Tomcat or restart it if you've got it running.
Access http://localhost:8080/axis. If you see the result like below this, it means you have installed Apache Axis successfully. You can also click the Validation link to check if your Axis' installation configuration is fine.

Simple Database Application With JSP

2009-02-08T18:54:00.001-08:00

This short tutorial will explain about creating a simple database application with JSP involving INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and also the SELECT process.

Preparing The Requirements

First, you need Apache Tomcat installed properly on you computer. I have written a tutorial about installing Apache Tomcat before this tutorial. You might want to read it first. Anyway, you also need to install MySQL as database server and the MySQL Connector for Java (available in .jar format) as the supporting library. You can search the MySQL Connector for Java with Google or find it at java.sun.com.

Copy your MySQL Connector JAR file to the lib folder under your Apache Tomcat installation directory. Then, restart your Apache Tomcat. Now, your Apache Tomcat is able to use that library.

Preparing Working Directory

Before you start to write your code, you might want to create a special folder to store all your projects. If you want it, you can create a folder under the webapps folder. In this example, I create a folder named work under the webapps folder to store my JSP files.

Creating The Database

Create a simple database with the following SQL command.

CREATE DATABASE db1;
USE db1;

CREATE TABLE item (
  id char(3) NOT NULL default '',
  name varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
  price int(6) NOT NULL default '0',
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
);

Creating The Database Class

For interacting with the database, I will make a special class. But first, you have to create some folders under your working directory with this structure.

  WEB-INF/
    classes/
      database/

And, this is the code for this class. Store it inside the database folder with name dbfunction.java.

package database;

import java.sql.*;

public class dbfunction{
 private Connection con;
 private Statement stat;
 private ResultSet result;
 
 public void createConnection(){
  try{
   Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
   con=DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost/db1","user1","password");
  }
  catch(Exception ex){ }
 }

 public void createConnection(String driver, String url){
  try{
   Class.forName(driver);
   con=DriverManager.getConnection(url);
  }
  catch(Exception ex){ }
 }

 public void createConnection(String driver, String dataSource, String userName, String password){
  try{
   Class.forName(driver);
   con=DriverManager.getConnection(dataSource,userName,password);
  }
  catch(Exception ex){ }
 }

 public void closeConnection(){
  try{
   con.close();
  }
  catch(Exception ex){ }
 }

 public boolean updateRecord(String strSQL){
  try{
   stat=con.createStatement();
   
   int status=stat.executeUpdate(strSQL);
   if(status==1){
    return true;
   }
   else{
    return false;
   }
  }
  catch(Exception ex){
   return false;
  }
 }

 public ResultSet queryRecord(String strSQL){
  try{
   stat=con.createStatement();
   result=stat.executeQuery(strSQL);
   return result;
  }
  catch(Exception ex){
   return null;
  }
 }
}

Compile it.

javac dbfunction.java

The Application

Now, this is the time to create the main application. This application consists of three pages such as index.jsp, insert.jsp, and update.jsp. Save all those files inside your working directory.

index.jsp

This is the front page for displaying the records of the item table. It also has two links in each row for updating and deleting record. And, this is the code of this file.

<%@ page import="java.sql.*" %>
<html>
<head>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
 function confirmDelete(url){
  if(confirm("Are you sure want to delete this record?")){
   location.href=url;
  }
 }
</script>
<title>Viewing Table</title>
</head>
<body>
<jsp:useBean id="dbfunc" scope="page" class="database.dbfunction" />
<center>
<%
try{
 dbfunc.createConnection();

 if(request.getParameter("delete")!=null){
  if(dbfunc.updateRecord("DELETE FROM item WHERE id='" + request.getParameter("delete") + "'"))
   out.println("<p><b>Deleting record success!</b></p>");
  else
   out.println("<p><b>Deleting record failed!</b></p>");
 }

 ResultSet rs=dbfunc.queryRecord("SELECT * FROM item");

 out.println("<table border='1'>");
 out.println("<tr><th>Item ID</th><th>Item Name</th><th>Unit Price</th><th colspan='2'>&nbsp;</th></tr>");
 while(rs.next()){
  out.println("<tr><td>" + rs.getString("id") + "</td><td>" + rs.getString("name") + "</td><td>" + rs.getString("price") + "</td><td><a href='update.jsp?id=" + rs.getString("id") + "'>Update</a></td><td><a href=javascript:confirmDelete('index.jsp?delete=" + rs.getString("id") + "')>Delete</a></td></tr>");
 }
 out.println("</table>");
 out.println("<br>");
 out.println("<a href='insert.jsp'>INSERT RECORD</a>");

 dbfunc.closeConnection();
}
catch(Exception ex){
 out.println("<p><b>" + ex.toString() + "</b></p>");
}
%>
</center>
</body>
</html>

insert.jsp

This page is for inserting the record to the item table.

<html>
<head><title>Inserting Record</title></head>
<body>
<center>
<jsp:useBean id="dbfunc" scope="page" class="database.dbfunction" />
<%
if(request.getParameter("insert")!=null){
 try{
  dbfunc.createConnection();

  if(dbfunc.updateRecord("INSERT INTO item VALUES ('" + request.getParameter("itemId") + "', '" + request.getParameter("itemName") + "', '" + request.getParameter("unitPrice") + "')"))
   out.println("<p><b>Inserting record success!</b></p>");
  else
   out.println("<p><b>Inserting record failed!</b></p>");

  dbfunc.closeConnection();
 }
 catch(Exception ex){
  out.println("<p><b>" + ex.toString() + "</b></p>");
 }
}
%>
<form action="insert.jsp" method="POST">
<table>
<tr><td>Item ID</td><td>:</td><td><input type="text" name="itemId" size="10"></td></tr>
<tr><td>Item Name</td><td>:</td><td><input type="text" name="itemName" size="25"></td></tr>
<tr><td>Unit Price</td><td>:</td><td><input type="text" name="unitPrice" size="15"></td></tr>
</table>
<br>
<input type="submit" name="insert" value="INSERT">
</form>
<br>
<a href="index.jsp">VIEW TABLE</a>
</center>
</body>
</html>

update.jsp

This page is for inserting the record to the item table.

<%@ page import="java.sql.*" %>
<html>
<head><title>Updating Record</title></head>
<body>
<jsp:useBean id="dbfunc" scope="page" class="database.dbfunction" />
<center>
<%
try{
 ResultSet rs=null;

 dbfunc.createConnection();

 if(request.getParameter("update")!=null){
  if(dbfunc.updateRecord("UPDATE item SET id='" + request.getParameter("itemId") + "',  name='" + request.getParameter("itemName") + "', price='" + request.getParameter("unitPrice") + "' WHERE id='" + request.getParameter("id") + "'"))
   out.println("<p><b>Updating record success!</b></p>");
  else
   out.println("<p><b>Updating record failed!</b></p>");
 }

 if(request.getParameter("id")!=null)
  rs=dbfunc.queryRecord("SELECT * FROM item WHERE id='" + request.getParameter("id") + "'");

 if(rs.next()){
%>
  <form action="update.jsp?id=<%= rs.getString("id") %>" method="POST">
  <table>
  <tr><td>Item ID</td><td>:</td><td><input type="text" name="itemId" value="<%= rs.getString("id") %>" size="10"></td></tr>
  <tr><td>Item Name</td><td>:</td><td><input type="text" name="itemName" value="<%= rs.getString("name") %>" size="25"></td></tr>
  <tr><td>Unit Price</td><td>:</td><td><input type="text" name="unitPrice" value="<%= rs.getString("price") %>" size="15"></td></tr>
  </table>
  <br>
  <input type="submit" name="update" value="UPDATE">
  </form>

<%
 }

 dbfunc.closeConnection();
}
catch(Exception ex){
 out.println("<p><b>" + ex.toString() + "</b></p>");
}
%>
<br>
<a href="index.jsp">VIEW TABLE</a>
</center>
</body>
</html>

Screenshots

These are the screenshots when the application was being run.

Inserting record.
Viewing record.
Deleting record.
Updating record.

Installing Apache Tomcat On Linux And Windows

2009-02-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

If you want to learn JSP (Java Server Page) or create a website with JSP programming language, you need to install a web server named Apache Tomcat. Apache Tomcat can be installed both in Linux and Windows operating system.

Preparation

Before you install Apache Tomcat, you need to install one of JRE (Java Runtime Environment) or JDK (Java Development Kit). You can download the latest version of JRE or JDK from http://java.sun.com. If you are using Windows, you need to download the one for Windows platform, and if you are using Linux, you have to choose the one for Linux platform.

Installing JRE or JDK on Windows is easy, just double click the installer and follow the instruction. Installing on Linux is also easy. Just execute this command as root. I assume you save your JDK or JRE installer in /usr/local.

# cd /usr/local
# ./jdk1.6.0_01.bin

In this tutorial, I used JDK 1.5 for Windows with C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_06 as its installation directory and JDK 1.6 for Linux with /usr/local/java as its installation directory.

After JRE or JDK is installed, you need to download the Apache Tomcat from http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi. The version of Apache Tomcat used in this example is 6.0. Then, choose the binary version in .tar.gz or .zip format. In this example I choose the .tar.gz format.

The good news is, the binary file that you download can be installed on Windows or Linux. So, you don't have to download twice if you want to try installing it on those both platforms. That's right because Apache Tomcat is based on Java, that's why we need the JRE.

Installation On Windows

The installation of Apache Tomcat on Windows has these following steps.

Extract the Apache Tomcat binary file to C: or another location you like. After that, you will get the folder named apache-tomcat-xxx depending on your Apache Tomcat version. Then, rename it to easier name like apache-tomcat or another name if necessary.
Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. This system variable is needed to tell the Apache Tomcat where the location of your JRE. So, open your Windows Control Panel, choose System then click the Advance tab. Click the Environment Variables button, then click the New button in System Variabels frame. After that, a small window will appear. Write JAVA_HOME in the Variable name TextBox. Then, write the location of your JDK or JRE installation in the Variable value TextBox as you can see in the picture below.
Restart your computer to make the change take effect
Now, start your Apache Tomcat by executing the startup.bat file inside the bin directory of you Apache Tomcat installation directory. When you start your Apache Tomcat, you will see this window appear.
Access http://localhost:8080. If you see the Apache Tomcat welcome page that means you have successfully installed Apache Tomcat and ready to use JSP.
If you want to shutdown the Apache Tomcat, execute shutdown.bat file which is located in the same folder with the startup.bat file.

Installation On Linux

These are the installation steps on Linux operating system. You also need to login as root.

Extract your the Apache Tomcat binary file on /usr/local. I also assume you put your Apache Tomcat binary file on /tmp folder. Then rename the apache-tomcat-xxx folder with an easier name.
# cd /usr/local
# tar -xvzf /tmp/apache-tomcat-xxx.tar.gz
# mv apache-tomcat-xxx apache-tomcat
Create the setenv.sh file using the vi editor inside the bin folder. Press I or INSERT to enter the insert mode.
# cd apache-tomcat/bin # vi setenv.sh

This file is used to tell Apache Tomcat about the location of your JRE or JDK. The content of this file is like this.
#!/bin/sh
#-----------------
# Set Environment
#-----------------
JAVA_HOME="/usr/local/java"; export JAVA_HOME

Please replace the "/usr/local/java" with your JRE or JDK installation path.
Save the file by pressing ESC : w q. Then make the file executable.
# chmod 755 setenv.sh
Start your Apache Tomcat by executing the startup.sh file.
# ./startup.sh
Access http://localhost:8080 from your web browser. If you see this page, that means you have successfully installed Apache Tomcat.
To stop Apache Tomcat, simply execute the shutdown.sh file.
# ./shutdown.sh

Adding Google Page Rank To Your Blog

2009-01-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

Do you want to know how popular your website or blog in Google's "eye"? There is a tool which can help you for that. Its name is Google Page Rank.

Where To Get It?

You can open http://www.designbrigade.com/PageRankChecker to get the code. You have to enter the address of your blog and click submit. After that, you will get your page rank number. The bigger page rank number means your page popularity in Google is better. In this example, my blog's page rank is still zero :-(.

But this is not we are going to talk about. Do you see there are to page rank badges, one with black background and the other one with white background? We are going to put that badge in our blog. Choose the one you like by copying the HTML code in the textarea beside it.

Add It To Your Blog

Just the same like my two previous tutorials. First, you have to log in to blogger. In your blogger dashboard, click Layout then click the Add Widget link and the popup window will appear. Then, choose HTML/Javascript option and another popup windows will be shown. On that window, give the title for your page rank badge like Page Rank or anything else. Then, paste the HTML code to the textarea. Click Save when you're ready.

The detail of these steps are available in my previous tutorial about adding visitor counter.

Manage Its Place

Like the other widgets, you can also manage its place by dragging and dropping it to your desireable place. When you're done, you can click Save.

The screenshot of this process is also available in my previous tutorial about adding visitor counter.

See It

Open your blog to see if it's work.

Tracking Visitors' Location With Traffic Map

2009-01-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

In previous tutorial, you have known how to know the total visitors of your blog with a visitor counter. Anyway, do you want to know what country or city they came from? If you want that, you can use a tool that we call traffic map.

Get & Copy The Code

First, you have to go to http://feedjit.com/joinjs/. On that page, you will find four nice gadgets for your blog. Choose the one named Live Traffic Map and copy the HTML code.

Paste It To Your Blog

Now, you can log in to blogger. In your blogger dashboard, click Layout then click the Add Widget link and the popup window will appear. You should choose HTML/Javascript option then another popup windows will be shown. On that window, you can give the title for your traffic map like Traffic Map or another name. Then, paste the HTML code to the textarea. Click save when you're done.

You can see the detail of these steps in my previous tutorial about adding visitor counter.

Manage Its Place

You have added the traffic map to your blog. Now, you can manage its place by dragging and dropping it to your desireable place. If you feel statisfy about it, you can click Save.

You can also see the screenshot of this process in my previous tutorial about adding visitor counter.

Test It

Now, open your blog and its traffic map may be looked like this.

The red spots are the location of your visitors. If you want the detail information like country and city name, you can point to one of those red spots with your mouse.

Adding Visitor Counter To Your Blog

2009-01-11T20:42:00.001-08:00

Visitor counter is a web component which can inform you about how many times your website has been visited. Visitor counter is a very usefull tool to measure your website's popularity. You can also add a visitor counter to your blog to see how popular your blog is. In this tutorial, I want to show you how to add a visitor counter to your blog.

Get A Free Counter
First thing you have to do is get a free counter from the internet. In this tutorial, I use a free counter from free-counter-plus.com. To get a free counter from free-counter-plus.com, you just need to enter your website address and from what number your counter will be started. After that, choose the style of counter you preferred. See the picture below.

Copy The Code
Click on Sign Up button, then you will get the HTML code for your counter. Don't worry if you don't understand about HTML, you just need to copy that code.

Add Gadget and Paste The Code
Log in to your blog, in this example I use blogger.

In blogger dashboard, click on Layout link then the page below will be shown.

Click on Add Gadget link then the popup window below will appear.

Scroll down on that window and find HTML/Javascript option. If you have found it, click on the plus sign. After that, a window like this will be shown.

Give the title for your counter like Total Visitors or something else. Then paste the HTML code to the content textarea. If you understand about HTML, you can also costumize it. Click Save to add new gadget to your blog.

Manage Your Layout
You can decide where your visitor counter will be placed. You can do it by dragging and dropping your gadget to the appropriate place.

Click Save when you're done.

See The Result
Now, open your blog to see the result of your work.

Installing RPM Files On Slackware Based Distributions

2008-12-29T18:50:00.000-08:00

RPM is a very famous software package manager in Linux platform. RPM stands for RedHat Package Manager which means it will work well with RedHat based distributions such as Fedora, Mandriva, or SuSE. Is it possible installing RPM (.rpm) files on the other distribution base like Slackware or Debian? Yes, it is very possible. In this tutorial, I will show you how to install XCHM (CHM files viewer for Linux) RPM on Vector Linux (This is the Slackware based distribution). By the way, I used XCHM version 0.9 and it needs at least wxGTK version 2.4. If you use XCHM version 1.0 or above you need wxGTK 2.6 or newer.

I assume you have downloaded such files : xchm-0.9.7-1.i586.rpm and chmlib-0.35-1.1.fc2.dag.i386.rpm. You can find them with Google.
Login to your console as root.
Use rpm2tgz command to convert those RPM files into TGZ (.tgz) files. Slackware use TGZ files as its software package manager. Just type the command rpm2tgz xchm-0.9.7-1.i586.rpm and wait until the conversion process finish. Then convert the second RPM files with the same command rpm2tgz chmlib-0.35-1.1.fc2.dag.i386.rpm and wait until the process finish.
Install the chmlib first with command installpkg chmlib-0.35-1.1.fc2.dag.i386.tgz.
Then install the xchm with command installpkg xchm-0.9.7-1.i586.tgz.
Try to run the application by typing xchm in your console.

You can use RPM command as well in Slackware, but it is strongly recommended if you convert it to TGZ file first, then install it with installpkg command. If you want to remove that program you can use removepkg command followed by your package name or you can use pkgtool program which has an ncurses based interface. Anyway, what if you use the Debian based distribution like Ubuntu? You can use the same steps, but you have to replace the rpm2tgz command with the alien command. That command will produce DEB (.deb) files. And to install them just use apt-get --install command followed by your DEB file name.

The XCHM

How To Reset MySQL Root Password

2008-11-18T00:58:00.000-08:00

Do you forget your MySQL root password and can't login? Don't panic. You don't have to re-install your MySQL as long as you still have the privileges to start and stop the MySQL service. Just follow these instruction:

1. Stop your MySQL service.
2. Start your MySQL service with this following command:

mysqld --skip-grant-tables

This command will start your MySQL service without checking the users tables everytime users login. So, you can login as root and reset your password.

3. Update your root password with this command.

USE mysql;
UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD('new password') WHERE user='root';

4. Refresh the users' privileges.

FLUSH privileges;

Now, your MySQL root password has been updated with the new password. You can login to MySQL with that new password.

Paging In Oracle

2008-11-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

Oracle doesn't have the LIMIT keyword like MySQL. So, how can we do paging in Oracle? There is a little trick to do it.

Let's assume there is a table named table1 and it has two fields such as trans_id and user. When we execute the SELECT statement, the result will be like this:

SELECT trans_id, user FROM table1 ORDER BY trans_id;

TRANS_ID    USER
----------- ------
080003      001   
080003      001   
080003      001   
080005      001   
080005      001   
080024      002   
080024      002   
080025      001   
080151      001   
080151      001   
080296      001   
080296      001   
080413      003   
080427      ADMIN

First step to do the paging is we will use that result as a table. The trick will start here. We're going to add a new field to display the row number for the result. The row number will be our key to do the paging. So, the query and its result will be like this:

SELECT rownum rn, t1.* FROM (SELECT trans_id, user FROM table1
ORDER BY trans_id) t1 ;

   RN TRANS_ID    USER
----- ----------- ------
    1 080003      001 
    2 080003      001 
    3 080003      001 
    4 080005      001 
    5 080005      001 
    6 080024      002 
    7 080024      002 
    8 080025      001 
    9 080151      001 
   10 080151      001 
   11 080296      001 
   12 080296      001 
   13 080413      003 
   14 080427      ADMIN

Next step. Based on the result, we will use it as a table. Then use the rn field to do the paging. For example we're going to show only the top five of the result. So, our query will be like this :

SELECT * FROM (SELECT rownum rn, t1.* FROM (SELECT trans_id, user FROM table1
ORDER BY trans_id) t1) t2 WHERE rn BETWEEN 1 AND 5;

   RN TRANS_ID    USER
----- ----------- ------
    1 080003      001 
    2 080003      001 
    3 080003      001 
    4 080005      001 
    5 080005      001

How To Make NuSOAP Work With PHP 5

2008-10-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

NuSOAP is a very usefull SOAP Toolkit for developing web service with PHP. You won't have any problem when using it with PHP 4. But, if you are using PHP 5, you might find a little problem. PHP 5 has its own SOAP extension, so if that SOAP extension is loaded it will conflict with NuSOAP and you will get an error message like this:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class soapclient in C:\xampp\htdocs\lib\nusoap.php on line 7240

There are two alternatives to solve this problem.

First Alternative

You can de-activated PHP SOAP extension by editting the php.ini file. Give a semicolon (;) in the front of the line says extension=php_soap.dll. So, that line should be look like this:

;extension=php_soap.dll

Restart your web server to make the change take effect.

Second Alternative

You can also modify the nusoap.php file to rename the soapclient class to another name like soap_client. You can use your favorite text editor and replace all soapclient text with soap_client. So, if you want to make an instance from NuSOAP client you have to use the syntax like this:

$client=new soap_client($url);

This way is good if you want to use NuSOAP but you still want to retain the PHP SOAP extension.

Integrating PHP with Microsoft IIS

2008-09-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

PHP always identic with Apache web server. But, do you know that the other web servers can be used together with PHP as well as Apache? This short tutorial will show you how to use PHP alongside with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).

Prepare the software
First, you have to prepare these software:

Microsoft IIS from Microsoft Windows CD
PHP (zip version). You can find it at www.php.net

Installation
If you have IIS and PHP installed on you computer, you can skip this part.

Install IIS

Insert the Microsoft Windows CD.
Open Control Panel and choose Add or Remove Programs.
Click on Add/Remove Windows Components.
Give a check mark on Internet Information Services.
Click Next and follow the installation instruction until finish.

Install PHP

Extract the zipped file to C:\php5.
Copy php.ini-dist to C:\Windows then rename it to php.ini.
Edit your php.ini and find this following line : extension_dir="./". Change it to extension_dir="C:\php5\ext\".

Configure your IIS
Let's configure IIS.

Open Windows Control Panel. Click Administrative Tools, then click Internet Information Services.
Click the "+" sign beside your computer name, then click on the same sign beside the Web Sites folder.
You will find the Default Web Site and you have to right-click on it and choose properties to start configuring you IIS.
Click the Home Directory tab. Find the Configuration button and click it.
On the Mapping tab, click the Add button.
Now, you are about adding the .php extension so the PHP file can be processed by IIS. In the executable textbox you have to point to the full path of the php5isapi.dll file location for parsing PHP file. You can click browse to find it. In this example, the location of php5isapi.dll is in C:\php5.
In the extension textbox, you have to fill it with the PHP file extension which is .php. Click OK.
Finish? Not yet. Back to the Default Web Site's properties window, click on Documents tab. Now you are about configuring the default page for IIS. Click Add and type index.php for the default document name. Click OK.

Testing
Create the phpinfo.php file which has simple content like this.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save it in your web server directory (C:\Inetpub\wwwroot) and call it from your web browser.

More Options
If you want to use a database server, you have to activate the PHP extension to the related database server. For example if you want to use MySQL, you have to uncomment the line like this ;extension=php_mysql.dll. After that, don't forget to copy the libmysql.dll file from C:\php5 to C:\Windows\System32.

The same way can be applied if you want to use Oracle database server. First, you have to uncomment the line that says ;extension=php_oci8.dll. The next step is a little bit different. You have to copy oci.dll file from your Oracle Instant Client directory to C:\Windows\System32. You also have to set some environment variables such as PATH and NLS_LANG. You can see my previous tutorial about Connecting To Oracle 8 With PHP for further information.

Connecting To Oracle 8 With PHP

2008-09-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

Connecting to Oracle database with PHP is not as easy as connecting to MySQL. There are few steps to do before your PHP can connect to Oracle database.

In this tutorial, I try to connect to Oracle with PHP from a Windows machine.

The Software
These are the lists of software I used to test this tutorial:

XAMPP 1.6.7
Oracle Instant Client 10.1 for Windows
Oracle 8i Database Server (remote or local)

Preparing The System
These are the steps to preparing your system before you can connect to Oracle using PHP.

Install XAMPP.
Install Oracle if you want to use a local database server.
Extract the Oracle Instant Client to C:
Copy oci.dll file to C:\xampp\apache\bin.
Add the Oracle Instant Client path (C:\instantclient10_1) to your system PATH.
Add NLS_LANG as a new system variable. Fill it's value with american_america.we8iso8859p1.
Restart your system to make the changes take effect.

Edit Your php.ini
php.ini file for XAMPP can be found in C:\xampp\apache\bin. Open that file with your text editor and find this following line:

;extension=php_oci8.dll

Uncomment that line so it will be looked like this:

extension=php_oci8.dll

Save that file and then restart your Apache web server. If no error message appear that mean the Oracle module for PHP is loaded properly.

Test It!
Now, prepare the PHP script to test the connection with Oracle. I made the script like this:

$host='10.234.2.12';
$user='USER';
$passwd='123456';
$service_name='TEST';

$db='(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)
(HOST='.$host.')(PORT=1521)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME = '.$service_name.')))';

$con=oci_connect($user,$passwd,$db);

if($con){
echo 'Connected to Oracle.';
}
else{
echo 'Cannot connect to Oracle.';
}

oci_close($con);

Run the script and see if it works.

iReport Tutorial (part 4) - Calling Report With Parameter

2008-05-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we need to pass one or more parameters to our report. For example, we may need to generate a report for some items with a spesific category or price. Based on our previous tutorial, we're going to make a report to view the contacts list with a certain address. For this tutorial, you have to create a new report.

Adding New Parameter

You need to specify address as a parameter, so click on View menu, then click Parameters. Click New to add new parameter. Give a name for your new parameter and specify its data type. For example, I give the name PRM_ADDRESS for this parameter and its data type is String. After that, give a check mark on Use as a prompt option. You can see the picture below for a clearer information.

Create Report Query

After you create a new parameter, you have to create report query based on that new parameter. How we do this? Click on Data menu, then click on Report Query. In the query text box, type this SQL command: SELECT * FROM contact WHERE address=$P{PRM_ADDRESS}.

As you can see the $P{PRM_ADDRESS} represents the parameter that you've made before.

After that, you have to design the report. The report's layout is up to you now. I will not talk about how to design the report here because I have talked about it in the previous tutorial.

Write Your Code

Let's write the code! Same like the previous tutorial, I'll give you all the code so you can copy-paste and modify it if necessary.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.view.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.*;
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;

public class testParameter extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
 JasperPrint JPrint;
 JButton btnShowReport;
 JLabel lblParameter;
 JTextField txtParameter;

// INITIALIZE GUI COMPONENTS
 public void initComponent(){
  btnShowReport=new JButton("SHOW REPORT");
  btnShowReport.setMnemonic('S');
  btnShowReport.addActionListener(this);

lblParameter=new JLabel("Address");

txtParameter=new JTextField(15);
 }

// DESIGN THE FORM
 public void design(){
  setTitle("Test Parameter");
  getContentPane().setLayout(new FlowLayout());
  getContentPane().add(lblParameter);
  getContentPane().add(txtParameter);
  getContentPane().add(btnShowReport);
  pack();
  setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
  show();
 }

// SHOW THE REPORT
 public void showReport(){
  try{
   // PREPARING DATABASE CONNECTION
   String jdbcDriver = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
   Class.forName(jdbcDriver);
   String url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/contact";
   String user = "user1";
   String pass = "password";
 
   Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, pass);

// PATH TO YOUR JASPER FILE
   String fullPath="/home/lucky/Documents/Java/report/TestParameter.jasper";
   // PREPARE THE PARAMETERS
   Map<String, Object> param=new HashMap<String, Object>();
   param.put("PRM_ADDRESS",txtParameter.getText());
   // FILL THE REPORT
   JPrint=JasperFillManager.fillReport(fullPath,param,con);
   // VIEW THE REPORT
   JasperViewer.viewReport(JPrint,false);
   // CLOSE CONNECTION
   con.close();
  }
  catch(Exception ex){
   System.out.println(ex.toString());
  }
 }

// CONTRUCTOR
 testParameter(){
  initComponent();
  design();
 }

public static void main(String[] args){
  new testParameter();
 }

// EVENT LISTENER
 public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
  // IF SHOW BUTTON CLICKED, SHOW THE REPORT
  if(ae.getSource()==btnShowReport)
   showReport();
 }
}

Execute It!

Final step is execute your program. Don't forget to set the CLASSPATH. If you forget how to do that, you can see the previous tutorial right before this one.

iReport Tutorial (part 3) - Calling Report From Java Application

2008-05-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

In the previous tutorial, you've learnt how to create a report with iReport. You must be realized that the report can only be executed from iReport. But, in the real case that report should be able to be executed from the other application (usually Java application). How we do this?

Setting CLASSPATH

The first thing you have to do is set your CLASSPATH environment variable. Why? Because Java needs to load some libraries which are needed to execute that report. Those libraries are:

jasperreports-2.0.4.jar
commons-digester-1.7.jar
commons-logging-1.0.2.jar
commons-collections-2.1.jar
mysql-connector-java-3.1.11-bin.jar

If you are a Linux user, you can set your CLASSPATH by typing this command from your Linux console (I assume your iReport installation directory is /usr/local).

export "CLASSPATH=.:/usr/local/iReport-2.0.4/lib/jasperreports-2.0.4.jar:\
 /usr/local/iReport-2.0.4/lib/commons-digester-1.7.jar:\
 /usr/local/iReport-2.0.4/lib/commons-logging-1.0.2.jar:\
 /usr/local/iReport-2.0.4/lib/commons-collections-2.1.jar:\
 /usr/local/iReport-2.0.4/lib/mysql-connector-java-3.1.11-bin.jar"

But, if you are a Windows user, you can use set CLASSPATH=[your class path] from the command prompt utility.

Write Your Code

Let's move on! Next step is writting your Java code. This code will call the report that we've made in the previous tutorial. To make it easier, I'll give you all the code so you can copy-paste and modify it if necessary. I named this file viewReport.java, but you can use another name that you prefer.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.view.*;
import net.sf.jasperreports.engine.*;
import java.sql.*;

public class viewReport extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
 JasperPrint JPrint;
 JButton btnShowReport;
 JButton btnAbout;
 JButton btnExit;
 // INITIALIZE GUI COMPONENTS
 public void initComponent(){
  btnShowReport=new JButton("SHOW REPORT");
  btnShowReport.setMnemonic('S');
  btnShowReport.addActionListener(this);

btnAbout=new JButton("ABOUT");
  btnAbout.setMnemonic('A');
  btnAbout.addActionListener(this);

btnExit=new JButton("EXIT");
  btnExit.setMnemonic('X');
  btnExit.addActionListener(this);
 }

// DESIGN THE FORM
 public void design(){
  setTitle("View Report");
  getContentPane().setLayout(new FlowLayout());
  getContentPane().add(btnShowReport);
  getContentPane().add(btnAbout);
  getContentPane().add(btnExit);
  pack();
  setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
  show();
 }

// SHOW THE REPORT
 public void showReport(){
  try{
   // PREPARING DATABASE CONNECTION
   String jdbcDriver = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
   Class.forName(jdbcDriver);
   String url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/contact";
   String user = "user1";
   String pass = "12345";
 
   Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, pass);

// PATH TO YOUR JASPER FILE
   String fullPath="/home/lucky/Documents/Java/report/contact_report.jasper";
   // FILL THE REPORT
   JPrint=JasperFillManager.fillReport(fullPath,null,con);
   // VIEW THE REPORT
   JasperViewer.viewReport(JPrint,false);
  }
  catch(Exception ex){
   System.out.println(ex.toString());
  }
 }

// CONTRUCTOR
 viewReport(){
  initComponent();
  design();
 }

public static void main(String[] args){
  new viewReport();
 }

// EVENT LISTENER
 public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
  // IF SHOW BUTTON CLICKED, SHOW THE REPORT
  if(ae.getSource()==btnShowReport)
   showReport();
  // THE OTHER BUTTONS
  if(ae.getSource()==btnExit)
   dispose();
  if(ae.getSource()==btnAbout)
   JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this,"Jasper Report Viewer.\nCreated by: Lucky\nE-mail: lucky_iboyz@yahoo.com or bogeyman2007@gmail.com","About",JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
 }
}

Execute It!

Final step! Compile your Java file by typing javac viewReport.java. After that, execute it with command java viewReport. Before that, make sure your MySQL has started. And, after your program run, you can click on SHOW REPORT button to view the report.

iReport Tutorial (part 2) - Creating Your First Report

2008-02-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

Designing The Database and Table

After the iReport installation is completed, you can create your first report. Usually, a report need a data source, so we need a database. In this tutorial, I use MySQL database as the database. You must have MySQL installed on your computer to try this tutorial. I also recommend you learn the basic of MySQL first if you never use MySQL before.

First, you have to create a new database and name it contact. Inside it, create the new table named contact with a structure like below.

Field	Type	Length
id	int	4
name	varchar	50
phone	varchar	20
handphone	varchar	20
address	varchar	50

After that, insert some records to the table. You can store your friends' name, address, and also their phone and cell phone number to the table.

Preparation

The next steps are the preparation to design the report. We need to set the classpath and create the connection to MySQL. So, follow the instructions below.

1. Setting Classpath

We need to set the classpath which stores the driver for MySQL. Click on the Option menu and then click Classpath. After that click Add JAR on the dialog box, then choose the MySQL driver. You will find it inside the lib folder in your iReport installation directory and the file name is mysql-connector-java-3.1.11-bin.jar. The file name can be different from yours depend on its version. Then, click Save Classpath to save the configuration.

2. Setting Up Database Connection

To create a database connection, click Data menu, and then click New to create new connection. After that you have to determine the data source type. Choose Database JDBC Connection. Then click Next so a new dialog box will appear. Fill the text field just like the picture below, you have to specify Connection Name, JDBC Driver, and JDBC URL. After that, enter the MySQL username and password according to your MySQL configuration and then click Test to test your configuration. If the connection test is success, click Save to save your configuration.

Designing The Report

To begin designing the new report just click File, than click New. Now you will face a window which provide a page to design the report's layout. But before you start to design, you have to make a query to retrieve the fields from the table. Click on Data menu then choose Report Query. Type SELECT * FROM contact in the text area. After that iReport will automatically retrieve the fields from the database according to your SQL command. Then click OK. For clearer information, look at the picture below.

After all required fields retrieved, you can start to design the report's layout by dragging the fields from the Document Structure panel to the designer page. For example you can see the report design at the picture below.

Run It!

The last step is execute your report. Before you execute it, click on Option then click Settings and click Compiler tab. Give a checkmark to the Use Reports Directory to Compile option and uncheck the keep .java file (if available) option. Click Save to save your changes.

Now, you are ready to execute your report, but don't forget to save it first. Just click Build, then click Execute (with active connection) to execute it.

iReport Tutorial (part 1) - Installing iReport Designer

2008-02-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

iReport is a report designer tool for Java. You can download iReport Designer freely from sourceforge.net/projects/ireport. Before you install iReport (on Windows or Linux), The Java Development Kit (JDK) must be installed properly on your computer. Be sure that the JDK version that you are using is at least 1.5. Unless you can download the newer version of JDK from java.sun.com. Just for information, in this tutorial I used JDK 1.6 and iReport 2.0.4.

To install iReport Designer you just need to extract the compressed iReport binary file to a specified folder (i.e C:\Program Files if you are using Windows or /usr/local if you are using Linux). When you're done, you will have a new folder named iReport-2.0.4. You folder name can be different from mine depend on the iReport version that you used. After that, you have to enter that new folder and double-click on iReport.bat file if you are using windows. But, if you are using Linux, you can double-click iReport.sh file. Or you can try another way by typing ./iReport.sh on your Linux console (and don't forget that your current directory must be the iReport installation directory). If your iReport starts properly that means you have successfully installed iReport on your computer.

How To Change Linux Bootsplash Screen

2007-09-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Are you bored with your Linux Bootsplash Screen? Do you ever think how to change it? The first thing you have to do is download your preferred bootsplash screen from the internet. You can find it at www.kde-look.org. I get some nice bootsplash screens there. But, before you download it please choose the bootsplash screen that suitable with your screen resolution.

This tutorial only work with the Red Hat based distributions such as Fedora, Mandriva, or SuSE (I tested this tutorial on SuSE 10.0). If you are using Slackware or Debian based distributions I suggest you to find the other references.

Ok. Let's start...

Open your terminal console and then type su to switch to root user.
Copy your bootsplash file to /etc/bootsplash/themes.
Extract your files (for example I have file named Aqua.tar.gz) by typing tar -xvzf Aqua.tar.gz then you will find the new folder named Aqua which will be your new theme's name.
Type vi /etc/sysconfig/bootsplash to edit you bootsplash configuration.
Find the line THEMES="your_old_bootsplash_theme" and then change it to THEME="Aqua". Then save this file by pressing ESC : w q sequentially.
Type mkinitrd -s 1024x768. The argument 1024x768 is screen resolution and you have to write the correct screen resolution.
Make sure these lines are exist in your GRUB configuration file (/boot/grub/menu.lst) :

kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda8 vga=791 splash=silent resume=/dev/hda9
initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd

Look at the words printed in bold. Use vga=788 for 800x600 screen resolution or vga=791 for 1024x768 screen resolution. Don't forget to write splash=silent or your bootsplash won't appear.

Restart your linux and see if it works.