On demand development IDE plugin as a resource to the source code

A cumbersome task which everyone who wants to join a software development project, opensourcy or enterpricy, is setting up the development appropriately. This is becoming more apparent due to the new programming and scripting languages and frameworks like Rails which pop up every now and then. We are getting somewhere (Maven 2)when it comes to making sure the source code compiles and runs out of the box. But the development environments still need to be downloaded, installed, and configured (allthough Maven can help here) and license keys entered.

However, there is hope!

Grails impresses yet again with its plugins - Todays tidbit: SoundManager

Grails and its plugins doesn't cease to impress me. I tested out the Grails SoundManager plugin today, which is a thin gsp wrapper around a javascript library for playing mp3's in a webpage. The documentation is short, has all you need to know, and Grails fixes the rest. Just what I need for creating my web-playable music "shop".

Update - SoundManager will also play videos and streamed content :D

Does insta-backup Dropbox impress the blasé crowd?

I tried out dropBox today. Nice intro vid, simple app for mac which says that "Everything inside this folder is kept up to date with what's on the web. If you do any changes, they are instamatically updated elsewhere" Not only that, but if you have another machine online that uses the same account and has the same file, they are automatically updated. Did I mention versioning?
One use is the shared-excel-spredsheet which holds all the current tasks and work in progress.

Wow, nice

now I can both do backup and collaboration with other people via the web. Next thought is; I've already thought out how I could do the same stuff with Subversion. Only thing is that neither me or anyone else had the time to implement it.

Are we blasé?

First people go "oooh, I've never seen anyone do that before", 5 minutes later, they're browse off to slashdot. Jesus would have a hard time finding a crowd these days.

Grails 1.1 got Maven support - So What?

You know you've been wasting too much time blogging in the sphere when, renowned developers start stalking YOU :)
Anywho, the comment I recieved informed me that Grails 1.1 Maven support is out, giving Maven developers much needing air-mileage towards a Grails firstclass-citizen-goldcard. Predecessor Octo was, what I reckon, a shell around Ant scripts for doing Grails tasks, distancing Maven from responsibility of doing the nitty-gritty building and wiring.

So why should you care who builds your Grails project?

Because of the nifty reusable plugin functionality you get out of the box from maven. And more importantly with Grails, control of how you wire your app together.

The current state of the new Maven plugin

I can't see no Ant anywhere. It might be because I've been lazy and havent poked around the poms, but until contradicted, I choose to believe that Maven is in charge. One difference is the added folders, src/main/webapp aso. Does it work as it should yet? Of course not, it wouldn't be bleeding edge if it did, but well enough for me to get a good impression and a list of issues to report back on.

Conclusion

If the Maven plugin picks up speed inside GrailsDev, I'm a happy camper! Good Work!

Idea for create-archetype-from-existing-project plugin

The project I'm working on is teh best, and I don't have time to create an archetype from it! Why should I need to structure the project in a different way to create the archetype? If I do that, I cannot continue working on the code. The plugin should be able to rip out all the non-generic stuff, like groupId, projectId, folders, wrap them in templates so they are automatically filled and presto, you have a new archetype.

Idea for simple-jar-lib plugin

Often, when one looks at someone elses project, the artifact dependencies are a mess! The jars litter a lib/ folder, and often have no version or groupId, and it would be beneficial to structure them into a local repository. Another case is when you wish to supply an artifact which is not located in any external repository, but wish to have it close to your project in the VCS, for convenience. And the artifact has no pom. I believe the maven-dependency-plugin has a similar functionality which can be used with legacy maven1 projects, which do not require the advanced folder structure, but still requires a pom present.

Yahoo Pipes - SOA for the Web?

I recently learned of Yahoo Pipes after poking a little around WeFeelFine.org's technostack, and 50minutes of videocasts later, I'm quite engaged!

So how would I describe the Ytoobes? Online present ESB with simple BPEL engine and editor. What's so special about this, is that they've lowered the learning curve for being a SOA Web configurer, and provide advanced functionality to the up-until-now static pages of non-enterpricy webpages!

When I look into my crystal ball, I see

• Screenscraping webpages for providing RSS feeds


• Advanced forms and workflows embedded into "static" databaseless webpages


• A new contestant for enterpricy integration

HuskerMedia Demo Pipe

Conclusion

A serious competitor for web-datasource extraction with a low entry-level for adoption that can be expensive to miss out on!

Java applets churn random stalking app

TED has an interesting video presentation of the random-stalking application WeFeelFine.org, which scours the bloggosphere for unstable emo's.

The important part is Java Applets as the choice of technology! :) At a first glance, they have chosen to discard standard swing components for getting the custom look and feel.  But the use of Applets for a thick client and an opensaucy API makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I will definitely poke inside the app and the technology stack "When I find time"

"I feel Java Applets"