Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Vanilla Globus Install

Here's a link to my installation notes on Globus. I didn't waste time on the SimpleCA (we already have one) or GT4 web services.

http://www.gorerle.com/vlab-wiki/index.php?title=Vlab.scs.fsu.edu

Monday, May 15, 2006

Java Web Start shortens my time on earth

First, for posterity, you can make a JNLP file into a JSP file (for dynamic control) by simply calling your file something.jsp instead of something.jnlp and using the line

<%@ page contentType="application/x-java-jnlp-file"%>

at the very top.

Now, on to the main article.

The problem: I want to use JOGL (some Java API for OpenGL) to make a web start application. This will need some jars to be signed. JOGL's release jars are signed already--by Sun--but you will need to sign any jars you make. This leads to the error

JAR resources in JNLP file are not signed by same certificate

Luckily, Google found a nice discussion here: http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=615425&messageID=342149. In short, you can work around the problem by using the tag in your JNLP file. To use the default jogl jars, use simply this:

<resources>
...
<extension name="jogl" href="http://download.java.net/media/jogl/builds/archive/jsr-231-webstart-current/jogl.jnlp"/>
</resources>

The downside is of course you are now a slave to the JOGL archives. If you want to
guarantee the jogl jars used at download are the ones that are compatible with your compilation, you will need to work out your own salvation. First, change the extension URL to your server in your JNLP file:

<resources>
<extension name="jogl-stuff" href="http://your.host.com/your-app/jogl-stuff.jnlp"/>
</resources>

Then create your extension JNLP. The easiest way to do this is to cheat: use the wget command (on linux/unix) to grab the "official" JOGL JNLP and then edit it.

[shell-prompt> wget http://download.java.net/media/jogl/builds/archive/jsr-231-webstart-current/jogl.jnlp

After editing, your jogl-stuff.jnlp file will look something like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<jnlp codebase="http://your.server.com/your-app" href="jogl-stuff.jnlp">
<information>
<title>JOGL</title>
<vendor>Sun Microsystems, Inc.</vendor>
<homepage href="http://jogl.dev.java.net/"/>
<description>JOGL - JSR-231 Current Build</description>
<description kind="short">Java programming language binding for the OpenGL 3D graphics API. (Current build of JSR-231 APIs)</description>
<offline-allowed/>
</information>
<security>
<all-permissions/>
</security>
<resources>
<jar href="jogl.jar" />
</resources>
<resources os="Windows" arch="x86">
<nativelib href = "jogl-natives-win32.jar" />
</resources>
<resources os="SunOS" arch="sparc">
<nativelib href = "jogl-natives-solsparc.jar" />
</resources>
<resources os="SunOS" arch="x86">
<nativelib href = "jogl-natives-solx86.jar" />
</resources>
<resources os="Linux" arch="i386">
<nativelib href = "jogl-natives-linux.jar" />
</resources>
<resources os="Linux" arch="x86">
<nativelib href = "jogl-natives-linux.jar" />
</resources>
<resources os="Mac OS X" arch="i386">
<nativelib href = "jogl-natives-macosx.jar" />
</resources>
<component-desc />
</jnlp>

Friday, May 12, 2006

A Little Media Wiki FAQ

This page contains useful Media Wiki tips so that I don't have to look them up again.

  1. How do I edit the sidebar to (for example) add and remove links?
    See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ#How_do_I_change_the_contents_of_the_navigation_toolbar.3F. You have to be a wiki system admin to do this, so create a sysadmin account you can remember.

  2. How do I add a new link? First create an account. Then edit any page and click the "Internal Link" icon on the editor. This creates an empty link. Save the page, click the empty link, and edit it to add your content.

  3. How do I enable uploads? See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Configuring_file_uploads.

  4. Is there a guideline for wiki formatting? See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing.

  5. Can't I just use HTML? Yes, usually. But the wiki formatting tricks are addictive.

  6. How can I easily format a long XML file listing? Use the <pre></pre> tags.