Specifying a different config file for Log4J
Sep 2nd
Generally, adding a log4j.properties file to the classpath is all that needed to bootstrap your Log4J runtime. In certain cases though you might want to override this behaviour.
I needed to do this recently and it took me a while to find out how to do it in the Log4J docs, so I though I’d make [...]
Getting a “Netscape security model is no longer supported” error when using IntelliJ
Aug 6th
I’ve been working on a JMS application that uses encryption with JNDI authentication and have encountered the following error message when running it:
Netscape security model is no longer supported. Please migrate to the Java 2 security model instead.
It turns out that this is a problem with the JDK’s plugin.jar file and can be fixed quite [...]
Formatting dates in Sybase
Jul 1st
It’s easy to format dates using the convert function in Sybase, but it’s less easy to remember the cryptic formatting style codes that go with it. This post lists the formatting styles.
Getting Maven to work from behind a firewall
May 28th
Maven needs to access the Internet to download a number of things including POM files and dependent JAR files that are not held in your local repository. If you are trying to do this from behind a corportate firewall then you’ll need to configure Maven to work around it or you’ll get a load of [...]
Java 1.4 Debugger Not Working?
May 13th
There’s a bug that I’d encountered running the debugger in JDK 1.4.2 ages ago that reared it’s head again today. I’ve been working on a system that uses this old JDK and thought I’d note the solution here in case I ever came across it again.
The problem is encountered when the JVM is launched [...]
Resolving Subservsion Tree Conflicts when Merging
May 13th
When merging changes in a Subversion project, you’ll need to resolve any conflicts between your checked out version and the one that you are about to merge from the server. Commonly, conflicts arise when two or more developers have modified the same file; these can be resolved by accepting either parties changes or by completing [...]
Open Session in View Pattern for Spring and JPA
Mar 8th
The Open Session in View Pattern is well publicised in Hibernate circles as the best practice approach to presenting data in the Web tier of an application. In this article I’ll demonstrate how simple it is to configure a Spring application to do the same thing with the Java Persistence API (JPA).
Using Mockito to Unit Test Java Applications
Feb 25th
If you’ve spent any time writing unit tests then you’ll know that it’s not always straight-forward. Certain things are inherently hard to test. In this post I’ll show you the basic principles of creating mock objects with a little help from the Mockito mocking tool.
One common problem faced when unit testing is how to test [...]
Configuring MySQL on Mac OS X
Feb 23rd
I found the documentation for MySQL a little rough around the edges recently when I needed to change a configuration setting for it – everything seemed spread around their comprehensive PDF documentation and it took me a little while to fathom my way through it.
It’s not often that changes to MySQL configuration need to [...]
Using Assertions in Java
Feb 18th
I’ve been working on a project this week and have been delighted to see that the original team of programmers who developed it have made the effort to use assertions in their code.
The assert keyword was introduced in Java 1.4 and has since been a sadly under-used language feature. Assertions offer developers a neat [...]
