20.11.11

BPM Editor and Python Extension Not Playing in Nicely in the Same Sandbox

I was playing with the latest FMW 11.1.1.5 BPM Feature Pack when I noticed immediate NPE when launching any BPM process editor in my JDeveloper.

The stack trace was:

java.lang.NullPointerException

        at oracle.bpm.ui.action.BaseAction$ActionFuegoAction.putValue(BaseAction.java:496)

        at oracle.bpm.ui.action.BaseAction.setMsg(BaseAction.java:312)

        at oracle.bpm.ui.action.BaseAction$ActionFuegoAction.<init>(BaseAction.java:476)

        at oracle.bpm.ui.action.BaseAction.valueOf(BaseAction.java:100)

        at oracle.bpm.designer.catalogdoc.DocumentationEditorPanel.createActions (DocumentationEditorPanel.java:521)

        at oracle.bpm.designer.catalogdoc.DocumentationEditorPanel.createEditorPanel(DocumentationEditorPanel.java:504)

        at oracle.bpm.designer.catalogdoc.DocumentationEditorPanel.init(DocumentationEditorPanel.java:472)

After debugging long enough I found out that this was a compatibility problem with JDeveloper Python Extension and BPM Editor.

Python Extension is something I ported from JDev 10.1.2 to 10.1.3 and latest rewrote some portions to get it working on JDeveloper 11g. Aparently there is something causing side effects in BPM Editor so the recommendation from me is to disable this Python Extension to get BPM Editor working without these NPE issues.

To disable any extension you can follow these menu options:

Tools –> Preferences –> Extensions (from the left hand panel) –> Uncheck the Checkbox from Python Extension

8.11.11

Word of Warning for OracleVM 2.2 Upgraders

Decided to start upgrading my OracleVM 2.2 servers to the new OracleVM 3.0.2.

First obstacle was that the installation application didn’t recognize the CD drive it was originally started from. Weird. Got an error stating that I should have drivers to read the CD.

Went to buy an external USB DVD drive. Started the installation from there. Got a bit further but at the time I was supposed to choose my hard disk for partitioining, OracleVM 3.0.2 did’n find the hard drives at all.

Looks like OracleVM 3.0.2 is very picky on the supported hardware systems you can run it on.

Finally managed to install OracleVM 3.0.2 on USB Stick acting as hard drive. Well, obviously this isn’t a perfect solution to run my virtualization servers, so I reverted back to OracleVM 2.2.

So a word of warning to all those thinking of upgrading. You can either test the installation media just to see if it recognizes your hard drivers and then make decision whether to go forward or not.

I’m waiting for a new version of OracleVM to be released and hoping it has the kernel modules for my AMD/VIA based motherboard.

25.8.11

OracleVM 3.0 Finally Out

The wait is over for those that have been waiting for OracleVM 3.0:

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/459406

When starting my own business (http://www.ratioware.com), I decided to set up all my servers as OracleVM 2.2 virtual servers. I’ve been more than happy running my stuff virtualized, so I’m very interested in getting hold on OracleVM 3.0.

There are number of enhancements worth mentioning:

  • Policy based resource management
  • Centralized network and storage configuration and management
  • Performance, scalability and security enhancements
  • New management console

Not so happy surprise was that upgrading from OracleVM 2.2 was non-existent. All servers must be reinstalled with OracleVM 3.0.1 software, but you could utilize the 2.2 templates and virtual images.

I’m currently downloading the OVM 3.0 Server and Management Console installation packages and start planning for 2.2 –> 3.0 upgrade on my own server pool.

Maybe this would be a good time to get rid of my iSCSI SAN setup and replace it with NFS for easier management (backups, image copying etc).

Stay tuned for experiences on OVM 3.0 once I get it up and running.

15.12.10

Microsoft Powerpoint notes removal addin on Office 2007 and Windows 7

Here’s an update on my previous (dated back in 2005) blog posting on Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 notes removal add-in.

The actual add-in file is still valid and working on Office 2007. You can find it here:
http://www.pcuf.fi/~hkaukovu/blog/HJK_Remove_Notes.ppa

Update is related to where you should copy the *.ppa file on Windows 7 and how to add the add-in on Powerpoint 2007. First of all, download and copy the *.ppa file to your Windows user roaming directory:

C:\Users\<windowsusername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns

e.g on my machine the path where to copy this is:

C:\Users\hkaukovu\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns

Here are the steps to enable the add-in:

1. Go to powerpoint options

image

2. Choose Add-Ins

image

3. From lower part of window choose “Manage: Powerpoint Add-Ins” and press “Go…”

image

4. Press “Add New…”

image

5. Select the *.ppa file

image

6. Press Enable Macros

image

7. You have now the notes removal add-in enabled.

'image

8. You can execute the notes removal add-in from “Add-Ins” tab.

image

The add-in activation is permanent, so next time you startup Powerpoint, this notes removal add-in should be active.

29.11.10

New Extensions for JDeveloper 11g

Some of you may know that I wrote 2-3 years ago some JDeveloper extensions for helping out with BAM data object creation (BAM Table Migration Extension), Oracle ESB diagram documentation (ESB Tools), JDeveloper Project Copying (Project Tools), Python Development (Python Addin).

It’s been some time since I last touched those extensions and finally I decided to take the bull by the horns.

What I ended up were four new extensions for JDeveloper 11g:

These extensions are now included in the official JDeveloper extension exchange and can be installed using “Check for Updates…” functionality. Be sure to check the “Open Source and Partner Extensions” update center.

To summarize what these extension do:

BAM Table/View Copier

BAM Table/View Copier is an extension to help creating BAM data objects using any relational database as “template”. An example: you have almost perfect table in your Oracle DB or Access DB and would like to use that table or view structure as BAM Data Object. Just BAM Connection on your application workspace, navigate to database navigator, choose table or view and press context menu. You will see “Copy to BAM…” which will ask you about the BAM connection to use and target BAM folder to store the data object.

Extension will copy also all data from the table so don’t be surprised. If you don’t want to copy the data, make an copy of the table (create table mytable as select * from wantedtable where 1=2) and copy the empty table.

BAM Table/View Copier also makes it possible to design BAM Data Objects using graphical JDeveloper Database designer. Just create the tables or views on relational database first and then use this extension to copy the structures as data objects. Of course you won’t be able to model all those fine grained data object lookups etc in JDeveloper but you would start your work this way.

SCA Diagram Tools

By default you cannot print or save SCA composite diagram graphics directly from JDeveloper. SCA Diagram Tools gives you possiblity to save composite diagram as PDF, JPG, BPM or PNG.

SCA Diagram Tools also makes it possible to zoom in/out using wheel mouse and pressing CTRL button at the same time. This is not enabled by default but you can do so by choosing “Enable Wheel Mouse Zoom” from SCA Diagram Tools submenu. This might be also good addition to those that have eyesight problems.

Printing the SCA composite diagram is also possible using this extension.

Python Extension

Created originally by Brian Duff for JDeveloper 9i. Migrating the plugin from 9i to 10g took a major rewrote. I did this 2008 and now migrated the python extension from 10g to 11g.

Python extension lets you develop python/jython scripts and run them directly in JDeveloper. Also you can switch on Python Console that enables you to interactively execute any Jython commands from Python Console. You could e.g. call JDeveloper internal API’s interactively if so wanted.

Jar Search Extension

When migrating sources from 10g to 11g there are times where product development have refactored their jar classes so that the old libraries no longer exist.

I created this extension to help searching for JAR files that contain the wanted java class. This was written from ground up to be used as JDeveloper extension so you can e.g. cancel the search if it takes too much time to look for JAR files recursively.

Please note that this extension is not for searching the contents of JAR entry files, it is searching the JAR entries and their filenames, which makes it lot faster than normal search.

25.11.10

JDeveloper 10g/11g extension download and installation problems

JDeveloper 11g

Some of you might have seen installation problems with JDeveloper 11g extensions. There has been some changes in OTN download server infrastructure that causes some issues on extension download and installation. The workaround for time being is to download the extension and install from local file system, as described in JDeveloper Product Management blog:

http://blogs.oracle.com/jdeveloperpm/2010/11/installing_jdeveloper_extensions_locally.html

In addition you might check your extension download temporary directory. There might be some unfinished zip files etc. You could just clean that directory up and try downloading again. Download directory is under your JDeveloper user home directory that is pointed by environment variable <JDEV_USER_HOME>\tmp\update. If you haven’t set this, it points to your <JDEV installationHOME>\jdev\tmp\update –directory.

JDeveloper 10g on Windows 7 (64-bit)

For those that have problems installing JDeveloper 10g extensions on Windows 7, there might be other issues. For me the symptom was that I was able to choose and download the wanted extension. Everything seemed working nicely but after JDeveloper restart no extension was installed.

After digging into details of the problem I got to the root problem, not solving the problem all the way, but being able to continue my work.

For me I have multiple JDeveloper versions running on my laptop. I usually edit the <JDEVHOME>/jdev/bin/jdev.conf file so that I change the SetUserHomeVariable to use a different environment variable for different JDev versions. In this case I used environment variable JDEV10134_USER_DIR, which I hadn’t yet assigned to anywhere (so no setting for that). It appears that in this case JDev 10g falls back reading JDEV_USER_HOME environment variable that was actually used by my JDeveloper 11g environment.

So I edited jdev.conf:
SetUserHomeVariable JDEV10134_USER_DIR

And really set my environment variable on system settings:

image

After this I got my extensions downloading the appropriate place, that was C:\SHARED\jdevhome10134\tmp\update.

Issue being this time that the extensions got downloaded to the right place, but they still didn’t install automatically. When JDeveloper starts it is looking for <JDEV_USER_DIR>/lib/deferred-updates.xml which is supposed to be read and includes instructions how to install the extensions. In my case on Windows 7 (64-bit) the file was read and deleted but extensions were never unzip and placed into the correct directory.

This sounds to be an issue with JDev 10g and Windows 7 not being 100% compatible with each other. JDeveloper 9i or 10g has not been certified with Windows 7.

Anyways, you can get those extensions installed manually and you can continue working on Windows 7.

To install extensions manually open the zip file from <JDEV_USER_DIR>\tmp\update and extract the *.jar file or collection of jar files to extensions directory. In my installation I’ve installed JDeveloper 10.1.3.4 on c:\product\jdevstudio10134, so my extension directory is: C:\product\jdevstudio10134\jdev\extensions.

After unzipping/extracting, restart JDeveloper and you should have all those downloaded extensions working on your JDev 10g.

8.6.10

OracleVM and Standalone VNC Client for Console Access

OracleVM Manager has built-in browser based Java VNC console accessible from “Console” button:

image

In order this to work properly you need to have the right VNC rpm installed in the server side:

http://oss.oracle.com/oraclevm/manager/RPMS/tightvnc-java-1.3.9-3.noarch.rpm

For those that want to access the virtual server console directly using e.g. TightVNC viewer you can do so by first looking at the right VNC port from OracleVM manager.

image

Then connect to the actual bare metal server (not the virtual server) with the VNC Port. In this example the OracleVM server IP might have been 10.1.1.1.

image

You might as well leave the port 5900 since this points to the display 0 which in short can be defined:

image

If you had Virtual server VNC console defined in 5901, you can connect to 10.1.1.1:1 etc.