Instead of an index.html file which would prevent you from browsing the
Unix directory, I have this file which doesn't interfere with directory
service.
<p />
This is Robert Maas, in Sukhjit Singh's distributed-Java class at De Anza
college in Cupertiono, California.
Below are the parts of my design document (for Lab#3 = taxicab messages)
which I've written so-far, and my working notes as I try to overcome the
major roadblocks that have so-far been preventing me from deploying any
J2EE application for this lab assignment.
<p />
<ul>Design document sections:
  <li><a href="dj3case.txt">Use cases (plain-text format)</a></li>
  <li><a href="dj3stor.txt">Persistant storage</a> (properties file, 
      DB tables and relations (plain-text format)</li>
  <li>Detailed specification of low-level utilities for managing persistent
      storage:
    <ul>
      <li><a href="dj3dbutil-old.txt">First draft</a> (before I started any
          coding)</li>
      <li><a href="dj3dbutil.txt">Second draft</a> (reflecting changes and
          additions realized as I was implementing the design)</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

<ul>Lab notebooks showing my roadblocks, progress, questions, etc.:
  <li><a href="LabBook.May12.txt">May.12..14</a> (summary of major roadblocks,
      planned strategy for overcoming them, hour by hour notes)</li>
  <li><a href="LabBook.May15.txt">May.15..16</a> (semi-new idea: runtime
checking of class against interface, as solution to making fake HttpServlet*
objects acceptable; deploytool trashes my application yet again, Error
allocating a servlet instance; hack whereby JSP explicitly calls doGet to
bypass roadblocks; tokenizer for parsing s-expressions representing
list of name-value pairs as test data for what I'll write next)</li>
  <li><a href="LabBook.May17.txt">May.17..18</a></li> (finished s-expression
parser, including XML generator for debugging, trick to save stdout to
file when calling Runtime.exec("anyShellCommnd"), trick for achieving
the effect of depricated-and-expunged System.getenv, looking at what
capabilities in request/response/session objects are actually used
in typical HttpServlet code hence needing emulation, testing those
capabilities in live session to fully understand how they work)</li>
  <li><a href="LabBook.May19.txt">May.19..20</a></li> (found bug in
JTabbedPane, seriously pinning down design of adapters for request and
response objects, writing interfaces for Minimal and My
resource/response objects and making sure all code is compatible with
these interfaces, linear dataflow JSP rig for debugging adapters,
*all* my deployed applications suddenly deleted by cleanup process
causing multi-hour delay, deploytool failed to paint modal dialog so
whole program wedged, utility to check all interfaces, MACHINE FROZE
FORCING NECESSITY OF EMERGENCY POWER-DOWN, completed overall framework
of adapters and have wrapRequest adapter basically working)</li>
  <li><a href="LabBook.May21.txt">May.21..23</a></li> (prepared sample
of HTML file containing login form, finished writing wrapRequest,
wrote wrapResponse, stumped by method called from JSP failing because
it can't find class already loaded by JSP itself so reverting trace
output back to cruddy system utility, finished overall design of
multi-UI adapter for servlets, developed effective
development/testing/debugging stategy involving linear inline code in
JSP (running under HTTP/J2EE container supplying
request/session/response objects) exactly matching linear inline code
in standalone test rig (having no access to J2EE
request/session/response objects), experimented with
System.currentTimeMillis() and TreeMap, wrote FakeHttpSession,
implemented queueing of all output within wrappedResponse object,
using a new class ClientWriter, investigated how J2EE servlet engine
handles sessions in regard to rewriting URLs and/or setting cookies,
tested all the common calls that servet innerds make to request &amp;
response objects etc., put in stub for unwrapResponse and started
coding for it)</li>

  <li><a href="LabBook.May24.txt">May.24..27</a></li> (finished linear
inline-code version of test servlet, db access failed on campus,
couldn't find jar file instructor told me about, couldn't find batch
file instructor set up for me, cleared up relationship between output
stream defined by response.getWriter() and output stream defined by
jsp.page.out variable, decided to have my servlet adapter *always* use
response writer, never use jsp page writer, converted DataFlow.java to
properly structured servlet-adapter in DispatcherServlet.java, got it
running under J2EE servlet container, began developing NULL test rig
for servlets, designed structured representation of UI-independent
FORM, wrote code to build such a FORM object from inside servlet,
wrote code to print such a FORM object in XML, and to convert such a
FORM object to HTML FORM syntax, on campus got help from Sukhjit after
class so I can finally compile and run a servlet on the lab's
computer, wrote code for NULL test rig to take key=value pairs from
keyboard and store in wrapped-request object to be accessible by
servlet via getParameter, began writing control logic for servlet
whereby it detects initial connection vs. submitting login form, got
that working under NULL test rig, had great difficulty with J2EE
server but finally able to get same working there too, began work on
code to convert structured UI-independent data from ClientWriter to
swing JComponent and display on-screen)</li>

  <li><a href="LabBook.May28.txt">May.28..30</a></li> (finished code
to convert to swing, temporary problem where cloudscape thinks DB is
in readonly mode, corrected code for use case #1 to match original
specs, have use case #1 (login) fully working, tested locking
mechanism, began writing setup&validation utility and new classes for
Locks and Msgs)</li>

  <li><a href="LabBook.May31.txt">May.31..Jun.04</a></li> (finished
Setup program, ported incomplete program to Windows, deployed sample
ConverterApp again only to get same error as I did in early April and
nobody to help me fix the problem, got logout function working, wrote
business logic to return list of cabs, and presentation logic to
convert to logical structure of checkboxes, and conversion to HTML,
added new feature to write HTML to temporary directory so I can view
it in Web browser without needing to start J2EE server, wrote code to
show report of last N messages, got all that (use cases 1,2,5) working
on Windows, downloaded BeanShell via Unix and dialup to laptop and
tried it and it works pretty well, tried on Unix but it doesn't work
at all, began using BeanShell for all detailed code development,
connection to CloudScape occasionally getting totally confused, wrote
business logic for report of #messages per cab, convert data to
multi-UI structure, convert that to HTML, all working for use case #3,
everything tested in live J2EE server (use cases 1,2,3,5))</li>

  <li><a href="LabBook.Jun04.txt">Jun.04-06</a></li> (fixed minor
bugs, wrote code to compare trios (CabID# CabName #Msgs) and sort
them, wrote code to dispatch to sorted-by-column report, modified
program to pass around single ServletState record instead of varying
numbers of separate parameters, re-organized inline code to be in
specific method-calls passed the ServletState record to query and
update, wrote code to generate column-header button to invoke
sort-by-column feature, finished last of use cases, full NULL-mode
test passed, full J2EE server test passed, all done with this lab
project!)</li>

</ul>

<ul>Milestones accomplished: <li>Wrote sections of design documents
  (see earlier menu):
    <ul>
      <li>May.08 use cases</li>
      <li>May.09 persistent storage (DB/properties)</li>
      <li>May.10 low-level utilties for dealing with persistent storage</li>
    </ul)
  </li>
  <li>May.10 Finished writing enough low-level utilities and business logic
to support use case #1 (login), and wrote toplevel standalone demo
application.</li>
  <li>May.14 Wrote utility to scan entire disk looking for jar files, whereby
I discovered the location of the jar file I need in the classpath for
compiling servlets and other J2EE software.</li>
  <li>May.16 Wrote utility to show API for any class I can name, which has
come in handy many many times during subsequent work. (Previously whenever
I needed to look up the methods or constructors for a class I had to
go online and look at the API specification on Sun's java website. Now I
have most of the same info directly available on my laptop whenever I
need it.)</li>
  <li>May.23 Finished overcoming the roadblocks for deploying J2EE servlets
on Linux laptop, by means of multi-UI adapter and inline linear debug rig.</li>
  <li>May.25 Got simple test servlet running under both J2EE servlet
container and NULL test rig, so that further development work can be done
almost entirely under test rig.</li>
  <li>May.27 Got first two parts of use case #1 (present login form, read
contents of filled-out-form and check valid data and perform actual login
in database) working in NULL test rig, whereupon it also worked in live J2EE
session.</li>
  <li>May.29 Got swing output working, whereby I can view the form I've
generated without the hassle of running the J2EE server.</li>
  <li>May.30 Got use case #1 (login) fully working.</li>
  <li>Jun.01 Got use case #5 (logout) fully working.</li>
  <li>Jun.01 Upgraded NULL-mode test rig to write HTML to temporary directory so I can view it in Web browser, avoiding need for viewing in swing.</li>
  <li>Jun.02 Got use case #2 (send message and show last N messages) fully working.</li>
  <li>Jun.03 Downloaded BeanShell which makes Java code development much more efficient.</li>
  <li>Jun.04 Got use case #3 (show per-cab message-count report) fully working.</li>
  <li>Jun.06 Got use case #4 (sort by per-cab column) fully working, all done!</li>
</ul>

Immediate plans: Upload the source files, and these lab notebook
files, give demo Tuesday after class, and move onto something
different.<p />

<ul>Details about major problems I'm having:
<a href="SolutionsToProblems.html">(See new file also)</a>
  <li>How to call HttpServlet either directly from URL or indirectly via JSP?
    <ul>
      <li><a href="http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.programmer/msg/eeb6b9090351379e?dmode=source">Summary/link posted on newsgroup</a></li>
      <li><a href="http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/ServletQuestion/question.html">Details</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

<p />.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br />.