Download Tomcat

Go to the Tomcat 6 download page and select the appropriate binary distribution of the “Core”. I’m going to use the ‘zip’ version for Mac OS X this time (I will come back to the Windows version later when I summon up the courage to look at IIS7). If I was targeting Linux, I’d use the ‘tar.gz’ version but the only difference is how you extract the files.

This puts a 6.3MB ZIP file in your Downloads folder which you can expand by double-clicking it. At this point, you need to fire up Terminal and start working on the command line since the startup/shutdown shell scripts and not executable directly in Finder. You’ll find Terminal in Applications > Utilities – I suggest adding it to your dock since you’ll be using it a lot.

In Terminal, navigate to the bin folder inside the expanded Tomcat directory, e.g.,

A useful tip is that you can press ‘tab’ to auto-complete file paths in most Unix shells so this will probably get you there:

(depending on what other files you have on your system).

Now we’ll make the various shell scripts executable:

If you use ls -l you’ll see most files have permissions -rw-r--r--@ for owner-read/write and group/world readable. The shell scripts (*.sh) are now -rwxr-xr-x@ so they are executable (by owner, group and world).

Now we can start Tomcat (as with the ‘Express’ version of Railo, we’re just trying to get it up and running right now – we’ll move it somewhere more appropriate in a later blog post).

Starting Tomcat

If you’re still in the bin folder, you can start Tomcat by typing:

or:

You should just get four lines of output saying which paths it is using. That’s it, Tomcat is running! You may also notice a new application running, called org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap. As with the ‘Express’ experiments, leave it running – it’s the core Tomcat process. FWIW, I prefer using the ./startup.sh form because I can type ./st[tab] and save myself a few key strokes.

If it complains it cannot find ./catalina.sh, you didn’t get the ‘chmod’ command right (see above).

Testing Tomcat

Browse to http://localhost:8080/. You should see the Tomcat welcome page (you can’t access the manager or admin consoles without doing some initial configuration – see the next post in this series).

Now we need to get Railo installed and running…

Download Railo

Go to the download page and under “Railo Custom”, pick the “war” (web archive) file:

railo-3.0.2.001.war

I had to right-click > Download Linked File (otherwise I got a browser full of data!).

In the Finder rename the file to railo.war (it’ll make life easier when we test things below). Now drag railo.war and drop it into the webapps folder inside the expanded Tomcat folder. After a couple of seconds, you’ll see a new railo folder appear next to the existing manager, ROOT and other folders. Tomcat has automatically deployed the web archive for you! You can now remove railo.war or at least move it somewhere else in case you need it again.

Testing Railo

Now browse to http://localhost:8080/railo/ and you should see the familiar Railo test page. You can now do all the usual stuff with Railo at this point – see previous posts.

Stopping Tomcat/Railo

Go back to your Terminal window and make sure you’re still in the bin folder (the pwd command will print your current ‘working’ directory), then type:

or:

After four lines of output, Tomcat will shutdown. As with startup, you can use ./sh[tab] to save yourself some key strokes.

If you want to be able to just double-click the startup script from the Finder, rename it so it has no extension. The Finder will confirm you really want to remove the extension – click Remove. You can stop Tomcat by switching to the org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap application (using Cmd-Tab) and quitting it like any regular application – or right-click > Quit on its dock icon.

In the next part of this series, we’ll get Railo running on Tomcat without needing the /railo prefix on URLs (the ‘context root’ in Servlet-speak) and look at ways to configure Tomcat with Apache so you can use this setup for ‘real’ websites.

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The problem

The problem is that with images on hosted environments on IIS 6, it’s impossible to control the serving of them without redirecting them through an HTTP handler. That’s not a good idea for several reasons:

• It adds unnecessary overhead by going through the ASP.NET ISAPI
• You need to add custom code to handle the requests
• You need to change the URL from .gif to .gif.axd or similar

Here is what YSlow finds on my website that needs the expires header set to a far future date:

As you can see, it is all my static images that lacks the expires header.

The solution

If you run IIS 6 there is no good way of adding an expires header to images unless you have control over the IIS. If your site is hosted then you probably have no control at all. If you are using IIS 7 however, you can very easily add the header in your web.config’s system.webServer section like so:

<staticContent>
 <clientCache httpExpires=”Sun, 29 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT” cacheControlMode=”UseExpires” />
</staticContent>

What happens is that all static content will now have an expires HTTP header set to the year 2020. Static content means anything that isn’t served through the ASP.NET engine such as images, script files and styles sheets. This is one of the very easy tricks that will increase the performance of your site as well as your YSlow score.

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Kirin was actually the first to really interest me in Flash when I had seen her animations in design school where we’d first met. I had more of a 3D animation background and was eager to learn her technique. Fast forward 3 years later and it’s only suiting that we have the opportunity jam on a Flash developer website.

We’ve cut off the fat and cumbersome waste material and stylized it to make it design sensitive and relevant while retaining all the healthy vitamins and minerals of a healthy balanced diet. Is it God’s gift to the internet? Well of course it is.

So please pardon the mess in the southeast wing. We’re still doing some renovating to make the foundations stronger for our new Batcave.

“Despite the slowed economy and IT cutbacks, the drive toward web-based applications continues to have enormous momentum. The software industry, in general, is lured by the Web’s ubiquitous connectivity. IT departments are enamored with the potential for controlling deployment costs. The set of standards developed by the World Wide Consortium (W3C) has certainly changed the software landscape in a very short time.”

Click here to read the article.

Ayca Yuksel, a senior product manager from Microsoft, explained in a statement, “Quark XML Author enhances the user-defined XML support within Microsoft Word and allows users to create XML content easily, which eliminates many of the barriers associated with the adoption of XML.”

XML pros might be able to save shave some time off their normal routines, then, or work more quickly on computers that are unfamiliar to them.  And folks who aren’t accustomed to using XML at all might become more productive, too, thus leaving less for the traditional heavy lifters to do.

Compatibility problems shouldn’t be an issue since the new product is supposed to work with Microsoft Office 2000-2007.  Older versions of Quark XML Author for Microsoft Word have been taken into account, too.

Quark XML Author 3.0 will be made available on April 30th.

With the new iPod Shuffle, I think Apple has provided consumers with a little more reason to invest in the Shuffle.

Features -

4GB Flash Drive
USB 2.0 port
Playback time: Up to 10 hours when fully charged
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Up to 1,000 songs in 128-Kbps

What’s In The Box:

iPod shuffle
Apple Earphones with Remote (no mic)
iPod shuffle USB cable
Quick Start Guide

What I Like: One of the best deals that Apple has offered. A 4GB shuffle for $79.99. Controls for the iPod Shuffle are on the earbud cord. The new voiceover system might not replace a screen, and menu but it’s better than nothing.

What I Didn’t Like: Some might like the smaller size, but to me there’s such a thing as ‘too small’. Just make sure you always know where it is, because it’s probably easy to lose. The Shuffle is still the same device at heart. There’s been improvements but the lack of features compared to the other iPods doesn’t quite make up for it.

Bottom Line: I do like the improvements that have been made with the latest iPod. I still wouldn’t recommend it over the other lines of iPods though. Yes, you might be spending more money but to me it’s worth it compared to the lack of features on the Shuffle.

If you’re deadset on the Shuffle then I can tell you that the improvements are wonderful, and I hope you enjoy your iPod lite.

Things might be looking up though, as China Unicom has posted information relating to the iPhone. This is the closest thing to a confirmation without Apple or China Unicom openly declaring the partnership. Click the link below to see the translated version of the page.

China Unicom iPhone Page

Recently, I had a chance to talk with Peter Fearey and Liz McCann about some of their latest initiatives, as well as their progress over 2008. Peter began with some of Intuit’s moves across the product line.

Brad Smith CEO at Intuit, has set a focus on “connected services.” There is both an increase in cloud offerings to enhance connectivity and an increased connectivity between desktop applications and web services. In addition, Intuit is promoting ways for customers to be connected with each other as well as the many experts within the broader Intuit community. This provides greater access to professional services for Intuit users by Intuit users.

Within QuickBase they are building on this broader theme by reaching out to users of siloed desktop databases and spreadsheets to bring them into the increased connectivity that the QuickBase SaaS platform provides. Last year they did a user survey that indicated their happiest and most supportive users were ones who migrated from desktop databases and spreadsheets to QuickBase. Liz mentioned one non-profit that kept track of their events on a desktop database hosted on a single laptop. This laptop was hand carried to events. When there were two or more events on the same night the extra sessions were covered through pen and paper. Then the notes were added to the laptop later. The multi-channel access that a hosted solution, such as QuickBase, offers eliminated this bottleneck.

Here is a more extensive example reported earlier on this blog, Out of this Galaxy – Delivering Premium Customer Service Has Never Been So Easy. For the first two years, they used Excel to manage their customer information. It didn’t scale and Luke nearly lost his mind trying to keep track of it all. Since January 2008 they have been using QuickBase for their customer service management needs – tracking customer status, their inventory status and location, what product they carry, as well as other associated activities like in-store demo schedules and staffing. Recently Galaxy has moved their Purchase Order management to the QuickBase platform. They also have a solution that can scale to their rapid growth projections.

Encouraged by the survey results, QuickBase has gone after more desktop database users to bring them into Enterprise 2.0. They focused their product to meet both the needs of individual users, project teams, IT, and senior management. Most enterprises have thousands of critical databases siloed on individual computers, out of sight from IT and senior management, and difficult for team members to share efficiently. With QuickBase now everyone who needs to have access can see what is happening in thousands of operations critical to the business. With this enterprise strategy, QuickBase has seen significant growth both in the number and size of accounts. Like Galaxy Granola, and the famous potato chip commercial, once you try it, you cannot resist more. One client has 50,000 users. Here is a view of a workgroup administration screen. You can see that multiple databases can be managed through one interface.

You can also easily manage users as shown below.

…and manage groups through a consistent interface.

The press has been receptive. PC Magazine named them as an Editors’ Choice. The review said that “QuickBase puts your company’s database applications online, so that anyone in your organization can get customized, secure Web access to anything from inventory to contact lists to product management.” This choice selection was literally the case as the editor says that the PC Magazine editors use QuickBase to keep track of previews, reviews, and other features.

I think QuickBase is an excellent example of how Enterprise 2.0 can open up the organization. The market has looked favorably on this group of applications. Like many others in this niche I have interviewed for AppGap, QuickBase has seen significant growth despite a down market. Companies are seeing this class of applications as a way to both cut costs and increase productivity.

As we have discussed, SaaS is an important component of this move to Enterprise 2.0 and IDC recently issued the report, Software as a Service Market Will Expand Rather than Contract Despite the Economic Crisis. They projected that by the end of 2009, 76% of U.S. organizations will use at least one SaaS-delivered application for business use. SaaS applications are also getting an increasing percentage of IT budgets. With experiences like those reported by QuickBase, I can see why this is happening.

The QuickBase Team Collaboration Blog is carrying more of these stories, as well as ways to get increased productivity from the application.

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So what has changed in IE 8? Microsoft seems to be more open and accepting more of the W3C standards for CSS in this version of Internet Explorer. According to MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network), “Windows Internet Explorer 8 is fully compliant with the CSS, Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) specification and supports some features of CSS Level 3 (CSS 3).”. If this is true, then developers should be very very happy. There should not be a need to use hacks to get around IE issues in the future. In the same article, Microsoft even list what parts of CSS IE 8 supports, even listing the CSS 3 standards in the list. When looking at the HTML and CSS Matrix which is linked from MSDN’s Internet Explorer Compatibility Center is reporting that IE 8 will support Pseudo Classes such as :before, and :after. This is very exciting as a designer since psudeo classes can be a very powerful design element. This does not mean that Microsoft does not throw in their own CSS standards. According to Microsoft these do comply to CSS 2.1 standards. So now all vendor standards, will start with ms- which will make it very easy to know what is industry standard and what is Microsoft standard.

Another feature which was added in IE 8 was the ability to use different style sheets for the same site. This is similar to the personal style sheets that a user may use, but still allows the designer to have control over the site. This feature will find all the alternative style sheets listed in the site’s code and allow the user to choose which style they want to use. This is very good if you have special style sheets for users with disabilities or from the designer aspect you can test different styles without editing your live style. I am hoping that this is a feature which other browsers will support in the future.

One of the issues that previous versions of IE had was the lack of built in developer tools. Before the Firebug add-on in Firefox was created, most designers had to use either third party software, or the very basic built-in browser tools to try to fix issues with their site. Firebug added a lot of what developers have been wanting for a while. Opera picked up on this by adding DragonFly in the beta version of 9.5. Microsoft has chosen to follow Opera’s lead and add a built-in developer tool to their browser which for the lack of creativity is called Developer Tool. From the screen shots that are on MSDN, Developer Tools seems to be very similar to Firebug. This will be a big hit with developers, because now they can edit their sites “live” just like they can with Firefox and Opera.

Microsoft also is trying to increase the security in Internet Explorer 8. In order to do this, they did something that most companies will not do with their products, they removed CSS expressions. Microsoft also stated that they removed the feature not just for security reasons, but to also comply with W3C standards even better. Steps like this are the right steps for Microsoft.

With the release of Internet Explorer 8, it seems that Microsoft is starting to wake up to reality. It maybe the loss of market in the web browser field, or it maybe just Microsoft showing more maturity, but with the information provided it seems that Internet Explorer is stating to take steps in the right direction. The entire web will grow faster, the more compliant Microsoft makes IE to the industry standards.

One of the more popular Google API is Google AJAX Search.  This API allows you to use Google’s search engine on your site.

Google Maps has become a very central part in most people’s online experience, from getting directions to virtually driving down the street with StreetView.   One great way that developers have used Google Maps API is with GeoIP.  GeoIP is another API which can return to the developer information about the user’s location based on their IP address.  This information can be the name of the country they are in, or even the city they are in.   So naturally, developers started using GeoIP, and Google Maps to show users maps of the area around them.  An example of this combination can be seen at GetIP.com where the developer uses the user’s IP address to show a map via Google Maps of their city.  There also the more advanced Google Earth which allows a more advance view.

You can use Google’s Language API to translate your site for you also.  This can allow you to reach more users and build a broader base of users.  This is very helpful also if you don’t speak other languages which you have to develop for.

Recently, Google added Friend Connect.  his is an API that is directed at social aspect of the web,  allowing users to use either their Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID accounts to log into multiple sites. This also allows web developers to be able to fight spam on blogs and forums, since they can now use any of the other accounts as a way for users to post on their site.

Adding API’s can really enhance your site, and make the site more beneficial for the user.   As with most other things in life, use API’s in moderation.  Too much, of even a good thing, can cause a bad experience.  Don’t just put API’s on your site just because you can.  Make for sure that if you do add an API, that it is to enhance your site.   Don’t add Google Map API to a forum, unless you have a good reason for doing so, like if there is a location field for the user to fill out.