Realizing the American Nightmare


Unlike many Americans Kenneth Lay of Enron fame has earned the dubious distinction
of realizing the American Nightmare. In his own words while taking the witness stand
at the corporate fraud trial - "I guess you could say in the last few years I've achieved the America
nightmare,".

Enron's Skilling gets 24 years

PL/Java Notes

The following were the steps taken in my attempt to install
pl/java on windows.

System Information: PostgreSQL Server 8.0 on Windows XP, Java 1.5

• Download pl/java binary
  Since I use Postgresql 8.0, I downloaded pljava-i686-pc-mingw32-pg8.0-1.2.0.tar.gz
  
  
• Extract pljava
  Extract pljava archive into a directory. I installed it in C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava
  
  
• Edit the C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\data\postgresql.conf file
  Add (or modify) the following settings. Note the double backslashes:
  
  
  
  
  

  dynamic_library_path = '$libdir;C:\\Program Files\\PostgreSQL\\8.0\\pljava' custom_variable_classes = 'pljava' pljava.classpath='C:\\Program Files\\PostgreSQL\\8.0\\pljava\\pljava.jar'

  
  
  
• Add JRE to your System Path
  It is assumed that you have already installed a java runtime environment (JRE) or the java development kit (JDK) on your system.
  
  Here are the entries in my system environment
  
  

  JRE_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_05 PATH=%PATH%;%JRE_HOME%\bin;%JRE_HOME%\bin\client;%JAVA_HOME%\bin

  
  
  
• Restart PostgreSQL Server for the changes to take affect.
  
  
• Install pl/java
  The extracted pljava files will include an install.sql and uninstall.sql script.
  
  run
  
  

  {location of psql}/psql.exe -f {location of pljava directory}/install.sql {target database where you want to install pl/java}

  
  
  To uninstall run
  

  {location of psql}/psql.exe -f {location of pljava directory}/uninstall.sql {target database where you want to install pl/java}

  
  
  
• Testing your installation
  
  I followed the instructions to run the test.Here is a summary of the steps.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Download pljava source
    
    I had to do this because the binary did not include test.jar.It only included examples.jar
    
    I downloaded the source from sourceforge
    Since I use Postgresql 8.0, I downloaded pljava-src-1.2.0.tar.gz
    
    
  
  
  
  
  • Extract source to a folder in your system
    
    I used C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava\pljava-1.2.0
    
    
  
  
  
  
  
  • Compile and jar test.jar
    
    Navigate to the subdirectory - ..\src\java\test
    compile the source and jar into test.jar
    Note that you may require the postgresql jdbc driver, pljava.jar, deploy.jar and examples.jar in your classpath
    
    
  
  
  
  
  • Install test schema
    
    I ran into issues here as my postgresql installation did not provide cross-reference database feature.
    So when I used psql on the database that I had used to install pljava and tried to run the command
    
    

    SELECT sqlj.install_jar('file:///some/directory/examples.jar', 'samples', true);

    
    
    It complained about the lack of cross reference feature.This is because the examples.jar include a deployment script
    to create a schema called javatest.
    
    In order to get around it I had to create the database javatest first manually.
    <location of createdb executable>/createdb javatest
    
    
  
  
  
  
  
  • install pljava on javatest
    
    connect to javatest database using psql
    
    run the command
    
    

    SELECT sqlj.install_jar('file:///some/directory/examples.jar', 'samples', true);

    
    
    I had to make a few attempts here as the location of examples.jar was misleading to postgresql
    
    The following urls failed for my local installation of c:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava
    
    file://c:/Program Files/PostgresqlSQL/8.0/pljava/examples.jar
    file://c:\Program Files\PostgresqlSQL\8.0\pljava\examples.jar
    file://c:\\Program Files\\PostgresqlSQL\\8.0\\pljava\\examples.jar
    
    The following url finally worked
    file:\c:\\Program Files\\PostgreSQL\\8.0\\pljava\\examples.jar
    
    

    javatest=# select sqlj.install_jar('file:\c:\\Program Files\\PostgreSQL\\8.0\\pl java\\examples.jar', 'samples', true);

    
    
    This successfully created table employees1 and employees2
    
    Then define the classpath for this schema
    
    

    SELECT sqlj.set_classpath('javatest', 'samples');

    
    
    Now you should be able to run the client test application
    
    

    java -cp org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester

    
    
    Here is the list of issues I ran into while running the test...
    
    
    Wrapping directory names which have space in it in the classpath
    
    I had installed jre and pljava under c:\Program Files
    I had to tweak the classpath in the System Environment Variable Setting to wrap all references to
    c:\Program Files with double quotes.
    
    So an echo %CLASSPATH% showed as
    
    

    .;"C:\Program Files"\Java\jre1.5.0_05\lib\rt.jar;"...

    
    
    instead of
    
    

    .;C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_05"\lib\rt.jar;...

    
    
    
    passing the database name and credentials
    
    Invoking the command mentioned above will not work unless you are running a database with the same name as the current user with a user who is the current
    
    user and a blank password.
    
    If you run a command similar to the above you end up getting an error.
    
    

    C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava>java -cp %CLASSPATH%;"c:\Program Files\Po stgreSQL\8.0\pljava\test.jar" org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: The server requested password-based authentic ation, but no password was provided. at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.doAuthentication(Connect ionFactoryImpl.java:325) at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.openConnectionImpl(Conne ctionFactoryImpl.java:94) at org.postgresql.core.ConnectionFactory.openConnection(ConnectionFactor y.java:65) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Connection.(AbstractJdbc2Conn ection.java:117) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.Jdbc2Connection.(Jdbc2Connection.java:24) at org.postgresql.Driver.connect(Driver.java:235) at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source) at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source) at org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester.main(Tester.java:184)

    
    
    I had to try the help option to get the list of options available
    
    

    C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava>java -cp %CLASSPATH%;"c:\Program Files\Po stgreSQL\8.0\pljava\test.jar" org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester --help usage: java org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester [ -host ] # default is localhost [ -port ] # default is blank [ -database ] # default is name of current user [ -user ] # default is name of current user [ -password ] # default is no password [ -debug ] # wait for debugger to attach to backend

    
    
    
    Next I tried with the database name, username and password.However I still end up with errors
    
    

    C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava>java -cp %CLASSPATH%;"c:\Program Files\Po stgreSQL\8.0\pljava\test.jar" org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester -database javate st -user foo -password bar *** testTimestamp() java.sql.SQLException: ERROR: java.lang.SecurityException: read on \C:\Program F iles\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava\examples.jar at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.receiveErrorResponse(QueryEx ecutorImpl.java:1471) at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.processResults(QueryExecutor Impl.java:1256) at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.ja va:175) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.execute(AbstractJdbc2Stat ement.java:389) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeWithFlags(Abstract Jdbc2Statement.java:314) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeQuery(AbstractJdbc 2Statement.java:221) at org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester.testTimestamp(Tester.java:466) at org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester.testParameters(Tester.java:242) at org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester.main(Tester.java:198)

    
    
    
    On a related note when I try running the test on another machine with similar environment, I got
    the following error
    
    
    

    C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.0\pljava>java -cp %CLASSPATH%;"c:\Program Files\Po stgreSQL\8.0\pljava\test.jar" org.postgresql.pljava.test.Tester Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/postgresq l/pljava/test/Tester (Unsupported major.minor version 49.0) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source)

    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Notes on Ajax Tags

If your web application is J2EE compliant and you would like to incorporate AJAX features, you might want to look at AJAX Tags for seamless integration with JSP pages. The implementation is a combination of Java Tag Libraries and JavaScript. Features include auto complete, dynamic drop down and updating form fields. The Installation Guide is quite comprehensive.

Here is a summary of my attempt to follow the Installation Guide.

System Information
Windows XP running BEA Weblogic Server 8.1

• Download Ajax Tag Binaries. I chose version 1.1.5, which happens to be the latest stable release as of today. The file name was ajaxtags-1.1.5.zip
  
  
• As per the release notes you require ajaxtags-{version}.jar to be in your build path (in case you venture into extending the features) and/or your application server class path (most probably WEB-INF/lib). However you might end up importing a number of dependency libraries from the exploded lib directory of the above mentioned zip file. These jar files are referenced by the ajaxtag libraries and may result in runtime errors if they are missing. If your application already refers to some of them you might want to skip them from the following list
  

  
  
  • commons-beanutils-1.7.0.jar
  
  
  • commons-lang-2.1.jar
  
  
  • jericho-html-1.5-dev1.jar
  
  
  • jsp-api-2.0-20040521.jar
  
  
  • jstl-1.0.6.jar
  
  
  • log4j-1.2.8.jar
  
  
  • servletapi-2.4-20040521.jar
  
  
  • standard-1.0.6.jar
  
  
  • struts-1.2.4.jar
    
  
  
• Copy ajaxtags.tld from the zip file to your WEB-INF directory

• Add the Ajax Tag description in your web.xml.
  
  As per the installation document the entry should be…
  
  

  <!-- START AJAX Tags --> <taglib> <taglib-uri>http://ajaxtags.org/tags/ajax</taglib-uri> <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/ajaxtags.tld</taglib-location> </taglib> <!-- END AJAX Tags -->

  
  
  However you might want to edit the <taglib-uri> entry to point to the WEB-INF location
  
  

  <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/ajaxtags.tld</taglib-uri>

  
  
  
  
  
• Install the JavaScript files (.js) in your web directory (E.g.: /webapp/<application>/js).
  
  

  • prototype-1.3.1.js
  
  
  • ajaxtags-1.1.5.js

  
  The zip file did not include prototype-1.3.1.js. I had to download the source for the same. The name of the source file I used was ajaxtags-demo-1.1.5-src.zip.
  
  
  
• Install the Cascaded Style Sheets in your web directory.(E.g.: /webapp/<application>/css).
  

  
  
  • ajaxtags-sample.css
  
  

  
  I used the css files bundled with the source instead. (v.i.z)
  

  
  
  • ajaxtags.css
  
  
  • displaytag.css
  
  

  
  
• Some of the examples use images such as throbber.gif in the autocomplete busy signal and close.png in the portlet toolbar. You might want to copy them over to your web directory (E.g.: /webapp/img) if you intend to use them.
  
  
  
• You are now ready to embed AJAX Tags in your jsp pages. The following entries need to be made in your jsp to use it. You can reuse the references by adding them in a common jsp and including it in the implementation jsp (or tiles).
  
  
  
• Include reference to the tag library
  
  

  <%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/ajaxtags.tld" prefix="ajax" %>

  
  
• Include reference to the js files noting that prototype-1.3.1.js precedes ajaxtags-1.1.5.js
  
  

  <script src="/js/prototype-1.3.1.js" type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"></script> <script src="/js/ajaxtags-1.1.5.js" type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"></script>

  
  
• Include reference to css files
  
  

  <link href="/css/ajaxtags.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"/> <link href="/css/displaytag.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"/>

  
  
• Add the Ajax Tag you require in the relevant section.
  
  E.g.
  
  
  

  <ajax:anchors target="ajaxFrame" ajaxFlag="ajaxFrame"> <!-- Ajax this link --> </ajax:anchors> <ajax:area id="ajaxFrame" style="width:300px; min-height:100px; height:100px;" styleClass="textArea" ajaxAnchors="true" ajaxFlag="ajaxFrame"> This is the first area and should be refreshed only when the first link or the link inside itself is clicked: </ajax:area>