Gwt JSNI gotchas

1. Expression evaluation
http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/issues/detail?id=2912

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Mock Mock Mock

Mocking is serious business for evolved coding monkeys these days. There are few good frameworks which help in mocking like easymock, jMockit, mockrunner etc

PowerMock
SmartGWT is a GWT widget library which has design issues as its classes doesnt mostly implement interfaces. But the problem is we have to use it as it has nice widgets.

Question: how do we unit test these classes which have native code and hard to mock?
 Powermock came to rescue us. It can re-engineer the class and supress static block and method.
Eg:
@RunWith(PowerMockRunner.class)
@PrepareForTest( {Appender.class})
@SuppressStaticInitializationFor({"com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.UIObject","com.smartgwt.client.widgets.BaseWidget"})
@MockPolicy({Slf4jMockPolicy.class, Log4jMockPolicy.class})
public class MyStaticTest{
}
The above supresses static blocks which have wierd native calls and helps us continue our junit as usual. But its a bit slow (worth it i believe).
More on usage here

jMock vs. EasyMock

Comparison of jmock & easy mock

Both have similar features. jMock has a DSL (domain specific language) while easy mock has record-replay style.

Apparently jMock seems to be better in terms of readability and usability. Would prefer the more intuitive framework like jMock than Easy mock.

Will post more when I actually try using jMock. Till than easy mock.

Useful links
1. EasyMock http://www.easymock.org
2. JMock  http://www.jmock.org
3. Mackinnon, T., et al. 2000. Endo-Testing: Unit Testing with Mock Objects. In Proceedings of XP 2000. http://www.mockobjects.com/files/endotesting.pdf
4. Freeman, S., et al. 2004. Mock Roles, not Objects. In Proceedings of OOPLSA 2004. http://www.mockobjects.com/files/mockrolesnotobjects.pdf
5. Walls, C. 2008. Spring in Action, 2nd Edition. Manning Publications Co., Greenwich, CT. §B.2.1.
6. Stewart, S. 2004. Approaches to Mocking. http://www.onjava.com/lpt/a/4526
7. Fowler, M. 2007. Mocks Aren't Stubs. http://martinfowler.com/articles/mocksArentStubs.html

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Batch script to load developer environment

Wrote a simple windows bat script to start my project work environment.

This would save me

4 + 2 + 3 + 2+2 = 14 mouse clicks

4+2 + 5 = 11 keystroke

3 + 3 = 6 copy paste

Saving me from making 14+ 3 + 6= 23 decisions.. lol

The effort involved to build this script is 1 hour though. On a long run saves my time and energy for making these 23 decisions.. Worth it i believe.

What this does is : start mysql server , tomcat, eclipse, mysql query browser and open command prompt into your current project

------------------

net start mysql5.1

f:

cd F:\apache-tomcat-6.0.29\bin\

start F:\apache-tomcat-6.0.29\bin\startup-debug.bat

start D:\tools\IDE\eclipse-jee-helios-SR2-win32\eclipse\eclipse_jee_helios.exe

"C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Tools for 5.0\MySQLQueryBrowser.exe" -ulportal -pdontshow -hlocalhost

cd F:\project

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Smart GWT Gotchas

1. ListGrid - Change color of a row or individual cell
2. Dynamic Form
           StaticTextItem
3. JSON parsing :
                JavaScriptObject jsObject = JSON.decode(responseData);
                JSONArray accountNames = XMLTools.selectObjects(jsObject, "accounts");
                final JSONValue jsonAccount = accountObjs.get(0);
                final String accountNumber = jsonAccount.isObject().get("AccountNumber").isString().stringValue();
4. Mock Presenter gotcha :

   Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: ERROR: GWT.create() is only usable in client 

     Fix : GWTMockUtilities.disarm();   More here

5. Speed up gwt compile time : here

6. Error processing request: The response could not be deserialized
             Annonying issue in dev mode from eclipse. See that the default compile target is set to ../web-inf/classes in eclipse. Restart eclipse. clean up target classes folder. Got it working...after a redeploy of war again...strange..cant point to one specific thing (as i did clear browser cache/eclipse classes output/restart eclipse)

Apparently workaround seems to be try redeploying app whenever this issue occurs..

7. Wrap text in list grid:
listGrid.setFixedRecordHeights(false);
listGrid.setWrapCells(true);

8. Listgrid pagination related issues(issues with page scroll based pagination):

Serendipity
might have already solved the pagination and csv export : http://code.google.com/p/crmdipity/downloads/list

think
best if we have traditional pagination approach. and have as PaginatedListGrid
which will solve all list grid related issues:
  - sorting
  - export to
excel
  - print
  - slow page load
  - less browser load (as only one
page of data is available at any point of time)

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