OverlayIcon – Displaying overlayed icons in JTree
In companion to the CompoundIcon article, here is a class to allow you to build up icons with overlays that can be used anywhere, but specifically in JTree.
/* * (c)2008 mharrison * This class is released under GPLv3 */ package uk.co.lummie.code; import java.awt.Component; import java.awt.Graphics; import java.util.Vector; import javax.swing.Icon; public class OverlayedIcon implements Icon { private Vector _icons = new Vector(); private int _spaceSize = 2; public OverlayedIcon(Icon[] icons) { for (int i = 0; i < icons.length; i++) { _icons.add(icons[i]); } } @Override public int getIconHeight() { int result = 0; for (Icon icon : getIcons()) { result = Math.max(result, icon.getIconHeight()); } return result; } @Override public int getIconWidth() { int result = 0; for (Icon icon : getIcons()) { result = Math.max(result, icon.getIconWidth()); } return result; } @Override public void paintIcon(Component c, Graphics g, int x, int y) { int h = getIconHeight(); int w = getIconWidth(); for (Icon icon : getIcons()) { icon.paintIcon(c, g, x + (w - icon.getIconWidth()) / 2, y + (h - icon.getIconHeight()) / 2); } } public int getSpaceSize() { return _spaceSize; } public void setSpaceSize(int spaceSize) { this._spaceSize = spaceSize; } public void add(Icon icon) { _icons.add(icon); } public Vector getIcons() { return _icons; } }
CompoundIcon – Displaying more than one icon in JTree
I came across the requirement to display more than one Icon against the nodes in a Jtree. After several hours /days of building custom TreeCellRenderers and TreeCellEditors, inspiration hit. The JLabel can only display one icon, so lets override Icon to display more than one icon, but pretend it’s just a single Icon still.
The following Java class implements a CompoundIcon. Simply create an instance of it passing in the array of Icons you wish to be displayed. Use setSpaceSize to change the space between the icons when the are rendered. Use add, to append new icons if needed after the class has been constructed.
The instance can then be used wherever and Icon is needed.
/* * (c)2008 mharrison * This class is released under GPLv3 */ package uk.co.lummie.code; import java.awt.Component; import java.awt.Graphics; import java.util.Vector; import javax.swing.Icon; public class CompoundIcon implements Icon { private Vector _icons = new Vector(); private int _spaceSize = 2; public CompoundIcon(Icon[] icons) { for (int i = 0; i < icons.length; i++) { _icons.add(icons[i]); } } @Override public int getIconHeight() { int result = 0; for (Icon icon : getIcons()) { result = Math.max(result, icon.getIconHeight()); } return result; } @Override public int getIconWidth() { int result = 0; for (Icon icon : getIcons()) { result += icon.getIconWidth(); result += getSpaceSize(); } return result; } @Override public void paintIcon(Component c, Graphics g, int x, int y) { int h = getIconHeight(); int offset = 0; for (Icon icon : getIcons()) { icon.paintIcon(c, g, x + offset, y + (h - icon.getIconHeight()) / 2); offset += icon.getIconWidth(); offset += getSpaceSize(); } } public int getSpaceSize() { return _spaceSize; } public void setSpaceSize(int spaceSize) { this._spaceSize = spaceSize; } public void add(Icon icon) { _icons.add(icon); } public Vector getIcons() { return _icons; } }
JQuery and human readable email addresses
Ive just started playing with the power that is Jquery and came up with this nice use for the Ajax functionality in Jquery.
You want to put your email address on your web site so people can contact you, but don’t want to put a mailto: anchor in the html, because it will be spidered and added to some morons Spam list.
Here is a simple and server independent solution:
Firstly, create a file on your site, it doesn’t have to have a html extension, e.g. email.me
In the content of the file, add the html snippet that you would like to display to the user as your email address (usually an anchor tag with a mailto: href). This is the html that will be inserted into your web page when the user clicks on the Show email address text.
e.g.
<a href="mailto:someone@somewhere">someone@somewhere</a>
In your web pages, where you wish someone to be able to see your email address by clicking, enter a span with a class of email.
<span class="email">Click to see email</span>
in the ready function for your document enter the following:
$('.email').click(function(el){ $(this).hide().load('email.me').fadeIn(1000); });
This will add a click function to all elements assigned the email class, that when clicked, will replace the current content with the content of the email.me file (faded in
). In this case your email mailto anchor. This principle can be used to display any content. Maybe you want to hide the comment form for your blog, until a display has been clicked, give it a try.
Javascript – Rails like pluralize function
Found this on scripts.dzone.com blogged for reference.
/* * This script depends on no outside libraries. */ Inflector = { /* * The order of all these lists has been reversed from the way * ActiveSupport had them to keep the correct priority. */ Inflections: { plural: [ [/(quiz)$/i, "$1zes" ], [/^(ox)$/i, "$1en" ], [/([m|l])ouse$/i, "$1ice" ], [/(matr|vert|ind)ix|ex$/i, "$1ices" ], [/(x|ch|ss|sh)$/i, "$1es" ], [/([^aeiouy]|qu)y$/i, "$1ies" ], [/(hive)$/i, "$1s" ], [/(?:([^f])fe|([lr])f)$/i, "$1$2ves"], [/sis$/i, "ses" ], [/([ti])um$/i, "$1a" ], [/(buffal|tomat)o$/i, "$1oes" ], [/(bu)s$/i, "$1ses" ], [/(alias|status)$/i, "$1es" ], [/(octop|vir)us$/i, "$1i" ], [/(ax|test)is$/i, "$1es" ], [/s$/i, "s" ], [/$/, "s" ] ], singular: [ [/(quiz)zes$/i, "$1" ], [/(matr)ices$/i, "$1ix" ], [/(vert|ind)ices$/i, "$1ex" ], [/^(ox)en/i, "$1" ], [/(alias|status)es$/i, "$1" ], [/(octop|vir)i$/i, "$1us" ], [/(cris|ax|test)es$/i, "$1is" ], [/(shoe)s$/i, "$1" ], [/(o)es$/i, "$1" ], [/(bus)es$/i, "$1" ], [/([m|l])ice$/i, "$1ouse" ], [/(x|ch|ss|sh)es$/i, "$1" ], [/(m)ovies$/i, "$1ovie" ], [/(s)eries$/i, "$1eries"], [/([^aeiouy]|qu)ies$/i, "$1y" ], [/([lr])ves$/i, "$1f" ], [/(tive)s$/i, "$1" ], [/(hive)s$/i, "$1" ], [/([^f])ves$/i, "$1fe" ], [/(^analy)ses$/i, "$1sis" ], [/((a)naly|(b)a|(d)iagno|(p)arenthe|(p)rogno|(s)ynop|(t)he)ses$/i, "$1$2sis"], [/([ti])a$/i, "$1um" ], [/(n)ews$/i, "$1ews" ], [/s$/i, "" ] ], irregular: [ ['move', 'moves' ], ['sex', 'sexes' ], ['child', 'children'], ['man', 'men' ], ['person', 'people' ] ], uncountable: [ "sheep", "fish", "series", "species", "money", "rice", "information", "equipment" ] }, ordinalize: function(number) { if (11 <= parseInt(number) % 100 && parseInt(number) % 100 <= 13) { return number + "th"; } else { switch (parseInt(number) % 10) { case 1: return number + "st"; case 2: return number + "nd"; case 3: return number + "rd"; default: return number + "th"; } } }, pluralize: function(word) { for (var i = 0; i < Inflector.Inflections.uncountable.length; i++) { var uncountable = Inflector.Inflections.uncountable[i]; if (word.toLowerCase() == uncountable) { return uncountable; } } for (var i = 0; i < Inflector.Inflections.irregular.length; i++) { var singular = Inflector.Inflections.irregular[i][0]; var plural = Inflector.Inflections.irregular[i][1]; if ((word.toLowerCase() == singular) || (word == plural)) { return plural; } } for (var i = 0; i < Inflector.Inflections.plural.length; i++) { var regex = Inflector.Inflections.plural[i][0]; var replace_string = Inflector.Inflections.plural[i][1]; if (regex.test(word)) { return word.replace(regex, replace_string); } } } } function ordinalize(number) { return Inflector.ordinalize(number); } /* * Javascript doesnt have optional parameters or overloading so I had to use * the ever popular pseudo options hash object technique. * required properties: * count Number of objects to pluralize * singular Singular noun for the objects * optional property: * plural Plural (probably irregular) noun for the objects * examples: * pluralize({ count: total_count, singular: "Issue" }) * pluralize({ count: total_count, singular: "Goose", plural: "Geese" }) */ function pluralize(options) { return options.count + " " + (1 == parseInt(options.count) ? options.singular : options.plural || Inflector.pluralize(options.singular)); }
How to stop webrick from the command line
To create a bash file to stop webrick.
In a terminal type gedit stopWebrick and add the following to the contents of the file and save it. Give the file execute permission with chmod of using the file properties in nautilus.
#!/bin/bash
kill -9 `ps -o pid,cmd --no-heading -p $(pgrep ruby) | grep script/server | awk '{print $1}'`
This will kill the first ruby process it finds running as script/srever
Run it as needed.
UserSumChallenge Module
The following module is my first ever Ruby/Rails Module.

The UserChallenge module will create a simple random sum, that can be prompted to the user for solving as part as your authentication scheme during a registration process.
Simply create an instance of UserSumChallenge or UserSumImageChallenge and store against the user session. If you use the image challenge, call render to create the image otherwise just add the question attribute to your output.
# UserChallenge provides several mechanisms to aid in establishing a real user is on the end of a submit # Typically used for user registration processes or commenting, the UserChallenge module will allow you to provide # a challenge question and validate the repsponse. # Mixins include # * SumChallenge - provides a simple arimethetic sum to be solved # * RandomTextChallenge - supplies a random string of characters # Supporting Classes include # * SumTextChallenger - Class that will provide a question as a text string # * SumImageChallenger - Class that will create a png image with the sum in it # * RandomTextChallenger - Class that will provide a random text string # * RandomTextImageChallenger - Class that will create a png image with the random text string in it module UserChallenge # This module creates a challenge that is a basic sum, expecting the respose to be the sums result, e.g. 2+6 module SumChallenge #Initailizes the challenge to a sum #optionally specify the max values for the left and right def createChallenge(lMax=10, rMax=10) lValue = rand(lMax) rValue = rand(rMax) @solution = lValue + rValue @question = "#{lValue} + #{rValue}" end # checks the value passed in against the expected result def checkResponse(value) return (@solution == value.to_i) end end # This module creates a challenge that is a series of random characters in a specified range, expecting the respose to be the same string module RandomTextChallenge # Initailizes the challenge to a sum # optionally specify the number of characters to generate and the range of characters to choose from def createChallenge(count=6, chars = 'a'..'z') @question = "" count.times do index = rand(chars.entries.length-1) @question += chars.entries[index] end @solution = @question end # checks the value passed in against the expected result def checkResponse(value) return (@solution == value.to_s) end end # A simple class that generates a sum challenge in text form class SumTextChallenger include SumChallenge # the sum question as a string attr_reader :question # the solution as an integer attr_reader :solution def initialize() createChallenge() end end # A class that generates a sum challenge in image form class SumImageChallenger require "RMagick" include SumChallenge # the sum question as a string attr_reader :question # the solution as an integer attr_reader :solution def initialize() createChallenge() end # returns an image blob with the sum question layered ontop of the specified background def render(backgroundImageUrl) background = Magick::Image.read(backgroundImageUrl).first croppedImg = background.crop(0,0,128,28) text = Magick::Draw.new text.annotate(croppedImg, 128, 28, 0, 0, @question) { self.gravity = Magick::SouthGravity self.pointsize = 24 self.stroke = 'transparent' self.fill = '#0000A9' self.font_weight = Magick::BoldWeight } croppedImg = croppedImg.blur_image return croppedImg.to_blob end end # A simple class that generates a random text challenge in text form class RandomTextChallenger include RandomTextChallenge # the sum question as a string attr_reader :question # the solution as an integer attr_reader :solution def initialize() createChallenge() end end # A class that generates a random text challenge in image form class RandomTextImageChallenger require "RMagick" include RandomTextChallenge # the sum question as a string attr_reader :question # the solution as an integer attr_reader :solution def initialize() createChallenge() end # returns an image blob with the sum question layered ontop of the specified background def render(backgroundImageUrl, width=128) background = Magick::Image.read(backgroundImageUrl).first croppedImg = background.crop(0,0,width,28) text = Magick::Draw.new text.annotate(croppedImg, width, 28, 0, 0, @question) { self.gravity = Magick::SouthGravity self.pointsize = 22 self.stroke = 'transparent' self.fill = '#0000A9' self.font_weight = Magick::BoldWeight } croppedImg = croppedImg.blur_image return croppedImg.to_blob end end end
Here is a simple controller that uses a ImageChallenge. Notice the background being supplied to the render method
class MainController < ApplicationController require "UserChallenge" def welcome @challenge = UserChallenge::UserSumImageChallenge.new session["uc"] = @challenge# end def image storePath = "/home/user/path" filename = storePath + "/Camouflage.png" challenge = session["uc"] session["uc"] = nil send_data challenge.render(filename), :filename => "confirm.png", :type => 'image/png', :disposition => 'inline' end end
Installing RMagick on Ubuntu
Taken from the rubyonrails wiki, for my reference:
If you need RMagick support for your web app, your going to need to install ImageMagick and RMagick.
sudo apt-get install imagemagick dpkg -l | grep magick
This will install the most current imagemagick and then
list the magick packages installed. Look for what version of
libmagick got installed and make sure you specify THAT version number when you install libmagick-dev.
sudo apt-get install libmagick9-dev sudo gem install rmagick
After a lengthy build process, youre ready to edit images in ruby!
Raaum's Rails Reader
Rails Documentation for the Working Developer
Installing Ruby and rails on Ubuntu Feisty

Found these instructions at http://www.aptana.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=10640
Blogging to ensure I have a copy, credits go to janmartin.
Lets start with a fresh Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 installation:
- sudo apt-get install build-essential
- sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
- sudo update-java-alternatives –list
- sudo apt-get install ruby irb ri rake rdoc ruby1.8-dev rubygems
- sudo apt-get install libmysql-ruby mysql-server
- sudo gem update –system
- sudo gem install rails –include-dependencies
Some tests:
- ruby –version
- rails –version
- mysql –version
- gem list
END of command line installation
Download
Aptana + Rails (Linux).
Extract it into ~/aptana
Follow these instructions:
# Open up Aptana, and Navigate to the Help > Software Updates > Find and Install menu.
# Select “Search for new features to install”, click “Finish”
# Select “Ruby on Rails Development Environment”, click “Finish”
# Select the Ruby on Rails Development Environment feature.
# Continue through the dialog boxes until complete.
Follow these instructions:
http://www.aptana.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1397
Configure:
Menu -> Window -> Preferences
Rails -> Configuration
Rails path: /usr/bin/rails
Rake path: /usr/bin/rake
Ruby
Installed interpreters:
/usr
Ri/rdoc
RDoc path:/usr/bin/rdoc
Ri path: /usr/bin/ri
Finished!
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