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Eclipse Business 2 Mobile plugin The Business 2 Mobile plugin from Net Caboodle makes it easy for you to develop MIDP clients for your business services, without the need to write any of your own protocol code. The plugin generates MIDP 'stubs' for your business services and connector code to plug into the Caboodle server. User guide
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To use the Net Caboodle plugin, you require
Please make sure you have the required software before proceeding
with the Net Caboodle installation. You can run Eclipse with a Java 1.4 or 1.6 JRE, however, JDK 1.5 is required by the plugin and can be set in the plugins preferences The Net Caboodle plugin for Eclipse is installed via the Eclipse "Software Updates" option as shown in figure 1 below If you are already familiar with how to install plugins from Eclipse, then use the URL below and skip to the preferences section. http://www.netcaboodle.com/eclipse/update Figure 1: Installing Net Caboodle
Select the "Software Updates -> Find and Install..." menu option in Eclipse.
Now select the "Search for new features to install" option and click the "Next >" button.
On the "Update sites to visit" page, select the "New Remote Site.." button, which will popup a remote site selection dialog box, called "New update site". Enter a label name, for example, "Net Caboodle"
and the remote site URL below
When you click the OK button Eclipse will connect to the Net Caboodle site and add an item to the "Sites to include" list. Select the item that matches the "name" entered in the above dialog.
Click the "Next button" to proceed to the "Search results" page.
In the "Select the features to install" select the "Net Caboodle" item ( or the name you entered in "new update site" dialog) and then click the "Next >" button, where you will be presented with the Net Caboodle license.
To accept the license and proceed with the installation, select "I accept the terms in the license agreements". You will now be presented with the "install location" page.
To proceed to the final step in the installation process click the "Finish" button, which shows you the dialog box below called "Feature verification"
Finally click the "Install" button to complete the installation process. Installation via ZIP download Your firewall may stop you from being able to install the Net Caboodle plugin via the method shown above. An alternative way to install the Net Caboodle plugin is to download the archived site and install the plugin by selecting "New Archived site" (instead of "New Remote site") Having successfully installed the Net Caboodle plugin, you need to configure the plugin to use the Java Development Kit 1.5. In the Eclipse preferences for "Net Caboodle" you need to make sure that you have selected a Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.5 not just the JRE. If you skip the above configuration step the plugin will issue warning messages when you try to import a remote service or start the Net Caboodle gateway.
The Net Caboodle plugin has four configurable properties, which you can modify to suit your system/environment.
Enable the Net Caboodle console Having configured the JDK in the Net Caboodle preferences page, the final step you need to take before using the plugin is to activate the "Net Caboodle console" view. To do this, first select the Eclipse "Show view -> Other" menu option as shown below.
You will now be presented with the "Show view" dialog
Select the "Caboodle console" item and then click the OK button. The Caboodle console will now appear in Eclipse, as shown below
Getting started with the Caboodle plugin Having successfully installed and configured Net Caboodle, let's now take a look at how to get started with the "Hello" RMI service included with the Net Caboodle distribution. When you use the Caboodle "Start gateway" menu option, the plugin will also start up the example RMI "Hello" service for you bound on the RMI registry port you entered on the plugin's preference's page. ( the default is port 6060 ). Follow the steps below to use the Caboodle plugin to generate the code you need to access the example "Hello" RMI service from a MIDP device. Once you are familiar with the steps involved, then it will be easy for you to start writing MIPD code for you existing services. First Download MIDlet code example and create a new Eclipse ME project that contains the example MIDlet. Next follow the steps below to create the mobile stubs for the example. The screenshots below show the "Hello" example using the RMI registry port 6060, however, this is to avoid conflicts with your existing RMI services. The Net Caboodle gateway uses the registry port specified on the plugin's preferences page. ( the default is port 6060 ). Caboodle plugin menu
To test with the "Hello RMI" example and import the service into a MIDP project you must first use the "start gateway" option.
There are three text fields you need to either modify or complete to construct an RMI lookup URL, for example, rmi://myhost:1099/MyService
Connect Having entered the three lookup parameters, click the "Connect" button. Make sure your RMI server has a correctly configured and exported codebase - see our FAQ pages for more details if you don't know what this means. Whilst the connection is occurring you will see the following message in the dialog box.
If network/connection problems are encountered these will be displayed in the Net Caboodle console.
Whereas when the connection succeeds, then you will see a list of the interfaces implemented by the RMI service, as shown if the figure below.
Select the interface you want to use and then click the OK button. The Caboodle plugin will then attempt to generate
the stubs required for the MIDP client, as shown in the figure below.
The Caboodle console will issue you with warnings for methods/classes that are not compatible for MIDP 1.0 conversion. See the section below on MIDP compatibility. When conversion is complete, take a look in the Caboodle console window for the basic code required to use the converted service.
If you have Downloaded MIDlet code example and created an Eclipse ME project, the mobile stubs should now have been generated and your project ready is to run! Generated code library On successful completion of the above process, the Net Caboodle plugin will have configured your MIDP project with the generated codes JAR file, so you can immediately start writing and test code against the RMI service. Having the followed the above steps you need to check that the Net Caboodle gateway is running. If you haven't already started the gateway, right click on your Eclipse project's icon and select "Caboodle -> Start gateway". The Caboodle console will display information about the server's status and the RMI registry port the "Hello example" service has been started on ( the default is port 6060 ) Earlier we mentioned that the code code required to use a converted service will be displayed in the Caboodle console. In the case of the Hello example, here's what you need to do; add the import statement, plus a field that holds the MIDP service's proxy instance.
The Hello example illustrates three types of service methods.
The figure below show the basic code to test the Hello example
Code generation patterns & rules Net Caboodle converts RMI (and other Java service types) using the following rules/patterns. Due to the restrictions of the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC), not all services are candidates for being accessed from a MIDP device. However, by using Net Caboodle it is possible to create Beans to act as mediators between existing services and MIDP clients. CLDC 1.0 types supported by Net Caboodle.
Note that ONLY single dimension arrays are supported for the above types in this release -- Use Vectors instead of arrays for user-defined types User-defined classes that are used as parameters or return types MUST have a public no-args constructor and provide matching field accessors in the form of "getters" and "setters". User-defined classes embedded as fields are NOT supported this version of the software. Class pattern matching and conversion The selected service interface class name and package are maintained during conversion, for example, if we take the RMI Hello example interface com.nc.example.Hello The generated MIDP code will have the same fully qualified class name. Any user-defined class types used by the service interface class, will also be converted into the same package. For example, if we had a class called com.nc.service.ServiceInfo, which was returned from the "Hello" service, the converted class, would be placed in the sample package as the MIDP service interface (e.g, com.nc.example). For each converted service Net Caboodle will generate a lookup factory using the following naming conventions. <service_package><service_interface>Factory e.g com.nc.exmple.HelloFactory To access the MIDP service proxy there are two overloaded methods <service_interface>Factory.getService();
<service_interface>Factory.getService(String gatewayHost,int gatewayPort);
e.g
//use default gateway
Hello service=HelloFactory.getService();
//explicitly use the gateway "janeway:8080"
Hello service=HelloFactory.getService("janeway",8080);
The Net Caboodle plugin for Eclipse allows you to select a remote service, either via lookup or by directly selecting the JAR file that contains your business service's interface. The plugin then creates a JAR file containing all the connector code and stubs, for you to link into your Eclipse MIDP project. As you add/remove methods from you business services, the plugin can be used to regenerate the JAR file. Version 2.x of the Net Caboodle plugin for Eclipse supports the following service types.
To work with Jini services rather than RMI-based services, download the Inca X Jini plugn for Eclipse User-defined beans can be used to write your own bridging code, for example, you might have service implementations other than RMI or Jini, such as CORBA or JMS. By creating a Java interface/adapter for these applications or services the Caboodle server can then make them available as services for your MIDP clients. User-defined beans can also be used to write "adapters"
for existing services, which have methods and parameters that are incompatible
with CLDC 1.0. The Caboodle gateway acts as a container for user-define connector beans and loads them in memory the first time a mobile client tries to access the connector. A user-defined connector bean must have a public no-args constructor with public methods defined for the functionality you want to expose to your mobile clients. Jini Service connectors and User-defined beans Both Jini service and user-defined beans (POJOs) can be imported by selecting the JAR file that contains the service's interface class as shown below. Having selected a JAR file the import dialog will display a list of interface classes (or beans) contained in the JAR file.
Having selected a JAR file the Jini or Beans import dialog will display a list of interface classes contained in the JAR file. Select the service or bean interface and then click the OK button. The Caboodle plugin will generate all the connector code, just as it does for a RMI service import. Earlier you saw how to use the Net Caboodle plugin to connect to the example Hello RMI service. In many cases it is easier just to write a POJO (Plain Old Java Object) connector, as illustrated with the Mobile Messaging Example. Below is a Hello POJO connector. public class HelloPOJO{
//required constructor
public HelloPOJO(){}
//say hello method
public String sayHello(){
return "Hello from a POJO";
}
}
To use a POJO connector bean, simply create a JAR file containing the required class files and the use the "New Bean connector" menu option to generate the mobile stubs, just like you did for the RMI example above. Gateway deployment The gateway deployment options allow you to develop and build your Net Caboodle gateway instance within Eclipse and then export the gateway configuration directly to the file system. Having exported the Gateway instance, you can then run the gateway outside of Eclispe and make the Gateway accessible for live Over the Air OTA usage. Deployment options
Developer license & Gateway license
If you have any questions or comments about using the Net Caboodle Business 2 Mobile plugin for Eclipse, then please contact us Different packs and Plugable servers With Net Caboodle Professional, you can install and use additional server and client-side development packs to hook in your own authentication code and to interact with the Net Caboodle Transaction Manager.
More code examples
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