|
" Net Caboodle's innovative solution and plug-in for NetBeans leverages the Mobility Pack's powerful and easy-to-use features and provides a superior user experience for mobile developers," said Tim Cramer, Director of NetBeans. " We are happy Net Caboodle is enabling their customers to build applications using the NetBeans platform. Simplifying enterprise data access from Java technology-enabled devices is important to the growth of the Java ME platform. NetBeans and Net Caboodle are a great combination. " |
NetBeans 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 Gateway. To see the type of mobile applications you can create using NetBeans and NetCaboodle, take a look at Whoosh Mobile Email User guide
|
|
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 NetBeans with a Java 1.4 or 1.6 JDK, however, JDK 1.5 is required by the plugin and can be set in the gateway's preferences The Net Caboodle plugin for NetBeans is installed via the NetBeans "Tools->Update Center" menu option as "Manually installed" module.
Please note that if you are upgrading to a newer version of the Net Caboodle plugin, then you may need to regenerate your mobile stubs to stay compatible with any changes to the gateway transports. Having successfully installed the Net Caboodle plugin, you need to configure the plugin to use the Java Development Kit 1.5. Use the "Tools ->Net Caboodle Gateway->Gateway Configuration.." menu option (shown below) to make sure that you have selected a Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.5 not just the JRE.
If you skip the above configuration setup the plugin will issue warning messages. Net Caboodle plugin menus The Net Caboodle plugin has three main menu options, which are available from the "Tools" menu in NetBeans.
Getting started with the Net Caboodle plugin The Net Caboodle platform and NetBeans
Mobility Pack make it quick and easy to write and deploy mobile
applications
Starting the Gateway Start the Net Caboodle gateway by using the "Tools->Net Caboodle Gateway->Start Gateway" menu option.
When the gateway starts up it creates a new Output window in NetBeans as shown below. All output from the plugin is directed to this window.
Having started the Gateway let's proceed with the Hello example, by first creating a new MIDP project with the NetBeans Mobility Pack Creating a new NetBeans Mobility Pack Project Use the "File-> New project" option in NetBeans and then select a "Mobile Application" project as shown in the figure below.
Click the "Next" button and call your project "Hello RMI" followed by the "Finish" button. You new project will appear in the IDE as shown below.
The "New Connector" menu option allows you to connect to a running RMI service (or other service types) so the Caboodle plugin can generate the MIDP stubs and connector code required for your MIDlet to use the RMI service via the Net Caboodle gateway. This option is only enabled when the gateway is running, and you have selected your mobile project's root icon.
When you select the "New connector" menu option you will be presented with the dialog box as shown below. The "host" and "port" parameters will default to your computer's IP address and the default RMI registry port (1099).
Connect button 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.
If network/connection problems are encountered these will be displayed in the Net Caboodle console. Select the interface you want to use and then click the OK button. The Net Caboodle plugin will then attempt to generate the stubs required for the MIDP client, as shown in the figure below.
The Net 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.
On successful completion of the above process, the Net Caboodle plugin will automatically add the generated stubs JAR file to your project's classpath. Your project should be ready so you can start using the generated mobile stubs to invoke methods on the example Hello RMI service running in the Gateway. Using the NetBeans Mobility Pack In this section we will explain the basic steps to use the NetBeans Mobility Pack's designer to add the code to invoke methods on the Hello RMI service. First rename the default Form created by NetBeans to "helloOutput" as shown below.
Next click on "Source" tab in the editor to view the generated code and add the code highlighted in yellow below.
Next scroll down until you find the "get_helloOutput()" method as shown below.
In the "Insert Post-Init User Code here" section add the code as shown below
Here's the code to insert, that is shown in the screenshot above // Insert post-init code here
try{
String message=service.sayHello();
helloOutput.append(message);
}catch(Exception ex){
helloOutput.append(""+ex);
}
The following sections describe how to use the code generated by the Net Caboodle mobile stub generator, but for now let's complete the Hello example by running the MIDP emulator. Right click on the project icon and select "Run Project", which will launch the MIDP emulator. Next select the MIDlet and you should be prompted with the "Is it OK to use airtime" alert. This message appears, because the mobile stubs are trying to contact the Net Caboodle Gateway, running in NetBeans. There are no external calls being made by the stubs. Select "Yes" and then you should see the output from the Hello RMI service, as shown below.
Code generation patterns & rules Net Caboodle converts RMI (and other Java service types) using the following rules/patterns. Generated code library 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
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);
//Use the runtime properties set by the Gateway or add these to your JAD
String host = getAppProperty("gatewayHost");
String port = getAppProperty("gatewayPort");
if(host!=null){
service=HelloFactory.getService(host,Integer.parseInt(port);
}
The Net Caboodle plugin for NetBeans 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 NetBeans MIDP project. As you add/remove methods from you business services, the plugin can be used to regenerate the JAR file. Version 4.0 of the Net Caboodle plugin for NetBeans supports the following service types.
To work with Jini (Apache River) services rather than RMI-based services, download the Inca X Jini plugn for NetBeans User-defined beans or POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects) can also 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 Net Caboodle gateway acts as a container for user-define connector beans and dynamically provisions them, 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. In many cases it is much easier just to write a POJO (Plain Old Java Object) connector as we have seen with the Message Board example. Earlier you saw how to use the Net Caboodle plugin to connect to the example Hello RMI service, below is a simple 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 "Bean connector" tab in the new connector dialog as described earlier for the RMI service. Jini Service connectors and User-defined beans Both Jini service and user-defined beans 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 or bean classes contained in the JAR file. Select the service or bean interface and then click the OK button. The Net Caboodle plugin will generate all the connector code, just as it does for a RMI service import. 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 POJOs to act as mediators between existing services and MIDP clients. CLDC 1.0 types supported by Net Caboodle.
Note that ONLY single and two dimension arrays are supported for primitive types and String 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). The gateway deployment options allow you to develop and build your Net Caboodle gateway instance within NetBeans and then export the gateway configuration directly to the file system. Having exported the Gateway instance, you can then run the gateway outside of NetBeans. When using the 30 day evaluation of this plugin, the gateway is limited to only 5 concurrent connections. To use more connections you must purchase a developer license from Net Caboodle. To configure the gateway, use the Deploy MIDlet and Gateway Configuration dialog.
Deployment options
Developer license & Gateway license
If you have any questions or comments about using the Net Caboodle Business 2 Mobile plugin for NetBeans, 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.
Contact us for more information.
Other code examples
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright notice The information within this document remains the sole property of Net Caboodle - www.netcaboodle.com No part of this document may be copied or reproduced
in any form or by any means, and the information |
