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Testing GWT Application in Virtual Machine

Sven Buschbeck — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:38:27 +0000

I am developing on a Mac, but to test my GWT applications for cross-browser compatibility in Internet Explorer I need to use Windows, thus I got Windows 7 installed using Parallels. Just by the way, to be able to test in different Internet Explorer version, I am using a pretty handy application called IETester.
But trying to access localhost with IE in the virtual machine did not work. I got a “404 page not found” error instead of seeing my app running on the local App Engine instance. Obviously, Parallels does not automatically forward localhost requests to OSX and maybe that is actually a good idea security-wise.
To fix the issue, you need to run Google App Engine on a public network interface, or in other words, bind the App Engine server to all available IP addresses. The down side: everybody knowing your IP address can see the GWT app now, but otherwise you are not allowed to access it in the virutal machine as from your OSX’s point of view, that Windows machine is “some other guy accessing from the outside”, too. To make GAE accessible from the outside, add the parameter “-bindAddress 0.0.0.0″ when launching you local GAE. Using Eclipse you can achieve that by right clicking your project -> Run As -> Run Configurations -> Choose “(x)= Arguments” tab; add the option to the top most box titled “Program arguments” in the options area (e.g. before “-port 8888″).

The first part of the list of arguments should look something like that:

-remoteUI "${gwt_remote_ui_server_port}:${unique_id}" -startupUrl GlocalUiPg2.html -logLevel INFO -codeServerPort 9997 -bindAddress 0.0.0.0 -port 8888 ...

Now, you can access you app using the OSX’s public IP address. (You can get to know your IP by having a look at the network preferences panel.) Launching GAE from Eclipse, you will see a different link (URL) in the “Development Mode” tab now, containing the public IP already. Using that one in, say, your Firefox on Mac, it will ask you now whether you want to allow the debugger access. That is also due to the fact, that you are now using a public address, so it is not clear to your local debug server, whether that request came from the same computer or someone else in the network.

Getting Drupal’s Access Control Module to Work Properly

Sven Buschbeck — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:10:37 +0000

After setting up some content types — some public, some internal. I installed the Access Control module, set up internal content not to be visible to anonymous users — but without any effect.

After some research, but without success, I realized the *Advanced* section at the bottom of the Access Control tab for each content type. And now the magic trick: Increase the weight and you are done. So I guess the build in access management was fighting the Access Control module, so it is up to you to make your favorite module stronger by giving it more weight. — I doubt this is intuitive. Additionally, it is for sure difficult to simply find the tiny little select box down there in a section, which is by default folded.

education portal for the city of Augsburg

Sven Buschbeck — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:07:35 +0000

A new portal has been launched for the city of Augsburg. It is meant to be a central platform about all kind of information and events concerning education in and around Augsburg (Germany). Different layouts have been created in the course of a seminar, the one to be realized, has been chosen by a person in charge of the municipality. Two students of the “winning” team and myself, we formed a team, got a work contract by the municipality and implemented the website on the basis of the Typo3 CMS within one year, besides our studies.

» go to see the website »

Content and navigation as zoomable UI and masked floating layer

Sven Buschbeck — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:22:09 +0000

See the Zoomable UI/floating layer navigational approach of my old (unmaintained!) home page (in german).

This version of my homepage features a new navigational concept combining the idea of zoomable interfaces and a masked floating layer. I created this application as experiment while searching for concepts and idea about how to integrate contents and navigational layer.

After informal feed back of user i asked to give it a trail, I had to find, in the end, this RIA will stay more an experiment than a easy to use information portal.

The text and media contained is in german and has not been update ever since, additionally the guest book is deactivated. Therefore give it a trail but do not take the content serious .