Test-Driven Development

Earlier we went to the Main Library to meet Mr. Lee who were supposed to teach us how to use JUnit. He first introduced us on a topic called Test-Driven Development or TDD. It’s a kind of computer programming technique (e.g., extreme programming, which was introduced to us last year at our CS 150 class of Prof. TJ De Dios). It involves a cycle of steps: 1. creating tests, 2. running them to see the new ones fail, 3. creating some code specifically done to make the tests succeed, 4. running these new codes, and 5. refactoring the code to remove redundancy.

This kind of technique has a lot of advantages and will help a lot of programmers in developing their applications. Such advantages include, not having the feeling of being in a hurry when programming and be focused on a particular task. This is because they only do the code for the test they have made and then focus on it until it has been done so they could move on to the next tests. Although this kind of technique results to more coding, the results that can be achieved can be much better from that of the proposed results.

Aside from TDD, he also showed us a few slides about JUnit, which can be used for this kind of technique, although I was expecting to have some exercises since we were asked to bring laptops. Unfortunately for me, mine was heavy so it was kinda disappointing not putting the laptop into use, just carrying it around campus.

c/o ariel

(to hannah, and reah, pls include your name like the one above, para malaman ni sir kung sino ang nagpost)

xmpp behind firewalls

XMPP has built-in NAT and firewall traversal.

Plus, there is a Jabber server, jabber80.com which clients can connect to via port 80.

c/o  reah

MySQL Database

I realized that the database that I created will only be available here in my pc, which I wouldn’t be able to bring when we start coding at JRDC. I have decided to upload the database on my account. It’s a free account where I store my files for my own personal website. It has PostgreSQL and MySQL available for me to use in my website, so I guess I could also use it as a temporary database for our project.

c/o ariel

MoonEdit

Reah and I have tested MoonEdit earlier, one of the Collaborative Editors that are available for download over the net. My comment? Well, the UI is darn unattractive that’s for sure. When you connect to the server, it shows all of the texts that are currently being edited. It’s either you have to click the document name or do some ctrl+something in order for you to be able to edit the text. The documents can either be password protected or none at all. Once you have chosen a document to edit, it will be loaded. Reah said that it loads all of the changes that has been done on the file, which disturbed me at first. I thought it was some problem of some sort. But what amazed me was the keyboard simulation/sound while the text is being edited. You won’t hear the keyboard sound if you’re the one typing, only other people will hear it. Kinda cool.

c/o ariel

Updates

Database have already been set up. This will be temporary as it will be used only for the log-in/log-out option for the application at the moment.

c/o ariel

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Advantages of XMPP:

- It uses XML that means it is easy to implement, integrate and develop.
- The protocol is extensible; the developers could add additional functions and features. (Upgrade-friendly) (open-wire protocol)
- It is connection-oriented, an important feature when developing a collaborative editor.
- Approved by Internet Engineering Task Force as standard for Instant messaging (for interoperability).

- Many open source implementation of the protocol.
- XMPP is “decentralized”, meaning there is no possible point in the communication system that would cause the connection failure.
c/o hannah

xmpp vs simple

I just scanned through some articles over the web. XMPP’s strength basically lies on the fact that instant messaging and presence detection are its core functionalities, as opposed to SIMPLE, where these are just extensions of the protocol. I haven’t researched on other network technologies.

try:

http://www.jabber.org/protocol/xmpp-simple.shtml (this has a tabular feature comparison of the two)

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/23/21FExmpp_1.html

c/o reah

Jabber

I found an article from the July issue of PC Magazine entitled “Jabber: An Open Source Corporate Instant Messaging Tool” by Cyrus Paolo M. Buenafe.

XMPP being the standard of Jabber, the latter is said to be secure as other protocols like Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) have been integrated into the specifications of XMPP. Jabber is described as open, standard, secure, extensible, flexible, and monitoring.

Jabber is not real-time, but the delay is almost negligible. It offers simple and conference chats, transfer of huge files, Windows NetMeeting, and email retrieval. It promises much more development since it is endorsed by the IETF and Jabber Software Foundation, Inc.

c/o reah

Collaborative Application Architecture

Our group met last Wednesday at JRDC to make the presentation of the project. We have done research about possible architectures of our collaborative editor. According to the article from Reah, there are three types of Collaborative application architecture; there are Centralized architecture, Fully – replicated architecture and the Semi-replicated architecture. Our group still has not decided what architecture to use, we are still looking for the advantages and disadvantages of each architecture, and which is the best architecture for an XMPP-based collaborative editor. But we might consider the Semi-replicated architecture.

c/o hannah

Acessing ACM Digital Library

It’s really unfortunate that we weren’t able to access the ACM Digital Library. The Engineering Library told Reah and Hana that they don’t have access to it, yet they told me beforehand that they have access to it, but since the UP Server is down, they told me to try again later. Reah and Hana also went to the Computer Center and asked if they can access the Digital library there. Reah told me that the people there said we can access the library just within UP, but didn’t know how to. It’s kinda pointless.

 Tsk. It’s hard to get help these days.

Welcome!

Welcome to XMPP-based collaborative editor group’s blog. Updates will follow.