German translations & Problems with the dev environment

[Matthias Basler-2]

Hi udiggers,

Since I have read Jody's mails about the tight release schedule, I deduced that it would be time to have a go at the German translation again.

Since I had not worked on UDig a rather long time and the Eclipse version used by UDig has changed in the meantime I concluded it would be favourable to start over from scratch.

This has not worked out perfectly, so I have some comments and I also need help.

1. Documentation
UDig has a very good documentation for how to set up the development environment. I knew this, still at first I couldn't locate it from the "DEVELOPERS" page: http://udig.refractions.net/developers/
Finally I came across an old email that took me to the right spot.

Why is it so hard to find? The actual link to
http://udig.refractions.net/confluence/display/ADMIN/Home
is buried in the very right column under the heading "DECISION PROCESS", instead on the central part of the page where, f.e. the prominent link to the "Developers Guide" can be found.

Moreover, the relevant page has no good title, just "Home" and "Table of Contents".



2. Eclipse
The article says that it is required to set up a separate Eclipse for UDig development and how to do this. Given that I already had 3 Eclipse installations of various age and content on my PC I wondered if it is really necessary to have this time consuming download of ~ 400 MB just to make UDig build?

Currently it is recommented to have this new Eclipse installation both as IDE and target platform. I usually prefer to separate this, as it suppresses the need to download a fully Eclipe+EMF+GEF+... every time a new version is released. Udig requires on a fraction of all the plugins in its target platform.

So I wonder if it would be possible to have an alternative development setup where the SDK serves as target platform and an existing Eclipse installation as IDE, possibly enhanced with some development plugins like Resource Bundle Editor, Subclipse, FindBugs etc. if not yet present.
Could this work?



3. Build problems
After I worked through the guide I had the whole source code build.
The WHOLE source code? No, there are three plugins which resist any build:
- net.refractions.udig.project
- net.refractions.udig.project.ui
- net.refractions.udig.render.gridcoverage.basic
They all claim that "Class XY is not accessible due to restrictions on required library Z", with Z being a jar/class provided by the UDig JRE which I copied into the Eclipse install as described in the guide.

I am lost now. I have already checked
- that the required JARs/classes (JAI, BALOAD or UrlUtil) exist in the JRE download.
- that the plugins actually use this particular JRE.

Switching to a local Java 6 JDK (with JAI and JAI-IO included as well) didn't improve things. Why don't the plugins accept the jars provided by the JRE???

Normally these access restrictions occur if the plugin containing these classes does not officially "export" them. But here it is the JRE providing these classes, so what can I do?

Environment:
WinXP SP 3, Eclipse 3.5.1


Hmm. Given that I have now spent already 5 hours for setting up the dev environment just to update the German translations I really wonder if there is an easier way to get everything running...

--
Matthias Basler
matthiasbasler@...

_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel

[Matthias Basler-2]

I wrote:

> No, there are three plugins which resist any build:
> - net.refractions.udig.project
> - net.refractions.udig.project.ui
> - net.refractions.udig.render.gridcoverage.basic
> They all claim that "Class XY is not accessible due to restrictions on
> required library Z", with Z being a jar/class provided by the UDig JRE
> which I copied into the Eclipse install as described in the guide.

This is solved now.
Somehow during the whole set up process the classpath of the plugins got modified stating to use the Java1.5 execution environment instead of he "Workspace default". I had already responded by setting this execution environment to the UDig provided JRE, but this obviously didn't help.

Now I reverted all the projects and ... UDig builds, with the very same JRE.
That's over my head.
--
Matthias Basler
matthiasbasler@...

_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel

[Jody Garnett-3]

Hi Matthias:

I can be on IRC if you need help building; some additional comments  
inline.

> This has not worked out perfectly, so I have some comments and I  
> also need help.
> 1. Documentation
> UDig has a very good documentation for how to set up the development  
> environment. I knew this, still at first I couldn't locate it from  
> the "DEVELOPERS" page: http://udig.refractions.net/developers/
> Finally I came across an old email that took me to the right spot.
>
> Why is it so hard to find? The actual link to
> http://udig.refractions.net/confluence/display/ADMIN/Home
> is buried in the very right column under the heading "DECISION  
> PROCESS", instead on the central part of the page where, f.e. the  
> prominent link to the "Developers Guide" can be found.
>
> Moreover, the relevant page has no good title, just "Home" and  
> "Table of Contents".

These contents are hard to find because we had too many people start  
to follow them when they were actually wanting an SDK based  
environment. We made the space name nice and boring in order not to  
distract people.

I am open to a better suggestion; at the very least a nice clean link  
on the developer page
.
> 2. Eclipse
> The article says that it is required to set up a separate Eclipse  
> for UDig development and how to do this. Given that I already had 3  
> Eclipse installations of various age and content on my PC I wondered  
> if it is really necessary to have this time consuming download of ~  
> 400 MB just to make UDig build?

There are two workable downloads:
- the modeling one
- the rcp developers one (and then you need to use the update manager  
to install some EMF + GEF stuff)

> Currently it is recommented to have this new Eclipse installation  
> both as IDE and target platform. I usually prefer to separate this,  
> as it suppresses the need to download a fully Eclipe+EMF+GEF+...  
> every time a new version is released. Udig requires on a fraction of  
> all the plugins in its target platform.

Interesting; I would be game to identify the subset uDig uses and see  
if we could sort out how to download that in an efficient manner;  
right now the update manager is such a bother that I have more success  
asking people to download the modelling environment.

> So I wonder if it would be possible to have an alternative  
> development setup where the SDK serves as target platform and an  
> existing Eclipse installation as IDE, possibly enhanced with some  
> development plugins like Resource Bundle Editor, Subclipse, FindBugs  
> etc. if not yet present.
> Could this work?

Not really - because we would still need to document the environment  
used to make the SDK (which is what this documentation is for). For  
those working on their own plugins (not the uDig SDK) we have a  
different set of documentation which is similar to what you describe.

> 3. Build problems
> After I worked through the guide I had the whole source code build.
> The WHOLE source code? No, there are three plugins which resist any  
> build:
> - net.refractions.udig.project
> - net.refractions.udig.project.ui
> - net.refractions.udig.render.gridcoverage.basic
> They all claim that "Class XY is not accessible due to restrictions  
> on required library Z", with Z being a jar/class provided by the  
> UDig JRE which I copied into the Eclipse install as described in the  
> guide.

You need to go into the installed JRE preference page and ensure that  
it is marked as the one used. You can check on the dialog listing the  
jars that the JAI jars are indeed present.

> I am lost now. I have already checked
> - that the required JARs/classes (JAI, BALOAD or UrlUtil) exist in  
> the JRE download.
> - that the plugins actually use this particular JRE.

Okay then I am lost as well! You are getting this as a compile error?

> Switching to a local Java 6 JDK (with JAI and JAI-IO included as  
> well) didn't improve things. Why don't the plugins accept the jars  
> provided by the JRE???

The only way this happens is if someone has "fixed" the jars to use a  
strict JRE configuration (sometimes people do this accidentally in  
order to fix up all the warnings?)

> Normally these access restrictions occur if the plugin containing  
> these classes does not officially "export" them. But here it is the  
> JRE providing these classes, so what can I do?

Can you check the overview page of the MANIFEST.MF for these jars; and  
make sure a specific configuration is not marked? The list should be  
empty...




I see on my mac here that it is *not* empty; indeed for my mack the  
J2SE-1.5 execution environment has been both:
a) added in error
b) configured with JAI and ImageIO (so does not actually represent a  
plain JDK 1.5 install!)

So I am going to guess that this is my fault; remove the executation  
environment setting from the three you mentioned; and commit.
Jody
> Hmm. Given that I have now spent already 5 hours for setting up the  
> dev environment just to update the German translations I really  
> wonder if there is an easier way to get everything running...

I have had a lot of people hit these docs in the last 2 months; and  
this is the first round of problems reported; I was going to go  
through them and check against the just released Eclipse 3.5.1  
download myself.

I am afraid you may of run into problems because of a poor commit with  
the Execution Environment :-(
Jody
_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel

[Matthias Basler-2]

Jody wrote:

> I have had a lot of people hit these docs in the last 2 months; and  
> this is the first round of problems reported; I was going to go  
> through them and check against the just released Eclipse 3.5.1  
> download myself.
>
> I am afraid you may of run into problems because of a poor commit with  
> the Execution Environment :-(

Nope. The mistake was quite obviously on my side, since I must have somehow set the Execution Environment (don't know when and how). I guess this is because I didn't do all steps in exactly the order given in the guide.


OK. I have UDig running now.
There are a few things that I came across when editing the translations:

1.

net.refractions.udig.project.ui  and
net.refractions.udig.project.ui.editor
both have plugin.properties which are almost(!) identical. I doubt this duplication of texts is intended, is it? Maybe the classes moved into another plugin, but the texts were not removed from the old one?

Looks like net.refractions.udig.project.ui is now the correct place for them.

2.
In net.refractions.udig.project.ui/plugin.properies I find:

MoveMapAction.desc = Moving Element to Project
MoveMapAction.name = Move Map

Looks like name and description do not fit to each other.

3.
In net.refractions.udig.project.edit/plugin.properties
the are a lot of key starting with "_UI_...". Many of the seem not to be referenced anywhere any more.

(P.S. Does anybody know a tool that finds such orphaned translation keys?)


I will send further issues as I come across...
--
Matthias Basler
matthiasbasler@...

_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel

[Jody Garnett-3]

Quick reply inline where I have something to contribute...

> Nope. The mistake was quite obviously on my side, since I must have  
> somehow set the Execution Environment (don't know when and how). I  
> guess this is because I didn't do all steps in exactly the order  
> given in the guide.

I will keep my eye out and see if the instructions trip me up as well.

> OK. I have UDig running now.
> There are a few things that I came across when editing the  
> translations:
>
> 1.
>
> net.refractions.udig.project.ui  and
> net.refractions.udig.project.ui.editor
> both have plugin.properties which are almost(!) identical. I doubt  
> this duplication of texts is intended, is it? Maybe the classes  
> moved into another plugin, but the texts were not removed from the  
> old one?
>
> Looks like net.refractions.udig.project.ui is now the correct place  
> for them.

It is actually an even split; we needed to break project.ui into two  
and I just copied the properties file at the time.

> 2.
> In net.refractions.udig.project.ui/plugin.properies I find:
>
> MoveMapAction.desc = Moving Element to Project
> MoveMapAction.name = Move Map
>
> Looks like name and description do not fit to each other.
>
> 3.
> In net.refractions.udig.project.edit/plugin.properties
> the are a lot of key starting with "_UI_...". Many of the seem not  
> to be referenced anywhere any more.
>
> (P.S. Does anybody know a tool that finds such orphaned translation  
> keys?)

Yes! Open up the properties file in the normal eclipse property  
editor; and then hold down control while clicking on they key. This  
will find you some java code that uses it (or fail which is what you  
wanted to check). You can also go the other way from java code to the  
properties file.

Jody
_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel