JFreeSafe mystery continued...

Alright, this is a conspiracy. Up until yesterday I was having so much trouble getting JFreeSafe to work properly. For starters, I checked out the sources from cvs (assuming it was the latest version). Now, (unwisely), my initial take was to create a NetBeans J2ME project out of the existing source so that I could reuse all the goodies that my favorite IDE offers. That didn't work...class not found errors in the preverification step

Next step, was.. OK, it must be something with NetBeans, let's try to do the ant build that came with the source. I changed a couple of things in the build.properties (after checking with Laszlo, the lead of the project, it turned out that I was supposed to create a build.local.properties file which seems to be the convention) and attempted a build... and I was in trouble. First, I was getting some obfuscation errors telling me that some classes were missing.. So, I started digging in, trying to find out what's going on.. I removed the test package from cldc-crypto.jar (actually, org.bouncycastle.crypto.test), the class not found error disappeared. I actually had a good jar; however, when I attempted to install it on the phone I was getting a funky "invalid jar" error...

This is where the real hell started.. First, I thought.. it might be something in how jdk 1.5 created the jar (since the original jfreesafe distribution was build on Linux with Blackdown java 1.4.2, and I was trying Sun Java 1.5.0_3). I downloaded the latest update (1.5.0_6), same deal... I tried creating the jar with 1.4.2 sun jdk.. same deal.. I was starting to get desperate as it was getting to be almost 2 am in the morning, I had to get up at 6:30... and I still had nothing working... Oh, well, some things NEVER work on the first day you try to get them to work, no matter how hard you try...

So, the next day, I'm at it again. This time around, I tried the build on a windows box at work.. I was getting a preverification error as before.. and I didn't have much time to play around with it. So, at home, I try a different angle. I poked around the manifest and the jad files to verify that everything is kosher there. I did notice that for some reason the build was creating duplicated Manifest files inside the jar. However, deleting and attempting the reinstall didn't do much. Finally, I did notice a note on the project home page that some people were having a problem with installing 0.2.6.1 and the suggestion was to try 0.2.7.

So, I take 0.2.7 with the same expectation. However, with the first try (after modifying the appropriate properties to point to my wtk 1.0.4 install) it build the first time and successfully install... Voila!!! I was in business again, made the quick modification to the java class that was displaying the passwords, rebuilt, put it on a server, connected to my wlan (btw, my Nokia E61 ROCKS!!!), downloaded and installed the jar, everything works perfectly...

So today, encouraged by yesterday's success, I try to create an NetBeans project based on the existing 0.2.7 sources. Now, even without making it point to the wtk 1.0.4 install (using the default wtk 2.0 setup in NB), it built and I was able to successfully install on the phone... Hm... So, I try it again, this time with the same project that I was having problems previously, the 0.2.6.1 sources.. I used the same NB project from a couple of days ago: build, run, deploy, install on the phone... and IT WORKED !!! Now this is strange, the stuff that didn't work the other day works now...

So, now, I'm completely stumped as to what was exactly causing the problem before. The important thing is that I have the program running, I have a good NetBeans J2ME project that builds and installs successfully, which is an excellent prerequisite to getting some work done on this project.

For starters, I would want to add a few different types of data to be added. Currently, it only has a OTP type - not sure what that means, and a password type - for system/username/password. Since I sometimes put some credit card info in there, that probably one of the types to add - e.g. cc#, exp date, stuff like that in separate fields. The other type is just a "free" note type - something without any additional fields defined. Today, I was also thinking about adding some categories to the entries - e.g. I have quite a number of entries in the app and the list becomes quite long, so a "categorized" mode of display would probably be helpful as well.

Laszlo had mentioned in the forums that he is adding the ability to preserve the data across upgrades and installs, which would definitely a must ( I don't think I want to spend a few hours keying stuff on my phone every time something is upgraded). Additionally, along the same lines, it would probably be useful to have some way of entering the data to be put on the phone in a regular app (or just a csv file or something) and be able to "import" the data into the phone. Finally, Laszlo already has a "server" part of the project (I haven't had a chance to look at the details), and it looks like this will be covering the richer interface/synchronization uses that I mention.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to getting some stuff done with this app. It hasn't had releases in a while. I understand how things are sometimes - when it's just you working on a project, sometimes it's difficult to get motivated and excited, and to put out a release.

Now, just before I posted this, I just found out that Laszlo has a blog on JRoller: check it out - http://www.jroller.com/page/atleta

JavaPassion Web Services Programming Course

I will be enrolling and will try to follow this course: Web Services Programming . I am just totally amazed that such a resource is available for free - and, really, for me, that is the best way of learning. I've determined for myself that classroom learning is very inefficient for me : e.g. if the students are not carefully pre-selected to have skills/knowledge on the same level (which usually is not the case), the instructor just ends up spending 90% of the classes teaching to the lowest common denominator.. and in the end, I just end up being bored to death in the actual classes. So, I started looking around if there is a web services class somewhere online (e.g. there are supposed to be these online universities that offer all kinds a classes).. but guess what, nothing is available. There are a number of J2EE/Web services training courses, but you have to go to their training facility (big $$$) or they have to come to your company (bigger $$$). So, it doesn't work for me.. So, I couldn't find an online course that would offer the depth that I need... it's funny, cause I'm willing to pay (actually, through the company) a decent amount of money to get a decent course..

So, this is the best. I really probably should suggest to the instructor in the course.. I don't see why Sun shouldn't make a couple of bucks off of this... Maybe have some kind of "premium" subscribers that might get extra attention... Something like that...

Free Safe

Free Safe is an awesome j2me program that does password encryption and management on a mobile phone. Now, I had something similar on my Palm Zire; however, now that I switched to my Nokia E61, I really miss having access to all of my passwords (e.g. the other day, I was in the bank and I was trying to remember my account number..). This app provides a decent level of functionality and with a couple of enhancements will be doing exactly what I need it to do... Swweeet....