Michenux

Splash screen for your android application using fragment activity, rotation working

Michenux — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:56:35 +0000

Hi, here the way i found to make a splashscreen for my android application. First thing to note is that rotation works. I use a FragmentActivitiy so you need the android support compatibility jar. I didnot used a dialog : the splashScreen is an activity that launches the main activity after application initialization which is done in a handler. Last thing about my code: i use the library RoboGuice for IOC.

Here the result:

Let’s start: the two activities in the AndroidManifest.xml :

android:name=".activity.SplashScreenActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:theme="@style/Theme.Splash" >

android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
>
>

android:name=".activity.DemoProjectActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name" >
>

Then, the splash screen activity:

@ContentView(R.layout.splashscreen)
public class SplashScreenActivity extends RoboFragmentActivity {

protected MyStateSaver data;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

this.data = (MyStateSaver) getLastCustomNonConfigurationInstance();
if (this.data == null) {
this.data = new MyStateSaver();
}
if (this.data.doInit) {
doInit();
}
}

@Override
public Object onRetainCustomNonConfigurationInstance() {
return this.data;
}

protected void startNextActivity() {
Intent intent = new Intent(this, DemoProjectActivity.class);
this.startActivity(intent);
this.finish();
}

protected void doInit() {
data.doInit = false;
final Handler handler = new Handler();
handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// your application init must be done here.
startNextActivity();
}
}, 3000);
}

private class MyStateSaver {
public boolean doInit = true;
}
}

Finally, the styles for splashscreen, i use fullscreen mode.

name="Theme.Splash" parent="android:Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen">
name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/Animations.SplashScreen>
name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/white>
>

name="Animations" parent="@android:Animation" />

name="Animations.SplashScreen">
name="android:windowEnterAnimation">@anim/appear>
name="android:windowExitAnimation">@anim/disappear>
>

I don’t post the splashscreen layout. It’s quite simple and it’s up to you to think about what you want to display in it.

Configure Swiz ChannelSetHelper using flashvars

Michenux — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:51:51 +0000

When you want to connect a remote service using flex and the swiz framework, you have to use the class ChannelSetHelper. Most of time, you will find in the documentation, articles that kind of example :

channelId="myAmfChannel"
contextRoot="/project"
serverName="localhost"
serverPort="8080" >
>

id="myService" destination="myService"
channelSet="{myAmfChannel}"/>

The problem is that the parameters (server,port,context) are hard coded and you have to compile a swf for each of yours environnements (dev, testing, production). These parameters need to be externalized.

Here is the solution using flashvars :

First, don’t use anymore ‘contextRoot’, ‘serverName’ and ‘serverPort’ attributes but ‘parameterSource’ and ‘parameterName’. ‘ParameterName’ has to be valued with the name of the flashvars parameter that will contains the url of your remote server.

id="myAmfChannel"
channelId="myAmfChannel"
parameterSource="{mx.core.FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication}"
parameterName="channelUrl">
>

Then, add your flashvars parameter in the html page :

var flashvars = {};
flashvars.channelUrl=
"http://localhost:8080/project/messagebroker/amf";

swfobject.embedSWF(
"project.swf", "flashContent",
"100%", "100%",
swfVersionStr, xiSwfUrlStr,
flashvars, params, attributes);

Notes that the url must be the full url including the amf endpoint path.

Dstat graph using Vmstax

Michenux — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 11:28:46 +0000

Generating graphs from dstat log files is now possible using Vmstax. At the origin, Vmstax was created to build graphics from vmstat log files. It is very convenient to monitor the server load during a load test. All you had to do is to capture the log with a command like “vmstat -n 5 > output.log“, then upload the log file into vmstax and finally, export the graphs as images to include them into reports.
Actually, it is not a so good solution to analyze your servers : a lot of things is missing like network traffics, load per cpu, io per disk and others. Mpstat, iostat, ifstat can be used together but this is inconvenient because you have to manage several log ouputs.

Dstat is a versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat, netstat and ifstat. You can configure it with a bunch of options and you can even developp your own plugins for your specific needs. So, you have only one command to monitor what ever you want.

Here is an example of dstat output :

To draw charts from dstat output with Vmstax :

1) First, capture the dstat output : you have to use the output option. It will produce a csv log file that can be uploaded inside Vmstax. Here is an example :

dstat -c -n -N eth0,lo -m -s -d --output dstat.csv

2) Then, start Vmstax, upload the dstat.csv file and export the graphs as png. Pay attention to choose the ‘dstat’ format inside the upload combo box.

Start Vmstax now !

Here is some example graphs :

Limitations : Vmstax is not able to graph all the available options of dstat. If you think one is missing, contact the author and talk about it.

Links :
DStat home page
Vmstax

Survey about vmstax

Michenux — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:56:15 +0000

Please take time to answer this little survey about your use of vmstax.

Vmstax – Build charts/graphs from vmstat log

Michenux — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:16:58 +0000

Hi,

Learning Flex 3, i wanted to test the chart functionnalities. As a case study, i took the problematic of drawing charts from a vmstat log. At the end of your load tests, you have to build the charts. It may take some times to do that with Word or OpenOffice and it is not one of my favorite task. So, i decided to make a littleapplication in Flex : you upload your vmstat log, the chars appears and you can export them as images.

Click here to test: vmstax

Maven Blame Plugin – Add developper info in checkstyle/pmd/findbugs reports

Michenux — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:31:42 +0000

Checkstyle/Pmd/Findbugs are good tools to test quality of your java code but you don’t know in your team who respects code standing rules and who does not. Maven Blame Plugin allows you to have that kind of informations. For each code rule violation, it queries your subversion repository to have the last commiter of the corresponding line code.
Maven Blame Plugin does 2 things :

It updates the checkstyle/pmd/findbugs xml reports : it adds an attribute @author on each code vilolations. External tools can use this new attribute to improve their reports.
It generates a blame report with some global statistics about developpers.

To use the maven blame plugin, you have to change the pom.xml of your project.
First, declare the codehaus snapshot repository :

>
>
>codehaus-snapshot>
>Snapshot codehaus repository>
>http://snapshots.repository.codehaus.org>
>
>false>
>
>
>true>
>
>
>

Then, add the different reports(checkstyle,pmd,findbugs) with at the end, the blame one :

>
>
>
>org.apache.maven.plugins>
>maven-checkstyle-plugin>
>
>
>org.codehaus.maven-blame-plugin>
>maven-blame-plugin>
>1.0-SNAPSHOT>
>
>true>
>false>
>false>
>true>
>
>
>
>

Endly, launch the site generation :

mvn site

Maven Blame connects to your svn repository and it may need to authenticate. Authentication information can be indicated via maven properties : maven.scm.username and maven.scm.password.

For more informations :

Maven Blame Plugin Web Site
Example of blame report
Example of checkstyle report xml file