ZK Version 3.0.7 released

The ZK front-end app to KnowledgeTree was developed using version 3.0.6. The newer version 3.0.7 was released on August 1 and I had the chance to install ZK from scratch and run the ZK front-end app successfully.

Here are the steps:

• download zk-bin-3.0.7.zip from sourceforge.net
• copy the MyApp directory (from the demo package) under the webapps directory of Apache Tomcat. Rename it to accordingly (I used zk307 in this example).
• Create the WEB-INF/lib sub-directory. Place here all the jars found under the dist/lib directory of the zk-bin-3.0.7 package. Copy the jars under the ext and zkforge directories also but omit the directories - place all jars under WEB-INF/lib
• Add the ktws.jar and the jars required by Apache Axis (see previous blog entry)

Fire up Tomcat and point your browser to http://localhost:8080/zk307/ktlogin.zul

There are over 9 new features and 22 bug fixes under this new release. Read more about the new ZK release here.

ZK + SOAP + KnowledgeTree

Here's a working ZK app that performs a SOAP login to KnowledgeTree's web services.



I've uploaded the source code to a KnowledgeTree repository and can be downloaded using the KT-Gadget.

You need to download the following files:

• ZK front-end app (ktlogin.zul)
• ZK include script (ktlogin.zk)

You can download the Ajax spinner here or create your own.

My testbed:

• Apache Tomcat Version 5.5.26
• ZK 3.0.6
• Windows XP Prof Service Pack 2
  
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0

Using KnowledgeTree SOAP Services from Java apps

I'm making a front-end to KnowledgeTree using the ZK Ajax framework so I eventually dipped my fingers into KT's web service integration from a Java app. My previous SOAP projects involved a Tcl client and a Google gadget using the javascript/php combo.

KnowledgeTree's wiki article on Web Service integration using Java has been most helpful. Since I'm doing my development work on Windows, I've adapted the procedures slightly. And since ZK uses the Beanshell interpreter to execute the Java code, I also modified the tester client application accordingly.

What's needed:

• Apache Axis 1.4
• Beanshell interpreter
• Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE)
• proxy classes in a jar file (ktws.jar)
  

The proxy classes were generated using the WSDL2Java utility provided by the Apache Axis. I'm providing the packaged ktws.jar available for download here. To generate the proxy classes yourself, you would need the Java Compiler and not just the JRE. Here's the batch file to generate the jar package.

set CP=axis-1_4/lib/axis.jar;axis-1_4/lib/commons-discovery-0.2.jar
set CP=%CP%;axis-1_4/lib/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar;axis-1_4/lib/jaxrpc.jar
set CP=%CP%;axis-1_4/lib/log4j-1.2.8.jar;axis-1_4/lib/saaj.jar
set CP=%CP%;axis-1_4/lib/wsdl4j-1.5.1.jar
java -cp %CP% org.apache.axis.wsdl.WSDL2Java -c T1 -p com.pipoltek.ktws http://docs.pipoltek.com/ktwebservice/webservice.php?wsdl
"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\javac" -d . -classpath %CP% com/pipoltek/ktws/*.java
"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\jar" cvf ktws.jar .\com\pipoltek\ktws\*.class

Here's the Beanshell script to execute a login via SOAP.

/*
filename: ktsoaptest.bsh
to run, type from the command-line:
   java -cp bsh-2.0b4.jar bsh.Interpreter ktsoaptest.bsh
*/

// add axis classes
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/axis.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/axis-ant.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/jaxrpc.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/commons-discovery-0.2.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/log4j-1.2.8.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/wsdl4j-1.5.1.jar");
addClassPath ("./axis-1_4/lib/saaj.jar");

// knowledgetree proxy classes
addClassPath ("./ktws.jar");

// others
addClassPath ("./lib/activation.jar");
addClassPath ("./lib/mail.jar");

import com.pipoltek.ktws.KnowledgeTreeBindingStub;
import com.pipoltek.ktws.Kt_response;
import com.pipoltek.ktws.Kt_folder_contents;
import com.pipoltek.ktws.Kt_workflow_transitions_response;
import org.apache.axis.client.Service;
import java.net.URL;
import com.pipoltek.ktws.Kt_folder_item;
  
URL url = new URL("http://kt352c.pipoltek.com/ktwebservice/webservice.php"); 
   
KnowledgeTreeBindingStub stub = new  KnowledgeTreeBindingStub(url, new Service());
 
System.out.println("Logging into KnowledgeTree");
Kt_response response = stub.login("rexjun","cabanilla","127.0.0.1");
 
int status_code=response.getStatus_code();
String session;
if (status_code == 0) {
 session = response.getMessage();
 System.out.println("Session: " + session);
} else {
 System.out.println("Status Code: " + status_code);
  System.out.println("Session: " + response.getMessage());
  return;
}

I'll be using this piece of code to invoke SOAP services from my ZK app. More on this later..

Accessing Soap Services from Google Gadgets

The earlier gadget projects I developed have utilized third-party web services from a variety of sources:

• Google Maps for geographic data
• Google Docs spreadsheet as XML datasource
  
• IP-Geolocation (IP address->Country) service from HostIP.Info
• User profile and gaming statistics as XML feeds from Xfire.

Given the constraints of a space-restricted, remotely-hosted, javascript-only application, gadgets primarily rely on web services to provide richer data content without the attendant complexity. However, javascript is beset by cross-domain restrictions that even impact xmlHttpRequest, the very underpinnings of Ajax. Since Google gadgets are javascript apps, the same-origin security policy prevents it from making requests outside the domain it is running on.

Although Google addressed this problem by providing the _IG_FetchXMLContent function, it lacks support for https, SOAP and POST. It looks like the newer gadget.io.makeRequest function is intended to address these deficiencies. However, the availability of the gadget.io.* functions in Google's production servers is yet forthcoming.

I decided not to hold my breath..

KT-Gadget is a widget front-end to KnowledgeTree - an open-source document management system. To access KnowledgeTree's SOAP services, I had to deploy another application to receive the requests from Google's _IG_FetchXMLContent calls, make the corresponding SOAP requests, and generate the appropriate XML output. Two basic functions are implemented: login and get_folder_contents. The functions are based on PHP, the same language that was used to develop KnowlegeTree.

After pushing the login button, the gadget will indicate the progress of the subsequent operations:

• Logging in
• Fetching Documents
• Sorting Documents

In its current state, the gadget is useful as a watcher of some sort of inbox for workflow-enabled documents like incoming faxes needing disposition or requisitions requiring approval. Sit around and watch your work pile up...

I plan to implement two more functions: download_document and perform_document_workflow_transition. We don't want work to pile up, do we? Other nice-to-have features: watch all accessible folders and sub-folders; show number of documents per folder; folder and document colors based on certain thresholds like document count, age, metadata contents (priority, etc); automatic refresh.

But don't hold your breath...

Xfire Gadget

Have XML feed, will gadgetize..

Xfire provides xml feeds on gamer profiles, gameplays, friends, screenshots -- a whole lot of goodies. An Xfire gadget would be a good addition to one's blog, website or iGoogle.

One of the goals was to determine how close the gadget can resemble the real thing so it was initially developed using the default Xfire skin. Making a cross-browser scrollable table was not a trivial task and once the problem was solved, I started to hate the over-sized scroll bars. More coding lies ahead..

Employing the Ajax paradigm of single-page experience, remote services, rich visual controls and other design patterns, any web app can now come real close to the regular desktop UI.

A live gadget using a COD4 skin is displayed in another blog.

Testing ZK Ajax Framework with iSeries/AS400 using JDBC

The ZK Ajax Framework standalone zkdemo application has a sample program that uses JDBC to provide database support to an Ajax app. I decided to give it a try using an iSeries datasource. Here's how it was done..

ZK downloads are here.

- Download ZK-quickstart-x.y.z.pdf
- Download and install Tomcat. I used version 5.5 as this was the version referred to in the manual.
- Download zk-demo-x.y.z.zip and extract the package. Copy the zkdemo.war package to the webapps directory of Tomcat (C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.5)
- Restart Tomcat and open the url http://localhost:8080/zkdemo/userguide/

Shutdown Tomcat. I copied the ...\webapps\zkdemo directory to ...\webapps\myzk so I can make changes to the sample code without touching the demo application. I then copied ...\webapps\myzk\userguide\dbconnect\jdbc.zul to ...\webapps\myzk\dbconnect\jdbc.zul and modified the submit() function, as follows:

void submit() {
  // Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");
  // DriverManager.registerDriver(new com.ibm.as400.access.AS400JDBCDriver());
  Class.forName("com.ibm.as400.access.AS400JDBCDriver");
  // String url = "jdbc:odbc:Fred";
  String mySchema = "REXJUN1";
  String myAS400 = "m170pub1.rzkh.de";
  String myUserId = "REXJUN";
  String myPasswd = "-change-me-";
  String url = "jdbc:as400://" + myAS400 + "/" + mySchema;
  Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url,myUserId, myPasswd);
  PreparedStatement stmt = con.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO BASICJDBC values(?,   ?)");
  //insert what end user entered into database table
  stmt.setString(1, id.value);
  stmt.setString(2, name.value);
  //execute the statement
  stmt.executeUpdate();
  //commit
  con.commit();
  //close the jdbc connection
  con.close();
}

Add the jt400.jar from JTOpen to the ...\webapps\myzk\WEB-INF\lib directory. This jar file contains the JDBC driver for iSeries.

Restart Tomcat. Opening the url http://localhost:8080/myzk/dbconnect/jdbc.zul should give you this..


A wrong password does not trigger an error and the application seems to hang -- the host system may have requested a password re-entry but the UI failed to render.

Reviewing the file contents shows the successful addition of new records..


ZK also released ZK Mobile 0.8.7 for the mobile platform on November 07, 2007.