Show the UINavigationController Root View Controller in UITabBarController

A method for showing the UINavigationController Root View Controller in UITabBarController using introspection to determine class membership.

When programming on iPhone or iPad, it’s common to have a UITabBarController mixed with UINavigationController.

You will probably find yourself needing to show the Root View Controller of a Navigation Controller when you switch Tabs in the Tab Controller. Continue reading “Show the UINavigationController Root View Controller in UITabBarController”

Now listening to “Free: The Future of a Radical Price”

Shane Culp mentioned Chris Anderson’s book “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” during a Boston Game Loop discussion on Indie Business Strategies. Chris Anderson’s book promises to discuss things like Freemium strategies, piracy and the like. This is all very interesting to the indie game developer.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price
Free: The Future of a Radical Price
I found Free: The Future of a Radical Price online.

But, it is also available on Audible. There are two versions: a free, unabridged (7 hr +/-) version and an abridged, straight-to-the-point version (3:20 hrs +/-).

It’s also available online in Scribd format.

How do you get MySQL Administrator GUI to work with XAMPP on Mac OS X?

I had trouble getting MySQL GUI Adminstration tools to connect to my XAMPP installed MySQL database server on Mac OS X. This solution may help people who have the same problem and don’t know how to figure it out.

I’m working on a Mac with OS X 10.5.7 and a fresh XAMPP 1.0.1 install. XAMPP gives your OS X a complete Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP installation to work with. With it, you can develop on your Mac with a complete web server. (Sure, Mac comes with most of this stuff built in, but XAMPP is really nice and allows you to have your Mac web services turned off for security.)

XAMPP also comes with phpMyAdmin for managing your MySQL server through a web page. I find phpMyAdmin to be awesome for most of what I do with a database. Sometimes I need to revert to command-line for large datafiles and stuff, but I’d say 99.9% of the time I can use phpMyAdmin for what I’m doing. I ran into a problem with phpMyAdmin trying to view a database table that was imported from an Excel export. For some reason, the phpMyAdmin page is just plain white – making me think there was some web/parsing/display problem involved. I needed a different way to view the DB. For this kind of thing I hate the command line. (The line wrapping…blech!)

Continue reading “How do you get MySQL Administrator GUI to work with XAMPP on Mac OS X?”

Use Game Editor to create a cross-platform game for GP2X F-200 and Windows Mobile

I am going to show an example of writing a cross-plaform game for GP2X/GP2X F-200 and Windows Mobile. I’ll test it out on a GP2X F-200, Palm Treo 750W and AT&T 8125 smartphone. It will also be playable on Windows and Linux, too.

goalie trials screenshot
goalie trials screenshot

Continue reading “Use Game Editor to create a cross-platform game for GP2X F-200 and Windows Mobile”

Instantiating an iReport Collection parameter from an Array in one line

While working with iReport, I wanted to test my report with a default Collection value for my Hibernate Query.

The HQL is something like this,


SELECT person.fullName as personName
FROM Person person
WHERE person.id in ($P{people})

“Data” from Star Trek, by: JD Hancock

Continue reading “Instantiating an iReport Collection parameter from an Array in one line”

Currently Reading: Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails

I have a project for Facebook which I’ve done a little work on. But, at this juncture I need to decide whether to proceed with Ruby or PHP. PHP is the sanctioned tool for Facebook – since they seem to have abandoned all other development tools. Ruby on Rails is the most beloved tool of the web. Every developer turns into a poet and philosopher after getting RoR on themselves.

developing facebook applications with rails
Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails

So, I got the beta PDF of Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails from Pragmatic Programmers. So far, the book is a pleasure to read.

Continue reading “Currently Reading: Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails”

JUnit Testing JNDI Datasources: Thinking outside of the Container

When it comes to JNDI Datasources, you really need a fast way to test outside of the container without changing all of your configuration just because your testing.

java programming tipsOne of the problems with using a JNDI Datasource is Unit Testing outside of the container. Testing in the container is a pain and it’s slow if you are fixing bugs or just testing to make sure what you have works after a few changes. It’s OK for system tests.

Another option might be to have one set of configuration for the container and one for Unit Testing. An example might be to have two files controlled by your classpath or even worse, one file which you comment/uncomment to get the datasource you need. Then hope you package up the right configuration for the release.

What you really need a fast way to test outside of the container without changing all of your configuration just because your testing. Thankfully, spring provides a nice way to test your application outside of the container. Just bind your resource to a SimpleNamingContext mock and voila!
Continue reading “JUnit Testing JNDI Datasources: Thinking outside of the Container”