ofbiz newbie

[anon]

Hello ofbiz users,
I am a newbie wit a couple of questions:

1- Is the tutorial "A beginners Development Guide" still current?

The reason I am asking is that I have been trying for more than 3 hours
to get part 2 to work but I always get the error message:
/java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not find screen file with
name [component://practice/webapp//
///practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]//./
When I remove the /webapp/ part from the path, I get:
/java.lang.RuntimeException: Error rendering included screen named
[CommonPracticeDecorator] at location
[component://practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]:
java.io.FileNotFoundException:
/media/VERBATIMSSD/ofbiz/trunk/hot-deploy/practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml
(No such file or directory)/
The file is there. I have tried many different combinations with and
without the "webapp" part, but to no avail. I thought this thing was
going to be simple but it is a little bit frustrating. I have looked in
the example application and the main difference at this point is whether
or not /webapp/ should be there or not.

2- How do ofbiz experts actually develop their applications and what am
I doing wrong?

I spent close to 4 hours trying to fix what I believe is a trivial
thing, but 90% of that time was spent restarting the application even
though I am running in debug mode with the latest from svn. If I change
a single character in a single xml file, I restart the whole server. I
really want to like this software because of the amount of work I see
that people have put in but this is one of those times I wished I was a
php developer.
Thx for your help.

[Jacques Le Roux]

On Saturday, January 18, 2014 3:54 PM, [hidden email] wrote
> Hello ofbiz users,
> I am a newbie wit a couple of questions:

Welcome :)
 
> 1- Is the tutorial "A beginners Development Guide" still current?

I can't guarantee it's up to date. It seems people still used it recently successfully...

> The reason I am asking is that I have been trying for more than 3 hours
> to get part 2 to work but I always get the error message:
> /java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not find screen file with
> name [component://practice/webapp//
> ///practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]//./
> When I remove the /webapp/ part from the path, I get:
> /java.lang.RuntimeException: Error rendering included screen named
> [CommonPracticeDecorator] at location
> [component://practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]:
> java.io.FileNotFoundException:
> /media/VERBATIMSSD/ofbiz/trunk/hot-deploy/practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml
> (No such file or directory)/
> The file is there. I have tried many different combinations with and
> without the "webapp" part, but to no avail. I thought this thing was
> going to be simple but it is a little bit frustrating. I have looked in
> the example application and the main difference at this point is whether
> or not /webapp/ should be there or not.

It seems weird to me to have a widget screen defintion under webapp, normally this is under widget

> 2- How do ofbiz experts actually develop their applications and what am
> I doing wrong?
>
> I spent close to 4 hours trying to fix what I believe is a trivial
> thing, but 90% of that time was spent restarting the application even
> though I am running in debug mode with the latest from svn. If I change
> a single character in a single xml file, I restart the whole server.

This is a big, and often not enough known OFBiz advantage, most of the time you don't need to restart when you change things in dev mode (dev mode depends on the content of the cache.properties file, this is documented in wiki)
It's easier to name the main (I'll not get into details) cases where you need to restart:
* Java change (compilation)
* Service definition change (if your service is written in minilang you don't need to retart when changing the implementation)
* DB definition change (table, field, etc.)

If the caches are on (not on dev mode), it's the same but you need to clear the caches... webtools/control/FindUtilCache
You might even clear only the cache where things changed (production performance).

> really want to like this software because of the amount of work I see
> that people have put in but this is one of those times I wished I was a
> php developer.

Ten year ago when I began with OFBiz I had this feeling many times (though not to the point to wish being a PHP dev ;)
I believe it's easier now because you have access to more documentation.
I recommend to read the  ""Apache OFBiz Development: The Beginner's Tutorial ." https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Related+Books
Or if you are in TL;DR mode maybe have a look at Jad's recent prez: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index#OFBizDocumentationIndex-DocumentsonOtherSites

HTH

Jacques

> Thx for your help.

[anon]

I feel even more stupid right now. I had the widget folder under webapp:-D .
Thank you for the link to the presentation. A lot of good stuff in there.
Now I cannot run any app, I get the error

*java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: FreeMarker template location null
or empty

*I assume I have to cleanup and recompile different things, but I am not
sure what.


On 01/19/2014 11:05 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:

> On Saturday, January 18, 2014 3:54 PM, [hidden email] wrote
>> Hello ofbiz users,
>> I am a newbie wit a couple of questions:
> Welcome :)
>  
>> 1- Is the tutorial "A beginners Development Guide" still current?
> I can't guarantee it's up to date. It seems people still used it recently successfully...
>
>> The reason I am asking is that I have been trying for more than 3 hours
>> to get part 2 to work but I always get the error message:
>> /java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not find screen file with
>> name [component://practice/webapp//
>> ///practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]//./
>> When I remove the /webapp/ part from the path, I get:
>> /java.lang.RuntimeException: Error rendering included screen named
>> [CommonPracticeDecorator] at location
>> [component://practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]:
>> java.io.FileNotFoundException:
>> /media/VERBATIMSSD/ofbiz/trunk/hot-deploy/practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml
>> (No such file or directory)/
>> The file is there. I have tried many different combinations with and
>> without the "webapp" part, but to no avail. I thought this thing was
>> going to be simple but it is a little bit frustrating. I have looked in
>> the example application and the main difference at this point is whether
>> or not /webapp/ should be there or not.
> It seems weird to me to have a widget screen defintion under webapp, normally this is under widget
>
>> 2- How do ofbiz experts actually develop their applications and what am
>> I doing wrong?
>>
>> I spent close to 4 hours trying to fix what I believe is a trivial
>> thing, but 90% of that time was spent restarting the application even
>> though I am running in debug mode with the latest from svn. If I change
>> a single character in a single xml file, I restart the whole server.
> This is a big, and often not enough known OFBiz advantage, most of the time you don't need to restart when you change things in dev mode (dev mode depends on the content of the cache.properties file, this is documented in wiki)
> It's easier to name the main (I'll not get into details) cases where you need to restart:
> * Java change (compilation)
> * Service definition change (if your service is written in minilang you don't need to retart when changing the implementation)
> * DB definition change (table, field, etc.)
>
> If the caches are on (not on dev mode), it's the same but you need to clear the caches... webtools/control/FindUtilCache
> You might even clear only the cache where things changed (production performance).
>
>> really want to like this software because of the amount of work I see
>> that people have put in but this is one of those times I wished I was a
>> php developer.
> Ten year ago when I began with OFBiz I had this feeling many times (though not to the point to wish being a PHP dev ;)
> I believe it's easier now because you have access to more documentation.
> I recommend to read the  ""Apache OFBiz Development: The Beginner's Tutorial ." https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Related+Books
> Or if you are in TL;DR mode maybe have a look at Jad's recent prez: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index#OFBizDocumentationIndex-DocumentsonOtherSites
>
> HTH
>
> Jacques
>
>> Thx for your help.
>

[Pierre Smits]

Hi,

Re: 2- How do ofbiz experts actually develop their applications and what am
I doing wrong?

This is the approach I would advice:
1. Use your preferred download from http://ofbiz.apache.org or use a
checkout from svn.
2. Get acquainted with building and loading demo data (with ./ant build and
./ant load-demo) and starting/stopping OFBiz with ./ant start and ./ant stop
3. If you feel confident about working with step 2, use ./ant
create-component to create your bespoke development component. This
component will be created in the hot-deploy folder of OFbiz and will have
all the basics to create screens, forms, menus, your bespoke entitiy model
and services.
4. rebuild ofbiz with ./ant build and ./ant load demo to ensure your
component will be recognized and have your bespoke setup data loaded when
running OFBiz.
5. Get acquainted with the files in your bespoke component.
6. Create your screens, forms, menus, .ftl and .groovy files in the correct
sub folders.

Don't worry about restarting ofbiz while doing your stuff in your
component. You can modify and test drive the changes in your  screen, form,
and controller files and in your .ftl and .groovy files without having to
go back to step 4 described above. Only when you add external jars, create
and modify services, scripts and java files you will need to execute step 4.

Regards,

Pierre Smits

*ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
Services & Solutions for Cloud-
Based Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Retail & Trade
http://www.orrtiz.com

[Jacques Le Roux]

Not sure you need to compile anything, you might simply need to find a wrong freemarker location reference in your code
Something like
<html><html-template location="component://................ftl"/></html>

Jacques

On Sunday, January 19, 2014 2:36 PM, [hidden email] wrote

> I feel even more stupid right now. I had the widget folder under webapp:-D .
> Thank you for the link to the presentation. A lot of good stuff in there.
> Now I cannot run any app, I get the error
>
> *java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: FreeMarker template location null
> or empty
>
> *I assume I have to cleanup and recompile different things, but I am not
> sure what.
>
>
> On 01/19/2014 11:05 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>> On Saturday, January 18, 2014 3:54 PM, [hidden email] wrote
>>> Hello ofbiz users,
>>> I am a newbie wit a couple of questions:
>> Welcome :)
>>
>>> 1- Is the tutorial "A beginners Development Guide" still current?
>> I can't guarantee it's up to date. It seems people still used it recently successfully...
>>
>>> The reason I am asking is that I have been trying for more than 3 hours
>>> to get part 2 to work but I always get the error message:
>>> /java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not find screen file with
>>> name [component://practice/webapp//
>>> ///practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]//./
>>> When I remove the /webapp/ part from the path, I get:
>>> /java.lang.RuntimeException: Error rendering included screen named
>>> [CommonPracticeDecorator] at location
>>> [component://practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml]:
>>> java.io.FileNotFoundException:
>>> /media/VERBATIMSSD/ofbiz/trunk/hot-deploy/practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml
>>> (No such file or directory)/
>>> The file is there. I have tried many different combinations with and
>>> without the "webapp" part, but to no avail. I thought this thing was
>>> going to be simple but it is a little bit frustrating. I have looked in
>>> the example application and the main difference at this point is whether
>>> or not /webapp/ should be there or not.
>> It seems weird to me to have a widget screen defintion under webapp, normally this is under widget
>>
>>> 2- How do ofbiz experts actually develop their applications and what am
>>> I doing wrong?
>>>
>>> I spent close to 4 hours trying to fix what I believe is a trivial
>>> thing, but 90% of that time was spent restarting the application even
>>> though I am running in debug mode with the latest from svn. If I change
>>> a single character in a single xml file, I restart the whole server.
>> This is a big, and often not enough known OFBiz advantage, most of the time you don't need to restart when you change things in
>> dev mode (dev mode depends on the content of the cache.properties file, this is documented in wiki) It's easier to name the main
>> (I'll not get into details) cases where you need to restart:
>> * Java change (compilation)
>> * Service definition change (if your service is written in minilang you don't need to retart when changing the implementation)
>> * DB definition change (table, field, etc.)
>>
>> If the caches are on (not on dev mode), it's the same but you need to clear the caches... webtools/control/FindUtilCache
>> You might even clear only the cache where things changed (production performance).
>>
>>> really want to like this software because of the amount of work I see
>>> that people have put in but this is one of those times I wished I was a
>>> php developer.
>> Ten year ago when I began with OFBiz I had this feeling many times (though not to the point to wish being a PHP dev ;)
>> I believe it's easier now because you have access to more documentation.
>> I recommend to read the  ""Apache OFBiz Development: The Beginner's Tutorial ."
>> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Related+Books 
>> Or if you are in TL;DR mode maybe have a look at Jad's recent prez:
>> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index#OFBizDocumentationIndex-DocumentsonOtherSites 
>>
>> HTH
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>>> Thx for your help.

[anon]

Thank you very much indeed. When I run everything from the command line,
it works perfectly. Somehow, I still have some issues with eclipse in
debug mode. But I like your approach.

On 01/19/2014 03:03 PM, Pierre Smits wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Re: 2- How do ofbiz experts actually develop their applications and what am
> I doing wrong?
>
> This is the approach I would advice:
> 1. Use your preferred download from http://ofbiz.apache.org or use a
> checkout from svn.
> 2. Get acquainted with building and loading demo data (with ./ant build and
> ./ant load-demo) and starting/stopping OFBiz with ./ant start and ./ant stop
> 3. If you feel confident about working with step 2, use ./ant
> create-component to create your bespoke development component. This
> component will be created in the hot-deploy folder of OFbiz and will have
> all the basics to create screens, forms, menus, your bespoke entitiy model
> and services.
> 4. rebuild ofbiz with ./ant build and ./ant load demo to ensure your
> component will be recognized and have your bespoke setup data loaded when
> running OFBiz.
> 5. Get acquainted with the files in your bespoke component.
> 6. Create your screens, forms, menus, .ftl and .groovy files in the correct
> sub folders.
>
> Don't worry about restarting ofbiz while doing your stuff in your
> component. You can modify and test drive the changes in your  screen, form,
> and controller files and in your .ftl and .groovy files without having to
> go back to step 4 described above. Only when you add external jars, create
> and modify services, scripts and java files you will need to execute step 4.
>
> Regards,
>
> Pierre Smits
>
> *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
> Services & Solutions for Cloud-
> Based Manufacturing, Professional
> Services and Retail & Trade
> http://www.orrtiz.com
>

[Pierre Smits]

You're welcome.

There are some mail threads on how to work this from Eclipse. Just do a
search in the mail archives.

Regards,

Pierre Smits

*ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
Services & Solutions for Cloud-
Based Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Retail & Trade
http://www.orrtiz.com