From A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za> Thu Aug 19 19:51:44 2010 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain From: "A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za>" Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:51:44 +0200 Subject: Bugs, assignments, live chat and filemanager

=09ELearning Dev update: In the past week or so, we have managed to bag 9 b= ugs (yeah, these were needing attention for sometime now). The develo pment = team has a new member, and that means we are going to attack them m uch more= faster. We are handling some feature requests too, case in point : Assignme= nts. For starters, someone forgot that assignments can  be submitted a= s pdf uploads. Of course until a user alerted us a bout 2 day s ago. Assignm= ents can also be created via worgroups, Group Assignments t hey are called. = The LiveChat module seems to be progressing fine, it is a ctually usable, bu= t it needs a little more polishing etc. The unique thin g about LiveChat is = it is actually a component of the Virtual Classroom, which is also going to= see light of the day in production very soon (am h orrible with dates). And= we did  updates to the filemanager too. Mos t importantly was reducing= the number of steps (clicks) required to inser t a file in an editor, or ev= en selecting a photo for your profile. From 3 steps to just a single click.=

From A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za> Mon Jul 12 21:01:28 2010 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain From: "A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za>" Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:01:28 +0200 Subject: Course auto-registration available for eLearning

=09 

=09This week, the te am leader in Instructional = Design,  Fatima, is going to introduce a large group of students to ou= r eLearning platform. One thing was obvoius: no way we are manually going t= o enroll individual students into the cour se. Earlier in the year, our coll= eages from the CNS  Java team had c reated web services that could be c= onsumed to access certain student info rmation, like the course units they&#= 39;ve registered. So us being us (re ad Chisimbians), we quickly took advant= age of this, and the next minute, we are pulling the information from the J= avaians (correct spelling ??) an d the students are auto-enrolling into the = courses they registered for. F or once, this was actually fun ...

From A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za> Mon Jul 12 09:47:18 2010 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain From: "A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za>" Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:47:18 +0200 Subject: Blogging, Tweeting available for eLSI

=09 

=09T= he eLearning Support and Innovation (eLSI) &nb sp;site (https://elearn.wits.ac.za) is now enabled for blogging, tweetin= g and posting general eLearning ne ws. The new functionality was unveiled on= July 9th 2010 in a silent launc h at the unit. Plans are underway to integr= ate the blog system with the k im site, such just a single post is all you n= eed to make posts on both si tes. To post a blog, sign in using your wits cr= edetials - username as the staff number and using the corresponding oracle = password. One of eLSI st aff members,  Derek Moore, was kind enough to = set up a hash tag #els i for eLearning tweets. Simply tweet something, and i= nclude #elsi in the text and your tweet will appear on the site. This is po= ssible because of the underlying Chisimba framework that natively supports = tweeting. The si te is also the entry point for the eLearning  system, = KEWL. From A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za> Sat Jan 16 14:55:38 2010 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain From: "A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za>" Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:55:38 +0200 Subject: Creating cool user interfaces in Chisimba using GWT, EXTJS and Netbeans-Par= t 1. In this article, I document the steps that I followed when setting up envir= onment for creating user interfaces in Chisimba using Google Web Toolkit ( G= WT), Ext GWT and Netbeans. This is the first in the series that I will p ost= here.

=09Requirements:

    =09
  1. =09=09JDK 1.= 6 or later
    =20 =09=09 
    2. =09
  2. =09=09 Ne= tbea ns 6.8 or later
    =20 =09=09
    3. =09
  3. =09=09GWT S= DK 2.0 or later
    =20 =0 9=09
    4. =09
  4. =09=09Ext GWT 2.1 or later
    =20 =09=09
    5. =09
  5. =09=09Ant 1.7 or later is also neces= sary to run command li ne arguments.

=09 

=09Getting started

    =0 9
  1. =09=09
    =09=09=09Download and unzip the Google Web Toolkit SDK. This contains the c= ore libraries, compiler, and development server that y ou need to write web = applications. On Windows, extract the files from the compressed folder gwt-2.0.0.zip. On Mac or Linux, you can u npack the package with a = command like
    =20 =09=09=09
    =20 =09 =09=09unzip gwt-2.0.0.zip
    =20 =09=09=09 
    =09
    2. =09
  2. =09=09
    =09=09=09Download the latest Ext GWT releas e here. Unzip the distro anywhere on your file s= ystem, you will need to point to it lat er in the setup.
    =09
    3. =09
  3. =09=09
    =09=09=09Download an d install Netbeans IDE
    =09

=09Cr eate GWT-EXT Library for Netbeans

    =09
  1. =09=09

    =09=09=09R un your Netbeans IDE. Go to Tools → Libraries.
    =20 =09=09=09
    =20 =09=09=09

    =09
    2. =09
  2. =09=09

    =09=09=09 Click on New Library= bu tton on bottom left of the dialo= g to create a new library.
    =20 =0 9=09=09
    =20 =09=09=09

    =09
    3. =09
  3. =09=09

    =09=0 9=09In the Library Name<= /i> field , type Ext-GWT. Leave the Library Typ= e to default. Click OK
    =20 = 09=09=09
    =20 =09=09=09

    =09
    4. =09
  4. =09=09

    =09= 09=09The new library will be listed in the library list.
    =20 =09=09=0 9 

    =09
    5. =09
  5. =09=09

    =09=09=09The new library is still selec= ted, click Add JAR/Fo lder= button on the right hand sid e of the screen. This should bring the filebro= swer. Navigate to the direc tory you extracted gwt-2.0.0 select and add the = following jars:
    =20 =09=09=09
    =20 =0 9=09=09gwt-api-checker.jar gwt-dev.jar gwt-servlet.jar gwt-soyc-vis.jar g= wt-user.jar
    =20 =09=09=09
    =20 =09=09=09

    = 09
    6. =09
  6. =09=09

    =09=09=09Cl ick on the Add JAR= /Folder button again, but this time= navigate to the folder you extracted gxt-2 .1, and select and add gxt.jar f= ile. The Ext-GWT library should now have the required jar files listed.

    =09

=20 < span style=3D"font-style: normal;">Now you are ready to create your first = project.
=20

=09Creating your project

=09 In order to use the GWT engine, we w= i ll first a create a project using the command line tools that are shipped = with GWT. GWT ships with a command line utility called webAppCreator that automatically generates all the files you'll nee= d in order to start a GWT project. We will use these files to create a Netb= eans project.

=09Generate GWT project using command l= ine tools

=09Using your command line terminal, change directories to the root of gwt-= 2.0.0 folder. Create a new application called MyWebApp with t he command: 

webAppCrea
tor -out MyWebApp c=
om.mycompany.mywebapp.MyWebApp


=09If you are
 using a Mac, you may need to make the script executable. In t=
hat case, u
se the following commands:


chmod u+x webAppCreator

./
webAppCreator -out MyWebApp com.mycompany.mywebapp.MyWebApp




=09The webAppCreator script will generate a number of files in=

 MyWebApp/, including some basic "Hello, world" fun
c=
tionality in the class MyWebApp/src/com/mycompany/mywebapp/client/
MyW=
ebApp.java. The script also generates an Ant build script MyWe=
bApp/build.xml.



=09Create Netbeans project

 
=20

    
=09
  1. 
=09=09<
span style=3D"font-style: normal;">In Netbeans IDE, go to =
File 
→ New Project
    2. 
=09
  2. 
=09=09In Categories, sele
ct Java, in P
rojects, select Java Pr
oject with Existing Sources. Clic
k Next. 
    3. 
=
09
  3. 
=09=09In Project Name<
/i>, type MyWebApp, and select the project folder of 
your choice=
. Click Next
. 
    =20
=09=09
    4. 
=09
  4. 
=09=09Here you add sources t
o the proje=
ct. Click Add Folder butt=
on, and navigate to the MyWebApp folder you created in earli
er section, and=
 select the src folder. C=
lick OK. The sources should be added now. The click Finish to create the projec
t. The project will h=
ave errors. Now its time to add the library we creat
ed in earlier section.<=
/span> 
    5. 
=09
  5. 
=09=09Right click on your MyWebApp proj=
ect, choose Pro
perties. I=
n the properties window
, in Categories, select
 Libraries. Then on rig
ht hand of the window, click on Add Library. Look for Ext-GWT, and add it using <=
/span>Add Li
brary button. Click =
OK. The error
s in your project should disappear now
    6. 




=09Running your application



=09In order to run the proj
ect, you nee=
d to set the Main class.<=
/span>


    
=09
  1. 
=09=09
    
=09=09=09Right click on you MyWebApp pr=
oject, select Properties.=
 In the propertie
s window, select Run. A
dd the following line to the Main Class field
    
=09=09
    
=09=09=09com.google.gwt.dev.DevMode
    
=09
    2. 
=09
  2. 

=09=09
    
=09=09=09In the Arg
uments=
 field, add the following
    
=09=09
    
=09=09=09-
startupUrl MyWebApp.h=
tml com.mycompany.mywebapp.MyWebApp<
/p>
=09
    3. 
=09
  3. 
=09=09
    
=09=09=09In VM options field, add -Xmx2=
56M
    
=09
    4. 
=09
  4. 
=09=
09
    
=09=09=09Your project is ready no
w. Cli=
ck Run 
    =20
=09=09=09
    
=09=09
    
=09=09=09 <
/p>
=09
    5. 
=09
  5. 
=09=09
    
=09=09=09Click on Launch Default Brower=
 button to see your s
keleton project. Note, since this might be your first =
time hitting the de
velopment mode server, it will prompt you to install the=
 Google Web Toolk
it Developer Plugin. Follow the instructions in the browse=
r to install th
e plugin. Once the Google Web Toolkit Developer Plugi=
n is installe
d in your browser, navigate to the URL again and the starter a=
pplication 
will load in development mode.
    
=09=09
    
=09=09=09 
    
=09
    6. 





=09In the next article, we
 will expand =
on our application to use Ext GWT components and see how you
 can integrate =
this into Chisimba.



From A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za> Wed Jan 06 15:36:50 2010
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	charset="ISO-8859-15"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
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From: "A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za>"
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:36:50 +0200
Subject: Enterprise document management - dms 1.0.0 alpha

This is to announce the first release of enterprise document managenent sys=

tem. It extends  (and duplicates some of the functionality) of the fi
l=
emanager module in chisimba. The system is implemented as a module in ch
isi=
mba, named dms. Its an alpha release . Some of the feautures available
 are:=
  
=20

    
=09
  1. 
=09=09Folders: Create /rename/ delete fo
lders
    2. 
=09
  2. 
=09=09All uploaded docs are assigned ref nos
    3. 
=09<
li>
=09=09Admin assigns view/read/write permissions per folder to users
=09
  3. 
=09=09Icon preview for files
    4. 
=09
  4. 
=09=09Download of up
loaded files, the download link is hidden to avoid ille=
gal donwloads
    5. 

=09
  5. 
=09=09Upload directory outside the webroot folder for security re
asons
    6. 
=09
  6. 
=09=09Fileupload manager ...gives upload progress
    7. 


=09
  7. 
=09=09Easy to use 'dolphin' like files explorer developed 
using ext=
-gwt.
    8. 


Most of the code was developed through the KI
M internship programme.  
=20
 
=20
 
=20
   
 
=20
 
=20
 
=20


From A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za> Sat Dec 19 11:24:11 2009
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	charset="ISO-8859-15"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain
From: "A0017615<David.Wafula@wits.ac.za>"
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:24:11 +0200
Subject: Chisimba Realtime Tools  1.0.2 beta3



=09Chisimba Realtime Tools  1.0.2 beta3 is here. This is a minor b
ug-f=
ix release . Here are the main issues addressed:



=091. Audi
o/Video subsystem was crashing sometimes, taking down the whole s=
ystem wi
th it. Fixed.



=092. When a participant is kicked out of the room, 
there was no notificati=
on to the affected user. Fixed.



=093. Us
ers could start private chats with themselves. Of course its silly.=
 Fixed




=094. Admin could kick him/her-self from the room. Fixed.



=095. If a remote desktop viewer is closed when in session, it could not 
be=
 opened. This has been fixed.



=09A preview of the  featu
res to come in 1.0.3:



=091. Emotion indicators



=092. Acc
urately syn'ced pointers on whatever screen size



=093. 24/7 vi
sible whiteboard toolbar



=09and  bug fixes.



=09etc.




=09Recording feature will debut  in 1.1. For downloads and d
ocumentati=
on, visit the download page here. Try the demo here=




=09 



=09 



=0
9 
=20
=09