Tuesday, March 20, 2012

A ToDoList for the Masses

I have started work on a new social media web app for sharing one's to-do list with friends and coworkers.
Initial proof of concept design.
My motivations for this project are numerous:
  1. To fulfill a personal need for a web based to-do list.
  2. To create something cool and learn some new skills along the way.
  3. To build a free, open-source platform that provides a more efficient way for people to work together.

Here are some use cases:
  1. People who need a generic to-do list for everyday tasks like feeding the dog, buying milk, paying the bills, etc.
  2. Students who want to sync up all class assignments and eliminate confusion on due dates.  Teachers/professors will be able to form groups and electronically push assignments to their students.
  3. People who need to work collaboratively in team projects.  Developers already have tools like issue trackers, but what about the non-developer masses?  Every single organization can benefit from project management tools.
  4. Friends who want to know what their friends are up to.

I found a great site that offers free icons here.

My project is hosted on GitHub here.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

How to Set Up Play Framework 2.0 Javadocs for Eclipse

Play framework 2.0 was released a few days ago and many developers are wondering how to set up the Javadocs for Eclipse.  The documentation is quite lacking so I hope this post will show up on Google and save some people a few hours.

The Problem:
No Javadocs!
The Solution:
  • In Eclipse, select your project in the Project Explorer
  • In the menu bar, select Project > Properties > Java Build Path > Libraries
  • Scroll down and look for play_2.9.1.jar
  • Click the arrow on play_2.9.1.jar and set the Source attachment and Javadoc location
  • Edit the Source attachment, click External Folder, and point to play-2.0/framework/src/play/src
  • Edit the Javadoc location, click Browse under Javadoc URL, and point to play-2.0/documentation/api/java

The Result:
Yay Javadocs!
Some other helpful tips:

Be sure to install the Scala plugin for Eclipse here.  Play 2.0 now uses Scala so the plugin will fix any pesky problems in Eclipse where it can't resolve some classes and methods provided by the framework.

If you're using Git to host your Play projects, check out the sample .gitignore file here.  Just stick it into your Play project folder.  It automatically excludes all Eclipse configuration files and makes it easy to work across multiple environments and developers.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Tech News Roundup

Here are some great sites for the tech-minded reader.  They cover the entire gamut from software, hardware, startups, and science in general.  I have these all bookmarked myself.

Reddit - http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/

HackerNews - http://news.ycombinator.com/

TechCrunch - http://techcrunch.com/

DZone - http://www.dzone.com/links/index.html

DailyTech - http://www.dailytech.com/

TechReport - http://techreport.com/

CNNMoney - http://money.cnn.com/technology/

CNet News - http://news.cnet.com/