Commodities

Time again to hit the road. After clearing out many of my day job assignments I have finally found some spare time to start working on the commodities maintenance module.

Got Item Definitions and Locations

The item definition and location modules have been finished today. I'll start working on the commodities module next.

Containers

I'm slowly making good progress for the containers maintenance module. Here is an screenshoot of how it will look.

Container, Commodity and Item Definition.

This is the final domain model for the Container maintenance module, it will require two supporting modules which are Commodity and Item Definition. I already got the domains coded and will be moving forward on the controllers and facades to support the graphical user interfaces.

Containers Module

I started modeling today the domains for the Containers module which will be accessible from Shipments. This is a quick snapshot of what is going to take to get it done.

Overactive Logistics Pre Alpha 1.4 released.

WHAT IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS?
Overactive Logistics is a freight forwarding open source software solution being developed for the cargo transportation industry.
It runs in both web based or stand alone modes and provides a graphical user interface with rich client capabilities.

WHERE TO GET UP TO DATE INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECT STATUS?
You can get information about the project current status and development efforts in the project's site located at:
http://overactive.sourceforge.net/

HOW TO CONTACT US?
You can contact us sending us an email to:
overactive.source@gmail.com

UNDER WHAT OPEN SOURCE LICENSE IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS RELEASED?
Overactive Logistics is being release under the Overactive Source Public License which is a derivative from the Mozilla Public License.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS VERSION (PRE ALPHA 1.4)?
This version contains the latest progress made on Shipments and Shipment Charges

-Progress made on Incomming/Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-Progress made on Shipment Charges and Freight Charges (Income, Expense)
-Vendor maintenance
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance

WHAT ARE THE GOALS FOR THE FIRST BETA VERSION?
The initial Beta version aims to provide the following modules:

-Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-Incoming Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Vendor maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance
-Reports

HOW TO INSTALL?

For detailed steps please click on the Installation Instructions link.

The following is a high level overview of the installation steps:

Software requirements
-JBoss 4.2.0 GA
-MySQL Server 5.0
-MySQL Tools 5.0
-MySQL Connector/J 5.0.4
-Web browser with Java Plug-in 1.4.0 or higher

Database creation (using MySQL Administrator)
-Create a new database schema (catalog) called LOGISTICS
-Do a "Restore" using the "logistics.sql" backup file in the newly created "Target Schema" LOGISTICS

Application deployment (in JBoss)
-Type the database user name and password where required inside the file mysql-ds.xml and deploy it in JBoss
-Deploy the mysql-connector-java-5.0.4-bin.jar driver in JBoss
-Deploy the overactive-logistics.ear in JBoss

Running the aplication
-Open your web browser and type the following link:
http://localhost:8080/logistics/
-Once the login screen shows up access the application using the following:
User : admin
Password: admin

Hitting the road again.

It feels good to be back again. I've been very busy in the last few months working in my day job attending to client accounts and clearing some much needed certifications plus writing some articles.

Now I finally got enough time to retake the development of Overactive Logistics and as a first step I worked last night migrating the development environment to the JBoss 4.20 version.

I'm planning to do some little refactoring on the Overactive Core to make the kernel more cohesive since for the last few years it kept growing and growing getting features implemented as soon as possible and in the rush some portions of the code got a little bit rusty.

Also as I reported in my last post the EAR has being re structured to have the Overactive Core standing in its own jar file instead of being merged across the project.

Expect a new release soon.

Overactive Core

In the last few weeks I've been focusing my attention in the Overactive Core to make it a complete separate framework that can be deployed in its own JAR file inside the WEB-INF\lib or referenced in the Class-Path attribute of the MANIFEST.MF in the WAR since currently the Overactive Core is deployed totally embedded with the Overactive Logistic's core. This change will make easier the creation of new releases specially because the Overactive Core has reached a very stable state.

I'm waiting for the production release of JBoss 5.0 to migrate the development version of Overactive Logistics and continue moving forward.

Overactive Logistics Pre Alpha 1.3 released

IMPORTANT NOTE: This release has been compiled with and requires the JDK 6. There have been issues reported with backward compatibility with the JDK 1.5.0_10 and previous versions when attempting to deploy in JBoss.

Please refer to the the Installation Instructions

WHAT IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS?
Overactive Logistics is a freight forwarding open source software solution being developed for the cargo transportation industry.
It runs in both web based or stand alone modes and provides a graphical user interface with rich client capabilities.

WHERE TO GET UP TO DATE INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECT STATUS?
You can get information about the project current status and development efforts in the project's site located at:
http://overactive.sourceforge.net/

HOW TO CONTACT US?
You can contact us sending us an email to:
overactive.source@gmail.com

UNDER WHAT OPEN SOURCE LICENSE IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS RELEASED?
Overactive Logistics is being release under the Overactive Source Public License which is a derivative from the Mozilla Public License.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS VERSION (PRE ALPHA 1.3)?
This version contains the latest progress made on Shipments and Shipment Charges

-Progress made on Incomming/Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-Progress made on Shipment Charges and Freight Charges (Income, Expense)
-Vendor maintenance
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance

WHAT ARE THE GOALS FOR THE FIRST BETA VERSION?
The initial Beta version aims to provide the following modules:

-Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-Incoming Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Vendor maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance
-Reports

HOW TO INSTALL?

You can find detailed installation instructions by visiting the project's site at: http://overactive.sourceforge.net/
and selecting the link "Installation Instructions" in the right side section titled "Project Links".

The following is a high level overview of the installation steps:

Software requirements
-JBoss 4.0.4 GA
-MySQL Server 5.0
-MySQL Administrator 1.1.4
-MySQL Connector/J 3.1
-Web browser with Java Plug-in 1.4.0 or higher

Database creation (using MySQL Administrator)
-Create a new database schema (catalog) called LOGISTICS
-Do a "Restore" using the "logistics.sql" backup file in the newly created "Target Schema" LOGISTICS

Application deployment (in JBoss)
-Type the database user name and password where required inside the file mysql-ds.xml and deploy it in JBoss
-Deploy the mysql-connector-java-5.0.3-bin.jar driver in JBoss
-Deploy the overactive-logistics.ear in JBoss

Running the aplication
-Open your web browser and type the following link:
http://localhost:8080/logistics/
-Once the login screen shows up access the application using the following:
User : admin
Password: admin

New release comming up!

The new release Pre Alpha 1.3 is comming up very soon.

Stay tunned!

Happy New Year!

We wish you all a happy, productive and overactive new year!

This year we'll be aiming to have a fully operational shipments module and start incorporating reports into Overactive Logistics and who knows maybe release our first Beta Version!

We are slowly making progress in the shipment charges sub module that is part of the shipments module, once completed we'll be releasing our Overactive Logistics Pre Alpha 1.3 Version.

Here are some screenshoots:

Shipment Charges Update.

My day job has been keeping me extremely busy. The project I'm currently working on has some aggressive deadlines and for the last month and a half I had to put on the side working on Overactive Logistics and just doing some little stuff from time to time.

However the shipment charges module is moving on, slowly but moving forward. Here is an screenshoot.

Shipment Charges.

Time to take the road again!. I'm currently working on income and expense shipment and freight shipment charges. Stay tunned for updates.

Overactive Logistics Pre Alpha 1.2 released

WHAT IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS
Overactive Logistics is a freight forwarding open source software solution being developed for the cargo transportation industry.
It runs in both web based or stand alone modes and provides a graphical user interface with rich client capabilities.

UNDER WHAT OPEN SOURCE LICENSE IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS RELEASED
Overactive Logistics is being release under the Overactive Source Public License which is a derivative from the Mozilla Public License.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS FOR THE FIRST BETA VERSION
The initial Beta version aims to provide the following modules:

-Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-Incoming Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Vendor maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance
-Reports

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS VERSION (PRE ALPHA 1.2)
This version was refactored to implement the latest and official version of EJB 3.0. The Carrier maintenance module was also refactore so the
three types of Carriers (Air, Land, Ocean) are now mapped to a single CARRIER database table.
This version also includes the release of the Shipment maintenance module (work in progress) that is capable of creating Air, Land and Ocean
shipments.

-Vendor maintenance
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance
-An snapshoot of Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)

HOW TO INSTALL

Please note that this section lists a high level overview of the installation. For a more detailed guide please visit the following link: Overactive Logistics Installation

Software requirements
-JBoss 4.0.4 GA
-MySQL Server 5.0
-MySQL Administrator 1.1.4
-MySQL Connector/J 5.0
-Web browser with Java Plug-in 1.4.0 or higher

Database creation (using MySQL Administrator)
-Create a new database schema (catalog) called LOGISTICS
-Do a "Restore" using the "logistics.sql" backup file in the newly created "Target Schema" LOGISTICS

Application deployment (in JBoss)
-Type the database user name and password where required inside the file mysql-ds.xml and deploy it in JBoss
-Deploy the mysql-connector-java-5.0.3-bin.jar driver in JBoss
-Deploy the overactive-logistics.ear in JBoss

Running the aplication
-Open your web browser and type the following link:
http://localhost:8080/logistics/
-Once the login screen shows up access the application using the following:
User : admin
Password: admin

WHERE TO GET UP TO DATE INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECT STATUS
You can get information about the project current status and development efforts in our blog located at:
http://overactive-logistics.blogspot.com/

HOW TO CONTACT US
You can contact us sending us an email to:
overactive.source@gmail.com

Added formatted textfield capabilities.

The Overactive Renderer has been enchanced to support formatted textfields by producing JFormattedTextField components with specific mask formats.

The formats supported are String, Integer, Time, Float, Short, Double, Long, Byte, Currency, Phone and Character.

During the past few weeks I implemented the necesary changes in Overactive Logistics to make use of this feature.

Here are some screenshoots showing the Phone and Time formats.

Shipments update.

Shipments is moving forward and getting in good shape, some delays to work on this module were caused by refactoring in the code and adjustments in the entity beans after the migration to the JBoss 4.0.4 version.

I'm still planning to create a release of Overactive Logistics before the end of this month, in the meantime here is an screen shoot of the shipments module.

JBoss 4.0.4

Finally last night I decided to migrate from JBoss 4.0.3 to JBoss 4.0.4. I'm so glad I did! since the EJB3.0 implementation has changed in the new version and it was much better having to deal with it now than later!.

EJB3.0 has made small changes in the entity bean notations and in the way references to sesision beans are acquired out of the InitialContext class. For example now the name that it is bound is the one of the class and not the interface and it should be appended with "/remote" or "/local" respectively.

Also it was very nice to found that JBoss 4.0.4 starts faster while in debug mode and that an existing bug that happened when deploying .par and .ejb3 at the same time has been fixed.

Refactoring done!

I'm done refactoring Overactive Logistics to support automatic data conversion on post invocation in a form. This refactoring eliminated about 40% total of the application's code which was every single line of code written in the Web Commands to take the parameter out of the HttpServletRequest, convert it to the right type and set it in the collection to be sent to the EJBCommand.

Now I'm back with shipments which I calculate is about 70% done, the gui is in place as well as its web and ejb commands plus its ejb maintenance and domain classes. The pieces still to be completed are the notations to map the entitybeans and the database tables.

Significant refactoring comming up.

I'm putting the development of the shipments module temporarily on hold since I came up with a very cool idea that will reduce a lot of the amount of code required in the web commands.

One of the tasks for a web command is to convert the values of the parameters that are comming out from the HttpServletRequest object to their right types. For example a textfield element in a screen module my prompt for a number, when the form is submitted this value is sent to the server side component as an String due to HTTP. The web command then gets this value using the method getParameter(String) and converts it to Integer placing it later in a collection that will contain all the parameters for the required ejb command. This results in writing a lot of code to convert all the non String values to their right types.

By modifying the xsd definition for the input elements to require a type property, their values can be sent in the following way:

Integer:1
String:hello
Boolean:True
Float:5.912

Then a single method can parse all the value and convert them using the information provided.

This refactoring effort will eliminate up to 30% of the code that has already been written however it will require modify all the stylesheets to provide the type property in the definition of each input element.

Shipment module update.

The shipments module progress is moving slowly mainly because I'm trying to avoid the need for any future refactoring as much as possible. As I move forward I've been making improvements and refining the core framework that will minimize the amount of code written in the web commands.

If possible I'll try to have a release at the end of this month.