CPTTM software developer newsletter issue #25

This CPTTM Software Developer newsletter is to bring useful news to you, software developers in Macau, for references without obligations, so that you can do your jobs easier and better! Hope you like it. if you'd like to unsubscribe or recommend your friends to subscribe, just email me at kent@cpttm.org.mo. Old issues are available here.

Topics in this issue:

Develop Desktop application with your web technology skills

Thanks to Gmail and Facebook, and some popular killer web-based applications, many end-users are demanding for more user friendly and experience. We struggle to implement the project in desktop or web-based. Adobe heard your voice. Adobe AIR is the new kind of technology to bring your web-based application to your desktop. So now you might start to develop your app by HTML, CSS and Javascript or enabling a video playback by Flash in your app.

Air App

Adobe AIR runtime provides the bridge between your system and the web application so the Javascript or Flash/Flex could access to file system to do more interactive (such as Open File Dialog ) like the desktop application. Also, the database is supported for persistent storage (currently SQLLite is supported only for now) for your AIR application, I believe more and more databases could be supported soon. Adobe AIR application could be run on Windows, MacOS and Linux, this is the great news it takes the advantage from the web-based application. Just check out Adobe AIR official homepage to see some real products based on Adobe AIR by e-Bay and AOL.

Free E-Books for Web Developer

There are four free ebooks to download for web developer! If you want to learn how to develop a website with the latest web technology like: Ajax, CSS, HTML, Javascript.

You could download them here . Of course, we have also provided the courses about Web 2.0. Keep your eyes on our website.

Debug your shell scripts with bashdb

The Bash Debugger Project (bashdb) lets you set breakpoints, inspect variables, perform a backtrace, and step through a bash script line by line. In other words, it provides the features you expect in a C/C++ debugger to anyone programming a bash script.

Eclipse PHP 2.0 released!

Which tool you use for developing PHP application? Notepad? Dreamweaver? It is always hard to find a good IDE for dynamic language like PHP. The Eclipse Foundation has just released Eclipse PHP (PHP Development Tools, PDT) 2.0. It fufills your basic need of IDE: Coding assistant and Debugger.

Personally I think the coding assistant is good enough, the code completion works by pressing CRTL + Space by default ( the key combination is used by Chinese input method in MS Windows, you could change in preference dialog "General > Keys"). Some other things like parameter hint is good since the PHP manual is shipped with the IDE. One more thing, if you have sytax error, the editor will highlight the line for you.

PDT doesn't come with any bundled debugger but it is able to work with Zend Debugger or XDebug. There is an all-in-one version from Zend.com that I recommend you download. Because this bundle has shipped with Zend Debugger and build-in PHP interpreter, That means you don't need to configure anything or install PHP to run the code and debugging.

One missing bundle is Remote System Explorer(RSE). If you need SFTP/FTP connection to your remote server, you have to install Eclipse's Target Management Plugin for the deployment or remote debugging.

For my point of view, PDT is best choice for those who still use notepad as the development tool and who don't have too much budget to buy a good IDE. The code insighting and debugger must help you a lot.

Course updated: Writing Portlets in Java

Since the last course of Writing Portlets in Java was held quite successfully, we decide to open it again and lab session is added to make sure everyone could implement a real portlet after doing the class.

A portlet is a server-side gadget on a web page. If you ever went to Yahoo's home page, you have already seen portlets: There is a portlet showing the news items, while another may be showing the weather information. Here is a great tutorial on writing a simple porlet.

Instructor Incubation Scheme

During an economic downturn, it is a good time for people to learn something new to equip themselves. So we are welcome you to become an instructor at Cyberlab. Here is Instructor Incubation Scheme to help you develope your teaching skill.

For those candidates with potential teaching ability after the class, we will consider to hire them to teach IT courses. We are looking forward to seeing you in Cyberlab! Join now: Instructor Incubation Scheme.