Pete Tracey » Keyring Labs

Blueprint CSS Framework

Pete Tracey — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:30:39 +0000

I stumbled on the BluePrint CSS framework, seeing it used in another blog’s template. I had no idea there was such a thing as a CSS framework. So I’ve been playing around with it this morning.

I first wanted to try it out on a very simple page, and the public end of the bbpointofsale.com site is very simple but uses a lot of floats which are replaced in the framework with the concept of a “grid.” It makes things a lot simpler.

There was one tricky part, the content of bbpointofsale.com is centered ala most Google pages. In screen.css there is a container class that you use when you want to use grid layouts. The default width is 950px so it doesn’t center at all. I was only using 18 columns in my grid and the math for width of columns is columns * 40 – 10 = width so I changed it to this:

.container {width:710px;margin:0 auto;}

Viola! Centered content with the magic of grid layouts!

My initial impression is that the Blueprint CSS Framework is well worth learning and using for reduced development time and great simplicity and easier maintenance. Two thumbs up!

battlerc.com

Pete Tracey — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:27:57 +0000

I checked the stats for battlerc.com this morning. Turns out I’ve actually created a google search:
battle rc
rc plane laser tag
laser tag rc airplanes
jet laser tag
laser tag plane
rc laser aircraft
battlerc
laser tag airplanes
laser remote control
1 real laser tag
1 laser tag remote control
battlerc island

Nobody was searching for these things before, they’re all directly related to battlerc.com being up. Looks like there is some buzz. It’s about time for a mailing list send!

Card Swipe for BlackBerry

Pete Tracey — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:23:20 +0000

It’s been a good morning. I took the code from the manufacturer’s website and hooked it all in so that a BlackBerry should theoretically connect to the device and read card information. Now that I know the code is, well, sane, I can actually get the device with no worry that it’ll be a nightmare to interface with it from Java code. When I have it working with the device I’ll post an update here.

Here’s what the BlackBerry will show when no P25M is connected:

KSoap with PHP Tutorial

Pete Tracey — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:21:52 +0000

This post is for:
You: developing a BlackBerry application in KSoap2 with PHP as the server

If that doesn’t describe you, don’t read this post!
If that does describe you, hope you enjoy!

The first step is to preverify your KSoap jar file. Copy ksoap2-j2me-core-2.1.2.jar to C:\Program Files\Eclipse\plugins\net.rim.eide.componentpack4.5.0_4.5.0.16\components\bin

Make sure the JDK is in your PATH environment varaible.

Then run:

preverify -classpath "JDE_PATH_HERE\lib\net_rim_api.jar" "ksoap2-j2me-core-2.1.2.jar"

Preverify put a new jar into an “output” directory in that folder. Copy that to where you put the original jar.

Now add that jar in your eclipse project by clicking on your project properties and going to “Java Build Path” – make sure you click on “Order and Export” and check the box that tells it to export it.

Well here’s where the rubber meets the road, you need KSoap to talk to PHP. I created a “Service” class which handles all the communication with the server:

import java.io.IOException;
 
import org.ksoap2.SoapEnvelope;
import org.ksoap2.SoapFault;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.SoapObject;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.SoapSerializationEnvelope;
import org.ksoap2.transport.HttpTransport;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException;
 
public class Service {
	public static final String action = "http://keyringlabs.com/Login";
	public static final String namespaceRoot = "keyringlabs.com";
	public static final String webroot = "http://192.168.1.2/bbpointofsale.com/";
 
	public String errorMessage;
	public String key;
	public String transactionID;
	private HttpTransport transport;
	private SoapSerializationEnvelope envelope;
 
	public Service() {
		transport = new HttpTransport(webroot + "bb/service/index.php");
		transport.debug = true;
		envelope = new SoapSerializationEnvelope(SoapEnvelope.VER10);
		key = null;
	}

A request is made by setting parameters and getting back a parameter, getting back more than one parameter is left as an exercise for the reader. Here’s what I’ve done:

public boolean ProcessLogin(String email, String password) {
	System.err.println("ProcessLogin");
 
	errorMessage = "";
 
	String namespace = "urn:" + namespaceRoot + ":login";
 
	SoapObject message = new SoapObject(namespace, "login");
 
	message.addProperty("email", email);
	message.addProperty("password", password);
 
	envelope.bodyOut = message;
 
	String soapAction = namespace + "#login";
 
	try {
		transport.call(soapAction, envelope);
	} catch (IOException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
		System.out.println("error: "+e.getMessage());
		errorMessage = e.getMessage();
		System.out.println("response: "+transport.responseDump);
		return false;
	} catch (XmlPullParserException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
		errorMessage = e.getMessage();
		System.out.println("response: "+transport.responseDump);
		return false;
	}
 
	try {
		SoapObject result = (SoapObject) ((SoapObject)envelope.getResponse()).getProperty(0);
 
		key = hackToGetResponse("serviceToken", result.toString());
 
		if (key.length() > 0) {
			System.out.println("KEY:" + key);
			return true;
		} else {
 
		}
	} catch (SoapFault e) {
		errorMessage = e.getMessage();
		System.out.println("response: "+transport.responseDump);
		return false;
	} catch (Exception e) {
		errorMessage = e.getMessage();
		System.err.println("response: "+transport.responseDump);
		return false;
	}
 
	return false;
}

hackToGetResponse is necessary because the return of the PHP page the request is sent to is difficult to get at through KSoap. This is hackToGetResponse:

public String hackToGetResponse(String key, String response) {
	System.out.println("hackToGetResponse:" + response);
	String start = "anyType{key=" + key + "; value=";
	String end = "; }";
 
	if (response.indexOf(start) == -1 ||
		response.indexOf(end) == -1) return "";
 
	System.out.println("hackToGetResponse:" + "response.substring(0, " + response.indexOf(start)  + ").substring(0, " + response.indexOf(end) + ");");
	response = response.substring(response.indexOf(start) + start.length());
	response = response.substring(0, response.indexOf(end));
 
	if (response.indexOf("anyType{}") != -1) return "";
 
	return response;
}

And finally, the PHP code:


 
$server = new SoapServer(null, array('uri' => "urn:keyringlabs.com"));
 
$server->addFunction("login");
 
function login($email, $pass) {
	if (strlen($email) == 0) {
		return Array('serviceToken' => '');
	} elseif (strlen($pass) == 0) {
		return Array('serviceToken' => '');
	} else {
		$objMerchant = Merchant::LoadByEmailPassword($email, $pass);
		if ($objMerchant == null || $objMerchant->Id &lt; 1) {
			return Array('serviceToken' => '');
		} else {
			$key = uniqid();
			$objSess = new Merchantsessions();
			$objSess->MerchantID = $objMerchant->Id;
			$objSess->ServiceToken = $key;
			$objSess->Save();
		}
	}
 
	$result = Array('serviceToken' => $key);
	return $result;
}
 
?>

That’s it, a BlackBerry application that communicates with a PHP application with very little legwork. I hope this is useful to some people, it was a long journey for me to arrive at this code.

When I have some time I will make the Service class multi-threaded (as it should be being that it does network connections), I will post an update here when I’ve done that.

Coming Along Good!

Pete Tracey — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:57:16 +0000

The new version of bbpointofsale.com is almost ready. It is now a java application instead of a web-based application. It integrates with a card swipe and receipt printer machine that doesn’t cost much. Besides those two things not much has changed.

Card Swipe

Pete Tracey — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:15:44 +0000

Hard at work on a new version of the BlackBerry Point of Sale system which will integrate with a mobile card swipe and receipt printer combination machine. Found a supplier that has good machines for a good price. I am thinking about posting a tutorial here on my experience developing a java application for the BlackBerry when it is complete.

bbpointofsale.com

Pete Tracey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:14:15 +0000

I’ve put the store system with click to chat on the back burner for a while. I developed a system that allows people to take credit card payments on their BlackBerry. I’ve launched it at www.bbpointofsale.com

The first sign up was last Wednesday, basically just a few days after there was any traffic going to the site at all. If things keep going this way it could end up being successful.

I’m still planning to pursue my original strategy but this looked like an opportunity for a service that could have some activity right out of the gates.

I’ll post updates here as the service grows.