Ionic : differences between desktop browser and android web view

Ionic is a powerful framework to develop hybrid mobile applications on top of angularjs.

Here is what i learned from my first android tests - based on Ionic 1.0.0.rc5 - simply running ionic run android command

Error : device is not defined

The main issue i met. Everything was correctly defined, including cordova.js, the javascript import order etc

The cause of the issue was actually that I perform a synchronization on application launch, triggered by the first controller - to be accurate.

Controllers are not evaluated once ionicPlatform is ready :(.

So to skip that error, the synchronization has to be wrapped "on platform ready"

$ionicPlatform.ready(function(){
   syncService.sync();
});

Full width/height Background invisible

My application displays a beautiful background, unfortunately android displayed nothing.
This is because android doesn't seem to enjoy a full CSS declaration...

Just change the declaration and everything becomes alright.

/* fail */
.scroll-content{
    background: url("../img/background.png") no-repeat scroll center center / 100% 100% transparent
}
/* success */
.scroll-content{
    background-image: url("../img/background.png");
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: 100% 100%;
}

Dates gap

The dates displayed by the application are transmitted by the server as ISO 8601, easily converted through moment.js.

Except the timezone in my device was not the same one than my desktop browser.
Be sure to set this correctly.

Ionic application reboot after a camera call

A though error once again : on corodova camera callback, the application reboot and becomes "ko".

This is a configuration of the device. In your device settings, just uncheck the "do not keep activities" configuration. Just do it now.

Clarification on grid system

I had some issues by not clearly declaring the "col" CSS class on "columns".

Instead of :

...
  

Declare :

...
  

Tabs are top instead of bottom

Something weird : tabs, that are displayed bottom on desktop, moved to top in android!

Add this to your angularjs .config function  :

$ionicConfigProvider.tabs.position("bottom");//force bottom
$ionicConfigProvider.tabs.style("standard"); //force same look and feel

Header view title not centered !

Similar issue.
Add this to your angularjs .config function  :

$ionicConfigProvider.navBar.alignTitle('center');

Read More

Spring Boot your Java batch

What I hate with batch development is the packaging phase.
Where Java EE normalizes everything, batches have been totally forgotten.

As often, Spring comes with a solution and makes our life easier with Spring Boot.

A revolution.

It's "magic".

1. Your batch

Develop your batch, as usual. Using Spring Batch framework is 'not' a requirement. It simply eases the integration and the configuration after packaging.
I personnally rely on maven. Just add the following lines in you pom.xml

 org.springframework.boot
 spring-boot-starter-batch
 1.2.3.RELEASE
 
  
   org.springframework.boot
   spring-boot-starter-logging
  
 



 
  
   org.springframework.boot
   spring-boot-maven-plugin
   1.2.3.RELEASE
   
    
     
      repackage
     
    
   
  
 

Running mvn package now create 2 jar :
- .jar.original -> the jar before Spring Boot complete it
- .jar -> the runnable fat jar built by Spring Boot

You can run it using the command :

java -jar myfatjar.jar

2. If your batch is developed with Spring

Name your configuration file application.properties.
No need to load it by Spring configuration. This file name is a "keyword".
More details about this "trick" in pitfall section.

3. Write you "main" class

Just write it the following way.
Notice the Spring loading. You can provide a Configuration Bean or a XML file. Depends on your habits.

@SpringBootApplication
public class HelloApp {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(new Object[]{HelloApp.class, "spring-boot.xml"}, args);
    }
}

4. Run it with external configuration

Externalizing the configuration is not an option for production, it's a requirement.

Run your batch with the following arguments allow you overwrite any configuration present in your application.properties.

... --spring.config.location=file:conf/file1.properties,file:conf/file2.conf ...

5. And external logging

To externalize the logging (log4j.xml file in this example), this requires a bit of additionnal configuration.
As you may have noticed, spring-boot-starter-logging has been excluded from the pom.xml.
The reason is simple : the default transitive dependency run with slf4j, whereas I work with log4j.

Add this dependency instead :

...

 org.springframework.boot
 spring-boot-starter-log4j
 1.2.3.RELEASE

...

Reference the log4j file as an argument on batch startup command line.

... --logging.config=file:conf/log4j.xml 

6. Final packaging and runtime configuration

Finally, we end up with the following run command line (Windows style) :

cd %~dp0
java -jar myfatjar.jar --spring.config.location=file:conf/file1.properties,file:conf/file2.conf --logging.config=file:conf/log4j.xml

And the following production file structure :

7. Pitfall

I had some issues with overriding property file loaded in my Spring configuration.
The internal jar configuration took precedence over configuration provided as arguments during launch.
I don't think this loading order is logical, I may have missed something... I fell back naming my configuration file application.properties

Read More