Mailing List

Week 10

2004-08-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the summary of my progress for this quarter, and schedule for next quarter.

Progress:
- Installing Windows XP
- Installing IIS
- Installing J2SE
- Installing Tomcat
- Installing MySQL
- Configuring redirection from IIS to Tomcat (80 to 8080)
- admin and member Log in page
- Subscribe to mailing list page
- Unsubscribe from the mailing list page
- Administrative page for mass mailing system
- Administrative page to add members
- Auto Calendar page

Schedule:
By end of summer:
- Fix the Path error "servlet.jar"
- Finish the event enter page for the calendar
- Finish the mass mailing system

Fall
week 1: upload & download page
week 2: implement page template
week 3: upload and modify the intern info & volunteer info page
week 4: Picture gallery page
week 5-6: install FTP Server and test
week 7-8: Get fixed IP address from SBC and move the server from my home to the office
week 9-10: debugging

Week 9

2004-08-17T03:58:00.000-07:00

This week, I created an automatically generated calendar. I still need to make it reads from the database to post events schedule, but basic part is finished.

I’m having trouble with the File Uploader JSP. I created a servlet file, but it gives me an error “javax.servlet does not exit” I’ve already set the classpath c:\Program Files\Tomcat 4.1\common\lib\servlet.jar

If you have any suggestions, please give me some hit.

Masa

Week 8

2004-08-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working on the secure area of the web site this week using log-in page and session. Session is very easy to use in JSP; all you have to do is to set and get the session. You may also terminate the session or set interval, but you don’t have to; default time interval is set to 30 min. For all other pages that don’t require the session, you can disable session to increase the performance of the pages. All you have to do is write <% @page session=”false” %>

Week 7

2004-08-09T02:39:00.000-07:00

I don’t have much to say for this week, so I’ll post my progress with my project.
I already created my server and started writing JSP pages.
I created Java Bean for connecting database, first. Then I almost finished a page that subscribe to the mailing list, administrator log-in page, displaying mailing list page, and unsubscribe page. Currently, I’m working on the administrative deleting member page. I haven’t completely finished any of the pages yet, because I want to use template for all pages, so I’m thinking about the structure to implement a template into my pages.

Week 6

2004-07-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your comments, guys!
Well, I’ll be making the Web site only in Japanese for now, but if this web site can be done in Japanese, it can be done in any other language as well.
I’m limiting the JFN’s target because we can provide mass mail contents only in Japanese.   And limiting the target can reduce the traffic.
My organization’s budget was only $600 for the server, so I was able to make slow server.
If a lot of people subscribe to the mailing list and I can prove the need for faster computer, I can ask for more money, but until then, I have to deal with slow computer.

I created the page, where people can stream Japanese songs, when I first joined this organization to attract people.   But this page was shut down because of copy right issues.   Since this web site is for N.P.O., not just some club or something, we must be very careful with law issues.   If we break the law for whatever reasons, our N.P.O. title will get taken away by I.R.S., which is an American Government.

I will also creating some kind of contents management system for the website.   The functions that I will have are the following.
- Mailing List (Mass-mailing system)
- Page for subscribe to the mailing list
- Page for unsubscribe from the mailing list (so administrator doesn’t have to delete the member very time there’s a request for unsubscribe.)
- Administrator page for sending out the mass-mail
- Administrator page for delete, search, and update/modify the members.
- Non-public page, where officers can log in, for uploading and downloading binary files like proceedings from the meetings and project papers.
- Picture gallery page, where administrator can upload and post pictures for each event.
- Automatically created calendar, where page get the event date for the current month from the database.
- Non-public page to post an event information in the calendar and our event page.   I will give the ID and password to president at Japanese associations and clubs in Universities in Southern California.

Dr. Abbott suggested me that I should make this whole thing using Open CMS. This is not a bad idea, but I don’t want to make my contents management system with other contents management system.   And there is a reason that I really don’t want to use Open CMS for my project.

As I said on the first week on this blog, I’m dedicating this project for my organization.   But I cannot stay in this organization for so long; as matter of fact, I have to leave the organization within a year.   Therefore, I want to make this as simple as possible for the people who manage this website.   Dr. Abbott’s opinion was that is a reason why I should use Open CMS for my project.   But I think using Open CMS will be more complicated.   First of all, you have to learn how to use Open CMS, and then you have to lock the page, edit the page with HTML editor, unlock the page, upload it, etc… Why can’t people just edit a page and upload it using FTP? Or connect Dreamwaver or FrontPage to the server, so you don’t have to use FTP to edit a web page? That’s much simpler; and WYSIWYG editor sucks anyway compares to those HTML editors.
And implementing Open CMS for a web site is just too easy, and even if I create my own module for Open CMS, it’s still going to be a part of Open CMS, not my own CMS.   When people look at the website, they’ll say, “oh, this looks nice, but you used Open CMS.”   But if I make my own CMS, which is probably not going to be as good as Open CMS, people will say, “Wow, you created the whole thing by yourself?”   For those reasons, I will not be using Open CMS for my project.

Week 5

2004-07-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

I came up with an idea to extend my project as thinking about how I can make people subscribe to my mailing list. The solution is to provide people something interesting. My idea is to build a web site like FriendStar. I would like to call it “Japanese Friends Network (JFN)” There is not many website like FriendStar in Japan, so Japanese people might get interested. If someone wants to subscribe to JFN, s/he needs to subscribe for our mailing list first. I’m still designing the layout, so I will keep posting more staff as I think of some ideas. But the original idea about my “mailing list” is going toward to CMS for my organization. Dr. Abbott sent me this link, and it’s kinda nice. http://www.clubexpress.com/

Week 4

2004-07-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your help, Matthew. Actually, there was something wrong with my Path of CATALINA_HOME. I put %JAVA_HOME% instead of c://Program Files/Java/ then it worked.
I finished configuring SMTP, and I was able to send e-mails from JSP files. I have trouble with configuring FTP server, but I will worry about it later. IIS’s FTP server sucks, so I might use other freeware.
I talked with Professor Abbott today and he said my project is too easy, so I add more staff to my project. Like I wrote earlier, I’m doing this project for my organization, so I will add more futures to their web site.
Here are some futures that I will be adding to the website.
- Automated calendar (I can put the event info into database, and users can flip the pages and see the event info on the calendar.)
- Volunteer signup sheet (We have a volunteer activities, so people can sign up for volunteer on line.)
- Proceedings on line (We have meeting every week, and we take proceeding. I can update that to the web site and members can read what we talked about on the web site.)

I will add more staff as I come up with more idea.

Here is the question for Matthew since he’s so kind and answering every problem I’m having.

mysql> CREATE TABLE d (da date);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO d values('2004-22-05');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from d;
+------------+
| da |
+------------+
| 0000-00-00 |
+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select month(da) from d;
+-----------+
| month(da) |
+-----------+
| 0 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO d values(2004-22-05);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from d;
+------------+
| da |
+------------+
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO d values('2004#22#05');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from d;
+------------+
| da |
+------------+
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
+------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO d values(20042205);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from d;
+------------+
| da |
+------------+
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
+------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO d values('042205');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from d;
+------------+
| da |
+------------+
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
+------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO d values('2004-22-05');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from d;
+------------+
| da |
+------------+
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
| 0000-00-00 |
+------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Do you see the problem? Yes, I cannot enter the Date value. No matter what kind of format I use for inserting date value, it comes up with zeros… When I took SQL class at CSULA, it never happened. I’m using MySQL ver.4.0 I read all the document and searched on the Internet about inserting date, and every query should work. If anybody has had same problem and solved it, please let me know.

Week 3.5

2004-07-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your advice, Matthew, but I still want to use IIS because I also want to use IIS as FTP server and SMTP server. I know that IIS have a lot of security holes, but auto update function is available, and I installed Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus to protect my server.

Actually, I’ve been working on my server all day today (I have nothing better things to do…) and I figured out how to redirect to Tomcat and compile JSP. All I had to do was to add uri space to my worker2.property file. The problem that I’m facing right now is connecting JSP and MySQL. I downloaded JDBC driver, put mysql-connecter-java***.jar file in the jre/lib/ext, and add new CLASSPATH to that directory. Then I created database and table in MySQL, and I wrote JSP like

Try{
Class.forName(“org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver”);
String jdbcurl=”jdbc:mysql://localhost/test?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=Shift_JIS”;
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(jdbcurl, “root”, “*****”);

Con.close;
}
catch(Exception e) {
out.println(e);
}

And when I see on the browser, it’s giving me an error
“java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver”

I think it’s having a trouble finding or loading the driver.
I tried “com.mysql.jdbc.Driver” and still give me the same error.

Class.forName(“org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver”).newInstance;
jdbcurl=”jdbc:mysql: //127.0.0.1/test?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=Shift_JIS”;
doesn’t work either…

by the way, Shift_JIS is encoding for Japanese; I took this from the Internet.

Week 3

2004-07-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Matthew and Sosuke’s help. I was able to compile JSP! But I’m having trouble with redirecting from IIS to Tomcat now. I installed JK2, created all the registries keys, and created virtual server on IIS called Jakarta. But when I access the JSP file without putting 8080 after LocalHost, it redirects, but doesn’t compile JSP. It shows only the HTML part and doesn’t do the Java part. Maybe my jk2.properties or workers2.properties files are wrong.

[jk2.properties]
#AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED
#Sun Jan 26 00:12:43 JST 2003
maxThreads=75
port=8009
soTimeout=20000
jkHome=C\:\\Program Files\Tomcat 4.1
tcpNoDelay=true
timeout=20000
secure=false
backlog=10

[workers2.properties]
# Define the communication channel
[channel.socket:localhost:8009]
info=Ajp13 forwarding over socket
tomcatId=localhost:8009

# Map the Tomcat examples webapp to the Web server uri space
[uri:/examples/*]
info=Map the whole webapp

If you guys see anything wrong with my code before I do, please let me know.
And, of cause, I uncommented the Coyote/jk2 AJP connecter on port 8009 in my server.xml already.

Week 2

2004-07-08T00:24:00.000-07:00

I post about my project a little bit, and I’d like to post more about it. The difference between other mailing lists is that my mailing list is one way mailing list. People can subscribe to our mailing list, but they cannot send any mail to anybody in the group; only administrator can send e-mail to all the members. There are some mailing lists that can do that, but our organization needs to collect more data than just name and e-mail address. We are collecting name, e-mail address, which school they go to, major, sex, and interests (internship, transfer, scholarship, career fair, and other). We store those data into a database and send e-mail according to people’s interest, major or school. For example, we find an open position for internship, we send out the information via e-mail to whoever interested in internship. Or if there’s a BBQ party at UCLA, we might send e-mail out to only people who go to UCLA. That’s the main difference between my mailing list and others. I also like to create usual mailing list like Yahoo Group for staff members if there’s time.

Here is the progress of my project. I brought Windows XP Professional (Japanese) and installed on my computer. I installed Internet Information Services (IIS), J2SE, Tomcat 5.0, and mySQL 3.23.57. I chose IIS as HTML server because Windows is easier to operate for most of the people. I could install Linux and Apache, but person who will take care of the server after I leave my organization next year may not be familiar with Linux. Also Windows provide auto update function. So every time Microsoft uploads a patch for OS or IIS, it will download and install the patch automatically. I heard that new Linux has similar function, but it is hard to fine the newest patch for Apache. I choose Tomcat because I’m more familiar with JSP than ASP, and I’d like to use Servlet and Java Bean. I chose MySQL instead of PostgreSQL because MySQL is faster and lighter; it doesn’t take memory as much as PostgreSQL. Old MySQL didn’t support SubQuery, but new version supports it, so I think MySQL has enough functions for my project.

The problem that I’m having right now is that JSP doesn’t compile somehow. I searched on the Web and fond out that some people are having same problem. Then I found out that there is something wrong with setting the path. I tried most of the things that were on the Web, but it still doesn’t compile. I have to work on this right now. If anybody has installed Tomcat 5.0 to the Windows XP, please let me know how you did.
Masa Iketani

Creating Mailing List

2004-06-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone from CS 491,

My name is Masa, and I'm creating mailing list.
My idea about this mailing list is that people can sign up from the Web site,
and only the administrator can send out the e-mail to all the people that's on the data base.
I will be creating this mailing list for my organization called Japanese Student Network (JSN).
JSN is established by Japanese university students about 20 years ago, and they just became a Non-Profit Organization 2 years ago.
Members are all Japanese students from USC, UCLA, CSULA, USCLB, LACC, and so on…
Our mission is to help Japanese student with their need in the United States, and help Japanese communities in Los Angeles to grow.
We give out scholarships, host symposiums, transfer seminars, career seminars, and a club event called “Tokyo Night.”

The idea of creating a new mailing list came up about a month ago because we want to send out e-mails to inform other Japanese student.
I am taking a lead on this project because I’m a webmaster and also a chief information officer.

Well, here is the background of my project, and I will post more stuff as I go on with this project.
Please feel free to post any comments or suggestions; you are more than welcome.

Masa