Code Style: Site log, December 2005

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The Code Style site has evolved by gradual refinement and accumulation of features and content. This review is part of a fully backdated site log and archive that sheds light on when, why and how particular features were implemented.

This log is sometimes updated several times per week, sometimes with a long overdue backlog of items. Many log entries refer to the Code Style Java package that delivers the servlet services and utilities used to manage this site.

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GoogleFilter for bad FeedFetcher dates, 31^th December 2005

Completed a ServletFilter to correct the If-Modified-Since headers passed by the Google FeedFetcher client. The current version of FeedFetcher requests dates with the format "Sun, 06 Nov 1994 08:49:37" rather than "Sun, 06 Nov 1994 08:49:37 GMT" as required by the HTTP specification.

The GoogleFilter class wraps the initial servlet request in a private GoogleRequest class before passing it down the filter chain. The GoogleRequest class extends HttpServletRequestWrapper and corrects the date passed to the Web Feed Generator service.

Metacentric re-design complete, 20^th December 2005

Launched the new Metacentric site design for the Web Feed Generator service. The new design features a floating central "Envelope" with auto margin settings, to position content in the centre of the display. Background images are overlapped and repeat to give an impression of layered panels with a translucent side bar.

Browser RSS support versions, 16^th December 2005

Purged the RSS user agents database of browser versions before first support for RSS and updated the listings. The client processing scripts had previously included all versions of Safari, Opera and Firefox. The first versions actually to support RSS were as follows:

Opera 7.5
Safari 2 (build 412)
Firefox 0.10 (preview release)

Also adjusted the CSWideImport.css style sheet to add overflow: auto to the pre elements that contain the agent identifiers. Many identifiers fit in the wide page layout, but some would otherwise cause horizontal scrolling.

New Java threads and servlet "how to" FAQs, 10^th December 2005

Divided the Java language FAQ to create a new Java threads FAQ page, and split the main Java servlets FAQ to make a new Java servlet "how to" FAQ. Also added 9 new answers to various Java FAQs.

Java API

Java Server Pages

Java command line

Why doesn't the main method throw an error with no arguments?

Java servlet "how to"

Which link was followed to request my servlet?

Java threads

Servlet exceptions

Servlet sessions

RSS agents with server side includes, 3^rd December 2005

Updated the working version RSSAgentLogger class to short-circuit the update process by generating a set of server side includes (SSI) for each category of the RSS user agents listing. Added new SSI timefmt configuration and flastmod command to the parent pages' metadata so there is no need to update them too.

<!--#config timefmt="%Y-%m-%d"-->
<meta
  name="DC.Date.modified"
  scheme="W3CDTF"
  content="<!--#flastmod virtual='/xml/rdf/rss/agents-Web.htm'-->" />

The configuration gives a simple date only format, 2005-12-03, which is overridden later for the page footer. The single quotes around the included file reference help preserve the validity of the source markup before it is parsed by the server.

Processed the past month's Metacentric service logs through the RSS agent logger and updated the listings. The Google FeedFetcher identifier has changed case from FeedFetcher-Google to Feedfetcher-Google. Also added a new desktop feed reader for Linux called Snownews.

Previously on Code Style

These backdated pages record detailed changes to the Code Style Web site since July 2000, when development first got underway. Some pages may refer to documents or features that have since changed or are no longer part of the site, but the archive is checked to ensure there are no dead links.

Site log, origins to present

Month: Year:

For a summary overview, see the annotated site log contents.

December 2005 on Code Style