Shutter Bug on Wheels » Technical

BugZilla filtering script in Greasemonkey & jQuery

DeeJay — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:18:41 +0000

We’ve been using BugZilla for a while now and one thing that had me irritated is the ability to filter the list of bugs that I’ve searched for. My options were to re-run the search with the parameters that I wanted to have filtered, or export the entire search into a CSV file and process it into a spreadsheet application like Excel.

There had to be a better way. Downloaded Greasemonkey and got to work with jQuery. Hacking away at the pages in BugZilla for a couple of hours and I was done.

This script allows you to filter the bugs from the list of displayed bugs. Filtering works on all columns visible in the list.

To user the script, you need to setup the include (@include) URL to point to your bugzilla installation root, e.g., http://bugzilla.server.com.or.ip/*

The script currently works on any URL that has string “bugzilla” in the setup. The @include URL in the source points to http://*bugzilla.*. If you don’t have this string in the URL, modify the @include URL in the script.

After installing, open up BugZilla and list bug in your browser. Click on any column (the actual value in the table and not the header) to filter. Click on the column value again to un-filter.

Download & Install

Download the script here. If you have already installed the Greasemonkey FireFox Add-On, the Install Script dialog should come up when you click the link.

Features

Filters on any visible coloumn.
Removes filter on clicking of the filtered column.
Filter multiple columns.
Filtering/Restoring works independently for all columns.
Updates the bug count after filtering.
Highlights the filtered columns so that you don’t loose track of what has been filtered.

Revision History

Version 0.3

Changed the @include url to http://*bugzilla.* which will make it work any bugzilla setup that has “bugzilla” in the host part.

I have tested the script with FireFox 3.6.x, 4 and BugZilla 3.4.5

How to create your own QR Codes in Ubuntu, offline

DeeJay — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 05:42:12 +0000

QR Codes have made entering text, especially on mobile devices very easy. This comes in very handy when you have to either search for something, or the text you want to enter is quite lengthy and random, e.g., WiFi keys for one.

A quick Google search on qr code generator results in a lot hits, but mainly for online generators. Like me, there will be people who will be skeptical about sharing sensitive data online just to generate a QR Code. I was looking for an offline generator and found one by the name of qrencode.

Installation

qrencode if small and nifty and does the job perfectly. As is common with most of FOSS, there are multiple ways to install qrencode.

1. Automated Install – Desktop

Fire up Ubuntu Software Center and search for qrencode. Once found, install and start using (Usage instructions below).

2. Automated Install – Command Line

sudo apt-get install qrencode

and thats it. Follow the on screen instructions to install and start using it right away.

3. Manual Install

There is also an option to install qrencode from source. Click qrencode anywhere on this page to go their website and download the source. Instructions to compile and install are available there on the website.

Usage Instructions

Usage of qrencode is quite simple. Here is an example:

qrencode -o path/to/file.png '[text/url/whatever_you_want_to_encode]'

This will generate an output file named file.png at the location you provided and will contain the scanable QR Code with the information you provided. Thats it!

For those of you who want more information, here is the help output from qrencode:

-h display this message. --help display the usage of long options. -o FILENAME write PNG image to FILENAME. If '-' is specified, the result will be output to standard output. If -S is given, structured symbols are written to FILENAME-01.png, FILENAME-02.png, ...; if specified, remove a trailing '.png' from FILENAME. -s NUMBER specify the size of dot (pixel). (default=3) -l {LMQH} specify error collectin level from L (lowest) to H (highest). (default=L) -v NUMBER specify the version of the symbol. (default=auto) -m NUMBER specify the width of margin. (default=4) -S make structured symbols. Version must be specified. -k assume that the input text contains kanji (shift-jis). -c encode lower-case alphabet characters in 8-bit mode. (default) -i ignore case distinctions and use only upper-case characters. -8 encode entire data in 8-bit mode. -k, -c and -i will be ignored. -V display the version number and copyrights of the qrencode. [STRING] input data. If it is not specified, data will be taken from standard input.

There are plenty of mobile applications available to scan the QR Codes using phone’s camera. E.g., Android users can use Barcode Scanner (my favorite).

Update:

iPhone: QRafter (Thanks to my brother for pointing this out)

ISO Burning on XP

DeeJay — Sun, 02 May 2010 07:22:11 +0000

I just downloaded Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) in the ISO format and realized that I have no CD burning software on the machine! Darn it! Happens to be all the time… still I do not learn and installing the CD burning software is never on my checklist.

A quick google search lead me to ISO Recorder v 2. ISO Recorder v 2 is a Power Toy for XP and adds a new context menu item – “Copy Image to CD” as shown below.

It does the job pretty good. I have just burn’t the Lucid Lynx CD and will test it out. Hopefully an update to this post will be posted from Lucid Lynx.

Windows 7 & XP Pro Dual Boot (Both already installed)

DeeJay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:16:47 +0000

Recently I had to install XP on top of my Windows 7 install to be able to update by Nokia E71 as I did not want to run NSU on 7 and risk bricking my phone! However, in the process I realized that I had lost the ability to boot into Windows 7!! Thank you Microsoft!

Did some googling around and found that Microsoft had changed the boot configuration format and I cannot simply edit boot.ini and add an entry for Windows 7. More googling followed, but all I found was how to install one on top of the other and nothing that showed how to restore the Windows 7′s boot menu.

Atlast, I found and entry at TechArena forums that helped me do what I wanted to do!

I had installed Windows 7 and XP on different hard drives and hence both systems’ boot files were already in place and all I had to do was execute the following commands.

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “Windows XP Pro” bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Thank you Devasis @ TechArena Forums.

UPDATE: You have to run the above commands on a command prompt (“cmd”) which itself, you need to run as an administrator. Else you will get the “Access Denied” error.

Connectivity on the go…

DeeJay — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:40:46 +0000

Things are looking up for connectivity hungry, bandwidth crazed Bangaloreans (myself included) greatly. Here I am, posting this article from my laptop while waiting at the Bangalore airport for dad’s flight to land.

And its not just being connected with sluggish speeds!! Tests with speedtest.net have shown upto 512kbps speeds at different points on the airport.

BSNL EVDO is a step forward in the right direction and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised by BSNL’s ability to churn out great products, albeit a little clandestinely! They need a good marketing person on board who can change their image. I’ve been on this view ever since I got the BSNL DataOne broadband connection from them almost a year ago.

BSNL has left the competition far behind in technology and prices too! I’ve bought EVDO from BSNL by paying 1000/- refundable security deposit and pay 750/- a month for unlimited data plan!! Whereas no other private provider has any unlimited plans (atleast not that I know of). Same goes for the EDGE data plan on my mobile from BSNL. 200/- a month for unlimited, whereas 499/- a month for 500 meg from Vodafone that I used to pay until a few months ago!

Now, I’m eagerly waiting for 3G to be commercially launched in Bangalore, as I’m sure a lot of others are too.

Go BSNL, connect india, faster

UPDATE:Did I mention that the EVDO connection was activated within hours of my purchasing?

WebTail – Tailing files on a webserver

DeeJay — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:54:44 +0000

Today I was helping out a friend in debugging a web application deployed on his web server. The problem we ran into was monitoring the log files generated by the application. Providing SSH access to me was too cumbersome task for us to embark on and I am glad we didn’t.

So, how do I get access to the log files? First thing we did was to ensure that the files are generated on a web directory, which is accessible to me from a web browser. For sometime I kept downloading the log file to analyze. This fast became a problem as the file size grew and I had to wait for the file to download completely before I could view it!

A quick google search for webtail took me to WebTail. A simple to use WebTail application which allows you to tail a file kept on a web server at regular intervals.

Just download and execute java -jar WebTail.jar [update_interval]

That’s it!! If you provide the update_interval value of 0, and have a stable connection to the server, WebTail works just like the local tail command!!!

Thank you Paul, my next beer is dedicated to you

Who says laziness and impatience are bad? If we weren’t lazy enough (to configure SSH access) and impatient (to wait for the file to download completely to view it), we wouldn’t have found WebTail

SaaS: The Rising

DeeJay — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:47:38 +0000

They say that “You can’t find happiness along the instant gratification route. It takes patience”. But SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is all about instant gratification and hell yes, I find happiness along THIS route . I’m sure you will too.

What is SaaS?

Plainly put,

SaaS is a delivery model for Software, that delivers a Software as a Service

Most commonly, SaaS has been associated with Web-based hosted applications that are delivered via the Internet. This model does away with perpetual licensing schemes and allows end consumers to consume the applications on a subscription model. Here the end customer pays only for using the software and not for owning it.

When you consume a SaaS-ified application, you do not have to worry about having the right kind of skills at your disposal to run/maintain the application. It all comes bundled with the Service. Now this application has become a Service which includes the application itself and all the other activities that go into running/hosting this application.

This article is first in the series of articles that I’m going to write on SaaS. In the articles which follow, we’ll see different aspects of SaaS, right from the SaaS-ification of an application to the various ways end users can consume these applications.

WiFi on Ubuntu Breezy Badger

DeeJay — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:30:08 +0000

Phew!!! That was good. I almost lost hope of connecting wirelessly in Ubuntu 5.10 and was begining to curse my choice of NetGear WG311v3 PCI Wireless adapter. Now before I forget, here are the steps.

1. Download and build the ndiswrapper (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net).
2. Copy the WG311v3.INF & WG311v3XP.sys from the NetGear install CD
3. execute ndiswrapper -i WG311v3.INF.
4. execute ndiswrapper -l. This should tell you that driver is installed and the hardware is present. If not, go and search for the drivers that are known to work for you card in linux (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List).
5. execute modprobe ndiswrapper to install the driver.
6. iwconfig: set your essid
7. dhclient: send a dhcp request to the wireless router.

That’s it for now. More to come later.

Rhino to the rescue

DeeJay — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:01:04 +0000

Have you ever wanted to execute a piece of JavaScript code from your Java program ?? If yes, read on.

There have been number of times when I have wanted to execute a piece of JavaScript code from Java. But I cannot do that (I have to convert that to Java code and compile it), up untill now.

Now, there is an API available to execute JavaScript code from a Java class. This is called Rhino, by Mozilla guys. Check it out.

www.mozilla.org/rhino

What’s for GRUB ?

DeeJay — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 18:24:13 +0000

Imagine you spend an entire week painfully setting up your computer to dual boot with XP and Ubuntu (Breezy) using GRUB and have configured Ubuntu to the max and you have to reinstall XP. No more GRUB, XP has overwritten the MBR!!!

This happend to me and I was frustrated, but I was able to google it and got GRUB installed back on the MBR and was able to boot into Ubuntu again.

Here is how you can do it.

1. Insert the install cd/dvd in the drive and boot from it.
2. Proceed without changing any setting until the point where you are asked to partition the disk(s).
3. Select the option to partition the disks manually.
4. Load the partitions (/, /boot, /root, et. all). The partitions have to be loaded in the same manner as you had when the system was up and running properly. Save changes to the disk.
5. Now you will get an error message saying that you are about install on an unclean partition. Ignore this warning and proceed untill the GRUB installation page.
6. You can also cancel this operation and go to the installation’s Main menu and directly jump to Install GRUB section.
7. Install the GRUB on MBR if all your operating systems are listed.
8. Remove the install media from the drive and reboot.
9. You’ll find the GRUB menu when you reboot.

Cheers n Enjoy!!!
DeeJay