Programming Diary #8: A Standalone Java Application

remlaps - last year

About a month ago, I decided that I wanted to have a standalone tool to engage with the Steem blockchain from my Windows desktop. Web sites are great - especially for off-chain visitors - but blockchains are supposed to be accessible by "peer to peer" methods, too. So, I thought I'd put forward some effort in that direction.

Since I was already aware of a couple apps that were in use several years ago, my first step was to clone them and see if I could bring them up to date. I was hoping it would be simply a matter of compiling and then making a few configuration changes. No such luck, though. I failed miserably.

esteem Desktop compiled but it was still configured to use websockets. I had no idea where to begin in order to switch it over to https connections.
I couldn't get esteem Surfer to compile at all because of version problems with nodejs, npm, npx, and who knows what else...

So, first I started reading/watching tutorials for nodejs and npm, but everything I looked at pointed me back to a series of prerequisites, so it seemed like I kept moving away from my goal, instead of towards it. After about half a month, I gave up on that line of activity (for now?).

Next up:

So, I "failed fast" and moved on to dusting off the Java --- stuff that I was working on a couple years ago. I am far from expert with Java, but at least I could get a program running and have it talk to the Steem blockchain. Hopefully, then, I can be a little bit productive with Java while I learn the additional skills I need to make a useful Open Source client of some sort.

A big part of the reason that I stalled with Java a couple of years ago was that I had no idea how to make it useful for anyone else. I could only run my program in the IDE. So, this time, I wanted to tackle that problem before moving on to do much actual programming.

Thus, my first two goals were:

Remember how the heck I was able to get java working with Steem and SteemJ in the first place; and
Create a toy standalone app that interacts with the Steem blockchain and can be executed from the Windows Start menu (i.e. outside of the IDE).

I'm pleased to say that after a great deal of cursing at the computer, I accomplished both. In this case, the toy app just displays the number of Steem operations per block in a speedometer type of visualization (hence, "Steemometer"). Here's what my toy app looks like (at the moment):

To get this far, I have installed and configured the following components:

Netbeans 19 as an IDE
The Azul JDK which has both OpenJDK and OpenJFX configured into it.
The WIX3 Toolset in order to build standalone executables (with jpackage) for Windows.

Along the way, I also had to start learning about Maven, which is a build manager for Java. Netbeans also offers Gradle and Ant, but I chose Maven because that's the first one I got working. So... instead of learning about npm, I'm learning about Maven. ;-)

For an IDE, in addition to Netbeans, I also played around with Eclipse and VSCode, but I stuck with Netbeans because that's where I had SteemJ working, and I didn't feel like fighting with another IDE in order to get that configured again.

Goals

For the next two weeks, I have the following goals:

Update the "Steemometer" to show the number of posts & votes per block, in addition to overall operations. There are a couple ways I might display these values.
Add an option to choose from a list of APIs. (right now, I'm using UPVU's API).

I have some other things in mind, too, but I can basically only work on this during spare time on the weekends, so I'm trying not to be overly ambitious with my goals.

Longer term, I also have some unrelated ideas that I want to pursue, if I can ever make the time:

A protocol and framework that I'm bouncing around in my head for decentralized abuse measurement and resistance.
A new version of @penny4thoughts that will be more tolerant to Steem API interruptions, extend a post's engagement lifecycle beyond 7 days, and let the author be more flexible in rewarding commenters.

These are queued up behind creation of a java UI for posting, commenting, and curating, though... so @penny4thoughts remains offline now, and we'll have to be patient.

Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

^{Pixabay license, source}

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