Programming Diary #8: A Standalone Java Application

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:

1. Remember how the heck I was able to get java working with Steem and SteemJ in the first place; and
2. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. A protocol and framework that I'm bouncing around in my head for decentralized abuse measurement and resistance.
2. 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}

Reminder

Visit the /promoted page and #burnsteem25 to support the inflation-fighters who are helping to enable decentralized regulation of Steem token supply growth.