DEV Community: struggzard

Creating a Simple Firefox Extension

struggzard — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:47:13 +0000

About

This will be short overview what steps it takes and how code looks of very simple browser extension.

Goal

Extension will have simple background script which creates loop and shows native notification with static content every 30 second.

File Structure

For minimal extension setup only manifest.json file is required but without including some scripts it would not do much, thus just-sample.js is added with main extension code.

Extension Folder
  + icons
  - manifest.json
  - just-sample.js

File Content

Here manifest.json content. Long lived scripts should be added to background section and since this extension would use notification feature it needs to be defined in permissions array.

{
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "name": "Annoying-Notifications",
  "version": "1.0",

  "description": "Sample browser extension to annoy user with useless notifications :)",

  "icons": {
    "48": "icons/notification_black_48dp.png"
  },

  "background": {
    "scripts": ["just-sample.js"]
  },

  "permissions": ["notifications"]
}

Based on documentation only manifest_version, name, and version, are mandatory.

Main script is simple and can be split into following parts:

There is createNotification function which act as notifications factory.
Another function mainLoop calls to itself recursively to avoid blocking thread. Function goal is call createNotification and wait for 30 seconds and then repeat same thing.
Script body only calls mainLoop once (when extension is initialized). However, since mainLoop calls to itself endlessly notification shows up after 30 seconds repeatable.

Demo

Short demo video to demonstrate extension in action. Please note that video is trimmed thus testing extension locally it will take more time for notification to show up.

Conclusion

While this sample does not do much it demonstrate how to get started and what to expect when developing Firefox extension.

References

Source code: https://github.com/struggzard/firefox-extension-sample
Documentation: https://developer.mozilla.org
Cover image: https://unsplash.com/photos/4xmVvHRioKg

Create a Simple Maven Plugin

struggzard — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:21:35 +0000

Summary

In this post I'll demonstrate how quickly a simple Maven plugin can be created.

Reason

Normally in Maven project you do not need to create own plugins as there likely exists a plugin which covers common scenarios. However, there are edge cases or project specific needs where having own plugin would make sense.

What do we need

Installed Maven (I used 3.6.3)
Java 11+ (for lower Java version sample POM needs to be adjusted)
Your favorite text editor

Naming

Every project starts from its name. The plugin naming convention is <yourplugin>-maven-plugin. In sample I'll use struggzard-maven-plugin.

Project POM

Create project directory struggzard-maven-plugin and add pom.xml file with content bellow:

<project>
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>dev.stuggzard.tutorial</groupId>
    <artifactId>struggzard-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>

    <name>A Simple Maven Plugin</name>

    <properties>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
        <maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>${java.version}</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-plugin-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- dependencies to annotations -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin-tools</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-plugin-annotations</artifactId>
            <version>3.4</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

At this point maven build will likely fail as there no Mojo defined.

Add Mojo

The "Mojo" in Maven terminology is a simple class which represents one plugin goal (e.g. print message).

package dev.struggzard.tutorial;

import org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractMojo;
import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException;
import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoFailureException;
import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Mojo;
import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Parameter;

/**
 * A Mojo which accepts parameter and prints it.
 */
@Mojo(name = "print")
public class MessagePrinterMojo extends AbstractMojo {

    @Parameter( property = "print.text", defaultValue = "Default text" )
    private String textParameter;

    public void execute() throws MojoExecutionException, MojoFailureException {
        getLog().info(textParameter);
    }
}

Running from CLI

Maven plugin can be invoked directly from CLI using following pattern:
mvn groupId:artifactId:version:goal

Run plugin:
mvn dev.stuggzard.tutorial:struggzard-maven-plugin:1.0-SNAPSHOT:print

Output:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] ---< dev.stuggzard.tutorial:struggzard-maven-plugin >---
[INFO] Building A Simple Maven Plugin 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ---[ maven-plugin ]---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- struggzard-maven-plugin:1.0-SNAPSHOT:print (default-cli) @ struggzard-maven-plugin ---
[INFO] Default text
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  0.390 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2020-06-21T17:29:28+03:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

As no parameter was passed [INFO] Default text was printed.

Now try passing text parameter:
mvn dev.stuggzard.tutorial:struggzard-maven-plugin:1.0-SNAPSHOT:print -"Dprint.text=Sample Text"

Output:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] ---< dev.stuggzard.tutorial:struggzard-maven-plugin >---
[INFO] Building A Simple Maven Plugin 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ---[ maven-plugin ]---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- struggzard-maven-plugin:1.0-SNAPSHOT:print (default-cli) @ struggzard-maven-plugin ---
[INFO] Sample Text
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  0.346 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2020-06-21T17:33:08+03:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

With passed parameter text was printed accordingly [INFO] Sample Text.

Adding plugin in other Maven project

In most cases plugins are created for integration into another maven project. Here some sample Maven project POM:

<project>
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>dev.struggzard.tutorial</groupId>
    <artifactId>sample-module</artifactId>
    <version>1</version>

    <properties>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
        <maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>${java.version}</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>dev.stuggzard.tutorial</groupId>
                <artifactId>struggzard-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>validate</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>print</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <textParameter>Sample text</textParameter>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

By invoking mvn clean install on maven project Maven plugin goal print will be triggered with configured text parameter.

Resources

Plugin source code - https://github.com/struggzard/struggzard-maven-plugin
Maven plugin guide - http://maven.apache.org/guides/plugin/guide-java-plugin-development.html

Git user config

struggzard — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 12:52:51 +0000

As a person who jumps from work to a personal git-based project I sometimes need to take eye on git user configuration.

Configuration scopes

Git have configuration in following scopes:

system - default configuration which applied for all users/projects (e.g.: /etc/gitconfig).
global - configuration which applied for all projects, saved at user home (e.g.: ~/.gitconfig).
project - available for project only, saved in the project directory .git/config.

User config commands

Here few handy git commands related to user config.

command line	explanation
`git config user.name`	displays current user name
`git config user.email`	display current user email
`git config user.name <user full name>`	set given user name
`git config user.email <email>`	set given user email