C#-like TryParse Integer for Java

	public static Integer TryParseInt(String someText) {
	try {
	return Integer.parseInt(someText);
	} catch (NumberFormatException ex) {
	return null;
	}
	}

view raw TryParseInt.java hosted with ❤ by GitHub

[AppEngine] java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to restore the previous TimeZone

Started getting the error on the dev server after upgrading to AppEngine 1.6.3 on Mac.

Turns out AppEngine is looking (via reflection) for a field that's missing from JDK 6.

You can either use a different JDK or add the following to the VM arguments from run configuration (which did the trick for me):

-Dappengine.user.timezone=UTC

Javascript Random Masking

Just a snippet to randomly mask some text, for whatever reason (such as not getting sued).

	String.prototype.replaceAt=function(index, char) {
	return this.substr(0, index) + char + this.substr(index+char.length);
	}
	var REPLACEMENT_CHAR = "*";
	var TO = 5;
	var FROM = 4;
	var str = "Hello World";
	var strLen = str.length;
	var rnd = Math.floor((Math.random()*(TO - FROM + 1)) + FROM);
	for(i = 0; i < strLen; i++){
	if((i+1) >= rnd && ((i+1) % rnd) == 0 && str.charAt(i) != " " && str.charAt(i) != REPLACEMENT_CHAR)
	{
	str = str.replaceAt(i, REPLACEMENT_CHAR);
	}
	}
	alert(str);

view raw random_masking.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Javascript Profanity Check

Here's a copy-paste-ready snippet implementing a javascript profanity check:

	// extend strings with the method "contains"
	String.prototype.contains = function(str) { return this.indexOf(str) != -1; };
	// profanities of choice
	var profanities = new Array("ass", "cunt", "pope");
	var containsProfanity = function(text){
	var returnVal = false;
	for (var i = 0; i < profanities.length; i++) {
	if(text.toLowerCase().contains(profanities[i].toLowerCase())){
	returnVal = true;
	break;
	}
	}
	return returnVal;
	}
	var myText = $('#text').html();
	if(containsProfanity(myText)){
	$('#result').html('That language is profane dude.');
	}
	else{
	$('#result').html('That language is just fine.');
	}

view raw profanity_check.js hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Enjoy.

Use of com.google.appengine.repackaged may result in your app breaking without warning.

I got this nasty error on the repackaged version of Base64 after upgrading to app-engine 1.6.1 on a project:

Use of com.google.appengine.repackaged may result in your app breaking without warning.

You can make it go away by switching to org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64, that can be found on the commons-codec library. Mapping of the encode/decode methods is pretty straightforward:

• encode --> encodeBase64String
• decode --> decodeBase64

Or something like that.