C#-like TryParse Integer for Java

[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).

Javascript Profanity Check

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

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.