By default, accessing an HTTPS URL using the URL class results in an exception if the server’s certificate chain cannot be validated has not previously been installed in the truststore. If you want to disable the validation of certificates for testing purposes, you need to override the default trust manager with one that trusts all certificates.

// Create a trust manager that does not validate certificate chains
TrustManager[] trustAllCerts = new TrustManager[]{
    new X509TrustManager() {
        public java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
            return null;
        }
        public void checkClientTrusted(
            java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
        }
        public void checkServerTrusted(
            java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
        }
    }
};

// Install the all-trusting trust manager
try {
    SSLContext sc = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
    sc.init(null, trustAllCerts, new java.security.SecureRandom());
    HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sc.getSocketFactory());
} catch (Exception e) {
}

// Now you can access an https URL without having the certificate
// in the truststore
try {
    URL url = new URL("https://hostname/index.html");
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
}

Luckily I stumbled across this post by Graeme Rocher who had a similar problem and identified how to resolve it…

Essentially to solve the problem, you need to make sure that library is only picked up at runtime, and not compile time.   You need to put the xmlparserv2.jar on the system classpath instead of the lib directory.

1) When running standalone from grails command line:
 grails -cp lib/runtime/xmlparserv2.jar run-app or modifying the CLASSPATH environment variable

2) When running from within a container, add the .jar to the lib folder
(ie: $TOMCAT_HOME/lib)

Another possible solution is documented here.

Introducing SelectorGadget: point and click CSS selectors


def colorize(text, color_code)
"#{color_code}#{text}\033[0m"
end

def red(text); colorize(text, "\033[31m"); end
def boldred(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;31m"); end
def green(text); colorize(text, "\033[32m"); end
def boldgreen(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;32m"); end
def yellow(text); colorize(text, "\033[33m"); end
def boldyellow(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;33m"); end
def blue(text); colorize(text, "\033[34m"); end
def boldblue(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;34m"); end
def purple(text); colorize(text, "\033[35m"); end
def boldpurple(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;35m"); end
def cyan(text); colorize(text, "\033[36m"); end
def boldcyan(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;36m"); end
def white(text); colorize(text, "\033[37m"); end
def boldwhite(text); colorize(text, "\033[1;37m"); end


def inform(text); green(text); end
def highlight(text); boldgreen(text); end
def warning(text); yellow(text); end
def alert(text); red(text); end
def section(text); "\n\n#{"*" * 50}\n#{text}\n#{"*" * 50}";

Now by utilizing the wrapper methods like this:

task :testconfig do
logoutputDir = Logging.initialize("#{$deployDir}/logs", $envNameName, $envNameNum)
Logging.info inform("*" * 75)
Logging.info inform(" Starting... ")
Logging.info " Env: " + highlight('development')
Logging.info " Date: " + highlight(Time.now.to_s)
Logging.info " User: " + highlight('jsmith')
Logging.info " Logs Dir: " + highlight('/tmp/projectX/log')
Logging.info inform("*" * 75)
Logging.info inform(".. informational message ...")
Logging.info warning(".. warning message ...")
Logging.info alert(".. alert message ...")
Logging.info highlight(".. highlighted message ..")
Logging.info inform("*" * 75)
Logging.info inform(" Done! ")
Logging.info " Date: " + highlight(Time.now.to_s)
Logging.info " Dist: " + highlight('/tmp/projectX/dist')
Logging.info inform("*" * 75)
end

You'll get pretty output like this:

Sample console output

on :start do
verifyParametersAndInitialize()
end

callback options:

1. :before, triggered before a task is invoked
2. :after, triggered after a task is invoked
3. :start, triggered before a top-level task is invoked via the command-line
4. :finish, triggered when a top-level task completes
5. :load, triggered after all recipes have loaded
6. :exit, triggered after all tasks have completed

Migrations are a beautiful way to properly version, co-ordinate and apply the changes you need to your various database environments.  I never knew of a way to do this in a non-rails environment, until now. Step in AutoPatch.

Some alternatives to AutoPatch exist such as migrate4j and Liquibase. Each with their own flavor of how to tackle the problem. AutoPatch was the winner for me as you don’t have to write your migrations in some custom DSL (xml in the case of Liquibase, or java for migrate4j). Our existing .sql scripts worked just fine!

Our shop is currently using Capistrano for deployments. Blending Autopatch with Capistrano was relatively straightforward. Below are two sample tasks that can be added to facilitate AutoPatch’s cmd line info and migrate calls.

desc "Display database migration levels."
task :dbinfo do
cmdAPClasspath = "#{deployDir}/applications/database/lib/oracle/ojdbc14_g.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/dist/prepare/database" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/tk-autopatch-1.2-b-cvs.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/log4j-1.2.8.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/commons-logging-1.0.3.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/commons-collections-3.2.1.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/commons-lang-2.2.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/tk-util-1.1.2.jar"
cmdAPPatchInfo = "java -cp #{cmdAPClasspath} " \
+ "com.tacitknowledge.util.migration.jdbc.MigrationInformation #{systemName}"
system(cmdAPPatchInfo)
end

desc "Apply database migrations."
task :dbmigrate do
cmdAPClasspath = "#{deployDir}/applications/database/lib/oracle/ojdbc14_g.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/dist/prepare/database" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/tk-autopatch-1.2-b-cvs.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/log4j-1.2.8.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/commons-logging-1.0.3.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/commons-collections-3.2.1.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/commons-lang-2.2.jar" \
+ ":#{deployDir}/lib/java/tk-util-1.1.2.jar"
cmdAPPatchInfo = "java -cp #{cmdAPClasspath} " \
+ "com.tacitknowledge.util.migration.jdbc.StandaloneMigrationLauncher #{systemName}"
system(cmdAPPatchInfo)
end

OpenSSL supports several certificate formats. Certificates are based on the DSA signature algorithm and the RSA algorithm for public-key cryptography according to PKCS algorithms.  The certificate format depends on the application, as there is no agreement on file format standards.

Private keys are usually available in the PEM and DER format. The related files have names of the following type:

*key-rsa.pem for pem files
*key-rsa.der for der files

For OpenSSL applications, the PEM format should suffice. For Java applications, the DER format might be more suitable for importing the private key and certificates.

For certificates, the available formats are PEM, DER and PKCS12 with file names of the following type:

*cert.pem for pem files
*cert.der for der files
*cert.p12 for pkcs12 files

In general, the PEM formats are mostly used in the Unix world, PCKS12 in the Microsoft world and DER in the Java world.

Certificate files are ASN.1-encoded objects that may be encrypted according to DES (Data Encryption Standard). The files can optionally be encrypted using a symmetric cipher algorithm, such as 3DES.

An unencrypted PEM file might look something like this:

    —–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–
    MB4CGQDUoLoCULb9LsYm5+/WN992xxbiLQlEuIsCAQM=
    —–END CERTIFICATE—–

The string beginning with MB4C… is the Base64-encoded, ASN.1-encoded object.

An encrypted file would have headers describing the type of encryption used, and the initialization vector:

    —–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—–
    Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
    DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,C814158661DC1449
    AFAZFbnQNrGjZJ/ZemdVSoZa3HWujxZuvBHzHNoesxeyqqidFvnydA==
    —–END RSA PRIVATE KEY—–

The two headers Proc-Type and DEK-Info declare the type of encryption, and the string starting with AFAZ… is the Base64-encoded, encrypted, ASN.1-encoded object.

As web browsers make use of Java applications, they import/export certificates in pkcs12 file format, i.e. public and private keys are packed in one single file using the PKCS#12 algorithm. Other applications require the pem format with unpacked public and private keys, thus the user must remember the appropriate file format for each application and must perform format conversions as appropriate.

The following tables report a summary of formats used for INFN-Grid applications and two simple scripts with format conversion commands.

INFN-Grid Certificates Format Summary
Certificate Type     Certificate Format
CA Authority Certificate     DER
Personal Certificate from CA     PKCS12
Grid Access Certificate     PEM

=========================
CONVERT pkcs12 to pem
=========================
#!/bin/sh
echo “copy your cert to cert.p12 – then run this script”
openssl pkcs12 -clcerts -nokeys -in cert.p12 -out usercert.pem
openssl pkcs12 -nocerts -in cert.p12 -out userkey.pem

=========================
CONVERT pem to pkcs12
=========================
#!/bin/sh
echo “Verify that you are using the correct certificate pair (key/cert)”
openssl pkcs12 -export -out one.identity.neteller.com.p12 -inkey ./one.identity.neteller.com.key -in ./one.identity.neteller.com.cert

** NOTE: specify the -in and -inkey parameters as PEM format files…

If your running JRockit, you might also be interested in how to update Verisign CA root certificates.

This might be required if you start seeing errors such as this:
javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

<project name="foo" basedir="." default="usage">

...

<target name="usage">
        <java classname="org.apache.tools.ant.Main">
            <arg value="-projecthelp"/>
            <classpath>
                <pathelement location="${lib.dir}/ant/ant.jar"/>
                <pathelement location="${lib.dir}/ant/ant-launcher.jar"/>
                <pathelement location="${lib.dir}/ant/xerces_2.8.0.jar"/>
            </classpath>
        </java>
    </target>

...

</project>

perl -MCPAN -e 'print CPAN::Shell->r '

Package namespace    installed    latest  in CPAN file
Archive::Tar              1.30      1.52  K/KA/KANE/Archive-Tar-1.52.tar.gz
Attribute::Handlers    0.78_01      0.85  S/SM/SMUELLER/Attribute-Handlers-0.85.tar.gz
AutoLoader                5.60      5.68  S/SM/SMUELLER/AutoLoader-5.68.tar.gz
B                         1.02      1.19  N/NW/NWCLARK/perl-5.8.9.tar.gz
B::Debug                  1.01      1.11  R/RU/RURBAN/B-Debug-1.11.tar.gz