Flexible JAMM User's Guide

This document describes how to use Flexible JAMM.
Flexible JAMM must be installed before use (see Flexible JAMM Installation).

Contents

Starting the Notepad  Example
Participant Information
Collaboration Controls
Initial View Before Sharing
Load a File
Share Notepad
Joining a Shared Component
Input Control
Sharing An Arbitrary Swing Component

Related Documents

Starting a Sample Shareable Application - Notepad

The rJAMM<version>/bin (<version> is the Flexible JAMM version number. e.g., 0.6.1) directory contains scripts (batch files) for running Flexible JAMM.  The two Swing demonstration applications, Notepad and Stylepad, can be run with the run_Notepad and run_Stylepad scripts (batch files), respectively.

To run the Notepad example, from the rJAMM<version>/bin directory, execute run_Notepad.  Similarly for Stylepad, execute run_Stylepad.  Since Notepad uses fewer resources and starts more quickly than Stylepad, you should start with it. Note to MS DOS users: if the application seems to take too long to start up, try starting up your TCP/IP networking (e.g., via Dial-up Networking) and then restart Flexible JAMM.
 

Participant Information

Figure 1a.  Participant Information.  The first time you run Flexible JAMM, you will need to enter some information unique to yourself: your name and a color.  These will be used to identify you during collaboration. Your information is stored in a file called collaboration.properties.

Figure 1. Participant Information
 
 

Collaboration Controls

The primary Flexible JAMM controls are contained in the window named Flexible JAMM Collaboration Controls, as seen in Figure 1b.Figure 1b. Flexible JAMM Collaboration Controls window. The upper portion contains two buttons. The Share Component button (disabled in this view), initiates sharing of the component. The Change My Information button allows the participant to change his or her name and color. The lower portion of the window, labeled Input Control allows participants to coordinate input control to the shared application (see Input Control for more information). The bottom of this window contains a list of the people participating in the collaboration (new in Flexible JAMM version 1.0.1). Each collaborator's name, color, current telepointer shape, and an information string is listed.
Figure 1b. Collaboration Control window.

After you enter your participant information, your screen should look like this.
 

Initial View Before Sharing

Figure 2.  The initial view of Notepad after executing run_Notepad.

Figure 2. Startup of Notepad.
 
 

Load a File

So that we have something interesting to share, open a file by clicking the open-folder icon (second from left). Select the file named  hamlet_actI_sceneI.txt .  Your screen should look like the following:

Figure 3.  Notepad with the file  hamlet_actI_sceneI.txt loaded.

Figure 3. Notepad with a text file loaded
 
 

Share Notepad

Now we can share Notepad.  Press the "Share Component" button on the Collaboration Control window.  A dialog will ask for a host, port, and session name.  Accept the default values by pressing the "Connect" button.  If you are using Java versions 1.1 - 1.1.4 you will see a harmless NullPointerException; please ignore this fixed known bug in the Java AWT (fixed in 1.1.5+).
At this point Flexible JAMM will make a copy of the objects contained by Notepad.  A progress bar will display how much time is left until the copy is sent. On the receiving end, a corresponding progress bar will display how much time is left until the copy is fully received.   At the end of this process, your screen should look like the following:

Figure 4.  Notepad being shared.

Figure 4. Notepad being shared.

At this point, the Notepad component may be joined by other participants, which is described next under Joining a Shared Component.

Joining a Shared Component

Execute the script (batch file) rJAMM<version>/bin/joinJAMM to join a previously shared component (such as the Notepad example above).  You may join the shared component from the same or a different machine than it was started on.   A "Connection Information" dialog will ask for host, port and session name.  Enter the host on which the original shared component is hosted (the default is the local host).  If the component was assigned a different session name than the default ("rJAMM"), enter that session name in the 'Session name' field.  Press "Connect."  Upon connection, the original application will send a copy to the joining participant.  A progress bar will display how much of the estimated total transfer is complete.

Figure 5.  A participant has joined the shared Notepad.  This participant has also scrolled the text up and is viewing a different portion than the original.

Figure 5. Joining the shared session.
 
 
 

Input Control

To avoid conflicts, collaboration-transparency systems allow only one participant at a time to generate input (mouse and key input).  In Flexible JAMM, control is implicitly granted to the first participant to press a mouse button. That participant holds control until they releases the mouse button. Control may also be taken by pressing the "Take Control" button.  Control can be taken away, unless you check the "Keep Control" check-box.  The new control holder is displayed in the Input Control panel.

Figure 6.  The Collaboration Control window contains the Input Control panel.
Figure 6. Collaboration Control window.

Flexible JAMM relaxes the input control constraint in one case. Multiple users may simultaneously enter text in a text area. See Multiuser Interface Components: Concurrent Editing for more information. Figure 7 illustrates two users simultaneously editing text in a shared Swing Notepad
Figure 7. Two users simultaneously entering text. User A is editing text in the replica on the left and User B is editing the replica on the right.
Figure 7. Concurrent text editing.

Sharing An Arbitrary Swing Component

Any 100% Swing component may be shared via Flexible JAMM (See Converting an Application to Swing and Serialization for more information). rJAMM<version>/bin/run_jammviewer is the script to run components for later sharing.  run_jammviewer takes one parameter, the class name of the component you wish to share.   The class must have a no-parameter constructor in order for Flexible JAMM to instantiate it.  The syntax is: There are two ways to allow Flexible JAMM to find the Java class of the component you wish to share.
  1. Class files in a JAR File - If your classes are in a jar file, put the jar file in the rJAMM<version>/jars directory. For examples of components in jar files, see Other Shareable Components.
  2. Class files in CLASSPATH - Simply set your CLASSPATH environment variable to include the path to your class files.


    3. A simple example, called ButtonTest, is included in Flexible JAMM 0.7+ under rJAMM<version>/samples/ButtonTest/. ButtonTest is a simple Swing component that contains two buttons, "Button A" and "Button B," which disable each other when pressed, as seen in Figure 8 (see ButtonTest.java for sample source code). To share ButtonTest with Flexible JAMM, set your CLASSPATH environment variable to CLASSPATH=rJAMM<version>/samples/ButtonTest (this must be done by the initiator and all joiners of the shared session). To initiate sharing, perform the following steps.

    1. Execute the following command
        run_jammviewer componentName=ButtonTest. 
    2. When the application starts, press the Share button to initiate sharing.
    3. On the joining host, execute the following command
        joinJAMM

    Figure 8. One collaborator's view of a simple Swing component, ButtonTest, shared via Flexible JAMM.
    Figure 8. Onecollaborator's view of a simple Swing component,ButtonTest, shared via Flexible JAMM.


Flexible JAMM Multiuser Components
Flexible JAMM Telepointer Options
Flexible JAMM Home
James "Bo" Begole