Submitting BlueJ Projects

Introduction

BlueJ is capable of submitting your assignments electronically. When a project is submitted, BlueJ consults a file called "submission.defs" to determine which files to submit, then attaches them to an E-mail addressed to a recipient named in the submission.defs file. For the submission process to work, you must be using the latest version of BlueJ's submitter extension, and you need to be using a computer that is connected to the network and has permission to contact the UPS E-mail server to send the outgoing message.

At the time this page was written, the computers in Thompson 191 all had the latest version of the submitter extension, and the firewall settings have been adjusted such that electronic submission is possible. In other words, submission works from the lab in Th191. This is not true of the other labs on campus. The firewall settings for the rest of the campus will not allow BlueJ to send the outgoing E-mail message. You can either submit from Th191, or from your personal machines (assuming you don't have firewall software on your computer that prohibits BlueJ from sending E-mail).

Common Sense

Before proceeding to the troubleshooting section, make sure of the following:

Make sure you've set the preferences properly, otherwise BlueJ has no idea how to reach the E-mail server. Your settings should look like this, but with your full name and UPS E-mail address instead of mine:

Make sure you're running the right version of BlueJ! If you're working in Th191, you need to ensure that you're running the local copy of BlueJ instead of the one you installed on alexandria. (The version you installed will be using the old submitter unless you've updated the extension, and therefore won't submit properly.) Move the mouse over the BlueJ links on the desktop and wait for a sec — the path to the application will appear as shown below. Make sure you double-click the one that refers to BlueJ on the C: drive instead of H: or Z:.

If you're using your own machine, make sure you've updated the submitter. You can download the new version from the BlueJ extensions page. Save the new extension to the desktop, then move it to C:\BlueJ\lib\extensions. (On a mac, control-click the BlueJ application itself and view the package contents. The new submitter goes in Contents/Resources/Java/extensions.) Do not just re-install BlueJ — version 2.2.0 is still bundled with the old version of the submitter. If in doubt about which version of the submitter you're using, go to the "Help" menu and select "Installed Extensions". Click on the balloon containing a question mark. The submitter version should be "12 Sep 2007" or later.

A successful submission should look like this (you'll have to enlarge the submitter window to see all of the text):

Trouble

If you get the dialog box below when trying to submit, there's been a problem of some sort. Enlarge the submitter's status window so that you can see all of the text it contains, and look for one of the error messages below.

IOException while sending message
This almost certainly means that you're using the old version of the submitter extension. Re-read the section on updating the submitter above if you're using your own machine. If you're in Th191, re-read the tip on running the correct version of BlueJ.
SMTP Host not set in Preferences
You haven't set the preferences properly. Re-read the section above on setting preferences.
Email address not set in Preferences
You haven't set the preferences properly. Re-read the section above on setting preferences.
Could not connect to SMTP host: smtp.ups.edu, port: 25
Either you're not connected to the network or, more likely, the computer you're using is running firewall software that's preventing BlueJ from sending E-mail. If this is your own machine, disable your firewall software while you submit, or look for settings that will allow outgoing E-mails to be sent. (The specifics of this depend upon the firewall software running on your computer, and are beyond the scope of this help page.) This message will also appear if you're trying to submit from off campus and are not using the VPN. You can learn more about the VPN and download the software here.

If you're having a problem that's not listed above, please contact me with additional information about your situation. When problems occur, BlueJ writes a more detailed description of the error in the bluej-debuglog file. If you send me this file, I'll have a much better chance of being able to help. BlueJ will tell you where this file is being stored if you select "About" from the "Help" menu. On a PC running windows it's probably in C:\Documents and Settings\User\bluej. On a mac it's in Library/Preferences/org.bluej.

Brad Richards, 2007