deltalounge

Some notes and dump of thoughts on the second day of the SOA and E20 Partner Community Forum. A day filled with interesting breakout sessions. Some of them were discussing roadmaps and future developments in the stack, and thus subjective to an NDA.

SOA platform

Again after this session I came to the conclusion that in my opinion BAM is used too little.

During the session was raised whether people in the audience were using non-Oracle databases as dehydration store and Meta Data Store. The mainstream is using Oracle as dehydration store. And although it is certified, it is advised to use Oracle as the database for this purpose. On the Application Server, given the maturity of the J2EE platform, there is less discomfort in operations to deploy the SOA Suite on a non-Oracle App Server.

ADF

Only today I found out that there is an interesting JDeveloper 11g extension. The extension validates ADF code quality. Seems an interesting extension to check code quality besides the already available Java tools.

BPM

When comparing BPEL and BPM and looking into when to use what tool, the following was stated: For all things with human interaction BPM is the tool of choice. In integration driven appraoches BPEL is the tool of choice.

In Oracle point of view BPM includes:

• People
• Systems
• Documents

without the need for separate platforms.

Example of a custom Spring Java worklist application for Oracle BPM.

Today I attended the first day of the SOA and E2.0 Partner Community Forum. For a detailed agenda of the event check this link. The event with 200 registrations was hosted at Capgemini in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Tattie picking

The first keynote by Andrew Sutherland had a few great stories that leaded the way to show the rationale behind the Exalogic platform. This included a personal story on “tattie picking”. The larger part was on productisation and gave examples on increasing effiency in IT. One of the ways for the Exalogic platform is the one that is also used by Apple: If you limit the amount of hardware your OS of software stack has to be compliant with, that introduces a better controlled and optimized environment; “If you know the machine you need less code”. This is resulting in several efficiencies. Efficiencies both in the One Time Costs (CTB) and Recurring Costs (RTB).

One of the sound bites that stayed with me was:

The most sticky stack is the least sticky one

Indicating that the stack that is the most open and complying with standards is the one that is most likely to survive…

SOA/ BPM Reference Case

In the Partner SOA/ BPM Reference Case Leon Smiers of Capgemini introduced us to the BPM practise of Capgemini and two of their BPM cases. One of the quotes that I think is very true was:

SOA supports the success of BPM.

Besides that Leon stressed the structure, insight and compliance advantages that BPM efforts deliver. One of the things they learned by doing was the importance of showing BAM to business people. This really enables you to get visibility on a lot of stuff that is under the hood. Besides that it is a catalyst for generating more business value with ideas from the people you are showing BAM to.

WebCenter/ UCM Reference Case

During the WebCenter/ UCM Reference Case Vikram Setia of Infomentum shared great insight on how to deliver an excellent web site using Oracle technology. He did this in a very lively session showing us around a live site and telling what Oracle technologies were used behind the scenes. Besides the UCM and WebCenter stuff there were some cool uses database thingies like:

• Text Clustering
• Thesaurus
• Locator

SOA and BPM 11gR1 PS3 Update

Another intresting session was the SOA and BPM 11gR1 PS3 Update by David Shaffer. Mr Shaffer showed us some of the history and some of the highlight in the current stack. A more detailed dive into the latter will be on day 2 of the conference.

Wednesday’s Breakout Sessions

On the second day I will be attending the following breakout sessions:

• SOA Suite 11g PS3 & OSB
• ADF/WebCenter 11g integration with BPM Suite 11g
• BPM 11g, Whats New

The 2011 edition of Oracle Open World will be from October 2th to 6th. One of the great ways to experience this events is share your knowledge and submit a paper. This window of opportunity closes at midnight on March 27. Find more info on:

• General Info
• Submission Info
• Tips and Guidelines

Whitehorses a Gold level partner of OPN, has achieved the Specialized status for Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Achieving this Whitehorses has been recognized by Oracle for its expertise in delivering services specifically around Oracle SOA Suite 11g through business results and proven success.

Frank Dorst, CTO of Whitehorses:

“We strongly believe in the power of IT. Information technology makes real change possible and that does not always have to mean huge investments. We distinguish ourselves by clearly defined improvement projects, with involvement of both IT and business in which collaboration with customers is essential. Achieving Specialization is our confirmation that we are doing well. It continues our long relationship with Oracle and gives our customers the confidence to work with a qualified party. ”

Bas Diepen, senior manager of Alliances and Channels at Oracle:

Whitehorses know how to keep changes small and simple, no matter how big projects are. We are pleased that the investment they have made in gaining knowledge and Oracle skills, is now reflected in achieving this Specialized status.”

This blog will point you to two valuable but free resources:

Designing the Service Contract

You can download a free PDF on Designing the Service Contract (alternative link). This is a sample chapter from the book Oracle SOA Suite Developer’s Guide. The book is available form here.
There are also two OTN Arch2Arch Podcast interviews with Oracle SOA Suite Developer’s Guide authors Matt Wright and Antony Reynolds now available:

• The architects perspective
• SOA around the globe and important books

Developing a Portlet using ADF

There is a free sample chapter on how to create Portlets using ADF available (alternative link). The chapter is taken from Web 2.0 solutions with Oracle WebCenter 11g. The book is available here.

In this chapter, you will learn the following:

• JSF specification concepts
• The types of portlets you can build with WebCenter
• Developing a portlet using ADF
• Integrating portlets with custom Applications

In June an AMI (Amazon Machine Image to use on the EC2 platform) for SOA Suite and BPM 11g R1 PS2 became available. In the last days it was announced that a VirtualBox Appliance is available. The timing, just before Oracle OpenWorld 2010 cannot be a coincidence…

This appliance contains a fully configured, ready-to-use SOA/BPM 11g R1 installation. It contains the following software:

• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4
• Oracle XE Universal database 10.2.0.1
• Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.3.0
• SOA Suite 11gR1 PS2
• BPM Suite 11gR1 PS2 (with bundle patch #1)
• BAM 11gR1 PS2
• B2B 11gR1 PS2
• JDeveloper 11.1.1.3

The download and setup instructions can be found on Oracle Technet.

To prepare your visit to Oracle OpenWorld 2010, this post provides some links to selections of sessions with a focus on eg BPM, AIA, et cetera. Here is my top ten:

1. Oracle AIA – Application Integration Architecture
2. Architects and architecture
3. BPM – Business Process Management
4. Cloud Computing
5. Data Integration
6. EDA – Event Driven Architecture
7. Fusion Middleware development
8. Java EE
9. Middleware for Enterprise Applications
10. SOA – Service Oriented Architecture

Plug

Okay, i’ll plug two sessions:

• Customer – S314708 – Transform Your Business with Oracle Application Integration Architecture | Monday, September 20, 14:00 | Moscone West L3, Rm 3011
• Colleague – S316135 – From Oracle Forms to a Service-Oriented Architecture with Oracle SOA Suite 11g | Tuesday, September 21, 5:00PM | Marriott Marquis, Salon 9

Have Fun

Using the AIAMigrationUtility in AIA 11g R1 we encountered the following error:

invokeMigrationUtility:
[echo]
…
[exec] setupMDSstore:
[exec]
[exec] bpel:
[exec] [upgrade]
…
[exec] [upgrade] Reading WSDL Location http://lnx40.deltalounge.net:8001/soa-infra/services/default/AIAAsyncErrorHandlingBPELProcess/client?WSDL
[exec] [upgrade] Jul 26, 2010 3:27:34 PM oracle.viewgen.ViewGenerator main
[exec] [upgrade] SEVERE: Upgrade failed. Check the logs for any exceptions. Ensure that the WSDL URLs specified in the project are reachable and a valid 10.1.3.x project is used for upgrade. Before re-attempting upgrade, restore the original project code source from the backup directory.
[exec] [upgrade] java.lang.NullPointerException
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.composite.CompositeUtil.setupBinding(CompositeUtil.java:686)
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.composite.CompositeUtil.setupCompositeServices(CompositeUtil.java:444)
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.composite.CompositeUtil.createComposite(CompositeUtil.java:315)
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.ViewGenerator.main(ViewGenerator.java:316)
[exec] [upgrade] Exception in thread “Main Thread” java.lang.NullPointerException
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.composite.CompositeUtil.setupBinding(CompositeUtil.java:686)
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.composite.CompositeUtil.setupCompositeServices(CompositeUtil.java:444)
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.composite.CompositeUtil.createComposite(CompositeUtil.java:315)
[exec] [upgrade] at oracle.viewgen.ViewGenerator.main(ViewGenerator.java:316)
[exec]
[exec] BUILD FAILED
[exec] /fs01/app/oracle/esbtst01/weblogic/Oracle_SOA1/bin/ant-sca-upgrade.xml:71: Java returned: 1
[exec]
[exec] Total time: 5 seconds

BUILD FAILED
/fs01/app/oracle/esbtst01/weblogic/aia30/util/AIAMigrationUtility/AIAMigrationUtility.xml:58: The following error occurred while executing this line:
/fs01/app/oracle/esbtst01/weblogic/aia30/util/AIAMigrationUtility/AIAMigrationUtility.xml:140: exec returned: 1

Total time: 7 seconds

This was solved (unexpected) by altering the adf-config.xml in the .adf/META-INF/ directory for the workspace. The following was added:

          <namespace metadata-store-usage="mstore-usage_2"
                     path="/apps/AIAMetaData"/>
....
          <metadata-store-usage id="mstore-usage_2">
            <metadata-store class-name="oracle.mds.persistence.stores.db.DBMetadataStore">
              <property value="DEV_MDS" name="jdbc-userid"/>
              <property value="poctst01" name="jdbc-password"/>
              <property value="jdbc:oracle:thin:@lnx42.deltalounge.net:1521:poctst01"
                        name="jdbc-url"/>
              <property value="soa-infra" name="partition-name"/>
            </metadata-store>
          </metadata-store-usage>

In other words the connection information for the MDS has been provided.

Update ANT and MDS

Today I came across his blogpost on another ANT script using MDS during deployment. Which requires a similar solution: altering the adf-config.xml in the .adf/META-INF/ directory.

If you’re not using elastic IP you have to configure WebLogic / SOA Suite running on EC2 to listen to external calls. A good example of such an external call would be: you trying to deploy a composite from the JDeveloper installation on your local PC. If you don’t configure this you’ll run into:

Error sending deployment request to server

java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out: connect

To configure the External Listen Address log into the WebLogic Console.

• Select Environment – Server
• Click the server (AdminServer)
• Click Advanced to show the advanced settings
• Enter the External Listen Address
• Restart WebLogic

It can be helpful to also edit your host file to save you from retyping the quite long EC2 host name over and over again.

In the 10g release of Oracle SOA Suite you could set properties to instruct web service calls to go via SOAP or not. If you were calling services on the same server or domain you could gain some performance with a native call and avoiding the SOAP overhead. To do this you would set the optSoapShortcut property.

With SOA Suite 11g on WLS SOAP optimization is automatically configured. In the scenario where you upgraded to 11g R1 and are using this optimization shortcut approach, you should specify the Server URL in the SOA Infrastructure Common Settings. Optimized calls are only active when the host name value (referred to as WSDL URL in the composite.xml) matches the Server URL.

To configure the SOA Infrastructure Common Settings choose from the SOA Infrastructure Menu > SOA Administration > Common Properties. As shown in the screenshot. Other access ways to this configuration screen are described here.

Enter the server URL in the Server URLs section. This URL is published as part of the SOAP address of a service in the concrete WSDL file. Either set both values to the host name (for example, myhost) or to the full domain name (for example, myhost.domain.com). If these values do not match, a regular SOAP call is performed instead of an optimized local call.

One of the scenarios that you have to set the Server URL in order to use the optimized local call is after a migration of AIA to AIA 11g R1.