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Posts Tagged ‘WLS’

Some useful AIA 11g links

May 5th, 2011 No comments

For my own reference some useful AIA 11g Foundation Pack references:

Documentation

The AIA 11g Foundation Pack documentation:

Installation

Installing AIA FP (11.1.1.4.0) on SOA Suite 11g R1 PS3 explained by Edwin Biemond on the Whitehorses blog. The Oracle Installation and upgrade guide to go with it can be found here and a whitepaper on installation topologies and architecture.

Blogs on installing previous versions:

Using Composite Application Validation System for non AIA Composites testing

Usings CAVS to test non AIA composites is described by Edwin Biemond.

Categories: AIA, Oracle, SOA Suite, WLS
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SOA and E20 Partner Community Forum – 2

March 16th, 2011 No comments

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.

SOA and E20 Partner Community Forum

March 16th, 2011 1 comment

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

Create Data Source in WebLogic Server

February 24th, 2011 No comments

While I had to document these steps for a customer that is new to WebLogic Server, I thought why not share these relatively easy steps in a blog post as well. So here they are. The screen shots that come with it are at the bottom.

Create Data Source

  1. Use a browser to go to the WLS Console, for example http://somehost:7001/console/login/LoginForm.jsp
  2. On the home page, click the Data Sources link. You can find it in the Domain Configurations, Services section;
  3. On the Summary of JDBC Data Sources page click the New button (to change current configuration click the link of the Data Sources you want to change);
  4. Choose the Name, JNDI Name, and select the Database Type (Oracle). Click Next to confirm and continue;
  5. Choose the Database Driver. This is depending on the selected Database Type. We used Thin XA for Instance connections for the Data Sources created in the project. Click Next;
  6. Click Next after you read the Transaction Options;
  7. Enter the Connection Properties and after that Next to confirm and continue:
    • Database Name
    • Host Name
    • Port
    • Database User Name
    • Password
  8. Click the Test Connection button, and if the test succeeded click next;
  9. On the Select Targets page check for example the AdminServer. Click finish.

More on configuring JDBC on WebLogic Server can be found here (and the PDF on JDBC admin).

Categories: Oracle, WLS
Tags: , , ,

VirtualBox Appliances for Developers

December 8th, 2010 No comments

I’m a fan of ready to use appliances for development and demo purposes. Recently it was announced that additional developer Virtual Machines have been released by Oracle. These in addition to the SOA Suite and BPM appliance mentioned before.

Developers can simply download a few files, assemble them with a script , and then import and run the resulting pre-built VM in VirtualBox. This makes starting with these technologies even easier. Each appliance contains some Hands-On-Labs to start learning.

Java Developement

This VirtualBox Appliance contains:

  • Java SE (JDK) 1.6.0 u20 (note: Mac OS X 10.5 users must use Apple update)
  • Java FX 1.3.1 runtime
  • NetBeans IDE 6.9.1
  • GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 3.0.1 (installed with NetBeans)

The Aquarium says about this Java EE6 VM:

This is everything you need to get started with Java EE 6 development and you’ll even find three labs (with code and instructions) to start using JSF 2, JAX-RS 1.1, EJB 3.1, Servlet 3.0, JPA 2.0 and CDI 1.0!

For detailed instructions and downloads go here…

Oracle Database Development

This VirtualBox Appliance contains:

  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 5
  • Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition
  • Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Cache
  • Oracle XML DB
  • Oracle SQL Developer
  • Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler
  • Oracle Application Express 4.0
  • Oracle JDeveloper
  • Hands-On-Labs (accessed via the Toolbar Menu in Firefox)

For detailed instructions.

It is expected that more flavors will be available in 2011.

Install OSB next to VirtualBox SOA Suite 11g Appliance

November 25th, 2010 3 comments

In this post will show you how to install the Oracle Service Bus on the VirtualBox SOA Suite 11g appliance. For this demo we used a pretty straightforward installation scheme.

Oracle WebLogic Server installation

Download wls1033_oepe111150_linux32.bin for installation on Linux. Install using the command ./wls1033_oepe111150_linux32.bin:

Install WebLogic 10.3.3


The following screenshots will give you a good idea of the installation flow.


Oracle Service Bus installation

Start the Disk1/runInstaller.sh and specify the JRE/JDK location /oracle/osbhome/jdk160_18/.

Install Oracle Service Bus


This sequence of screenshots gives you a good impression.


Configure a WebLogic Domain

Configure a Domain using the Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Wizard using ./config.sh in the /oracle/osbhome/oracle_common/common/bin directory.
Configuring a WLS Domain
A straightforward configuration of the WLS Domain requires the following steps:



Start WebLogic

./startWebLogic.sh and Have Fun!

Test driving the VirtualBox SOA Suite and BPM 11g Appliance

November 9th, 2010 3 comments

Few weeks ago I mentioned the VirtualBox SOA Suite and BPM 11g R1 PS2 Appliance. In the last week we’ve been test driving it on several machines.

32-bits Windows7

We noticed that on some 32-bits Windows7 machines the WebLogic Server and SOA Suite fail to start. The reason seems to be that on some 32-bit Windows 7 machines the amount of memory that can be allocated to the VirtualMachine in VirtualBox is limited to 1500 MB.
VirtualBox explains:

The Base Memory sets the amount of RAM that is allocated and given to the VM when it is running. The specified amount of memory will be requested from the host operating system, so it must be available or made available as free memory on the host when attempting to start the VM and will not be available to the host while the VM is running. This is the same setting that was specified in the “New Virtual Machine” wizard.

This can cause a crash when starting the WebLogic Server since the SER_MEM_ARGS are set to:
SER_MEM_ARGS="-Xms512m -Xmx1536m"

These are set in the wls_env.sh which can be found in the /home/oracle/bin/. Altering the -Xmx to a lower value (lower than the amount you can allocate on your workstation) can solve this problem.

Oracle Service Bus

Since I’ve been involved in several projects in the last year that want to use both SOA Suite and the Oracle Service Bus (which at least from some perspectives is part of the SOA Suite) it was a bit disappointing for me that OSB isn’t included. I’ve been asking around for the rationale behind this choice without any satisfying answers so far. Please leave your thoughts in the comments or in this thread of the Oracle forums.

Sharing artifacts using the MDS Repository

November 4th, 2010 4 comments

Both during development and maintenance of code, deployment strategies relying on copying of artifacts will fail, or at least complicate the task at hand and frustrate reuse. SOA Suite offers a centralized storage for artifacts (like WSDL, XSD, and XSL files) that can be accessed both at design time and at run-time. It is called the MDS Repository, and comes with Metadata Services on top of it. It is part of the SOA Suite and doesn’t require additional installation. This blogpost will show you how to upload an artifact to the central MDS Repository, and how to use the uploaded artifact in your source code.

Locate and copy the WSDL

Locate the WSDL file in your project on the local file system, for example: C:\JDeveloper\mywork\AIApocBOUW\CreateInventoryTransactionRIBRMSProvABCSImpl.wsdl. In which a convention like C:\JDeveloper\mywork\__Workspace__\__project__ is used. You can also determine this path in JDeveloper by selecting the WSDL file and use CRTL-SHIFT-C (or by selecting contextmenu – Copy Path).

Use an FTP tool to move the file to the server running the SOA Suite. The path to use on the server depends on the application, version and component type. Typically in AIA there is a structure like $AIA_HOME/AIAMetaData/AIAComponents/ApplicationConnectorServiceLibrary/__Application__/__version__/__componentType__ . Where in AIA component types are ABCS Provider, ABCS Requestor, EBS, et cetera. In other environments you can create your own structure. Since you no longer need a local copy of the WSDL, remove it from your local file system.

Load the WSDL in the MDS Repository

To load the WSDL and other artifacts to the MDS repository there is an ANT script available on the server. To use ANT, make sure the needed environment settings are made correctly. When you installed AIA there is a Shell script available the will source both AIA and ANT environments: aiaenv.sh. This script can be found in ...../weblogic/aia30/aia_instances/aia30poc/bin. It can be convenient to copy this to your home directory.

  • Source AIA and ANT environment: source ./aiaenv.sh.
  • Alter the UpdateMetaDataDP.xml configuration file. It can be found in ...../weblogic/aia30/aia_instances/aia30poc/config.

In case your vi isn’t up to par use a tool like WinSCP and choose Edit in the context menu:

In the UpdateMetaDataDP.xml file alter the file set. In the example on which the screenshot is based
AIAComponents/ApplicationConnectorServiceLibrary/Retail/V1/RequesterABCS/CreateStockChangeLOCUSReqABCSImpl.wsdl
is added.

And now you are ready to run ANT using the actual loading script:
ant –f /fs01/app/oracle/esbtst01/weblogic/aia30/Infrastructure/Install/scripts/UpdateMetaData.xml


Check the output of the ANT script:

  • check that the correct number of files has been copied.
  • the server gave a HTTP response 200.
  • The deployment of the composite was successful.

Another check to verify a correct load into the MDS Repository is to use the MDS Browser in JDeveloper to find the file you just uploaded. A refresh of the view could be needed to include the latest changes and additions.

Using the WSDL in the MDS Repository in your source code

The last step is to reference to the WSDL in the MDS Repository, since the file has been removed from the local file system. Double click the Exposed Service to open the wizard:













Choose Existing WSDL to select the WSDL from the MDS Repository:



















Check the change using the source view. In the import of the WSDL in the composite.xml there should now be an URL referring to oramds:, like in the example below:

<import namespace="http://xmlns.oracle.com/ABCSImpl/LOCUS/Core/CreateStockChangeLOCUSReqABCSImpl/V1"
        location="oramds:/apps/AIAMetaData/AIAComponents/ApplicationConnectorServiceLibrary/Locus/V1/RequesterABCS/CreateStockChangeLOCUSReqABCSImpl.wsdl"
        importType="wsdl"/>

Recently released Developer resources

October 15th, 2010 No comments

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:

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

Another easy way to test drive SOA Suite and BPM 11g R1 PS2

September 14th, 2010 No comments

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.