WebSphere UK Usergroup Meeting – 27th Feb 2007 – A Review

Yesterday’s WebSphere UK Usergroup meeting (which was combined with the WebSphere Integration Usergroup) was a really good event. The sessions were on a real mix of topics including IBM products such as WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Service Registry and Repository, WebSphere ESB, WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere Message Broker, Rational Application Developer and current hot topics such as Spring, and Web 2.0. There was also plenty of opportunity for attendees to chat to each other over coffee and discuss the products and strategies they have used and also for them to chat to IBMers to find out more about the products we offer.

For a review of the sessions I went to read on.

WebSphere UK Usergroup Meeting – 27th Feb 2007 at IBM Bedfont Lakes

Tomorrow I, along with a number of my colleagues from Hursley, will be attending the WebSphere UK Usergroup meeting at IBM Bedfont Lakes. There are an interesting set of topics being discussed and hopefully there will be the opportunity to meet lots of customers interested in the WebSphere family of products. If you are coming along and fancy finding out some more about WebSphere ESB then make sure you stop me for a chat.

Invoking services on different machines using the SCA (default) binding

The SCA (or default) binding which is typically used to connect modules and/or mediation modules together is not limited to same machine same cell connections, it is also possible to make an asynchronous or synchronous call (as the SCA binding supports both invocation styles) to a module/mediation module with an export SCA binding on another machine, in a different cell. The guidance for how to do this can be found here in the Information Center.

Documenting modules and mediation modules

Composite applications such as modules and mediation modules can easily become quite complex what with the number of artifacts involved – business objects, interfaces, components, etc. and so good documentation is essential. WebSphere Integration Developer makes the documentation process simple by providing an area in the Properties view for each artifact type for you to add your own documentation. Once you have done this you can then right click on a module or mediation module project in the Business Integration view and select Generate Documentation. By default this will generate a PDF complete with documentation for all of your artifacts including images of your assembly diagram, mediation flows, and property settings for each component etc.

As part of the Generate documentation wizard you can choose to create a new master file. This allows you to define which artifacts you want to be included in your documentation. Very useful if you only decide to document certain artifacts.

Defining a default namespace policy

By default, inside WebSphere Integration Developer, when you create a new mediation, module or library project or one of the artifacts that go inside them, such as business objects and interfaces they all have an associated default namespace to help give them a unique name.

If you want to customise the way in which these default namespaces are created then you can do so using the Default Namespace preferences panel which you can access by going to Windows>Preferences and navigating to Business Integration>Default Namespace. Here you can define your default namespaces policy using static text (perhaps your company name) and variables (such as artifact type, module name, etc.). Once you have done this, all artifacts you create will automatically have the correct namespace. A real time saver!

Promoted Properties

In WebSphere ESB/WebSphere Process Server v6.0.2 a new piece of functionality was added to allow an integration developer building a mediation module to expose (or promote) the properties used to configure mediation primitives inside the mediation flow. These promoted properties can then be modified by a solution administrator via the administrative console.

Rational tester for SOA – Open Beta

This open beta program for testing SOA applications and Web services is making available early release code. It contains downloads for Rational Tester for SOA*, which is powered by IBM Rational Performance Tester and IBM Rational Performance Tester Extension for SOA*. The open beta enables testers and delivery teams to:

• Validate SOA system functionality and interoperability
• Ensure system performance
• Determine maximum system capacity
• Identify and resolve performance problems of SOA IT solutions

* Name subject to change.

New WebSphere MQ blog

A new blog has just started! A Hursley View on WebSphere MQ might be seen as a “sister blog” to SOA Tips’n'Tricks, covering technologies strongly related to those we talk about here. The idea is that the development team behind WebSphere MQ will be able to post short pieces about how the product works, and highlight interesting aspects of the product that you might not have known about before.

(for more about the new blog, check out Dale’s post on the subject).

WebSphere Integration Developer Tips

Some tips to help make working with WebSphere Integration Developer, particularly with multiple workspaces, that little bit easier:

Show the current workspace directory in the title bar

To do this you need to set the Eclipse -showlocation option which you can do by:
- On Windows modifying your WebSphere Integration Developer shortcut to include -showlocation at the end of the command that is being run.
- On Linux modify the shortcut_wid file which can be found in the directory where you installed WebSphere Integration Developer to include -showlocation after the path to the wid.bin executable.

Open different WebSphere Integration Developer workspaces at the same time

- Start WebSphere Integration Developer in the normal way and choose your first workspace.
- Then start WebSphere Integration in the normal way again but choose a different workspace.

Increase the number of console lines so that you can see the full console output

- Go to Window>Preferences>Run/Debug and increase the console buffer size.

Note: If you choose to set this too high or not limit the console output you can run out of memory.