Arun Gupta, Miles to go ...

TOTD #23: JavaFX Client invoking a Metro endpoint

This TOTD is inspired by Learning JavaFX Script - Part 3. The original article explains how to invoke a Web service from a JavaFX client using NetBeans 5.5.1 and GlassFish v1. Newer version of both NetBeans and GlassFish are available since the article was written. This TOTD (tip of the day) explains how to invoke a Metro endpoint deployed on GlassFish v2 from a JavaFX client - all using NetBeans 6.

1. Following screencast #ws7, create a plain (without Security or Reliability enabled) Metro endpoint using NetBeans 6 and GlassFish v2.
2. In NetBeans 6 IDE, install the JavaFX plugin as described here.
3. Create Web service client library - Creating a Web service client in JavaFX Script Application is causing a NullPointerException (issue #126352). The workaround I used is to create a separate library with client-side artifacts and then include it as dependency in the JavaFX client project.
   1. Create a new project of type "Java Class Library" as shown below:
      
      
      
      and click on "Finish".
   2. Enter the project name as "MetroClientLibrary" as shown below:
      
      
      
      and click on "Finish".
   3. Right-click on the newly created project, select "New", "Web Service Client...".
   4. Click on "Browse..." button next to "Project" radio button and select the deployed Web service from Metro endpoint project. If the Web service is deployed on a different machine then you may specify the WSDL URL. Specify the package name "client" as shown below:
      
      
      
      and click on "Finish".
   5. Once the Web service client-side artifacts are generated (indicated by expandable Web Service References tree node), right-click on the project and select "Build". This generates a JAR file that will be utilized later. The location of this jar file is shown in the Output console. In our case, it is
      
      C:\workarea\samples\javafx\MetroClientLibrary\dist\MetroClientLibrary.jar.
4. Create JavaFX project
   1. Create a new JavaFX project by right-clicking in the Project explorer, selecting "New Project" and entering the values as shown below:
      
      
   2. Click on "Next >" and enter the values as shown below:
      
      
      
      and click on "Finish".
   3. Right-click on the newly created project, "Properties", "Libraries", "Add JAR/Folder" and select the JAR file created in "MetroClientLibrary" project as shown below:
      
      
      
      and click on "OK".
      
      Notice, Java SE 6 U4 is used to compile and run this project. If you are using an earlier version of Java SE 6, then you need to override JAX-WS 2.1 and JAXB 2.1 jars using endorsed mechanism as explained here. The classes in these jars are already bundled in Java SE 6 U4.
   4. In metroclient.Main.fx file, replace "// place your code here" with the following code:
      
      import java.lang.*;
import javafx.ui.*;

import client.NewWebServiceService;
import client.NewWebService;

class InputModel {
    attribute name: String?;
}
var inputModel = InputModel { };
var nameField = TextField { };
nameField.action = operation() {
    inputModel.name = nameField.value;
};

class ButtonClickModel {
    attribute result: String;
}
var model = new ButtonClickModel();

Frame {
    title: "JavaFX Client -> Metro endpoint"
    width: 350
    height: 200
    content: GridPanel {
        rows: 3
        vgap: 5
        cells:
        [SimpleLabel {
            text: "Name : "
        },
        nameField,
        SimpleLabel {
            text: "Result from endpoint : "
        },
        Label {
            text: bind "{model.result}"
        },
        Button {
            text: "Invoke Web Service!"
            action: operation() {
                do {
                    try {
                        var service: NewWebServiceService = new NewWebServiceService();
                        var port: NewWebService = service.getNewWebServicePort();
                        var name: String = "{nameField.value}";
                        var result: String = port.sayHello(name);
                        System.out.println("response: {result}");
                        model.result = result;
                    } catch (e:Exception) {
                        System.out.println("exception: {e}");
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        ]
    }
    visible: true
};
5. Invoke the JavaFX client project
   1. Right-click on the recently create project ("MetroClient") and select "Run Project". The following window is displayed:
      
      
   2. Enter "Duke" in the text box and click on "Invoke Web Service!" button to see the result as shown below:
      
      

After following these steps, you have created a JavaFX client that can invoke a Metro endpoint project deployed on GlassFish - all using NetBeans IDE.

Now Metro provides secure, reliable, transactional and .NET 3.0 interoperable Web service. Have you tried/used any of those features in Metro ?

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD that you'd like to see. A complete archive is available here.

Technorati: totdd javafx metro glassfish netbeans webservices

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[14]

TOTD #22: Java SE client for a Metro endpoint

Metro is the Web services stack in GlassFish. It is your one-stop shop from a simple Hello World to Secure, Reliable,  Transactional and .NET 3.0 interoperable endpoint. Metro Tooling is provided by NetBeans and other options are explained here.

Screencast #ws7 describes how a Metro endpoint can be easily created and deployed on GlassFish and invoked from a Web client using NetBeans IDE. This TOTD (as requested here and here) describes how a Secure and Reliable Metro endpoint can be invoked using a Java SE client.

Here is my environment:

• Windows Vista
• NetBeans 6
• GlassFish v2 (downloaded from glassfish.java.net and configured in NetBeans).
• Java SE 1.6.0 U4

Let's get started.

1. Following screencast #ws7 create a plain (without Reliability and Security enabled) Metro endpoint.
2. Create the Java SE client project
   1. In NetBeans IDE, create a new project of the type Java/Java Application. Name the project as "SEClient" and take all other defaults.
   2. Right-click on the newly created project, select "New", "Web Service Client...".
   3. Click on the "Browse..." button next to "Project" radio button and select the deployed Web service endpoint.
   4. Enter the package name as "client" and click on "Finish".
3. Invoke the plain Metro endpoint
   1. Right-click on the project, select "Properties", "Libraries", "Add JAR/Folder" and add "webservices-rt.jar" from the "lib" directory of GlassFish installation. Click on "OK".
   2. Expand the "Web Service References" node in the project and drag the leaf node in the "main" method of "Main.java" of the client project.
   3. Change the value of parameter "name" to "Duke".
   4. Right-click the project and select "Run". This will build the project, invoke the endpoint and show the results in Output window as "Hello Duke".
   5. If your GlassFish instance is configured to show SOAP messages then the following SOAP messages will be shown in the output window:
      
      ====[com.sun.xml.ws.assembler.server:request]====
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <S:Body>
    <ns2:sayHello xmlns:ns2="http://server/">
      <name>Duke</name>
    </ns2:sayHello>
  </S:Body>
</S:Envelope>
============
====[com.sun.xml.ws.assembler.server:response]====
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <S:Body>
    <ns2:sayHelloResponse xmlns:ns2="http://server/">
      <return>Hello Duke</return>
    </ns2:sayHelloResponse>
  </S:Body>
</S:Envelope>
============
4. Invoke the Reliable Metro endpoint
   1. Following the instructions in screencast #ws7, enable Reliability on Metro endpoint and re-deploy.
   2. In the client project, select the first child node of "Web Service References", right-click and select "Refresh Client".
   3. In the "Confirm Client Refresh" window, select "Also replace local wsdl file with original WSDLs located at:" checkbox and click on "Yes".
   4. Right-click the client project and select "Run". This will build the project, invoke the endpoint and show the results in Output window as "Hello Duke".
   5. The SOAP messages during this run will now contain Reliable Messaging protocol messages and resemble as shown below:
      
      ====[com.sun.xml.ws.assembler.server:request]====
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <S:Header>
    <To xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing">http://localhost:8080/SEEndpoint/HelloServiceService</To>
    <Action xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/02/rm/CreateSequence</Action>
    <ReplyTo xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing">
      <Address>http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing/anonymous</Address>
    </ReplyTo>
    ...
5. Invoke the Secure Metro endpoint
   1. Following the instructions in screencast #ws7, disable Reliability and enable Security on Metro endpoint and re-deploy.
   2. In the client project, select the first child node of "Web Service References", right-click and select "Refresh Client".
   3. In the "Confirm Client Refresh" window, select "Also replace local wsdl file with original WSDLs located at:" checkbox and click on "Yes".
   4. Right-click on the first child of "Web Service References" node, select "Edit Web Service Attributes" and select "Use development defaults". This will ensure that client and endpoint security credentials match.
   5. Expand "Source Packages", "META-INF" and open "HelloServiceService.xml". The name of this file is derived from the service name at the endpoint and may be different. Specify the location of trust store by adding the following attributes to "sc:KeyStore" element:
      
      location="C:\testbed\glassfish\final\glassfish\domains\domain1\config\cacerts.jks" type="JKS" storepass="changeit"
      
      The updated element looks like:
      
      <sc:TrustStore wspp:visibility="private" peeralias="xws-security-server" location="C:\testbed\glassfish\final\glassfish\domains\domain1\config\cacerts.jks" type="JKS" storepass="changeit"/>
      
      Make sure to match the value of location and password of the trust store in your environment.
   6. Right-click the client project and select "Run". This will build the project, invoke the endpoint and show the results in Output window as "Hello Duke".
   7. The SOAP messages during this run are now secured using the default security profile in NetBeans. The SOAP messages resemble as shown below:
      
      ====[com.sun.xml.ws.assembler.server:request]====
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<S:Envelope
  xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
  xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd"
  xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd"
  xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns:xenc="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#"
  xmlns:exc14n="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#">
  <S:Header>
    <To xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" wsu:Id="5006">http://localhost:8080/SEEndpoint/HelloServiceService</To>
    <Action xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" wsu:Id="5005">http://server/HelloService/sayHelloRequest</Action>
    <ReplyTo xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" wsu:Id="5004">
      <Address>http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing/anonymous</Address>
    </ReplyTo>
    <MessageID xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing" wsu:Id="5003">uuid:bb0e9571-a773-49bb-bad0-20a01d3af9f1</MessageID>
    <wsse:Security S:mustUnderstand="1">
      <wsu:Timestamp xmlns:ns10="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" wsu:Id="3">
      <wsu:Created>2008-01-23T20:13:28Z</wsu:Created>
      ...

If you are using JDK version prior to Java SE 6 U4, then need to override the JAX-WS and JAXB API as described here. Java SE 6 U4 already includes JAX-WS and JAXB 2.1 APIs which are required for the Metro client to work.

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD that you'd like to see. A complete archive is available here.

Technorati: totd webservices metro glassfish netbeans javase

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[18]

Travel Plans for Q1 2008 - Fairfax, Little Rock, Orlando, Hyderabad, New York, Las Vegas

Here are my tentative travel plans for the next 3 months:

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[1]

Tango Overview - Now Translated in Chinese

"Project Tango: Adding Quality of Service and .NET Interoperability to the Metro Web Services Stack" - The original article, introduced here, provides an introduction to how different Quality-of-Service, such as Security, Reliability and Transactions are enabled in Metro. One of the core benefits of Metro is interoperability with .NET 3.0 and the article describes how that is baked in the Web services stack.

The same article is now available in Chinese at Sun Developer Network China. Thanks to the Globalization Team in China for completing this effort, and Zhen Tao in particular who did the translation!

Metro runtime is available as part of GlassFish v2 UR1 and tooling is available in NetBeans 6.

Let us know if you'll be interested in creating a localized version of this article.

Technorati: metro webservices tango glassfish netbeans china

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[0]

Java SE 6 Update 4 is released - "Good Riddance" with JAX-WS Endorsed

Java SE 6 Update 4 is now released. Download it here.

If you are a Metro user (either JAX-WS or WSIT) then this is a milestone release for you because it includes JAX-WS 2.1 API in the rt.jar. This means that, as a user, you no longer you need to copy JAX-WS or JAXB API jars in JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/endorsed as described here, here and here. Hurrah!

After you have downloaded and installed JDK 1.6 U4, java -version shows:

java version "1.6.0_04"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_04-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 10.0-b19, mixed mode, sharing)

wsgen -version shows:

JAX-WS RI 2.1.1 in JDK 6

wsimport -version shows:

JAX-WS RI 2.1.1 in JDK 6

Additionally, you can also verify by greping for javax.xml.ws.Endpoint class in JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/rt.jar. This is a new class introduced in JAX-WS 2.1.

Now after you've installed Java SE U4, you can download Metro 1.1, set JAVA_HOME to point to this new Java SE installation and you can easily import a WSDL as:

wsimport -d temp http://localhost:8080/MetroWithJavaSE6/HelloService?WSDL
parsing WSDL...


generating code...


compiling code...

If you try to import the same WSDL with an earlier release of Java SE 6, then you'll see the error message:

You are running on JDK6 which comes with JAX-WS 2.0 API, but this tool requires JAX-WS 2.1 API. Use the endorsed standards override mechanism (http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/standards/), or use -Xendorsed option.

We hope this will make your life simpler :)

Metro 1.0.1 is anyway baked in GlassFish v2 UR1. You can override it with Metro 1.1 as described in TOTD #21.

Technorati: webservices metro jax-ws glassfish endorsed javase6 jdk

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[19]

TOTD #21: Metro 1.1 with GlassFish v2 UR1 and NetBeans 6

Metro 1.1 was released last month. This blog describes how to install Metro 1.1 on GlassFish v2 UR1 (which comes with Metro 1.0.1 baked in) and use it with NetBeans IDE.

1. Download & Install Metro 1.1.
2. Download, Install & Configure GlassFish (detailed instructions)
   1. Download GlassFish v2 UR1.
   2. Install GlassFish by giving the command:
      
      ant -f setup.xml
   3. Set AS_HOME to the location of GlassFish v2 UR1 directory and install Metro 1.1 by giving the following command in Metro 1.1 directory:
      
      ant -f wsit-on-glassfish.xml install
      
      This will install the latest Metro 1.1 binaries in the GlassFish Application Server instance.
   4. Configure GlassFish in NetBeans 6 by going to the "Services" tab and right-clicking on "Servers" node and selecting "Add Server...".
3. Create a simple Metro Web service by following this tutorial. Create a Secure and Reliable Web service following screencast #ws7. The complete tutorial to add WS-* capabilities to your endpoint is available here.

These instructions can also be used to override Metro 1.0 that is baked in GlassFish v2 Final build.

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD that you'd like to see. A complete archive is available here.

Technorati: totd webservices metro glassfish netbeans

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[1]

Metro 1.0.1 and 1.1 are now available

Metro 1.0.1 (integrated in GlassFish v2 UR1) ad Metro 1.1 are now released. Metro contain stable releases of JAX-WS RI and WSIT. Read Vivek's blog for more details.

Even though Metro 1.1 is a stand-alone release, it can be easily installed on an existing GlassFish instance (for example override on v2ur1). A later release of Metro 1.1 will be integrated in GlassFish v2.1. Metro Roadmap provides all the details.

Please send us your feedback on users@metro or Forum. A pleasant change that happened earlier today was that cross-posting was enabled between user's list and forum. So all the questions posted on user's list are cross-posted to Forum and vice versa. This enables wider audience for your questions and more engineers to respond back :)

Technorati: webservices metro jax-ws wsit glassfish v2ur1

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[3]

GlassFish @ Delhi University

I presented on GlassFish and related technologies (Metro, JRuby-on-GlassFish and jMaki) at the Department of Computer Science, Delhi University last week. The slides are available here. The talk was very well attended with approximately 120 students and 4 faculty members. The students were pretty excited and had great a interactive session.

Being an alumni of the school (many years ago ;), it was great seeing the new building of the department, meeting the faculty and interacting with the students. I reached there an hour earlier so that I can mingle with the staff and students and it was a lot of fun.

The department faculty proposed to use GlassFish instead of Tomcat for their next semester assignment. I believe this is a great move as it will allow the students to understand the simplicity and power of a great open-source and Java EE 5 compliant Application server.

I initiated the process of recruiting a Campus Ambassador from Delhi University and this will help establish a better relationship between this University and Sun Microsystems.

Here are the questions and answers that were asked during the session:

1. Amongst the different Java training courses, how do I decide which one to pick ?
   
   Sun Learning defines several Learning Paths for different Java technologies (EE, SE, ME, Web Services and Web 2.0). Pick an appropriate learning path depending upon your interest. In addition, Sun Training Catalogue (click on your country) shows different events conducted by Sun Learning in the local geogrpahy.
2. How does Sun make money with GlassFish being open sourced ?
   
   That's true, GlassFish is 100% open-source and totally free to use. The business model for Sun is that of selling support and services:
   • Support subscription starting from $4500 for 4 sockets.
   • Consulting & Training
3. What are the dis-advantages of GlassFish ?
   
   GlassFish provides an open source, production-quality and Java EE 5 compatible application server. It has world class performance ([1], [2]), .NET interoperable Web services stack, out-of-the-box clustering, load balancing and high availability support. However instead of identifying dis-advantages, here are some areas for improvement:
    
   • Feature-wise: The footprint for GlassFish v2 is higher than some non-full JavaEE containers (like Tomcat). This problem will disappear with GlassFish v3 which is small (< 100 kb), fast (starts up < 1 sec) and modular (load only required containers).
   • Ecosystem-wise
     • Community is not as well developed as Tomcat or JBoss because we have not been around as long. However the adoption is continuously increasing.
     • We are not yet as transparent as Tomcat, but we are more transparent than anybody else (including JBoss). Transparency will continue to improve in the future.
     • Our governance is still in transition.
4. Any comparison between NetBeans and Eclipse ?
   
   Why NetBeans ? explains the top reasons to use the NetBeans IDE. Some specific points are:
   • Consistent UI across all platforms where as Eclipse runs best on Windows
   • A friendlier environment for people who are new with links to sample apps and docs accessible from within the IDE.
   • An easy to use website with tons of quality docs and screencasts.

   Here are couple of more links that provide a comparison between the IDEs:

   • Move over Eclipse: NetBeans 6 rocks!
   • NetBeans vs Eclipse: this time with a attitude
5. What are the main features of Ruby as compared to Java ?
   
   A comparison of Ruby and Java is explained in this blog.
6. Why Ruby when there are many other languages ?
   • Ruby is getting popular due to Rails.
   • Ruby-on-Rails very popular among web developers.
   • JRuby is a pretty mature implementation of Ruby in Java, running on JVM and able to use existing Java libraries.
   • Complete deployment story on Solaris -- customer can chose native RoR or JRuby on Rails on GlassFish.
7. What is the difference between Tomcat and GlassFish ?
   
   Tomcat is a Servlet container that can host JSP and Servlets. GlassFish is a Java EE 5 compliant application server that includes implementation for a Web services stack (Metro), EJBs, Java Persistence and many others incuded in the Java EE 5 specification. In addition to this, GlassFish also provides out-of-the-box clustering, high availability and load balancing capabilities that are required for enterprise applications. Read more about Why use GlassFish ?
8. What does Sun offer to students ?
   
   The offerings are described in detail here.
9. What is java.net ?
   
   java.net is a premier web-based, open community created to facilitate Java™ technology collaboration in applied areas of technology and industry solutions. java.net is a central gathering place for Java technology enthusiasts and existing communities across industries, platforms, and interest groups. Read more about java.net in the FAQ.
10. How do I create a brand new jMaki widget ?
    
    This is explained in TOTD #20.
11. What are the main differences between GPL and CDDL ?
    
    A detailed difference between EULA, GPL, CDDL and BSD in terms of copyright and patent rights is explained here.
12. What are the different options of doing a collaborative research in association with Sun Microsystems ?
    
    The Collaborative Research program is explained here.
13. What is the difference between GlassFish v2 and Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 ?
    
    There are three key differences:
    • Commercial Support (more here)
    • Indemnification
    • Sun brand

    The detailed differences are highlighted here.

14. What are the different ways GlassFish can be configured in NetBeans ?
    
    Two ways:
    • If you download a full version of NetBeans IDE then GlassFish comes pre-bundled and is installed for you.
    • You can configure an existing GlassFish installation on your machine in the Services tab. If the Services tab is not visible, then select "Windows" menu item and then "Services". Right-click on "Servers", select "Add Server...", select "GlassFish V2" in the "Choose Server" dialog box. Click on "Next" and follow the instructions.

The complete album is here:

Technorati: conf glassfish webservices metro ruby jruby jmaki web2.0 delhiuniversity delhi netbeans q&a

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[3]

Screencast #WS8: Tango with NetBeans 6

David Coldrick recorded a screencast for Australian Developer Days. The demo shows how NetBeans 6 allow Web services to be easily created and deployed on GlassFish.

It is similar to screencast #ws7 but good to see somebody else creating these videos :)

Technorati: screencast glassfish webservices metro tango netbeans

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[0]

GlassFish @ Bangalore, Chennai and Pune - Metro, jMaki & JRuby

I presented on GlassFish and other related technologies (Metro, jMaki and JRuby) in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune last week. The slides used during the preso are here. And here is the list of questions (along with answers) for you:

1. What does WSIT offer ?
   
   WSIT stands for Web Services Interoperability Technology. It is a component of Metro - the Web services stack in GlassFish. WSIT specifically provides support for Security, Reliability, Transactions and interoperability with .NET 3.0. A number of screencasts are available to get you started with Metro and enable all the enterprise features mentioned using NetBeans IDE.

2. Is Metro plugin available for NetBeans version < 6.0 ?
   
   Yes, Metro plugin is available for NetBeans 5.5.1. This is clearly explained in screencast #ws4. NetBeans 6.0 is now released and is the recommended version of the IDE.

3. How do I use LDAP for authentication while using Metro based web service (with Security Token Service) interoperating with .NET web service?
   
   Security Token Service (STS) can be configured for LDAP authentication. STS service end can be protected with Sun Java System Access Manager web service agent (JSR 196 plugin). It can validate and authenticate the incoming user name token (username / password) against configured LDAP store at STS service side (when Access Manager is hosted as STS) and then issue the corresponding SAML token. You could also write AuthenticationValidator plugin to STS service, that can access and validate incoming username / password against Access Manager LDAP store using Access Manager Client SDK.
4. Do Metro support Kerberos?
   
   Metro 1.0 does not support Kerberos. However the latest nightly builds of Metro provide Kerberos support.
5. I want to contribute to GlassFish. Which areas can I contribute?
   
   Yes, GlassFish is 100% open source and encourage committers. Some of the ideas are available here. Please feel free to suggest any contributions at dev@glassfish.dev.java.net.
6. What Ruby features are getting into Java language?
   
   If Java closures proposal is accepted then that will be a Ruby feature.
7. Does jMaki take care of browsing history ?
   
   jMaki does not support browser history yet but this feature will be made available as an extension in the near future.
8. Is jMaki extensible ?
   
   Yes, read how jMaki framework can be extended as explained here.
9. What is the performance impact of using jMaki ?
   
   jMaki.js is the initialization script (18kb) for jMaki that is loaded when the web application is loaded. This script provides multiple features, included but not limited to:
   • support for common event model between widgets from multiple toolkits (using publish/subscribe)
   • Dynamic Container at component level - allows to resize the component within <div> and iframe
   • doAjax call (allows to asynchronously invoke services from back end)
   • JSON.serialize (serializes JavaScript objects to JSON)
   • inspect (2-level deep inspection of object)
   • logger & debugging (log all publish/subscribe events and other messages to enable debugging)
   • namespace API  (allows to namespace all the widgets for clean separation)

   The jMaki wrapper is a minimal code that needs to be written anyway to invoke the code anyway so there is no additional overhead there.

10. Is Comet supported in GlassFish/jMaki?
    
    Yes, read about Comet support in GlassFish The Grizzly Comet and Writing a Comet application using GlassFish. Also try a simple sample that demonstrates how jMaki and Comet (read the explanation) work nicely with each other.

11. Can GlassFish deploy EJB 2.0 apps ?
    
    GlassFish is Java EE 5 compliant which maintains backwards compatibility with J2EE 1.4 and so EJB 2.0 applications can be deployed.

12. Do GlassFish support Active and Passive cluster ?
    
    In GlassFish the cluster instances talk to each other for health monitoring through GMS (of Shoal). The buddy instances talk to each other for replication of the session state. When a failure is detected the LoadBalancer can failover the request to any instance in the cluster. The session in question will be fetched from a replica to this instance in order to continue the conversational state of the session. In this sense, we have an active cluster.
    
    GlassFish does not have a concept of a standby or passive cluster which will take over when an active cluster fails altogether. That is usually considered a high cost approach for redundancy and not advisable. 
    
    Read more discussion here.

13. Can we add a Metro Web service wrapper be created around EJB 2.0 ?
    
    Nope, Metro Web service wrapper can be created around EJB 3.0 only.

14. How can an application deployed on WebLogic be migrated to GlassFish ?
    
    Migrate2GlassFish helps automate the migration of J2EE/Java EE applications to GlassFish.

15. Can Entity beans be configured only as read-only beans - caching server for these beans ?
    
    Yes, read about the characteristics, good practices, how to deploy and refresh read-only beans.

16. How can jMaki applications run behind the firewall ?
    
    Add the following Servlet parameters to web.xml:
    
    <context-param>
  <param-name>proxyHost</param-name>
  <param-value>PROXY_HOST</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
  <param-name>proxyPort</param-name>
  <param-value>PROXY_PORT</param-value>
</context-param>
    
    This is described in detail at https://ajax.dev.java.net/xmlhttpproxy.html.

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Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[7]

GlassFish Book Review

A book on GlassFish: "Java EE 5 Development using GlassFish Application Server" by David Heffelfinger, was released last month. The publisher sent a courtesy copy for review, thank you for that. I read good part of the book on my several flights in past two weeks. First of all, I'd like to thanks the author, publisher and rest of the team for writing this book. Overall I liked the book because of it's simplicity and a good flow through out the book. This is a great book for first timers!

Here are some of the points that I'd like to highlight:

1. Community is a very strong aspect of GlassFish. And "Who's Who ?" of this book endorses that point. The Author, Reviewer, Editor or anybody else is not involved with Sun. That is a good community feeling and we hope to see more books on the similar lines with a different perspective.
2. The GlassFish-specific notes sprinkled through out are very helpful. Even though the book is mainly about Java EE 5 concepts but the notes allow to think from GlassFish perspective. For example, there are GlassFish admin console screenshots at relevant points.
3. The book uses simple English to explain the concepts. The flow of the chapters is easy to understand and very good for the Java EE 5 first timers. This is very clearly marked in the beginning sections of the book which says "This book is aimed at Java developers wishing to become proficient with Java EE 5, who are expected to have some experience with Java and to have developed and deployed applications in the past, but need no previous knowledge of Java EE or J2EE. It teaches the reader how to use GlassFish to develop and deploy applications."
4. Some book authors take the approach of building a complete application from scratch and explain the concepts using that application. This approach typically requires to understand the application and the actual technology details may get lost. I personally like the Hello World approach with small and simple samples. This book follows that approach and I personally feel it's more beneficial where the readers can focus on the technology.

Here are some potential improvements:

1. The first chapter provide a very simple explanation of GlassFish installation with different screenshots. The different alternatives to deploy and undeploy an application are discussed in very simple language. However only the asadmin-way to create JDBC connection pools & resources is explained. It would be nice to provide asadmin commands to do the same tasks as well.
2. NetBeans and GlassFish integration is explained in 2 pages only. The NetBeans IDE provides a much tighter integration with GlassFish including deploying/undeploy apps, monitoring and configuration. Multiple screencasts and docs explain that relationship already but it would be nice to provide a slightly more detailed overview in this book. OTOH, Eclipse integration is still using an older version of Eclipse. The screencast #ws6 shows how Eclipse 3.3 can be used to integrate GlassFish and create simple applications.
3. I understand the time/resource balance but feel the Web services chapter is pretty minimal. It merely introduces the basic Web services support in GlassFish and does not talk about about any of the Security, Reliability, Transactions and .NET 3.0 interoperability. Anyway, you can find the details in tutorial and numerous screencasts about Metro (the Web services stack in GlassFish).
4. A minor nitpick - The GlassFish on the book's main page is looking right where as the GlassFish logo is looking left.

Send feedback to feedback@packtpub.com, making sure to mention the book title in the subject of your message.

In a nutshell - Great book, must buy for first timers, buy your copy here.

Happy reading!

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Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[2]

New Java Web Services Instructor-led Training Courses

New Instructor-led classroom training sessions on Java EE 5 Web Services are now available.

• Creating Web Services Using Java Technology (course #DWS-3111-EE5)
• Designing Java Web Services (course #DWS-4112-EE5)
• Developing Secure Java Web Services (course #DWS-4120-EE5)

These courses teach how to design, implement, deploy and maintain Web services using Java EE 5 platform. NetBeans 5.5 IDE and Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.0 (GlassFish v1) are used to perform the lab sessions. If the existing schedule does not meet your request, then click on "Request A Class" button.

Stay tuned, new courses based on GlassFish v2 are being developed and will be released soon. In the meanwhile, enjoy screencast #ws7 that shows how to create, deploy and invoke a Secure and Reliable Web service using NetBeans 6 and GlassFish v2.

View the entire Java Web Services learning path.

Technorati: webservices glassfish training learning course metro netbeans

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[4]

Metro, jMaki & JRuby/GlassFish Q&A from a Preso - Toronto & Montreal

I presented on Metro, jMaki and JRuby-on-GlassFish at a partner meeting on Nov 21 in Toronto and Montreal (yeah, both cities in the same day). That makes it 3 cities (the first one being Seattle) total for now!

I've given multiple talks all over the world to different types of audience but this was my first experience in terms of talking for 3 hours in the morning, flying to another city and then repeating the sessions. GlassFish (both v2 and v3), NetBeans IDE and Windows Vista behaved properly through all the demos. And my talks are typically demo intensive so it was fun! I enjoyed the overall experience (talking, demos, flying) :)

As always, the fun part was interaction with the audience and I always learn something new every time. And, in order to share the knowledge with you, here is the consolidated list of questions from both the cities:

1. How much Ajax/jMaki support is available in Portal ?
   
   The Portal Pack plugin for NetBeans can support JMaki 1.0 for building JSR 168 or JSR 286 portlets that use jMaki widgets. There is no other explicit support on the Portal server for JMaki.
   
   The portlets using jMaki widgets can be deployed on the Sun Portal Server and they should work without any issues. The only catch is that a slight configuration is required to get these portlets to work with the Portal's Ajax container. This is to work around the cross-domain Ajax restrictions of the browser.
2. What is the frequency of adding wrappers of newer version of toolkits, specifically Dojo toolkit ? Can I add/create the wrappers myself ?
   
   Frequency depends on the toolkits. Dojo revs about every 6 months with the first major rev just last month. Anyone can create and add wrappers to the palette in NetBeans as explained here. Adding to Eclipse is on a per-web app basis and it will be enabled on palette-basis in the near future.
3. What level of browser support is available for jMaki, especially for the ones that are not mainstream ?
   
   Here is the list of supported browsers from jMaki's website:
   • IE 6 and 7 on Windows XP and Vista
   • Firefox 1.5 and 2.x on Solaris, Linux, Windows XP/Vista
   • Safari 2.x and Firefox 1.5 on Mac OS
   
   Unofficially jMaki runs on:
   • iPhone
   • Opera 9.2+
   • Opera Mobile
   • Older versions of Netscape

   Although the jmaki framework will work on these browsers some widgets may not work (such as those that use SVG) depending on the browser.

4. When will a .NET version of jMaki be available ?
   
   If the demand is great we will be more than happy to work to make a version available. The greater the demand the sooner we could do this. If there is interest in the developer community on starting work on a .NET version we could accelerate this process. Please file an RFE if you are interested.
5. Can the jMaki widgets be rendered to Flash ?
   
   Absolutely. We previously used some Flash Yahoo Maps and we use Flash for Sound. We are looking at having more media based widgets and it's only a matter of hours in the day that are slowing us down.
6. Does jMaki work with Ajax4J and DWR ?
    
   jMaki works fine with DWR find a sample app here:
     https://ajax.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=6977&expandFolder=6977&folderID=0
   
   As for Ajax4JSF (Ajax4J seems to not be active) we should work fine as jMaki widgets can be exposed as fully qualified JSF 1.1 or dynamic faces components. We also work with Facelets (see the jMaki samples for more).

And now for the Metro session:

1. Is there any tooling for adding Security, Reliability and Transactions for Contract-First development ?
   
   Yes, this is explained here.
2. Can the apps using JDK 1.4 as the deployment environment use any of the Metro capabilities ?
   
   Yes and No :) No because Metro programming model uses annotations heavily and that feature is available in Java SE 5 onwards. Yes because once the production environment is upgraded to Java SE 5 (it should work because of backwards compatibility, always good to check though ;) then you can develop your applications using the JDK 1.4 and deploy them on the upgraded production environment.
3. How the Web service messages generated by Metro be logged ?
   
   The different options to log Web service messages in Metro are explained here.
    

And finally for the JRuby-on-GlassFish session:

1. Other than simplicity and productivity, why should I use JRuby or Ruby at all ?
   
   Rails is the main reason for Ruby to gain popularity. And JRuby provides the simplicity of Ruby along with power of Java libraries.
2. Can the number of JRuby instances created by GlassFish be configured ?
   
   Yes, it can be configured as defined here.
3. With JRuby 1.0.2, there are significant performance differences between Ruby, Java and JRuby. What is being done to address that ?
   
   The recent releases of JRuby are much more better performing so it's recommended to use a more recent release. And with some JRuby Performance Tweaks the performance is at par with C Ruby (MRI). Also see JRuby on Rails Fast Enough for performance benchmark results.

Feel free to ask any other questions in Metro Forum and jMaki Forum or GlassFish forum or JRuby user list.

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Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[0]

TOTD #19: How to Add Metro Quality-of-Service to Contract-First Endpoint ?

This TOTD explains how to add Reliability and Security to a Contract-First Endpoint using NetBeans IDE.

In the Contract-First, the contract, i.e. the WSDL, is defined first as opposed to starting from Java. The Metro programming model starts with a Java Service Endpoint Interface (SEI) and uses Web Service Designer to specify Security, Reliability and Transactions support. This blog uses the WSDL bundled with the fromwsdl sample of Metro download and adds Quality-of-Service attributes to it.

Here are the steps to enable Reliable Messaging to Contract-First endpoint:

1. In a new Web project, right-click and select "Web Service from WSDL..." as shown below:
   
   
2. Specify the Web Service Name, package name and chose the location of the WSDL as shown below:
   
   
   
   The Web Service port name is chosen for you. Alternatively, you can click on "Browse..." button next to "Web Service Port:" and select the appropriate port.
3. Click on "Finish" and the Web Services Designer is shown as shown below:
   
   
4. Right-click on the Project and select on "Undeploy and Deploy" to deploy the project.
5. Expand the "Web Services" tree, select the newly added Web service and right-click on "Test Web Service". The Tester page is shown in a browser with links to the packaged WSDL file and text boxes and buttons to invoke the Web service.
6. In the Web Services Designer, select "Reliable Message Delivery".
7. Right-click on the project, select "Clean" to clean all the generated files. Again right-click on the project and then select "Undeploy and Deploy" to deploy the project again.
8. As in step 5 above, test the Web service. The packaged WSDL now contains the appropriate policy assertions and Reliable Message Delivery is enabled on the endpoint.

As described in screencast #ws7, Security can be added to a Contract-First endpoint using the steps listed above.

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD that you'd like to see. A complete archive is available here.

Technorati: totd glassfish webservices netbeans metro wsdl reliability contractfirst

Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[13]

Metro and jMaki Q&A from a Preso

I presented on Metro and jMaki in a invitation-only gathering on Nov 15. The audience in both the sessions was pretty interactive. Even though the sessions were invitation-only, I'm posting some of the questions asked during the sessions along with their answers.

1. How to build support for jMaki in other languages such as Perl ?
   
   The best option is to check out jMaki workspace and look at Jmaki.php and XmlHttpProxy.php.
   
   The basics are relatively easy but not always obvious. There is no runtime spec so it's hard to get all the little details right: Theming, API keys, and the Proxy behavior are pretty specific. Please feel free to ask a question on jMaki Forums. It would be helpful if you can help us create such a document while adding support for Perl.
2. Is it possible to point a DataTable widget to a Database table, introspect the database table and auto-generate the rows/columns ?
   
   Java Persistence API (in Java) and ActiveRecord (in Rails) already serve this purpose. There are detailed instructions for jMaki/JPA and jMaki/ActiveRecord. At this time there are no plans to tie closely to the database. Please file an RFE if you like this feature.
3. Do we have any comparisons between jMaki and Open Laszlo ?
    
   We need to understand Open Laszlo better to prepare a comparison. At this time no comparison is available.
4. How are topics implemented ? What is the data structure that implements them ?
    
   The topic name is a String / Regular expression Object. The topic names can also include wildcards (start, include, end with a *). The payload must be an object (strings are objects). https://ajax.dev.java.net/publishsubscribe.html provides some more details.
5. Do we have any performance data on large data sets - e.g. 15,000 rows in a Data Table widget ?
   
   Carla has a good sample that explains how pagination can be achieved for large data sets. The real question is "how much can you realistically cache on the client?". There are lots of algorithms and that can be more application logic. If you are going to deal with sets like this then the Dojo Grid is supposed to be good as it handles client-side caching and paging. We'll be adding it as a widget for the dojo 1.0 push.
6. Are there any widgets that support streaming video ?
   
   Not yet but it would be very easy to wrap a widget like that. For example, please look at Sound extension that is available as wrapper over Flash.
7. How to prevent scripting attack on jMaki-wrapped widgets ?
   
   jMaki wrappers are very trivial. The data from an external domain is not processed in any manner and instead passed on to the underlying toolkits. We make sure the wrappers are well tested and rely on the underlying toolkits to test their widgets.

And now for the Metro session:

1. How more recent Metro jars be installed on GlassFish ?
   
   A stand-alone build of Metro can be downloaded from metro.dev.java.net. This build comes with wsit-on-glassfish.xml script and can be used to override the jars in an existing GlassFish v2 installation.
2. Why Reliable Messaging is required if TCP/IP already provides reliability ?
   
   TCP/IP provides reliability at the network level. The Reliable Messaging support in Metro implements a transport-independent messaging protocol (defined by the WS-Reliable Messaging spec) with a SOAP Binding. This allows the SOAP message to be used in alternate transports such as JMS or SMTP. It also enables Reliability between a Client and Endpoint with multiple intermediaries in-between which is not possible with TCP/IP.
3. Is the "Test Web service" feature available outside NetBeans ?
   
   The "Test Web service" feature in NetBeans makes use of Tester application in GlassFish. It is a web application that dynamically generates the JSP pages by introspecting the WSDL. Currently it only works only for methods that have primitive types in the signature.
4. What would it take to run Metro on Embedded Jetty ?
   
   Servlet-based endpoints can be easily deployed on Jetty as explained here. The different variants of Endpoint.publish() currently runs only on Light-weight HTTP server bundled along with Java SE 6. An RFE has already been filed for this functionality and it will be fixed in a future release of Metro.
5. Does Metro Security integrate with Active Directory ?
   
   Even though Metro Security cannot be directly integrated with ActiveDirectory, Authentication can be plugged through the integration of Metro with OpenSSO.
6. What specific performance improvements have we made in Metro ?
   
   Here are some of the key performance improvements:
   • Revisited some of the key abstractions. The physical data representation was hidden from the user and yet backed by different implementations such as InputStream, JAXB objects, DOM node, Source, etc.
   • Faster, type-safe read access to commonly used properties such as Target Endpoint Address and SOAPAction. Also lazy reading.
   • Headers are made randomly accessible.
   • Filtering of data was enabled by creating an additional wrapper instead and delaying the actual filtering
   • Mostly JAXB is used to write the JAX-WS payload. There were numerous improvements made in JAXB such as:
     • Collapsing the layers and write directly to OutputStream instead of using StAX.
     • Pre-encode tag names to UTF-8
     • Numbers are converted straight to byte stream
     • Namespace prefixes encoded just once and reused
     • Lazy reading and writing of attachments (for example image is encoded in to JPEG byte stream)

   Metro team also presented a BoF 2526 on these improvements at JavaOne 2006.

7. How much traffic is bloated because of enabling Reliability or Security ?
   
   There is a definite bloating of messages that happen when either Reliability or Security or Transactions are enabled. I'll provide the exact numbers in a later blog but all the messages are clearly defined by the existing specifications.

Feel free to ask any other questions in Metro Forum and jMaki Forum.

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Posted by Arun Gupta in webservices  |  Comments[1]