Oracle Java and Database Cloud Services in Action

Yesterday the long awaited  Oracle Cloud became reality (at least for me)! Thanks Oracle! Of course I could not wait any longer and had to do a test drive with the Oracle Database and Java Cloud Services. In order to start we need the following

Getting started

• Get newest JDeveloper (JDEVADF_11.1.1.6.0CLOUD_GENERIC_121118.1600.6229) from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/jdev/downloads/jdeveloper11116-1377208.html
• Get Oracle Cloud 30 days Trial Java Service (which includes the database cloud service) for free: https://cloud.oracle.com

Once you confirm your activation link for the trial request you will receive an email with Service Details for

• Identity Domain (which actually is a logical group for associated Users and Cloud Services)
• Oracle Database Cloud Service
• Oracle Java Cloud Service
• Domain FTPs Account Details

In the mail there also will be a temporary password which must be changed after first login at the Identity Console. One thing really overwhelmed me is the fact that for every service you get dedicated user credentials. So there is a lot of stuff that is to be handled.

Identity Domain / Console

The Identity Domain actually is a logical group for associated Users and Cloud Services that is managed by the Identity Domain Administrator. The Identity Console is a web based application for 

• Manage  User Profile
• Create / Delete Users, Reset Passwords
• Create / Delete Roles, Assign to Users

The Identiy Console is build with ADF. It looks like that

Oracle Database Cloud Service 

The Oracle Database Cloud Service runs Oracle DB 11gR2 and is managed by Apex 4.1.1.00.23. So logically no ADF here. Imagine you are running Oracle XE. Same here.

RESTful Services (by Application Express Listener)

RESTful services are created inside Apex and are delivered right from the Database through the Apex Listener

The defined RESTful Services can be tested right from the browser:

As you can imagine this allows pretty rapid development of RESTful Services! Beside JSON, CSV Format is supported. No XML!

As a sample DB application the following Apex App is installed and by default to demo key features of Oracle Apex! Further Apex applications can be easily deployed from the apex Workspace.

DB Export

In order to export Database strucure + data it is possible to trigger a data pump job with a single Mouse Click. After the job is completed the Dumpfile can be grabbed through SFTP from the /download user directory. The created files are automatically cleaned up after about 2 days. So do not try to archive your data here.

My test worked well without any trouble! The download speed was acceptable to although I did not download Gigs of data.

Access DB Schema

Now let us come to the  interesting part. How can we access the DB Schema from - e.g. SQLDeveloper or JDeveloper. In this case I will demo it from the new JDeveloper 11.1.1.6 (Build 6229) 

In order to access the Database Cloud service from the IDE we need a so called "Cloud Connection User" to be created in the database service console (Apex) with the SQL Developer Group as stated in the JDeveloper context help. This can can be easily done through the Apex Admin Tools (Manage users and groups). I won't go into further details here.

Now it is possible to create the connection from JDeveloper/SQLDeveloper

Enter your service details

and we are up and running, being able to see the structure and contents of the cloud database instance. 

Access for example the table 'DEPT' and browse the data.

(The Tables EMP and DEPT are included in the cloud db schema)

The interesting part here is that it is not possible to change any database objects.

Deploying DB Objects is only possible through the newly introduced "Database Cart" which is accessible from "View > Database > Database Cart". 

That is a very new concept which needs a separate focus. More on that in a follow up post (Deploying Database Objects to Oracle Cloud using JDeveloper). Follow me on twitter to get updated in time (@multikoop)

Oracle Java Cloud Service Control

To monitor, deploy/undeploy start/stop Java and ADF Applications. It looks pretty simple and easy to use: Performance, Data Sources, Applications. Everything you need to get started.

This control is a subset of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12cR2 (12.1.0.2) as you can see in the about page.

In one of the next posts I am going to show how to "Deploying ADF Applications into the Oracle Cloud". Stay tuned.

Conclusion

In its current stage Oracle Cloud is promising Cloud Foundation for PaaS and SaaS. It includes

• Identity Management / WebBased Identity Console (ADF Application)
• Java Cloud Service Control to Monitor and Deploy your Java Applications (ADF Application)
• Apex Control to Administer and Monitor Apex DB Applications and Cloud Connection Users
• IDE Integration in JDeveloper 11.1.1.6 (Build 6229)
• Oracle Cloud Java SDK Command Line Interface
• IDE Integration in Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse.
• IDE Integration in Netbeans is on its way....

References

• Oracle Cloud Documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/

Start your cloud experience now! Goto http://cloud.oracle.com

ADF: Smart Input Date Client Converter

Environment

• Tested with JDeveloper / ADF 11.1.2.3
• (Should also work for 11.1.1.x)

Use Case

To improve the User Experience in heavy data entry ADF applications for "extreme keyboard users" it would be great to have the ability to enter dates by some typical conventions, e.g.

• Type t or T or today, tab out the input field and get the current date: 2012-11-04
• Type +7, tab out the input field and get the current date +7 days: 2012-11-11
• Type -7, tab out the input field and get the current date -7 days: 2012-10-28

The following use cases shows the +16 feature entered on 2012-11-04

How to do it

We are going to implement a custom client converter to get the desired result. The default functionality will be inherited from the given trinidad org.apache.myfaces.trinidadinternal.convert.DateTimeConverter since we want to keep the default conversion behavior for a given pattern. 

The server side implementation is quite easy. The only thing we override is the getClientConversion(..) and getClientLibrarySource(..) methods which are part of the org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.convert.ClientConverter interface.

The most interesting part is to wrap the default client converter implementation and put it into our own client javascript converter. The default date pattern can be set in the constructor.

The javascript Converter version uses the given default converter as a delegate and just implements to handle the special cases.

/resources/js/smartdate.converter.js

/**

 * Custom Client-Converter for smart date entry

 *

 * Copyright 2012 - enpit consulting OHG, www.enpit.de

 */

function EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter(trDateTimeConverter){

    this._trDateTimeConverter = trDateTimeConverter;

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype = new TrConverter();

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype.getAsObject = function(

  parseString,

  label){  

      try {

      if( parseString == "t" || parseString == "T" || parseString == "today"){

          return new Date();    

      }

      if( this._startsWith(parseString, "+") || this._startsWith(parseString, "-")){

          if(parseString.length == 1){

              // delegate to TrDateTimeConverter

              return this._trDateTimeConverter.getAsObject(parseString,label);

          }

          var _parsedDate = new Date();

          var _parseDays = parseInt(parseString.substring(1,parseString.length));

          var _millis =  _parseDays*86400000;

          if(this._startsWith(parseString, "-")){

            _millis = _millis*-1; 

          }

          _parsedDate.setMilliseconds( _parsedDate.getMilliseconds() + _millis );

          return _parsedDate;

      }

      } catch (e){

          // delegate to TrDateTimeConverter

          return this._trDateTimeConverter.getAsObject(parseString,label);

      }

    // delegate to TrDateTimeConverter

    return this._trDateTimeConverter.getAsObject(parseString,label);

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype.getAsString = function( formatTime ){

    return this._trDateTimeConverter.getAsString(formatTime );

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype.getFormatHint = function() {

    return this._trDateTimeConverter.getFormatHint();

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype.setDiffInMins = function( offset )

{

    this._trDateTimeConverter.setDiffInMins(offset);

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype.getDiffInMins = function()

{

  return this._trDateTimeConverter.getDiffInMins();

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype.getLocaleSymbols = function()

{

  return this._trDateTimeConverter.getLocaleSymbols();

}

EnpitSmartDateTimeConverter.prototype._startsWith = function(

  value,

  prefix

  )

{

    if(value == null){

        return false;

    }

    return (value.indexOf(prefix) == 0);

}

Register the custom converter in faces-config.xml

Enter ID: enpit.faces.SmartDate

Enter Class: enpit.faces.converter.SmartDateConverter

Now we are able to use the smart DateConverter on our inputDate components, all declaratively with IDE support.

Just drag and drop the f:converter from the component palette onto the desired inputDate component 

so that it looks like

Let users enjoy the smart date input. They will love it!

Conclusion / Summary

• Implement Custom Server Side Faces Converter
• Implement JavaScript Client Converter
• Register Converter in faces-config.xml
• Use Converter from Component Palette

Further Information

• Oracle® Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11g Release 1 (11.1.1):http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E16764_01/web.1111/b31973/af_validate.htm

Download Sample

• enpit.sample.smartinputdate-jdev11123.zip

Overview Administration of ADF Applications

Today I had the pleasure to give a presentation on the topic "Administration of ADF Applications" on the regular web conferences of the German ADF Community.

I have covered topics (not every part in detail) that are needed in order for sucessfully administering ADF Applications.

• Oracle ADF Architecture Overview
• Setup WebLogic for ADF Applications
• Deploying ADF Applications
• Monitoring and Configuring ADF Applications
• ADF WLST Commands
• JVM Diagnostic / Tools
• Security Provider / Policy Configuration
• MDS Configuration

Administration for Oracle ADF Applications from Andreas Koop

Further Reading

• Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11g Release 2 (11.1.2.1.0)

ADF Essentials in the RedHat Cloud (Glassfish / OpenShift)

VERSIONS / PLATFORM

ADF 11.1.2.3

GlassFish 3.1.2.2

RedHat OpenShift Cloud

INTRODUCTION

In this post we (Ulrich @GerkmannBartels (http://maybe-interesting.blogspot.com),@multikoop, www.enpit.de) are going to show how to setup the runtime environment for running ADF Essentials Applications on Glassfish in RedHats OpenShift Cloud. For the moment we are not going to connect to any database. What we are actually going to show is

• Setup Glassfish on OpenShift Cloud
• Configure appropriate JVM settings
• Install ADF Share Libraries into Glassfish Domain
• Deploy ADF Essentials Application (currently with no database access)

SETUP GLASSFISH ON OPENSHIFT CLOUD

Step 1: Sign up for free OpenShift account (if needed)

Goto https://openshift.redhat.com and register for a free account if you do not have one yet.

All you need is a valid emailadress. You will get 1.5G Memory and 3G Storage

Step 2: Create new Cloud Application

Login through the web interface and create a new application, i.e. adf with the Do-It-Yourself Catridge. This is pretty easy. Just log into your Openshift account and choose create application. Choose the following catridge

After that, just follow the instructions and you are done. This is really easy. Believe me!

Step 3: Prepare your client for the cloud

Well, this actually depends on your OS. You can read a detailed instruction about it here: https://openshift.redhat.com/community/get-started

On a Mac: Open Terminal and enter:

enpitmac:~ak$ sudo gem install rhc

Password:

Successfully installed jruby-pageant-1.1.1

.......

enpitmac:~ak$ 

This will install the RedHat Client tools. Test the availability of rhc via

enpitmac:~ ak$ rhc -version

rhc 0.98.16

enpitmac:~ ak$ 

Setup OpenShift environment on your client

enpitmac:~ ak$ rhc setup

Starting Interactive Setup for OpenShift's command line interface

...

To connect to openshift.redhat.com enter your OpenShift login (email or Red

Hat login id): <your id>

Password: *******

enpitmac:~ak$ 

Next step: I would like to access the cloud by ssh. So to get this, we need to setup up an SSH equivalence, which actually the red hat client tools are doing for us. For me it was done, when I just send the first command with rhc, i.e.

enpitmac: ak$ rhc app

Password: *******

Starting Interactive Setup for OpenShift's command line interface

It looks like you have not configured or used OpenShift client tools on this computer. We'll help you configure the client tools with a few quick questions.
..
..

The OpenShift client tools have been configured on your computer.  You can run this setup wizard at any time by using the command 'rhc setup' We will now execute your original command (rhc app)

..

enpitmac:~ ak$ 

Well, the command 'rhc app' does not exists, but it helped to setup the ssh equivalence.

Step 4: Install Glassfish

OK, now the fun part starts. After we have setup OpenShift, lets get glassfish running . The easiest way is to log into your open shift cloud through ssh and download the glassfish right into your repository directory.

Goto https://openshift.redhat.com/app/console/applications choose your application and then expand 'WANT TO LOG I TO YOUR APPLICATION' Item. Here you will see the ssh command which allows you to login from your local machine.

Once logged in grab the latest GlassFish binaries into your repository directory:

[adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com diy]\> wget http://download.java.net/glassfish/3.1.2.2/release/glassfish-3.1.2.2.zip

unzip glassfish-3.1.2.2.zip

...

Since it is not allowed to start more than one http-listener on port 8080 on openshift cloud, we have to adjust the glassfish domain.xml configuration. (Read more about this here: https://openshift.redhat.com/community/blogs/running-java-apps-in-the-cloud-with-glassfish-and-a-paas )

In order to make life easier you can download the preconfigured domain.xml from our server.

wget http://dl.enpit.de/adf/openshift/domain.xml

In short: it contains the following (main) changes which are needed in order to be able to run Glassfish for ADF Essentials on Openshift.

/domain1/config/domain.xml

a) REPLACE ALL: localhost with OPENSHIFT_INTERNAL_IP

b) deactivate http-listener2 (Openshift only allows to run one listener, no admin console will be available)

CONFIGURE APPROPRIATE JVM SETTINGS FOR ADF ESSENTIALS

c) ADJUST MaxPermSize to:
<jvm-options>-XX:MaxPermSize=512m</jvm-options> 

d) Configure simple MDS Cache:
<jvm-options>-Doracle.mds.cache=simple

(See http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35521_01/admin.111230/e16179/ap_glassfish.htm

C.4.3 How to Configure the JVM Cache 

for detailed instructions of the Oracle ADF Admin Guide.)

Start / Stop Glassfish by start / stop hooks of your OpenShift application

Adjust start script hook

adf/.openshift/action_hooks/stop

#!/bin/bash

# The logic to start up your application should be put in this

# script. The application will work only if it binds to

# $OPENSHIFT_INTERNAL_IP:8080

cd $OPENSHIFT_REPO_DIR/diy/glassfish3/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/

mv domain.xml domain.xml_2

sed 's/'$( grep serverName domain.xml_2 | cut -d\" -f 2 )'/'$OPENSHIFT_INTERNAL_IP'/g' domain.xml_2 > domain.xml

../../../bin/asadmin start-domain &> $OPENSHIFT_LOG_DIR/server.log

Adjust stop script  hook

adf/.openshift/action_hooks/stop

kill `ps -ef | grep glassfish3 | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $2 }'` > /dev/null 2>&1

exit 0

TEST if your Glassfish is running by typing from your client terminal

enpitmac:~ ak$ rhc app start -a adf

...

Result:

SUCCESS

Check on Browser

INSTALL ADF SHARE LIBRARIES FOR GLASSFISH

Well, the basis is done. Now we need to get the ADF Share Libraries onto Glassfish

(See http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35521_01/admin.111230/e16179/ap_glassfish.htm

C.3 Configuring GlassFish with ADF Runtime Libraries 

for detailed instructions of the Oracle ADF Admin Guide.)

Copy adf-essentials.zip onto the $GF_DOMAIN_HOME/lib with scp und unzip (with -j , this is important) 

enpitmac:~ ak$ scp Downloads/adf-essentials.zip @adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com:/var/lib/stickshift//adf/repo/diy/glassfish3/glassfish/domains/domain1/lib

adf-essentials.zip                                                                          100%   21MB  25.6KB/s   13:48   

enpitmac:~ ak$ ssh @adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com

...

[adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com ~]\> cd adf/repo/diy/glassfish3/glassfish/domains/domain1/lib

[adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com lib]\> unzip -j adf-essentials.zip

Archive:  adf-essentials.zip

Label: JDEVADF_11.1.2.3.0_GENERIC_120914.0223.6276.1

  inflating: adf-controller-security.jar 

  inflating: adf-share-security.jar 

...

[adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com lib]\>

Now restart glassfish to grab the changes!

adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com ~]\> ./adf/repo/.openshift/action_hooks/stop

..

adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com ~]\> ./adf/repo/.openshift/action_hooks/start

..

Create a simple ADF 11.1.2.3 Application and copy it into the autodeploy folder

enpitmac:~ ak$ cd Workspace/enpit-base/development/enpit.sample/enpit.sample.gf.app1/deploy/

enpitmac:deploy ak$ scp enpit-sample-app1.ear <.....>@adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com:/var/lib/stickshift/<...>/adf/repo/diy/glassfish3/glassfish/domains/domain1/autodeploy

enpit-sample-app1.ear                                                                       100%   64MB  18.1KB/s   59:55   

enpitmac:deploy ak$ 

(BTW: I must say the size of the EAR for ONE single ADF UI View just sucks: more than 60MB.  IMHO not ready for the cloud!)

Anyway, after doing all that above the running application should be satisfying ;)

http://adf-multikoop.rhcloud.com/enpit/faces/index.jsf

WHAT'S NEXT

• Hopefully Oracle will unveil the Oracle Cloud for everyone who wants to run / try out ADF ;). Please ! http://cloud.oracle.com

REFERENCES

• OpenShift Client Tools: https://openshift.redhat.com/community/get-started#install_client_tools
• Glassfish on OpenShift: https://openshift.redhat.com/community/blogs/running-java-apps-in-the-cloud-with-glassfish-and-a-paas
• Shay Shmeltzer instruction for Glassfish Deployment: https://blogs.oracle.com/shay/entry/deploying_oracle_adf_applications_to
• Oracle Fusion Developers Guide for ADF 11.1.2.3
  http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35521_01/web.111230/e16182/appendix_glassfish.htm#ADFFD23812
• Oracle FMW Administration Guide for ADF 11.1.2.3 http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35521_01/admin.111230/e16179/ap_glassfish.htm#BABIEADD

Slides from DOAG SIG FMW 'WebLogic Administration and Deployment with WLST' (ger)

Today I had the pleasure to present about Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool at the DOAG SIG Middleware, Cologne, Germany. First time for http://www.enpit-consulting.com. Slides are in german, but WLST scripts are still Jython, so also worth for the english Oracle Fusion Middleware Community ;)

WebLogic Administration und Deployment mit WLST from Andreas Koop

ADF Bug or Feature? Non-Breaking Space outside required icon style

Tested with JDeveloper: 11.1.2.1.0

In this post I am going to describe a limitation I hit while skinning the alignment and positioning of the required Icon.

The desired end result should be as following

To get there we have an ADF weapon called skinning. So we create a skin css file and style the following selectors

Having done that we start the application and will notice that in case of required fields the result is still not really what expected:

OK, since the required icon container (span) can be referenced by css selector we should be able to move that required icon on the left side. This can be done by the following css

Refreshing the page in the browser the form layout looks close to the target result

Except the blank before Lastname. Did you notice? Having those blanks in forms with more fields the overall design looks pretty poor / messed up! So where does the blank comes from?

Inspecting through Firebug (1.9.0), everything seems OK. I cannot see any pointer for the blank.

BUT, looking on the raw HTML code you will see a non-breaking space in case the required="true" or showRequired="true" is set on the components

This nbsp is really annoying since  it is not possible to select this one by CSS. At least I have not find a way to remove that by CSS.

So is it a bug or a feature? I would say it is a bug since it is not easy (or even not possible) to influence the position of the nbsp. It is not enclosed e.g. in the span for the required icon style and therefore not selectabl by CSS. Why isn't it generated like

Everything would be fine.

WORKAROUND

In order to get the desired alignment

I wrote a ServletFilter, wrapped the HTTPServletResponse to buffer the response, process the filter chain and filter the buffered response like

public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,
                        FilterChain chain) throws IOException,
                                                  ServletException {

       HttpResponseCharBufferWrapper wrapper =
           new HttpResponseCharBufferWrapper((HttpServletResponse)response);
        
       chain.doFilter(request, wrapper);
        
        
       String filteredResult = wrapper.toString();
       filteredResult = filteredResult.replaceAll("> ", ">");
        
       response.getWriter().write(filteredResult);
   }

(Don't forget to register the filter in web.xml)

The nice thing about that workaround is, that you can implement what ever content filter rules you want/need. On the con side there is for sure more memory consumption.

TO SUMMARIZE

DISCLOSURE

I know that the provided workaround is really dirty and I personally do not like it! I will file an ER/SR at My Oracle Support and the ADF EMG Defect tracker (http://java.net/projects/adfemg)

If anyone knows of a cleaner and better workaround, let me know. Maybe some niffty CSS Hack (I have not found yet) could do the trick. (:after? content?) Any comments are welcome.

DOWNLOAD

(Jdev 11.1.2.1 workspace)

https://www.box.com/s/c93ca49d34e42746491b