Chariot TechCast #45 Transcript - Ben Alex on Roo

Chariot Solutions TechCast number 45
An interview with SpringSource’s Ben Alex on the SpringSource Roo project.

Disclosure: SpringSource is a Chariot partner

Transcription provided by Jo Middleditch (mconsult at msn.com)

[Ken Rimple] Welcome to the show. I’m Ken Rimple. This week we feature SpringSource’s Ben Alex. One of the founders of SpringSource, Ben created the widely adopted Spring security framework originally known as ACEGI. Ben’s current project is framework named Roo. Ben being from Australia, think of Roo as in “kanga”. Roo doesn’t use dynamic meta-programming to accelerate development. Instead it focuses on building applications in native Java using APIs like JPA and Spring MVC.

I caught up with Ben this week via Skype shortly after the American SpringOne 2GX Conference. Here’s the interview.

[Ken Rimple] All right. Well, Ben Alex, thank you so much for being on the Chariot TechCast.

[Ben Alex] Thank you very much Ken.

[Ken Rimple] So why don’t we start a little bit by talking about your background. Now, if I remember correctly you were the creator of Spring Security. And if I also remember correctly I think that started as an open-source project separate from Spring itself?

[Ben Alex] That’s fundamentally correct. Back in 2003, I started the ACEGI project, which later went on to become Spring Security. So for about seven years I’ve been working with Spring now. I was [one of the] founders of SpringSource. I was involved in the first commercial projects of SpringSource back in 2004 and I also set up the Australian operations of SpringSource. So I’ve trained about 500 people in Spring and these days I’m an engineer in SpringSource.

New podcasts online - Guillaume LaForge and Jonas Boner

I'm blessed with a bevy of great guests this month. Our first two shows of December are:

• An interview with Groovy savior and developer of Gaelyk, Guillaume LaForge. We talk about Guillaume's involvement in the Groovy language and details how you can develop Google App Engine web applications using Gaelyk, a Groovy-based library.
• A deeply technical interview with Jonas Boner, the creator of the Akka Scala (and Java) framework. Akka provides access to both Actors and Software Transactional Memory, in the form of Transactors. So, you can mix approaches between transactional memory, message-based asynchronous processing with Actors, and the combination of the two. Very interesting podcast and complements Episode #37 well (like a good wine and cheese)...

Enjoy!

Ken

Groovy and Grails seminar - G2 and Springsource Tool Suite

Here is another interview from our Groovy and Grails seminar. Brent Baxter had been conducting some research into G2 and the Springsource Tool Suite (STS). I asked Brent how they worked together and if this was advantageous to a developer.



As you can see here, we certainly try to gather reflections from our attendees when we have them "captive" at a seminar or conference. People are beginning to run in the other direction when they see me with the Chariot video camera in my hand...

What is the story with Groovy and Grails?

In today's blog post, we have a video taken at our Groovy/Grails seminar. If we were surprised at how much enthusiasm the attendees had, there needed to be some sort of explanation of why there is such a devoted following.

Ken Rimple takes some time out of his speaking part at the seminar to explain why he thinks Groovy and Grails is a language and framework to watch.

Wrap up from our Grails/Groovy Seminar

Last week Chariot Solutions hosted a one-day seminar around Groovy and Grails. Or Grails and Groovy if that is your preference.

Chariot has been trying to have two events a year, the larger Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise in the spring, and a smaller event in the fall. We have tried to use the fall event as a way to see how much support there is in the development community for newer technologies. We did this with Spring, Ruby, Cloud, SOA and now Groovy. We found the Groovy and Grails community to be very vocal and enthusiastic.

Over the next week, we will be posting videos from the seminar to give you a better understanding of why Chariot will be paying a little more attention to this framework and language.

SpringOne 2GX - Interview with Chris Richardson

It was great to catch up with a good friend of Chariot's, Chris Richardson. Chris's company, Cloud Foundry, was purchased by Springsource in August, right before the Springsource acquisition by VMWare. In the interview below, Chris discusses what Cloud Foundry does and where it fits into the Springsource family.

SpringOne 2GX - More reporting, this time on Groovy and Grails

We were able to conduct a short interview with Graeme Rocher and Jeff Brown, Grails leads, at SpringOne 2GX. They review some of the new features that will be available in Grails 1.2.



And if you are looking to learn more about Grails:
http://grails.org/Developer+-+Groovy+Server+Pages

SpringOne/2GX Video: Colin Sampaleanu

Chariot's Tracey Welson-Rossman took a few minutes to talk with Colin Sampaleanu today at SpringOne about the Spring Framework 3.0 release.

Rod Johnson's Keynote at SpringOne - A short recap

Gordon Dickens sat down with Ken Rimple today to give a a quick rundown on his view of the conference so far on the Chariot TechCast.

Below are some of points he recounts from Rod Johnson's keynote, which opens SpringOne/2GX:

Rod Johnson spoke of the history of SpringSource and how the community (estimated at around 3 million members by Gartner) has been an asset to SpringSource's success in delivering quality frameworks to the IT community. He stressed the importance of continued community involvement for the greater SpringSource community.  Rod mentioned how Spring's acquisitions have made them even stronger in the enterprise market.

Coming this week will be SpringSource Tool Suite's support for the Grails framework. Rod asked Graeme Rocher (Founder and creator of Grails) to give a brief demonstration.

Additional demos we given of the new tc Server and Insight application monitoring tools— available free for the developer community. Also shown was Spring Flex/Blaze DS Integration, focusing on the ease of configuration.

Obviously the flagship Spring Framework 3.0 release was mentioned. There are new features and improvements in REST, MVC, JSR-303 annotation support.

Also mentioned were the list of upcoming releases of Spring WebFlow, Spring Integration, Roo, Spring Batch and Spring Security.

Developers who attend SpringOne will also be able to try out CloudFoundry, recently acquired by SpringSource, and will be given 48 hours of server time to experiment with.

Check back tomorrow for more news from SpringOne 2GX.

Chariot demonstrates iPhone Application to monitor tc Server performance

Real-time performance insight application will be on display during SpringOne 2GX

We at Chariot have been working on an iPhone application to monitor Java EE application servers. Dubbed "ServerMonitor," the application can connect to an application server and monitor various aspects of the system. This week we are demonstrating integration with tc Server at SpringOne/2GX in New Orleans.

The application uses RESTful web services to communicate with a monitoring web application. The monitor communicates with the JMX Server on the application server and relays the information to the iPhone client.

This application will enable real-time visibility of system availability and current load. After installing and configuring the monitor web application and downloading the iPhone application, users will be able to select the servers to monitor and set alert thresholds for their specific performance requirements. The application can be used as an assessment tool for IT directors and system administrators to direct troubleshooting and performance tuning efforts while in the field.

Expanding the shared knowledge base and skill set in anticipation of future business challenges is a priority for Chariot. A team of Chariot developers is involved in the development and testing of the iPhone app to ensure the successful fulfillment of the vision for the app. The new expertise gained by the development team will be disseminated throughout the Chariot staff via internal training sessions.

“We are pleased to have Chariot as a partner and return sponsor of SpringOne 2GX,“ says Mitch Ferguson, senior director of alliances for the SpringSource division of VMware. ”The new iPhone app will help IT operations staff and systems administrators remotely monitor SpringSource tc Server performance in real time and from the convenience of their hand held device.”

Next steps...

In addition to demonstrating the updated release of the product at SpringOne 2GX, Chariot will also be recruiting a select group of IT executives and systems administrators to participate in a beta test of the iPhone app. Testers will be able to contribute feedback to help deliver a feature set for the app that is most beneficial to individuals in a system administration role.

For more information, or to participate in shaping the product, please contact Tracey Welson-Rossman.

About Chariot Solutions, LLC
Chariot Solutions is an IT consulting firm specializing in application development and systems integration using Java and open source technologies. Chariot consultants include some of the top software architects in the country, all of whom possess a rare combination of deep technical expertise, applied industry knowledge and a genuine love for what they do. Chariot's consulting team has made the company the optimal partner to design, develop, deploy, integrate, support and tune mission-critical systems for companies of all sizes. Visit Chariot on the web at www.chariotsolutions.com.

Here we are at SpringOne/2GX

The opening night festivities have kicked off this year's SpringOne and 2GX (Groovy/Grails). The keynote is happening right now and we will be giving a recap during the day tomorrow.

While we are here, we hope to also interview (video or audio) a some of the committers we know to get an update on their projects. If you have anything you would like us to ask and who you might want us to interview, please post a comment.

Our team who will be attending session over the next three days will be giving their thoughts on what they have found to be most valuable to them.

Getting Started with Android

Today, I interviewed Andy Oswald, one of our architects. Andy is embarking on developing an Android application for the Philly ETE conference.

In this talk, he discusses the choices he made in getting started. With so much information, he shows the particular path he took which may help if you are beginning this type of work.



The site he references is actually : developer.android.com

In future weeks, we'll follow Andy's progress as he finishes the application.

Chariot TechCast #42 - Couch DB

Up this week we have Chariot's Eric Snyder, a consultant with a background in traditional Java/Spring as well as dynamic platforms such as Ruby/Rails and Python. Here is a quick teaser. You can download the full episode here.

The Philly Tech Startup Community

Chariot Solutions was once a start up, way back in 2002. The beginning and the first few years were a roller coaster ride. And even though, we are now at the ripe old age of 7, I like to think we continue to operate with the spirit of a start up.

Because of our background, Chariot is a supporter of the Philadelphia tech start up community. Start ups are a vital part of the region and help bring news ideas and jobs to the area. Chariot is a great example as this. We began with 10 employees and now have 50 consultants on our payroll. We also are bringing the newest technologies for application development to the region.

There are many other stories like this in Philadelphia - MyYearbook.com, Monetate, GSI Commerce, Invite Media, Half.com - and there are more in the works. Chariot is a sponsor of the Founder Factory, www.founderfactory.com, where the start up community comes together to learn from those who have been down this path, too.

Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise 2010 Annoucement

For our 2010 edition of Emerging Tech, we are happy to be sharing some of our time with our friends from Sonatype.

At this year's conference, Jason van Zyl, approached our team about working with the Maven or Apache groups to have a joint event. It was very nice to hear that speaker who travels the conference circuit thought so highly of our event.

We thought about it, had some discussions and we decided it would be a great idea to co-locate a Maven Meetup with our show, Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise. We would get a chance to add some great speakers and topics to our show and we could help the Sonatype Maven group bring a specialized show out to the East Coast.

ETE's site is up (www.phillyemergingtech.com) and you can see some of the speakers we have been able to line up this early. We are pretty happy with who has said Yes so far. We'll keep you posted as we add more.

So, save April 7th for the Meetup and April 8 and 9th for ETE. Registration will be open mid-October

Training and Mentoring before the age of Google

Ah, I can remember it like it was yesterday. I'm 40 now, but in my mid 20's, I was one of those "wiz-kids" at the dawn of Client Server. When BitNet and BBSes were the norm and the "Internet" was usually accessed using UseNet net news and a dialup modem.

In those years, my now-Chariot co-hort Gordon Dickens and I led training courses in technologies like Powerbuilder (remember that?), Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server, Data Modeling, and more. We were eventually the first firm in the Philly area to teach Java (and Gordon and I the first instructors). I never looked back.

Funny story: I was teaching an Introduction to SQL course, and in those days the workstations weren't powerful enough to run a server engine. So, we had everyone wired up to the instructor machine (which was a powerful HP 9000 server). Nobody could connect on the second day. I must have spent 30 minutes walking between the network server and the workstations, checking client configurations.

I finally went to another more seasoned instructor and asked him what might be wrong. He took one look at the floor, smiled wryly, and handed me the unplugged network cable that fell out of the server.

I tell you that because, all these years later, one of my co-workers just explained what "being an expert" is: you've made all of those stupid mistakes that other people have yet to make. I am pretty sure I agree.

Now we at Chariot are providing public and private training, and we are offering official SpringSource Core Spring training, starting September 29th. It reminds me of my early days at Information Technologists with Gordon Dickens and a host of other wonderful consultants and trainers. I have to say that I haven't been as happy working at a technology company since those early days.

My goals for the training practice are simple: stay away from "Sheep Dip" training approaches (rapid-fire, run through the slides at all costs and only teach to those left at the end), and truly try to reach each student in whatever way is possible. I hope we will meet and teach many new students in the coming years, but our overriding goal for the program is to teach the essential skills needed for students to become self-sufficient in the technology being taught.

This is at the core of who we are at Chariot. Browse our website. Listen to the podcasts. Read our blog posts. Follow our #ChariotSolution or #techcast twitter streams. Browse our presentations dating back half a decade. These are talented folks, and I'm very glad I am able to offer my skills in reaching others to a company that truly cares about doing the right thing to provide solutions and elevate the skills of their community, clients and employees.

Social Media and the Technologist

Yesterday, Skip Shuda and Marilyn Moran, of Team and a Dream, stopped by our offices to discuss social media and what it means to Chariot's team members. We reviewed some of the basics, but also discussed why a person in the technical field should care.

After our meeting, they sat down for an interview with Ken Rimple. Also, note the video shot is not shaking this time. We now have a tripod!

New Screencast Online - JBoss Operations Network setup

We've just uploaded a screencast by Aaron Mulder on the JBoss Operations Network (or JON) to our website. JON monitors application servers and machines, and can control JBoss servers.

You may view the screencast by clicking the link below:

Click to Play Screencast (new window)

iPhone and SSL

One of the problems I ran into while working on our iPhone app (see past post) is handling SSL connections. It works just fine with proper certificates, but we have several machines with self-signed SSL certificates. The normal NSURLConnection in the iPhone SDK just rejects connections to a server with a self-signed certificate, and there isn't an obvious API to get around that.

A few searches turned up a way to override part of NSURLRequest or something like that, but it really seemed to be a hack -- plus it seemed to be all-or-nothing, instead of having an easy way to hook into the particulars of each request.

Long story short, I found a better way to handle this, which may be new in the 3.0 SDK. Put this in your NSURLConnection delegate (for asynchronous requests):

- (BOOL)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection
canAuthenticateAgainstProtectionSpace:(NSURLProtectionSpace *) space {
if([[space authenticationMethod] 
isEqualToString:NSURLAuthenticationMethodServerTrust]) {
// Note: this is presently only called once per server (or URL?) until
//       you restart the app
if(shouldAllowSelfSignedCert) {
return YES; // Self-signed cert will be accepted
} else {
return NO;  // Self-signed cert will be rejected
}
// Note: it doesn't seem to matter what you return for a proper SSL cert
//       only self-signed certs
}
// If no other authentication is required, return NO for everything else
// Otherwise maybe YES for NSURLAuthenticationMethodDefault and etc.
return NO;
}

Because the delegate typically has more information about the connection, it can make a more intelligent decision in that method. For instance, our app has a config screen where you enter a server URL, username and password if needed, and a checkbox for whether to allow self-signed SSL certificates. So our code above looks up the value of that config setting for the server when the method is called with NSURLAuthenticationMethodServerTrust.

As the comment indicates, the method is only called with NSURLAuthenticationMethodServerTrust once for any given server configuration and the result apparently cached (even across brand new NSURLConnection instances). I'd be interested if there was some way to force it to reset all that and call the method again with NSURLAuthenticationMethodServerTrust.

In a future post, we'll look at how to support HTTPS client cert authentication, which also seems to have better options in the 3.0 SDK.

Dan Allen Interview at JBoss Word - Seam update

JBoss World is winding down. It has been a good few days in Chicago. We have had the chance to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones.

Our next sit down is with Dan Allen, a good friend of Chariot's and a JBoss developer who wrote Seam In Action.



Also, check out longer interviews with Dan at Chariot TechCast:

Dan Allen on Seam, Part 1 - http://techcast.chariotsolutions.com/index.php?post_id=443923
Dan Allen on Seam, Part 2 -http://techcast.chariotsolutions.com/index.php?post_id=444317

Dan - we are very happy you found your Oakleys.

Interview with Manik Surtani, Infinispan

Here is the next interview we conducted at JBoss World which featured Manik Surtani of Infinispan. If you watched the interview with Emmanuel, you heard that Manik's talk was one he was highly anticipating. Manik is the lead at Infinispan and also for JBoss Cache



Here are the links Manik mentions in this video:

http://www.infinispan.org
http://blog.infinispan.org
http://twitter.com/infinispan


He also asked us to include this one:
http://infinispan.blogspot.com/2009/08/podcast-on-infinispan.html

Thanks to Manik for his time.

Video Interview: Emmanuel Bernard at JBoss World

As promised, here is the first of our interviews at JBoss World. Emmanuel Bernard was our first guest. The content is great, but our camera skills need some improving!


Emmanuel Bernard, author Hibernate Search in Action


Emmanuel's blog is http://in.relation.to/Bloggers/Emmanuel if you need more information about Hibernate.  Also, we have recorded a Chariot TechCast, episode #25, if you want to hear more about Hibernate Search and JSR-303.  Click here for the podcast episode page.

Check back later as we post our interviews with Manik Surtani and Dan Allen.

Chariot iPhone Application to Monitor Java App Servers

We at Chariot have been working on an iPhone application to monitor Java EE application servers. Dubbed "ServerMonitor," the application can connect to an application server and monitor various aspects of the system.
The application uses RESTful web services to communicate with a monitoring web application. This web application communicates with the JMX Server on the application server and relays the information to the iPhone client.

Features

Although this is an alpha version of the application, and we are soliciting feedback, we have implemented several key features. First, the application servers can be monitored for various statistics, such as JVM Heap usage or number of open connections. Warnings (shown in yellow) and errors (shown in red) are displayed as the servers are polled for appropriate statistics.

Server information is pulled from the running instance, and the server status indicator changes color and errors are displayed. Servers can be polled based on a configuration setting, which can be changed to lower or higher time delays.

Project Status

Currently the Server Monitor project is being readied for alpha testing, and we are looking for interested customers to help us implement features and functionality to make the tool as feature rich as possible. For more information, or to participate in shaping the product, please contact Tracey Welson-Rossman.

First evening at JBoss World

We had a very nice start to our time at JBoss World last night.  There was an opening party from 6-9 in the Partner Pavilion where the attendees mingled with the exhibitors. 

We were able to interview Emanuel Bernard and Manik Surtani.  I hope to upload those later today.  If not, they will be up on the blog early next week.  We also were able to catch up with Greg Hinkle, lead of the JON team at JBoss.  Greg was a Chariot "eer" a few years back and we are always happy to see him at these events.

Check back later for an announcement from us on an application our team has created.

Welcome

Welcome to Chariot Solutions' corporate blog.

This is an experiment for our team. As with the Chariot TechCast, we want to keep our audience informed. This blog will use more video and will also have guest bloggers. We want to have a range of topics in the open source space ranging from those that will be appreciated by the very technical to those appreciated by the management side.

Our first real post will be from JBoss World. We hope to have interviews with many of the key players from the JBoss middleware team. Check back here on Wednesday or Thursday for our first video upload.