Our most appreciated Oracle ACE Director Tim Hall organizes this yearly initiative, with this years name Oracle Ground Breakers Appreciation Day, and appointed this day to blog about our favorite Oracle Technology, Service or sub-community.

Last week I presented the 'Oracle Kubernetes Managed Weblogic Revival', the introduction of the Weblogic Kubernetes Operator opens the future for Weblogic.

This week I deliver our Weblogic 12c Tuning and Troubleshooting training for ATOS The Netherlands in Groningen. So, hmmm. what to blog, on this years Ground Breakers Appreciation day? There are several other technologies that I use and follow, but mostly around Fusion Middleware: SOA Suite, BPM Suite and Oracle Service Bus. But also Oracle Integration Cloud, that in fact heavily depend on this technologies. And honestly, bottom line here is Oracle Weblogic.

I frequently hear voices that state that Customers should move away from Weblogic. Honestly, I don't relate to that. It has served customers very well over the last decade under the Oracle brand and before. And I still think it was a smart move of Oracle to acquire it and make it a strategic part of the Oracle platform.

Last few years I've been active on the community.oracle.com forums, where I've grown to level 13, almost level 14, by answering questions and participating in discussions around Fusion Middleware technologies. My first thank therefor is to this community, for having me participating.

My second thank goes to the whole Weblogic and related Fusion Middleware toolstack. During the Tuning and Troubleshooting training I again realize how smart and rich the Weblogic Suite is. Although, I stated before that Oracle could do something about the footprint. It seems to me that there are quite some duplicate libraries or different versions of the same library. And maybe some old parts could be cut out: maybe only support SAML2.0 and improve that, for instance.


One great, but quite rarely used feature of Weblogic is the Weblogic Diagnostic Framework. And especially the Policies and Actions part. It is quite difficult to configure, the console's UI does not help here and there, and to think of usages of it. However, every time I present it, I find myself thinking: I should use this more often in my daily developments.

So I started to create a wlst script to create a Diagnostic Module, create a few collectors,  a JMS Notification Action and 2 policies on it.  It is actually the solution to Lab 6 of our training. To me it is a start to be able to expand this. You could  create a version per technology: OSB, SOA Suite, or custom application like MedRec. And you can create a more generic version that based on different property files configure different collectors, policies and actions specific for that target environment.

WLDF Diagnostic Module

The script first creates a diagnostic module like this:

def createDiagnosticModule(diagModuleName, targetServerName):
  module=getMBean('/WLDFSystemResources/'+diagModuleName)
  if module==None:
    print 'Create new Diagnostic Module'+diagModuleName
    edit()
    startEdit()
    cd('/')
    module = cmo.createWLDFSystemResource(diagModuleName)
    targetServer=getMServer(targetServerName)
    module.addTarget(targetServer)
    # Activate changes
    save()
    activate(block='true')
    print 'Diagnostic Module created successfully.'
  else:
    print 'Diagnostic Module'+diagModuleName+' already exists!'
  return module

It checks if the Diagnostic Module already exists as a WLDFSystemResource. If not, it will create it as module = cmo.createWLDFSystemResource(diagModuleName) and target it to a targetServer.

Collectors

Then for creating a collector I created the following function:

def createCollector(diagModuleName, metricType, namespace, harvestedInstances,attributesCsv):
  harvesterName='/WLDFSystemResources/'+diagModuleName+'/WLDFResource/'+diagModuleName+'/Harvester/'+diagModuleName 
  harvestedTypesPath=harvesterName+'/HarvestedTypes/';
  print 'Check Collector '+harvestedTypesPath+metricType
  collector=getMBean(harvestedTypesPath+metricType)
  if collector==None:
    print 'Create new Collector for '+metricType+' in '+diagModuleName
    edit()
    startEdit()
    cd(harvestedTypesPath)
    collector=cmo.createHarvestedType(metricType)
    cd(harvestedTypesPath+metricType)
    attributeArray=jarray.array([String(x.strip()) for x in attributesCsv.split(',')], String)
    collector.setHarvestedAttributes(attributeArray)
    collector.setHarvestedInstances(harvestedInstances)
    collector.setNamespace(namespace)
    # Activate changes
    save()
    activate(block='true')
    print 'Collector created successfully.'
  else:
    print 'Collector '+metricType+' in '+diagModuleName+' already exists!'
  return collector

Again, it first checks for the existing of the collector as a so called HarvestedType, within a WLDFResource in the Diagnostic Module. If not it creates it. Here you need to provide the metricType as a HavervestedType. And then attributes that you want to collect. The function expects it as a comma separated values string, that it converts to an array via a List.
Then you can provide Metric Type Instances or None if you want to collect it over all instances.

You can call this as:

createCollector(diagModuleName, 'weblogic.management.runtime.JDBCDataSourceRuntimeMBean','ServerRuntime', None, 'ActiveConnectionsCurrentCount,CurrCapacity,LeakedConnectionCount')

or if you want to add instances, it's also done by creating an array:

    harvestedInstancesList=[]
    harvestedInstancesList.append('com.bea:ApplicationRuntime=medrec,Name=TTServer_/medrec,ServerRuntime=TTServer,Type=WebAppComponentRuntime')
    harvestedInstances=jarray.array([String(x.strip()) for x in harvestedInstancesList], String)    
    createCollector(diagModuleName, 'weblogic.management.runtime.WebAppComponentRuntimeMBean','ServerRuntime', harvestedInstances,'OpenSessionsCurrentCount')

This is a bit more complicated, since the strings describing the instances that you want to add are comma seperated values them selfs.

Actions

Creating an action is again pretty simple, for a JMS Notification that is:

def createJmsNotificationAction(diagModuleName, actionName, destination, connectionFactory):
  policiesActionsPath='/WLDFSystemResources/'+diagModuleName+'/WLDFResource/'+diagModuleName+'/WatchNotification/'+diagModuleName
  jmsNotificationPath=policiesActionsPath+'/JMSNotifications/'
  print 'Check notification action '+jmsNotificationPath+actionName
  jmsNtfAction=getMBean(jmsNotificationPath+actionName)
  if jmsNtfAction==None:
    print 'Create new JMS NotificationAction '+actionName+' in '+diagModuleName
    edit()
    startEdit()
    cd(policiesActionsPath)
    jmsNtfAction=cmo.createJMSNotification(actionName)
    jmsNtfAction.setEnabled(true)
    jmsNtfAction.setTimeout(0)
    jmsNtfAction.setDestinationJNDIName(destination)
    jmsNtfAction.setConnectionFactoryJNDIName(connectionFactory)
    # Activate changes
    save()
    activate(block='true')
    print 'JMS NotificationAction created successfully.'
  else:
    print 'JMS NotificationAction '+actionName+' in '+diagModuleName+' already exists!'
  return jmsNtfAction

There are different types of actions, so they're created differently. You can add one using the console and record that. It's what I did and then transformed the recorded script to functions as shown here.

Policies

Policies can be created with the following function. You need to provide a rule type and a rule expression, plus a array of actions you want to add:

def createPolicy(diagModuleName, policyName, ruleType, ruleExpression, actions):  
  policiesActionsPath='/WLDFSystemResources/'+diagModuleName+'/WLDFResource/'+diagModuleName+'/WatchNotification/'+diagModuleName
  policiesPath=policiesActionsPath+'/Watches/'
  print 'Check Policy '+policiesPath +policyName
  policy=getMBean(policiesPath +policyName)
  if policy==None:
    print 'Create new Policy '+policyName+' in '+diagModuleName
    edit()
    startEdit()
    cd(policiesActionsPath)
    policy=cmo.createWatch(policyName)
    policy.setEnabled(true)
    policy.setExpressionLanguage('EL')
    policy.setRuleType(ruleType)
    policy.setRuleExpression(ruleExpression)
    policy.setAlarmType('AutomaticReset')
    policy.setAlarmResetPeriod(300000)
    cd(policiesPath +policyName)
    set('Notifications', actions)
    schedule=getMBean(policiesPath +policyName+'/Schedule/'+policyName)
    schedule.setMinute('*')
    schedule.setSecond('*')
    schedule.setSecond('*/15')
    # Activate changes
    save()
    activate(block='true')
    print 'Policy created successfully.'
  else:
    print 'Policy '+policyName+' in '+diagModuleName+' already exists!'
  return policy

An example of calling this is:

actionsList=[]
    actionsList.append('com.bea:Name=JMSAction,Type=weblogic.diagnostics.descriptor.WLDFJMSNotificationBean,Parent=[TTDomain]/WLDFSystemResources[TTDiagnostics],Path=WLDFResource[TTDiagnostics]/WatchNotification[TTDiagnostics]/JMSNotifications[JMSAction]')
    actions=jarray.array([ObjectName(action.strip()) for action in actionsList], ObjectName)    
    createPolicy(diagModuleName,'HiStuckThreads', 'Harvester', 'wls:ServerHighStuckThreads(\"30 seconds\",\"10 minutes\",5)', actions)

As you can see the actions to add are actually expressions to the MBeans of the actions configured earlier. It apparently depend on the type and the diagnostic module that contains it. So I could create a function that assembles this expression. If you want a custom rule expression you can create it as follows:

actionsList=[]
ruleExpression='wls:ServerGenericMetricRule(\"com.bea:Name=MedRecGlobalDataSourceXA,ServerRuntime=TTServer,Type=JDBCDataSourceRuntime\",\"WaitingForConnectionHighCount\",\">\",0,\"30 seconds\",\"10 minutes\")'
    createPolicy(diagModuleName,'OverloadedDS', 'Harvester', ruleExpression, actions)

Again this is an expression that could be assembled using a function.

Conclusion

The complete script can be reviewed and downloaded from my GitHub Repo.

I hit two flies with one beat: Thank you Ground Breakers, fellow ACEs and other Oracle enthousiasts, and I guess my first article about the Weblogic Diagnostic Framework (but not my first one to include WLST scripts...). Happy OGB Appreciation Day y'all!

Julia Evans is a very smart woman in IT who creates very nice, funny and insight full comics, she calls 'zines', on Linux and Coding topics.

This morning I read she came up with a question that triggered me:


Last week I  realized I'm already 25 years in IT, after that my forced membership of a famous Dutch shooting club ended after 9 months (the kind of shooting club where you got free clothing, survival courses, and in my case also a truck-driving-license. Which other club offers that?). 

Anyway, during the years I discovered that despite of all the smart people I got to know and work with, this part of our work isn't obvious. In very many cases people seem to 'just do something'. No offense, but for developers it's often frustrating and just not fun to work on bugs or problems. And administrators that are confronted with a problem are often 'too busy with other stuff.' So they try something, don't find the thing, and at a later moment try something else. So, when I got involved I ask the obvious questions and in most cases I try out the same thing myself. Even though I do believe them, I want, I need,  to see the behavior with my own eyes.

By the way, I'm always reluctant to call it a bug. A bug is only a bug when you have reproduced it and based on common interpretation, together with the tester (if he found the issue), the functional/solution designer come to a consensus that the code does not do what it is supposed to. The functional specs are interpreted by both the tester and the developer. And in a certain way also the designer. It might be that the tester finds an anomaly, but that it is either a miss-interpretaton from him or a problem with the formulating of the specs. There are cases that the coder is right. But, of course, your program can work with an unexpected logic.


But, back to Julia's tweets:  they triggered me, so I jotted down some thoughts that I  got and are the basis of my search for issues.

To me it starts with identifying a case where it goes wrong, but equally importantly, together with a similar situation where it goes right. And, as far as possible, creating a unit test for both. Since, my work is mostly done on message processing platforms (Oracle SOA Suite, BPM Suite, Service Bus), I love it when a tester can hand me over a triggering message of the case and the involving response messages. I can then add them to my unit-test-set in SoapUI/ReadyAPI.
 
Then I add instrumentation (log lines, etc.) on key positions, that identify to which points the code is executed and what lines aren't reached. SOA Suite produces a flow trace of the execution. But often expressions are used that are quite complex one liners. I then split those up into several separate assignments to 'in between' variables. In Java, JavaScript, etc., I do not like complex one-liners. I prefer several variables for 'in between' values, and assignments with short expressions. That helps with line-by-line debugging.

Next, I iteratively narrow that gap between the point I can conclude the code reaches and the point I find not reached, until the statement or point of execution that fails can be identified.
In the log lines I add key variable values that are involved.

In very rare, very difficult, cases, I sometimes break down the code, cut away all the code that is not touched, until I get a minimal working Mickey Mouse (or in Dutch: Jip en Janneke) case. From there I build it up, and test iteratively in very small steps, until it breaks.

Also, very important, for difficult problems, I document very meticulously what I have done and concluded. My slogan here is: 'Deduction, my dear Whatson!' When having a problem, one can quickly come up with some potential causes and tests to check those. A unit test for a potential cause can go two ways, it can confirm or disapprove the suspicion. Both outcomes have consequences for the follow-up. Disaproving a potential cause, can strikethrough other potential paths as well. 
But, approving it, need additional steps to narrow down. I see it as a decision-tree to follow.

What I have found through the years, is that structurally document the steps done with the particular conclusions and the follow-ups is not quite obvious. But in many cases I found them important. Especially working in a Taskforce, or when I got hired to get involved in a case. In those cases the customer that hired you has the right to have something in hands that represents what he payed for.
I once was involved in a case that turned out to be a database bug. So I could not help the customer to solve it. But they where very pleased in the structured method I used to check out what could be the problem. And for those administrators and developers that got to do this as  a side job, besides there regular things: please do yourself a favor and document. I found Google Docs very usefull in this.


Oh, and by the way: I work with BPEL, BPMN, Oracle Service Bus, Java, Pl/Sql, XSLT, XQuery, Python/Jython/WLST, sometimes JavaScript, you name it. And actually, my way of structured code or systems analysis comes down to the same procedures. Regardless of technology.

Yesterday Tim - oracle-base.com - Hall had the ODC Appreciation Day initiative.

I gladly join in, however yesterday I hadn't had the change to write something. I did a tweet to remember it:
But today, on the day-after I do like to write something.

SOA Suite 11g/12c

Just yesterday I mentioned a coworker that I indeed still like SOA Suite.
I worked at Oracle Consulting when Oracle acquired Collaxa in 2004, and some other companies whose technologies were at the base of Oracle SOASuite. Since then I work with SOASuite and BPEL, and I still like it.

When in 2008 BEA was acquired, SOASuite 11g was released in 2009 based on Weblogic. It was actually delayed because of making Weblogic as a strategic platform.

The thing with SOA Suite11g and 12c, based on Weblogic, is that it has become a quite draconic system, as I used to call it. The footprint is quite large, both on disk as well as in memory.

I understand the MicroServices up coming for two reasons:

• Especially when it comes together with containerization, MicroService applications startup quite fast. SOA Suite startups can last 10 minutes to about a quarter of an hour.
• We must admit that we messed up SOA projects. Yes, we made them quite complex and we did not manage to do proper Service Governance, not even Service Registration, Service Reuse, etc. Driven by project-funding, time-pressures, lack of enforcing proper scrum project procedures, etc., we deliver mostly one-purpose services, not following the proper SOA principles. Also yesterday, at my current customer, my co-worker and I concluded that there are mostly point-to-point integrations. Back in 2008 I invented the term POPOTOPI for it.

Are MicroServices the answer then? I'm not really sure, I must admit:

• It seems to me that with MicroServices initiatives we're going to build services in Java again. Indeed with frameworks like SpringBoot and JPA. But still we seem to program the logic in Java again. And when we're able to mess up BPEL with lacking standards (no use of Scopes and local variables for instance), Java allows us for even bigger messes. Are we really going to program services in Java frameworks with 50+ possible elements?
  Where end user Application development earlier transformed from for instance Oracle Forms to Java/ADF, now transforms to Low Code (VBCS, OutSystems, Oracle Forms 😉?, etc.) I expect a same transformation in MicroServices.
• With containerization we apparently create CI/CD initiatives delivering the complete Service Application with an app server (often Tomcat) complete in a container. So a new bug-release deliveres a container with a complete installation. Which add to a large library of the different versions of the containers.
• MicroServices have good thoughts underneath it, as said it is an answer to problems encountered in SOA projects. But why not build MicroServices in SOA Suite or OSB? SOA Suite and OSB are the current LowCode environments in Services. 

I don't see that the technology is the problem here. I've seen several times with failing projects that the problem is not the SOA Technologies, but more the project politics and governance.

So, I still like working with SOA Suite. However, I would like some improvements:

• JDeveloper could be made more stable. Although on the same IDE platform, SQLDeveloper is as stable as a castle. JDeveloper, however, is stuffed with loads of designers, addons, build by numerous teams. But, please, prevent us from all those Null-pointer exceptions, and exception dialogs asking me to save my work and quite or continue.
• In a SOA Suite installation I encounter loads of jars of different version for the same library at different location. It seems to me that we could get rid of a significant amount of those.
  The main differentiator between Oracle 9i database and Oracle 10g was the foot print. I think with FMW (SOA Suite, but also OSB and other products), could take advantage of a great "spring cleaning". 
• One of the new features of Java 9, is the modularisation. In SOA Suite we have loads of adapters installed (some of them not activated), and other functionality that aren't used. So a modularisation of Weblogic and FMW products on top of it would be a great idea. Only install what I need and provide a package manager that allows me to install let's say an SAP Adapter or SAML (either 1 or 2.0) support when I need it later on.

 How about Cloud?

Yes, cloud. Of course cloud is important, and I completely understand why Oracle has a near 100% focus on Cloud. But, I seem to be one of the few people that has difficulty with believing that in let's say 5 years 100% of all our customers are for 100% of their business 'in the cloud'. Let alone, the Oracle Cloud. And to straighten my statements: I don't see IaaS as actual Cloud. To me, IaaS is the same as 'On Premise', but in another Data Center. Of course Oracle might have different License policies if you want to run SOA Suite on Amazon or Azure or a local IaaS provider, with regards to  running on Oracle Cloud. But I don't encounter any customers that won't run their software on Virtual Machines (VMWare ESX or alike). So even in their own DataCenters, software is run virtualized. When not on an external IaaS provider, they are essentially their own IaaS provider.

And although Oracle Integration Cloud is promising, there is much I'd rather do on SOA Suite. And I expect that there are several good reasons for current customers to stay on a On Premise or local IaaS serviced SOA Suite installation.

Also, Oracle Integration Cloud, and other Oracle PaaS-es, are based on the exact same platforms and engines (BPEL/BPM Process Engine, Business Rules, WSM, Service Bus, etc., etc.). So, my above suggested improvements would improve the PaaS-es as well.

So, Oracle Please add SOA Suite and OSB to the Fusion Middleware 19c category in the Supported Systems and Configurations:
And as has been asked on the community.oracle.com forums this week a few times: please add support for Java 9/10/11 on the upcoming Weblogic and FMW releases.

community.oracle.com

Since a few years I try to keep up and be active on the community.oracle.com forums for SOA, Weblogic, etc. It's great to be of any help, answering questions and collect points (to me it's a bit of playing something like Forge of Empires). I sometimes get questions via email. But it's better to go over there. You could go to Stack Overflow, but why not form a community at Oracle's own community page? Come over and join us. Meet me there. But when you do, please:

• Edit your profile and enter a proper name: I do like to know how you want to becalled, instead of user 12345656 of alike,
• Ask a question together with your error-message, in stead of just posting your error message. It happens that some one just posts the error message and I often must refrain my self from answering "Congratulations!".
• I'm putting in my time answering questions. The only rewards I get for it are points. Please, give me my points by marking my answers as help-full (50 points) or 'Answered' (even 100 points and I can register them for my ACE review).

I'm looking forward for another year of Oracle Fusion Middleware and other infrastructure technologies in the Oracle Developer Community.

I'm a Notepad++ fan for years. And as soon as a 64-bit version arose I adopted it.
But since a few months I have a new laptop, and I apparently didn't get the plugin manager with the latest new install.  And only now I took the opportunity to sort it out and write about it.

I found that the plugin manager is available since April 2017 on GitHub, version 1.49. I downloaded the zip from the mentioned location, I choose the _x64 version:
Then unzipped it into my Notepad++ folder:

Then started Notepad++ and the plugin manager appears:

So now I can format my XML files again...

Update 2018-07-03: latest release can be found directly here.

So, and now we're back in business after a splendid week in Split, Croatia, to meet with about 200 great, enthusiastic con-colleagues from the fields of SOA and Weblogic. It was the yearly OPN Partner Community Forum, ran by the great Jürgen Kress. He did a formidable job to collect many informatic sessions on the latest news and products from Oracle. We could meet with product managers, eat  and drink with them. To my surprise I could shake hands with a Product Manager of PCS, with whom I worked closely on a try-out project at the end of last year.

It was at a great venu, Le Meridien, a short drive out side of Split. A nice hotel with fantastic views on the Adriatic Sea.

Last year on the 'OFM Forum' in Valencia, PaaS (Platform as a Service) as a 'MiddleWare Cloud' was an important subject. Oracle was heavily promoting  Cloud. This is why you could expect that this years forum was named 'PaaSForum'. And thus in one of the keynotes this was stressed by stating:


Now, our Dutch comedian Arjan Lubach made a video to introduce our country to president Trump:

So that made me introducing the statement:

I understand cloud 1st, but can Netherlands be 2nd? #PaaSForum pic.twitter.com/SMh4JX2zgs

— Makker (@Makker_nl) March 29, 2017

Fun aside, I heard many nice things. To sum up a view:

• On ICS side, there would be a REPL CLI script to move iar's (ICS Archives) between environments, created by the A-Team. I should look it up, but don't know if it already released it.
• There was an introduction of the API platform, with also a workshop on it.
• PCS and ICS are suggested to be combined into the Integration Cloud. Which would be a very logical idea, bringing much better, uniformed user experience. Because, at my latest cloud project, last year, we actually defined the practice to always integrate via ICS not directly from PCS.
• There would also be a script, created by a Product Manager, to 'massage' BPM projects to transform them into a PCS compliant project. Hope to get my hands on that too, that could certainly be helpful. The otherway around would be not so bad either.
• Then there was the mention of AI Apps, or Application Intelligent apps. Intelligence from verticals. This could drive PCS in a more intelligent way, based on knowledge from different verticals. 

• New DMN Decision service in #PCS . Got to check that out soon. #PaaS4SaaS, #PaaSForum . pic.twitter.com/PadknKyH9R

  — Makker (@Makker_nl) March 31, 2017

But most interesting I found was the introduction of CMMN in PCS. Or otherwise put: Dynamic Processes in PCS. Where conventional BPMN processes in PCS run in a strict predefined way, with Dynamic Processes Case Management capabilities are introduced in PCS. Much like Adaptive Case Management in BPM Suite. However, build in a new way with a graphical modeller in the composer:
So here you see vertical lanes that represent phases in the process. In each phase you can define activities that can represent a Human Task, or for instance, a (sub-)process:
Activities can be repeatable, required or Manually Activated. Much like we can do in ACM.

Then using Decision rules you can decide under which condition the case is transferred to another phase, activities are activated or deactivated, etc. Or this can be done by the knowledge-worker self.


So I'm very much looking forward to get my fingers on this new functionality.

Another interesting new development is the introduction of Chat bots. They were so heavily mentioned and demoed, there hardly weren't any presentations without mentioning them. I almost felt I was one of the few that liked them, although the heavily relying on Facebook messenger. Even the, in my perception, breeding ground of chat bots, Twitter, wasn't free of criticism on the usecase of chatbots. I, on the other hand found a great non-functional use of chatbots: a text based adventure:

If we could combine PCS's dynamic processes with the Oracle Chat bot cloud service, we could develop a nice text adventure where you could chase beacons with in the process. Each phase in the process could represent a location, different processes can represent several areas on the map. But if we can have the process instances interact with eachother, for instance by registering their locations in a DBCS, or sending correlated signals (much nicer), then you could make it into a multiplayer text adventure. My colleague Rob introduced the idea to be able to upload pictures, of real-life locations. You could readout the Exif-data to check if the foto really represent a GPS-location.

So, that might be the next rolling-gag or app on the next forum in 2018, for which I already introduced the hash-tag: #ChatBotForum. In the aftermath of the week, at Jürgens afterparty, one of the others also mentioned text adventures. So, apparently, it wasn't such a far-fetched idea.

There's so much to think about, have it land, and much is already said. I'm looking forward to see how it all works out in the next year. The sun died on the #PaaSForum'17:


Working up to #ChatBotForum'18...