ACE 2.0.1 web UI not showing associations after drag?

[Guy Davis <gu...@gmail.com>]

Good day,

I've been following the Getting Started guide and have had trouble getting
the expected behavior from the web UI.  In particular, I can drag an
artifact to a feature, then that to the distribution, etc but I'm not
seeing the same node expansion showing mappings after the dragging:

[image: Inline image 1]

Following through the workflow I can push the HelloWorldBundle out to the
target and see it's start() get called.  However, I think perhaps my
browser is not supported by the web UI as I was expecting more visual
feedback of the mappings.  I'm using Chrome 35.0.1916.114 m and also MS IE
10.0.9200...

As context, I'm evaluating using Apache ACE as a means of modular component
deployment at customer sites where they are running  JBoss application
server(s).  I'd like to integrate the ACE server into our current admin
console app on the master JBoss server.  Each cluster node would have an
embedded instance of the ACE (client/target), polling for updates.  Each
customer site would be either internal VMs or cloud systems.  The bundles
would simply consist of files destined to be deployed into the appropriate
JBoss folders along with execution of custom upgrade logic (Java, Ant,
etc). Back on our corporate network, we'd have a OBR repository configured
with versions of all our deployable apps and components.  The ACE servers
out at customer sites would pull down from this central repository.

Something like this:
[image: Inline image 2]

The plugin model of pulling from a single Update Center is similar to
functionality built into apps like Sonar and Jenkins.  I'd appreciate any
feedback on this idea.  Is Apache ACE a reasonable fit here?

Thanks in advance,
Guy

Re: ACE 2.0.1 web UI not showing associations after drag?

[Marcel Offermans <ma...@luminis.nl>]

Hello Guy,

On 05 Jun 2014, at 23:33 , Guy Davis <gu...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the quick response.  Sorry about the images I included not
> getting through.  After adding more items into the various columns of the
> Apache ACE web UI, I now see that a row highlighting approach is being used
> to indicate the contains relation.  Makes sense now that I see it with
> other items not selected for context.

Excellent!

> Ideally, I'd like to reuse this web UI inside our current admin console,
> possibly as an iframe.

That should work.

> I'm not sure that customer system admins will want
> to  work at the level of artifacts however, which I understand to be the
> items offered up by the OBR.  It would be nice to offer them a list of
> available features and/or distributions (aka products @ version).  Perhaps
> I just need to think more about the packaging levels however.

We started work on role based access to the UI. Part of that is an option to “hide” certain columns for certain roles. This is intended to help sysadmins to just deal with for example assigning features to targets, and having the software architect just preparing artifacts, features and distributions.

It might require a bit of work to make that happen though.

> Regarding embedding ACE (server and target) into each existing JBoss
> server, is this possible?  Ideally, I'd like to use the existing JBoss app
> server, rather than starting up ACE on it's own port.

ACE uses the Felix Jetty component, that also offers a way to “bridge” to an existing webserver. There is some documentation about that on the Felix website. I never tried this with ACE, but I see no reason why that should not work (in fact, I’d consider it a bug, so we would look into that).

Good luck and if you’re stuck, keep asking questions! :)

Greetings, Marcel

Re: ACE 2.0.1 web UI not showing associations after drag?

[Guy Davis <gu...@gmail.com>]

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for the quick response.  Sorry about the images I included not
getting through.  After adding more items into the various columns of the
Apache ACE web UI, I now see that a row highlighting approach is being used
to indicate the contains relation.  Makes sense now that I see it with
other items not selected for context.

Ideally, I'd like to reuse this web UI inside our current admin console,
possibly as an iframe.  I'm not sure that customer system admins will want
to  work at the level of artifacts however, which I understand to be the
items offered up by the OBR.  It would be nice to offer them a list of
available features and/or distributions (aka products @ version).  Perhaps
I just need to think more about the packaging levels however.

Regarding embedding ACE (server and target) into each existing JBoss
server, is this possible?  Ideally, I'd like to use the existing JBoss app
server, rather than starting up ACE on it's own port.

Thanks again,
Guy


On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:20 PM, Marcel Offermans <
marcel.offermans@luminis.eu> wrote:

> Hello Guy,
>
> On 05 Jun 2014, at 23:07 pm, Guy Davis <gu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I've been following the Getting Started guide and have had trouble
> getting the expected behavior from the web UI.  In particular, I can drag
> an artifact to a feature, then that to the distribution, etc but I'm not
> seeing the same node expansion showing mappings after the dragging:
>
> After dragging, you should probably click on either side of the
> association again to show the highlighting.
>
> > Following through the workflow I can push the HelloWorldBundle out to
> the target and see it's start() get called.  However, I think perhaps my
> browser is not supported by the web UI as I was expecting more visual
> feedback of the mappings.  I'm using Chrome 35.0.1916.114 m and also MS IE
> 10.0.9200...
>
> I don't think we test much on IE 10, but we definitely do test Chrome. I
> use that on my development machine, so I can confirm that it should work.
> The links are working, I am hoping that clicking on the nodes again like I
> suggested above helps.
>
> If not, please go to the console where you started ACE, and use the "log"
> shell command to display the log messages. There might be something in
> there that gives you a clue. If that does not work, we could also open a
> debug log in the browser and see if there are any errors on that side. Are
> you familiar with the browser console? Or it could be we get more
> information from Vaadin by enabling debugging. Again, have you ever done
> this?
>
> > As context, I'm evaluating using Apache ACE as a means of modular
> component deployment at customer sites where they are running  JBoss
> application server(s).  I'd like to integrate the ACE server into our
> current admin console app on the master JBoss server.  Each cluster node
> would have an embedded instance of the ACE (client/target), polling for
> updates.  Each customer site would be either internal VMs or cloud systems.
>
> That should work. Are you planning to write your own UI to embed in the
> admin console app of the master JBoss server?
>
> > The bundles would simply consist of files destined to be deployed into
> the appropriate JBoss folders along with execution of custom upgrade logic
> (Java, Ant, etc).
>
> A custom resource processor could do that for you.
>
> > Back on our corporate network, we'd have a OBR repository configured
> with versions of all our deployable apps and components.  The ACE servers
> out at customer sites would pull down from this central repository.
>
> That makes sense.
>
> > Something like this:
>
> For some reason your images did not arrive here in one piece. :(
>
> > The plugin model of pulling from a single Update Center is similar to
> functionality built into apps like Sonar and Jenkins.  I'd appreciate any
> feedback on this idea.  Is Apache ACE a reasonable fit here?
>
> It is. I would advise you to take a look at:
>
> http://ace.apache.org/dev-doc/adding-custom-artifact-types.html
>
> That explains how to write a resource processor that you can use to deploy
> the apps/components in the right folder of your appserver.
>
> Greetings, Marcel
>
>

Re: ACE 2.0.1 web UI not showing associations after drag?

[Marcel Offermans <ma...@luminis.eu>]

Hello Guy,

On 05 Jun 2014, at 23:07 pm, Guy Davis <gu...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've been following the Getting Started guide and have had trouble getting the expected behavior from the web UI.  In particular, I can drag an artifact to a feature, then that to the distribution, etc but I'm not seeing the same node expansion showing mappings after the dragging:

After dragging, you should probably click on either side of the association again to show the highlighting.

> Following through the workflow I can push the HelloWorldBundle out to the target and see it's start() get called.  However, I think perhaps my browser is not supported by the web UI as I was expecting more visual feedback of the mappings.  I'm using Chrome 35.0.1916.114 m and also MS IE 10.0.9200...

I don't think we test much on IE 10, but we definitely do test Chrome. I use that on my development machine, so I can confirm that it should work. The links are working, I am hoping that clicking on the nodes again like I suggested above helps.

If not, please go to the console where you started ACE, and use the "log" shell command to display the log messages. There might be something in there that gives you a clue. If that does not work, we could also open a debug log in the browser and see if there are any errors on that side. Are you familiar with the browser console? Or it could be we get more information from Vaadin by enabling debugging. Again, have you ever done this?

> As context, I'm evaluating using Apache ACE as a means of modular component deployment at customer sites where they are running  JBoss application server(s).  I'd like to integrate the ACE server into our current admin console app on the master JBoss server.  Each cluster node would have an embedded instance of the ACE (client/target), polling for updates.  Each customer site would be either internal VMs or cloud systems.

That should work. Are you planning to write your own UI to embed in the admin console app of the master JBoss server?

> The bundles would simply consist of files destined to be deployed into the appropriate JBoss folders along with execution of custom upgrade logic (Java, Ant, etc).

A custom resource processor could do that for you.

> Back on our corporate network, we'd have a OBR repository configured with versions of all our deployable apps and components.  The ACE servers out at customer sites would pull down from this central repository.

That makes sense.

> Something like this:

For some reason your images did not arrive here in one piece. :(

> The plugin model of pulling from a single Update Center is similar to functionality built into apps like Sonar and Jenkins.  I'd appreciate any feedback on this idea.  Is Apache ACE a reasonable fit here?

It is. I would advise you to take a look at:

http://ace.apache.org/dev-doc/adding-custom-artifact-types.html

That explains how to write a resource processor that you can use to deploy the apps/components in the right folder of your appserver.

Greetings, Marcel