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Posted to dev@geronimo.apache.org by David Jencks <da...@yahoo.com> on 2006/02/02 02:21:45 UTC

Supporting applications that need a database

Dain has been complaining that the default database is no more and  
IIUC suggesting that we reinstate it and by default hook at least ejb  
applications that don't have an explicit database configuration up to  
it.  Since I removed the default database I'd like to somewhat  
preemptively explain my thinking.

Based on my support experiences with another app server that did  
something like this, I think this is a really bad idea.  What  
happened there was that no one knew how to connect their app to a non- 
default database, and we got zillions of problem reports based on the  
app using the default database rather than the one that was  
misconfigured :-)

I also don't think that encouraging all applications to use the same  
database is a very good policy.  It certainly invites collisions  
between applications and reduces portability.

We have the capabilities to build a derby database for a particular  
schema, and package it , and to bundle a datasource configuration  
with a j2ee app plan.  This is used for the daytrader and uddi server  
configurations.  Rather than including a database no one should  
want :-) and encouraging people to use it, I would rather see us  
automate the construction of a configured database for an app, and  
the construction and bundling of a datasource configuration with the  
app's plan.

thanks
david jencks


Re: Supporting applications that need a database

Posted by John Sisson <jr...@gmail.com>.
David Jencks wrote:
> Dain has been complaining that the default database is no more and 
> IIUC suggesting that we reinstate it and by default hook at least ejb 
> applications that don't have an explicit database configuration up to 
> it.  Since I removed the default database I'd like to somewhat 
> preemptively explain my thinking.
>
> Based on my support experiences with another app server that did 
> something like this, I think this is a really bad idea.  What happened 
> there was that no one knew how to connect their app to a non-default 
> database, and we got zillions of problem reports based on the app 
> using the default database rather than the one that was misconfigured :-)
>
> I also don't think that encouraging all applications to use the same 
> database is a very good policy.  It certainly invites collisions 
> between applications and reduces portability.
>
> We have the capabilities to build a derby database for a particular 
> schema, and package it , and to bundle a datasource configuration with 
> a j2ee app plan.  This is used for the daytrader and uddi server 
> configurations.  Rather than including a database no one should want 
> :-) and encouraging people to use it, I would rather see us automate 
> the construction of a configured database for an app, and the 
> construction and bundling of a datasource configuration with the app's 
> plan.
>
> thanks
> david jencks
>
>
I agree that it is preferable to automate the construction of databases 
rather than encouraging users/apps to use a default database.

For demo type applications, complete automation of the creation of the 
database at deployment time would be nice. 

For non-demo applications deployed in an enterprise environment, the DBA 
would probably want to be involved in the creation of the database and 
possibly customize the DDL, security etc. 

John

Re: Supporting applications that need a database

Posted by Matt Hogstrom <ma...@hogstrom.org>.
David,

I support not having a default database in the server.  I think if we break the 
usage of the server into development and production (as John discusses in his 
note) we'll see that from a developer's perspective a DB is beneficial. 
However, if your deploying for production you penalize the administrator to 
remove things that are useful to developers.  I think a good compromise is add 
some scripts / plans that one can easily modify to create various resources 
(DataSources, Queues, etc.).

Matt

David Jencks wrote:
> Dain has been complaining that the default database is no more and  IIUC 
> suggesting that we reinstate it and by default hook at least ejb  
> applications that don't have an explicit database configuration up to  
> it.  Since I removed the default database I'd like to somewhat  
> preemptively explain my thinking.
> 
> Based on my support experiences with another app server that did  
> something like this, I think this is a really bad idea.  What  happened 
> there was that no one knew how to connect their app to a non- default 
> database, and we got zillions of problem reports based on the  app using 
> the default database rather than the one that was  misconfigured :-)
> 
> I also don't think that encouraging all applications to use the same  
> database is a very good policy.  It certainly invites collisions  
> between applications and reduces portability.
> 
> We have the capabilities to build a derby database for a particular  
> schema, and package it , and to bundle a datasource configuration  with 
> a j2ee app plan.  This is used for the daytrader and uddi server  
> configurations.  Rather than including a database no one should  want 
> :-) and encouraging people to use it, I would rather see us  automate 
> the construction of a configured database for an app, and  the 
> construction and bundling of a datasource configuration with the  app's 
> plan.
> 
> thanks
> david jencks
> 
> 
> 
> 

Re: Supporting applications that need a database

Posted by Aaron Mulder <am...@alumni.princeton.edu>.
+1

On 2/1/06, David Jencks <da...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dain has been complaining that the default database is no more and
> IIUC suggesting that we reinstate it and by default hook at least ejb
> applications that don't have an explicit database configuration up to
> it.  Since I removed the default database I'd like to somewhat
> preemptively explain my thinking.
>
> Based on my support experiences with another app server that did
> something like this, I think this is a really bad idea.  What
> happened there was that no one knew how to connect their app to a non-
> default database, and we got zillions of problem reports based on the
> app using the default database rather than the one that was
> misconfigured :-)
>
> I also don't think that encouraging all applications to use the same
> database is a very good policy.  It certainly invites collisions
> between applications and reduces portability.
>
> We have the capabilities to build a derby database for a particular
> schema, and package it , and to bundle a datasource configuration
> with a j2ee app plan.  This is used for the daytrader and uddi server
> configurations.  Rather than including a database no one should
> want :-) and encouraging people to use it, I would rather see us
> automate the construction of a configured database for an app, and
> the construction and bundling of a datasource configuration with the
> app's plan.
>
> thanks
> david jencks
>
>

Re: Supporting applications that need a database

Posted by lichtner <li...@bway.net>.
I don't generally like default things when the default is a completely
arbitrary choice, as is the case here. This is not like a default port
number.

If someone is having trouble configuring a database then he/she or someone
else should write a tool that tries to configure out the settings, not
dumb down the software for everyone else.

On Wed, 1 Feb 2006, David Jencks wrote:

> Dain has been complaining that the default database is no more and
> IIUC suggesting that we reinstate it and by default hook at least ejb
> applications that don't have an explicit database configuration up to
> it.  Since I removed the default database I'd like to somewhat
> preemptively explain my thinking.
>
> Based on my support experiences with another app server that did
> something like this, I think this is a really bad idea.  What
> happened there was that no one knew how to connect their app to a non-
> default database, and we got zillions of problem reports based on the
> app using the default database rather than the one that was
> misconfigured :-)
>
> I also don't think that encouraging all applications to use the same
> database is a very good policy.  It certainly invites collisions
> between applications and reduces portability.
>
> We have the capabilities to build a derby database for a particular
> schema, and package it , and to bundle a datasource configuration
> with a j2ee app plan.  This is used for the daytrader and uddi server
> configurations.  Rather than including a database no one should
> want :-) and encouraging people to use it, I would rather see us
> automate the construction of a configured database for an app, and
> the construction and bundling of a datasource configuration with the
> app's plan.
>
> thanks
> david jencks
>
>