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  • 1.  Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Fri July 17, 2020 06:56 AM
    Hi,

    I am having a problem with using the flow exerciser on ACE 11.
    During the BAR file creation the name of the BAR is changed (for example from test to test_0.0.1).
    This is done for the versioning purposes.

    My question is : Is it possible to use the flow exerciser on a newly named BAR ? Right now, it does not detect that the correct BAR is already present on server. Instead, the BAR without version (as the name of the project is) is deployed again and than I have two identical BAR's deployed on server.

    Thanks, Jurij

    ------------------------------
    Jurij Laznik
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Mon July 20, 2020 02:24 AM
    Hi Jurij,

    I guess you also renamed the Application (or Integration Service or REST API) as the name of the bar file is generated. So now you have 2 Applications, 1 with version and 1 without. For ACE these are 2 different Applications. The name of the bar file is of no consequence.

    ------------------------------
    Jan Fluitsma
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Mon August 03, 2020 05:28 AM
    Hi Jan, 

    well, I would expect that Toolkit would have some kind of identifier in order to detect which BAR belongs to which application.
    For example:
    1. I have an application named MyTest.
    2. Create the BAR file with the following command:
           mqsicreatebar -data C:\IBM\ACE11\workspace -b C:\IBM\ACE11\workspace\BARfiles\MyTest1.bar -cleanBuild -a MyTest1 -deployAsSource -trace
    3. Deploy to server.

    To me it is interesting that ACE created the BAR file, however it cannot identify it as already deployed on server when I try to use flow exerciser.

    Thanks, Jurij


    ------------------------------
    Jurij Laznik
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Tue August 04, 2020 01:53 AM

    Jurij,

    You can think of the bar file as ephemeral. A temporary vehicle to deliver the application to the integration server. We sometimes refer to it as a "carrier bag". Just like when you bring your groceries home from the shop, the bag is important on the journey but the contents are the important thing once you reach the destination.  In other words, once the application has been deployed, the tool does not care how it got there, it only cares about what is inherent in the application itself. So if you change the name of the application when you deploy, then the tool thinks that is a different application.




  • 5.  RE: Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Thu August 06, 2020 04:22 AM
    Hi John, 

    from perspective you described it totally makes sense.
    Nonetheless, it would be good for IBM to think over some other mechanism for identifying the BAR file over the name itself.

    From what I have tested so far, the match is done over the name of the application.
    If I change it, ACE gets lost.

    It would be much better to create some unique ID uuid created at application creation time, which could later be packed into MANIFEST file and ACE could find out on which application we want to run.

    Namely, I see completely sensible the following scenario:
    1. Have application v1 on server deployed.
    2. Create fix/bugfix/feature in the application an now you have v2.
    3. Deploy v2 to server (stopped).
    4. Stop v1 and start v2.

    How do you solve the situation when there is something wrong with v2, now that you have the same application name and is overwritten at deploy time ? You have complete mess on server ....
    This is just for thoughts.



    ------------------------------
    Jurij Laznik
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Fri August 07, 2020 12:51 PM

    Jurij,

    Thank you.  This is really good feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us. I will raise this idea within the App Connect design and architecture team for discussion.

    In the meantime, I wonder what you would think of a slightly alternative take on your idea.  Suppose we were to think of the application name is the unique application id. It just so happens that you get to chose the value of it rather than some random generated uuid. Of course, you have the problem that you cannot ever change that name because you lose the identity to the application. 

    Currently you are treating the name as a label. i.e. as something that a human being uses to identify the purpose of the application and also as a version number. As you point out, there are good reasons to change the value of such a label, maybe for versioning or maybe for clarity as the purpose of the application evolves.  However, if we ask you to treat the name as an id and never change it, then that is inhibitive.

    So here is my idea which is a slight twist on your idea. As you may have noticed, many other resources in App Connect can have a `description` as well as a `name`. Also, for many artefacts it is possible to assign a version number.  Rather than adding a new attribute that we use as `id` how about if we were to add `Description` and `version` to Applications and if we were to make those very prominent wherever the application was displayed ( in Toolkit, on the Admin Dashboard, Admin API CLI etc...). You would then use `description` as you currently use `name` and explicitly use `version` for the versioning part of that. Maybe we could also add an option in the toolkit when you create a new application to `generate random uuid for name`.

    Would that help?

    I don't necessarily think that it is better or worse than your idea. I am just trying to explore what alternatives are just in case one turns out to be more technically feasible.





  • 7.  RE: Flow Exerciser on different bar name.

    Posted Mon August 10, 2020 02:52 AM
    Hi John,

    thank you for looking into the situation and show willingness in searching the solution.

    Your alternative proposal is totally acceptable. With `application` and `version` attributes the operation would be feasible.
    Since we are right in front of production, I re-design the application to use keywords.txt file and set the version in-there at the build time. Namely, we are assembling the BAR files via Maven pom file.

    From this discussion, for me it would be also acceptable the following. When Toolkit cannot deduce which app to pick, it would be the best to ask user to choose the app from list of installed apps on server/node. Then the flow exerciser can be started on the picked up application. If there would be problems, the error is reported.

    ------------------------------
    Jurij Laznik
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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