Running MDM transactions in a development environment

After setting up an MDM Server development environment you will probably want to start running transactions sooner or later to test things out. Having recently needed to do just that and, by coincidence, following a question about the subject, here are a couple of simple options to get started quickly:

Option 1: Web Service Adapter Sample Client

Using the web service adapter sample client lets you submit MDM XML transactions from a simple web page. The web service adapter is a legacy part of the product which simply wraps up traditional MDM transaction requests in a web service request but it’s ideal for running quick tests.

The developer environment set up process leaves an unpacked set of MDM files behind, including WCCWSAdapter.war and WCCWSAdapterSampleClient.war files. For example on my machine, the files are in C:\MDM\UNPACK\WCC\legacyAdapters\WebServicesAdapter. (You set the location to unpack the files in to on the set up wizard, which you can re-run if you cleaned up afterwards.)

I imported the war files into my workspace, configured the webservices.properties settings in WCCWSAdapter/WebContent/WEB-INF/classes and deployed everything with the MDM EAR.

Once deployed, you can open the following URL to submit transactions:

http://localhost:9080/WCCWSAdapterSampleClient/sample/WsDWLServiceControllerAdapterProxy/TestClient.jsp

Set the end point to http://localhost:9080/WCCWSAdapter/services/WsDWLServiceControllerAdapter before submitting the first request.

Option 2: Test with Web Services Explorer

In RSA you can right click on any .wsdl file and select ‘Web Services > Test with Web Services Explorer’, which includes the .wsdl files in the MDM *WSEJB projects.

Before testing the MDM web services you’ll need to modify some .xmi files since, by default, security for the test environment server will be off, but the web services will be configured for security being on. For example, if you want to run Party web services, look in the PartyWSEJB/ejbModule/META-INF/ directory. You should see ibm-webservices-bnd.xmi and ibm-webservices-ext.xmi files, plus *_SecurityDisabled.xmi and *_SecurityEnabled.xmi versions of the same files. Copy the *_SecurityDisabled.xmi versions over the the plain *.xmi files and redeploy the MDM application.

Finally, open your chosen .wsdl file and set the end point to the test server. For example I opened PartyWSEJB/ejbModule/META-INF/wsdl/PartyService.wsdl and set the PartyPort address to http://localhost:9080/PartyWS_HTTPRouter/services/PartyPort

Then you’re ready to right click on the .wsdl file and select ‘Web Services > Test with Web Services Explorer’.

Those aren’t the only ways to run MDM transactions, but I’ve found them really useful for quick and dirty tests. For a more in depth look at using the web services interface, check out the Configure and invoke Web services for WebSphere Customer Center developerWorks tutorial. I hope to cover more options in the furtue, for example using the messaging adapter, but in the mean time I’d be very interested to hear of any other articles out there for submitting requests.

Walking to work

I haven’t been abroad for IBM in a while but I spent last week in Paris. Or at least pretty close to Paris in La Défense which I didn’t escape from due to working far too many hours! Still, I’ve been sent to less interesting places; not to name names but I stayed somewhere that used to be called the Clinic View Hotel, and that really was about as interesting as it got!

There was a big practical advantage to staying in La Défense since that’s were I was working, so I could just walk to work. I like walking and there were some great buildings to look at along the way, which made for a very relaxing commute.

Arche de la Défense

I dream of being able to walk to work every day.

Microwaves- the greatest invention ever!

Microwaves are great! No waiting around for an oudated oven to heat up; just bung stuff stuff in, hit a few buttons and that’s it. It even turns off and pings when the food’s ready, instead of quietly staying very hot and burning everything to a crisp if you forget about it. Magic.

I think my aunt was the first person we knew to get a microwave. Now I know I was a lot younger so things might have seemed bigger than they were, but this thing was huge! It probably cost a small fortune too. Before microwave meals, people tried to use proper recipes for microwaves, and there were charts to work out how long to cook different weights of various ingredients. Crazy. Category D, 60 seconds on the side of a syrup sponge pudding is more my level!

My first microwave was at the same time more advanced, and much simpler than the early models, and much much cheaper. Instead of dials (probably the work of the same person who designed shower taps and toaster dials) it had a proper timer, but it also rotates the food on a wobbly plate, specially calibrated to ensure that handles aways end up pointing away from the door, instead of using some fancy hidden rotating microwave deflecting contraption. Unfortunately this microwave is nearing the end of its long and faithful service. Countless microwave pizzas have passed through its little door since 1990s but a small flooding incident early in its life has finally caused some rusting inside. Things were built to last in the old days.

Is there any invention that can even come close to the greatness of the humble microwave oven?

Not Mashed

Last weekend saw the second London Hackday, now called Mashed, and it was great to hear that CurrentCost mania is continuing to spread, with Rich and Dale’s CurrentCost Live project winning the Guardian prize! (See the presentation that led to fame and fortune on YouTube!)

Rich and Dale weren’t the only people from Hursley at Mashed, nor were they the only winners! Steve Godwin also had a winning entry with Twitter on TV. (No video that I can find as yet!)

I missed this year’s hack day but it looks like Mashed was another great weekend, even keeping up the tradition of opening the roof from last year! There were some members of team supernova back again and hacking though. Paul was interviewed about his project(s) on the day, and still had time to get Travel Streamr working. Jim’s call for Carbon Goggle helpers clearly worked and you can see the results in action on YouTube.

Mashed might be over but I hope that doesn’t mean the end to the projects it created. SLorpedo has certainly made one or two appearances since last year. Watch out for more CurrentCost, TV Twittering, Travel Streamr and Carbon Goggles in the months ahead. (I’m also on the look out for more details about the other projects, so leave a link if you have one.)

Update: finding a few of the twitter bots that got a mention to add to the tweetjects @jthouse follows. Also discovered that Carbon Goggles made an appearance in the BBC news article on the event. (25 June 2008)

Stopping LSL scripts running in the wrong object

I’ve been dusting off a very old project in Second Life and giving it a fresh coat of pixels (details to follow) where I wanted to use llRemoteLoadScriptPin to load scripts into objects as I rez them. It would however cause odd things to happen if these scripts ran in the object doing the rezzing, so here’s how I stop them:

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        // Check whether we should be running...
        integer disable_marker = llGetInventoryType("DisableScripts");
        if(disable_marker != INVENTORY_NONE)
        {
            state disabled;
        }

        // ... the real code
    }
}

state disabled
{
    state_entry()
    {
        llSetScriptState(llGetScriptName(), FALSE);
        // Nothing else in this state so it shouldn't matter if the
        // script doesn't stop immediately
    }
}

So the script magically stops running if I put it in any object that contains a notecard with the name DisableScripts, which seems to work pretty well.

You can do anything with stop motion animation

I’ve always been slightly envious of people with any musical talent but I do wonder whether you’d need more patience to learn to play drums/piano or to put this together!

It is great though! (Great… but the Wallace and Gromit train chase in the Wrong Trousers is still may favourite stop frame animation… genius.)

(Thanks to Gareth for posting the link on Facebook. Yep, still using Facebook- just ignoring all the strange applications!)

Older and wiser

Checking in after a short break from blogging (hands up if anyone noticed!) for a very nice holiday in Spain. Still in shock at the sudden drop in temperature coming back to not-so-sunny Southampton! The shock of returning to reality has yet to hit.

I got another year older in Spain; only the second birthday outside the UK and this time while watching a great flamenco show. I’m probably just older and older, rather than older and wiser but I did learn a little about Federico Garcia Lorca, who I had never heard of before, while visiting his summer house in Granada. It turned out to be a well timed visit with an art exhibition on in the house with, among other things, a typewriter that only types ‘o’s, a postcard sent every day from India and a virtual table cloth… and loads of other stuff I quite liked.

This weblog isn’t about travel though, so when I’ve unpacked and tamed the jungle outside I’ll be dusting off jo and jt’s big adventure for the next installment.

Tiny Tesco

The usually sleepy corner of Hampshire I live in is waking up to a big change tomorrow morning. Gone is the old* Onestop and in its place is a brand new Tesco Express! There’s no mention of any ribbon cutting or grand opening anywhere I can find, and it’s not even listed on the store locator yet, but there’s a little banner announcing that at 8am I’ll be able to nip to the local shop once again.

Is it wrong that I’m marginally excited about getting a new shop?

* not actually that old- I’m sure it’s less than a year since it was refurbished!

Update (5 June):

Took in the sights of the new local shop on our post-dinner walk. Very nice indeed. The Onestop was good for basic essentials but the new Tesco Express is going to be great for much longer spells of supermarket avoidance! Even has decent selection of fresh fruit and veg! Oh, and Gu… well it seemed a little rude not to buy anything after spending so long checking out what was on the shelves!

Yum.

Graphing CurrentCost using RRDtool

I’ve not been doing much with my CurrentCost data lately, having been slightly distracted with upgrading my home server OS. Well, upgrading is possibly a slightly odd description for a running a new live CD system but to compile rrdtool I grabbed the latest version (6.0.7) of SLAX instead of SLAMPPLite which is based on an older release. I really like the new version of SLAX so I’ve been experimenting with some home server type customizations, manually so far since MySLAX creator only seems to understand older versions, but I might give SLAX Tools a go too.

Anyway, while not quite as interesting as Dale’s CurrentCost bill, I now have a working RRDtool SLAX module. RRDtool seems ideal for graphing CurrentCost data. I’m aiming for something like this example, which would be perfect for viewing on a TV using the Wii but to start with I’ve been giving it a simple trial run over the last day. Here are the results so far:

Looking pretty good, and I think there are a few more features of RRDtool that could prove useful.

Giveup vs. catchup

I haven’t read many blogs lately (I blame Technorati favourites going AWOL… erm, and I’ve been a tad busy). I could do the same as Kelly and declare blog bankruptcy but I thought I’d try something different. I’ve had a skim through and these look kind of interesting:

• My Favorite MDM-Related Web Sites (Part 1)
• A Lot of Tips for Second Life Learning
• BUGs I Like!
• 279 - The Eurovision Text Map 2008
• Mashed 2008 - tickets now available
• Intro to Twitter
• Twitter and responsibility
• Morris Dancers meet the Ug Girls
• Reading the FT: mapping as a turning point

Let me know if any of them are worth reading properly!