Strongback Consulting's Official Blog

Security flaw in IBM HTTP Server

2009-10-15T14:47:00.003-04:00

If you are running IHS, there is a much needed fixpack you should install. Several vulnerabilities have been found that allow an attacker to exploit the system or cause a denial of service attack.

These vulnerabilities affect the following versions:
IBM HTTP Server version 6.0.2
IBM HTTP Server version 6.1
IBM HTTP Server version 7.0

To correct the vulnerabilities, apply Interim Fix PK91361 :
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/websphere/ihs/support/fixes/PK91361/

http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/2579

Monitoring the status of builds in Team Concert

2009-10-07T15:19:00.007-04:00

No matter what version of Team Concert you are using, the following tips will apply. You can monitor the status of each step in your automated build using the following two ANT elements:
startBuildActivity, and completeBuildActivity.

These two should be treated like bookmarks to an atomic grouping of ANT tasks. For example, in your build file, you may have the following targets: setupenv, compile, test, deploy. The first sets up the environment ensuring you have the correct permissions, file sets, jars, and checks out the latest from the team stream into a local workspace. The second task compiles using the ecj-3.4.2.jar tools. The third runs JUnit tests (and perhaps functional tests as well). The last one deploys the application.

You should bookend each target with startBuildActivity, and completeBuildActivity. That is put these just inside the target itself, with all the meat of the target between the start and complete activity elements. This will tell the Jazz Build Engine to notify the Jazz Team server that it is starting on that particular task. Once the task is complete, the completeBuildActivity says "hey.. I'm done with this". That way, you can more easily tell where in your build the process fails without having to dig through your log files.

In the Eclipse/RAD/RSA/RBD client you can then see the total status as the build is progressing. You can refresh from the button on the bar in the view and you will see it change status. For this application I did, it will say "Fetching files" or "Compiling Application", etc.
Once complete, you can also check the status of each task on the "Activities" tab of the build. This tab will also show you exactly how long each step took. This may be helpful if you need to trim down the amount of time it takes to run a build.

The trouble with hosted solutions

2009-10-06T16:01:00.003-04:00

If you prefer a hosted, cloud based messaging (email) solution for convenience, you need to be aware of the dangers of some of the offerings out there:

"Yesterday, it was revealed that 10,000+ Hotmail accounts were compromised and all of the usernames and passwords of these accounts were posted online. It was a major security and scam issue, but it was thought to only affect Hotmail users."

http://mashable.com/2009/10/06/gmail-accounts-exposed/

If you want something secure, check out LotusLive iNotes, a SECURE, stable platform based on the long running Lotus Domino server platform. It includes built in virus/spam controls. Built in instant messaging, charts, web forms, surveys, meetings, and more. All starting at around $3/month per user.

IBM Announces the launch of Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5.1

2009-10-06T12:11:00.008-04:00

I am listening to the webcast on the release of Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5.1. Lots of new features in the release. For one, it has 4 times the fixes of any standard maintenance release. IBM has today announced the launch of long awaited Notes 8.5.1.

One of the major themes for this point release is on application development. The Domino Designer has undergone a MAJOR revamp and is now all under the Eclipse environment. The Domino Designer client is now FREE, a product that used to cost around $500 USD per seat. This will greatly advance the product and help new users become acquainted with the platform such as college students as well as power users already familiar with the Notes environment.

There is now a new link for developers which should be available soon: http://developer.lotus.com.

This release is further evidence of the benefits of eclipse. Peformance has been greatly improved, some in order of 75% improvement. There are several new features the biggest of which being the editor for LotusScript. There new features for extensibility which take advantage of the Eclipse extensibility plugin architecture. The LotusScript editor is the biggest feature improvement and one long requested by the Domino development community. New class browser for custom classes, script libary browser, hyperlinking between script libraries, line numbers, syntax highlighting and content assist.

XPages continues to improve. There are performance and scalability enhancements, an updated version of Dojo (1.3.2) which allows interoperability with IE8, and security enhancements for Active Content filtering. Xpages can now be built to run on the Notes client. This means that the designer can develop for both clients at the same time. XPage applications can therefore be run offline and with the exact same security model as the client. Having the same programming model for both the Notes client and web is a HUGE productivity improvement, whereby prevously both models shared many elements, but the web client always required more work after the core application was built.

IBM is also changing the licensing models for the clients. Domino Designer is now free. The client access model is being replaced so there will be only two CAL types: Enterprise and Messaging. Mesaging CALs include access to mail, calendar, Lotus Symphony, Lotus Travleer for mobie clients, Quickr Entry, and Lotus Sametime Entry. Enterprise CALs add access to Lotus Mobile Connect as well as custom developed Lotus Notes applications. Again, the Domino Designer is now free.

On the Domino Server, there is now support for SPNEGO authentication. DAOS has been enhanced to be smart about replication, meaning it will not replicate "known" attachments - those attachments to which it already has a copy, thus greatly reducing network traffic in DAOS enabled environments.

On the mobile side, Lotus Notes Traveler now supports Apple iPhone (push based) for mail, calendar and contacts and directory lookup. There is additional support for the Nokia Symbian update such as encrypted mail, remote wipe, and pw management. Other new mobile platforms are also supported.

The Notes client has not been neglected in this release either. There is some user interface "candy" as they say: drag/drop a mail message to the calendar to create a meeting, a new spell checker engine, a pluggable spell checker engine, new anti-spam integration with Lotus Protector mail integration, business card type ahead, adding a a v-card to your signature and more. The business card type ahead is SLICK! Single click action to all the user's blogs, profile, bookmarks etc.

iNotes 8.5.1 also includes more enhancements such as scroll hints, auto-refresh for mail delivery, action buttons in preview pane, and undread count on inbox AND folders. There is better pre-fetch for documents, ID-vault support. There is significant reduction in memory consumption and bandwith on the server. The ultra-light UI also has some new features particularly geared for the Apple iPhone.

All of this will be available for electronic delivery by October 12 on Passport Advantage and Partnerworld. Domino Designer will be available on the Lotus Developer site on partnerworld at http://developer.lotus.com

Useful Links:

Press release: IBM Brings Lotus Notes and Domino Software to Full Spectrum of Web Devices

ibm.com: Notes/Domino 8.5.1 overview

ibm.com: Domino Client Access Licensing

ibm.com: Licensing FAQs for Notes/Domino (updated for 8.5.1 new licensing model)

ibm.com developerWorks Lotus: Download/Experience/Connect (download of Domino Designer coming on Monday, October 12, 2009)

Rational Team Concert 2.0.0.1 Released

2009-09-25T09:53:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know, its hard to get excited about a point release, however, there are some features worth mentioning. In particular is the change in the licensing model for RTC Express-C. It now includes not 3 but 10 (ten) free developer/contributor licenses. It is now also supported on all the databases that are supported by the Express/Standard/Enterprise version, including these free ones:

There is new support for WebSphere 7, and the licensing includes equivalent licensing for a WAS 7 environment (Websphere App Server base for Express/Standard, and Websphere Network Deployment for a clustered high availability RTC Enterprise environment). The additional features of WAS7 make it more scalable and more secure as WAS 7 is built on the Java 6 JDK has the ability to quiesce containers that it may not be using (i.e. the EJB container), thus reducing the memory and CPU resources needed to run it.

https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/releases/2.0.0.1?p=news

If you have not heard of the product, it is THE best team development environment out there. Dare I say, I am "jazzed" about it? Check out my prior posts for more information on the product. This blog, and the surrounding website have been developed using RTC on linux, and it is absolutely the bomb. Deployment is a sure fire snap, and the iteration planning have been tremendously helpful as we pull together new ideas for content, navigation, and UI features. Continuous build, automated testing, and one-click deployment help ensure we always have a rock solid web site with each release.

RTCi Webinar Material

2009-09-23T12:35:00.003-04:00

For those who missed the webinar this morning, I have posted a couple of presentations on SlideShare.

Rational Team Concert For IBM System i - Executive Overview V2

View more documents from Strongback Consulting.

Since we did not have an available connection to the Sandbox, here is also a scenario demonstrating the usage of RTCi.

RTCi Demo Scenario

View more documents from Strongback Consulting.

For a real life demo, you can go to the EM Sandbox on the IBM Developerworks site, and spin up one of the Citrix enabled Sandboxes. Another option is to download the RTCi software from Jazz.net and run the software for the 60 day trial period.

If you would like a guided on site demonstration, please give us a call and we'll be happy to setup a proof of concept with you.

DAOS Technical Overview

2009-09-18T14:06:00.003-04:00

Lotus Domino 8.5 introduced a new feature call DAOS. This tool is designed to reduce attachment duplication by externalizing the attachment and leaving a pointer in the Notes application or mail file. This presentation is courtesy of the NELotus user group . Its yet another reason to upgrade to the latest version!

Daos Technical Overview Ne Lotus

View more documents from Strongback Consulting.

Rational Team Concert for System i Webinar - September 23 11am

2009-09-18T13:45:00.000-04:00

Project Management with IBM Rational Team Concert for System i

Join us for a Webinar on September 23

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/730096923

Looking to have your software developer teams to more effectively collaborate in developing and delivering quality software on time & on budget? Join us on Wednesday Sept 23, 2009 to see how.

This demonstration will cover the how IBM Rational Team Concert can assist with collaboration & project management.

Title:		Project Management with IBM Rational Team Concert for System i

Date:		Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Time:		11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Blog update

2009-09-18T13:42:00.004-04:00

For those who have not updated their links, this blog is now located at http://blog.strongbackconsulting.com. If you are used to getting it via RSS/ATOM feed, then you can use my the FeedBurner address http://feeds.feedburner.com/StrongbackConsulting. The old URL of "thejavablues.blogspot.com" should be redirecting you.

Case Study: Enterprise Architecture

2009-09-16T18:28:00.006-04:00

I'd like to announce that one of my customers has added some more client's of their own. Their business is growing well in this down economy. Its another example of how entrepreneurs can thrive in a recession.

They are an Internet startup focused on the green movement. I've listed them as one of our case studies at Strongback Consulting. They offer electronic receipt management to retailers and electronic receipt organization for retail customers.

Retail customers receive their receipts via email rather than printed out thus saving paper, ink and all the energy required to generate the paper and ink. The company is TransactionTree™ and their site is http://www.nomopaper.com

This site is a great study in how good UI design makes other features go so much better. The site is built in Java using Apache Struts2, Spring 2, and Apache Tiles. The presentation is entirely abstracted out from the content giving the following benefits:

The branding of the site can easily be swapped out with out having to change out the content. This ideal in the case of Internet startups which often either change the branding to better match the evolving audience (i.e. Facebook, CNN.com, etc), or they are acquired or they acquire a competitor.
The content can be written and delivered without worrying about markup, making content generation much easier for the authors.
Smaller content means web browsers that turn off CSS can read and navigate the entire site without additional work (think older Blackberries, Windows Mobile, etc.).

Another feature of this site is that we use many CSS features that are supported by the latest browsers, but for browser that do not support them, the content is rendered in a less flashy, but appealing way. This is called graceful degradation (or gradual enhancement depending up on how you look at it). On all the JSP's we use XHTML strict DTD's. In this day and age there is no reason to be sloppy. The XHTML also means that the content is fully XML compliant which also means it can be used in other applications as content.

If you have a moment check out their site. Its something we are quite proud of. Enjoy.

EGL Community Edition now availalble

2009-09-15T11:01:00.003-04:00

IBM has released a community edition of its EGL language. This edition is geared for entry level learning such as for colleges and universities. This is a great language that is a natural successor to COBOL. Applications can be created and deployed to mainframes as batch applications, or to Java web applications servers running on Linux, Windows or Unix.

The commercial product is Rational Business Developer, of which EGL CE is a subset of. Rational Business Developer itself is the successor to Visual Age Generator for Java and Cobol.

Check it out. http://www-949.ibm.com/software/rational/cafe/docs/DOC-3216

Blackberry Desktop for the Mac now available

2009-09-09T10:01:00.002-04:00

Blackberry desktop has long been awaited for those Mac users, including my wife who runs on an iMac (and is very happy with it).

I would one day like a Mac myself, but there are still so much software that I need from day to day that is restricted (chained) to Windows.

For those using Lotus Connections, there is also a new Blackberry application that has been released for version 2.5 of connections.

RTCi webinar coming September 23rd.

2009-09-08T10:45:00.005-04:00

We will be doing a webinar on Rational Team Concert for System i coming up September 23rd at 11am. In the meantime, here is a video that gives a nice high level over view of RTC.

WebSphere XD Virtual Enterprise 6.1.1 Announced

2009-09-04T23:42:00.002-04:00

IBM Announced XD 6.1.1 last week. This is a refresh pack rather than a fix pack (note the 3rd digit change). You need to be at WAS 6.1.0.25 or 7.0.0.5 before upgrading. The FTP site for the refresh pack CIM is here.

New features include:

AIX Micro-partitioning uncapped shared processor support enables Virtual Enterprise to operate in virtualized AIX server environments running AIX 5.3 and AIX 6.1 on POWER5 and POWER6 architectures. Virtual Enterprise recognizes the use of shared processor partitions, as well as the dynamic capacity of the shared processor pool on the physical hardware, to enable intelligent routing, prioritization, and application infrastructure virtualization in such AIX environments. For more information, see Virtualization and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise.
A new bulletin board service overlay network (BBSON) separates Virtual Enterprise from high availability manager core groups. By enabling BBSON, you can run the product in new cells without having to configure and manage core groups and bridges. Note: All nodes must run at a version level of 6.1.1.0 or higher, and must be explicitly enabled with the useWVEBB.py script. See BBSON bulletin board for more information.

WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid Version 6.1.1 includes the following new features:

Quick parallelization with the built-in parameterizer allows you to parallelize batch jobs declaratively through the job definition (xJCL) without implementing the parallel job manager (PJM) System Programming Interface (SPI) set.
A new SPI deployment model enables multiple parallel applications to share the same parallel batch infrastructure easily. The PJM SPI implementation can be packaged with the parallel batch application and deployed as a shared library.
With subjob submission pacing, you can now throttle the capacity consumed by individual parallel jobs. Use this feature to ensure a very large parallel job does not consume all the capacity of its jobclass, so that it can run with smaller parallel jobs of the same jobclass.
Integration with IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager enables more efficient monitoring of batch applications, jobs, and job infrastructure.
The high-speed native connector for external schedulers allows you to easily integrate with external workload schedulers and significantly reduces memory consumption.

Happy upgrading! If you are not using the Centralized Installation Manager (CIM) to roll this out, you are NOT getting your money's worth!

Lotus Notes dev tip: Open or Copy Hidden Views

2009-09-04T23:11:00.008-04:00

A very old trick that us old-hats know. If you want to see the contents of a view that is hidden in Lotus Notes, hold down CTRL+SHIFT and select "View - Go To". The list of available views will show all the hidden ones (denoted by parentheses). You can also do this with creating views.

Rather than doing a cut/paste of an existing view, you can copy the design of an existing view whilst in the "new view" wizard (first image).

Simply hold down the CTRL+SHIFT and click the "Copy From" button.

Voila! now you can copy the design from an existing view.

Enterprise Collaboration

2009-09-04T16:35:00.003-04:00

This is a funny video on collaboration. I swear the guy is channeling some of my past experiences.

Licensing changes to WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSC)

2009-09-04T14:12:00.003-04:00

In April of last year, IBM ceased marketing and selling of the WDSC product. The strategy was to separate out the compilers from the development environment. If you are currently running WDSC and are looking to move forward with it, here is what you need to know:

If you purchased WDSC Advanced, you will be entitiled to an equivalent quantity of the following:
For each license of WDSC Advanced Edition the customer will now have:

1 license RDi (Rational Developer for IBM i)
1 license RBD (Rational Business Developer)
1 license for the HATS for 5250 Applications toolkit
1 license for RAD (Rational Application Developer)

If you have let maintenance on the product lapse, you'll have to purchase new licenses for RDi or RDi for SOA.

Here is a document summarizes the WDSC licensing and pricing structure. If you are currently on maintenance and need help give me a shout.

ALERT! Changes coming to this blog!

2009-08-31T10:38:00.002-04:00

Just so you are not caught off guard, I'll be making some changes to this blog in the coming days. The Feed URL will be changing over to FeedBurner, and the primary URL will change from a BlogSpot domain to http://blog.strongbackconsulting.com. The new address currently acts as a redirect to http://thejavablues.blogspot.com.

The reason for the changes are several fold:

This blog regularly comes up in search engine hits, whereas the company site only occasionally shows. The company site NEVER showed up in any hits before we changed the UI for it. We would like to increase traffic to the company site to increase our lead generation.
We will have better hit ratings on the Strongback website if this blog shares the domain name as well as the similar navigation as the Strongback site.
This move will allow us the flexibility to move the whole blog over in the future to an in house system (such as WCM, or Lotus Connections) should we decide to do so. Once the new URL and feed addresses have had time to settle in, its very easy to redirect the subdomains to new IP addresses on servers that we manage.
This move will greatly increase our SEO effectiveness.
The UI is dated and does not properly reflect the brand of the company that it represents (but it was MUCH better than the previous company site). Now the blog needs to catch up to the company site so that it better matches the branding, the theme of which is "Craftsmanship".
We've already removed the AdSense links on the site - as if I want to advertise for my competitors on my blog site! Now we have some other links that we would like to add or remove as well, in accordance with the brand.

So, please be sure to update your Feed addresses in Google Reader, Bloglines, Newsgator, or whatever you are using for your RSS/ATOM reader. Google assures us that the move will leave a 301 redirect at the old address, so we are hopeful that that is true. Just in case, be sure and update your bookmarks and reader configs just the same!

Rational Team Concert for System z has a new home

2009-08-24T14:55:00.002-04:00

It has previously been difficult to find information specific to the mainframe for Team Concert. Now, the jazz team has moved Team Concert for System z to its own project page. For those looking for information on the product specific to System z, here is the link: https://jazz.net/projects/rational-team-concert-z/

The product is at version 1.0.1.1 status and the team has released a beta for version 2.o. Some of the features coming for version 2.0 include:

z/OS native file system support
Enhanced build capability
Coexistence support for existing host SCMs

The full release plan for version 2.0 can be found here.

SpringSource gets acquired by VMWare

2009-08-20T09:30:00.003-04:00

Wow.. I did not see this one coming. Spring Framework has been the golden child of the Java community, often favoring their simple Inversion of Control (IoC) in favor of the more complex Java EE frameworks such as EJB.

http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/08/vmware-springsource

VMWare is the top dog in virtualization (Strongback is partner), so it looks like the path to cloud computing is being set firmly for the Java community.

An stunning presentation on social media.

2009-08-13T15:17:00.005-04:00

I love this. This is a follow on to last year's SlideShare best presentation winner. This is wickedly cool. Yes, there are a few f-bombs in there, but some great statistics on social media. This should make you wonder how you can take advantage of social media/social software from within your enterprise.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

Central Florida WebSphere Users Group

2009-08-13T15:03:00.002-04:00

This week I went to the first meeting of the rebirth of the Central Florida WebSphere Users Group in Orlando. There were mostly IBM'ers there and only 3 people (including myself) not from IBM. Nonetheless they had some great content. Nii-Boi Koi did a great presentation on WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition (FTE), which appears to be a pretty good solution for situations where FTP is used all over the place. A good example they brought up was where a retailer was receiving nightly sales data from thousands of locations and need to apply SLA's and business rules on the files.

There was also a high level presentation on cloud computing and a discussion of the Cloudburst appliance.

The group is tentatively scheduled to meet once a quarter, but I'm hoping it meets a bit more often than that. I'm planning on presenting at least once in the coming months, most likely on Jython scripting and automated builds with WebSphere App Server.

If you have an interest in joining a local chapter of WUG, just visit www.websphere.org and find a chapter near you.

Resurrecting the abominable About Us page

2009-08-12T21:19:00.002-04:00

The About Us page is on nearly every website, and usually contains the typical corporate drivel. It is the most overlooked page, yet one of the most common page that is viewed on a web site.

I was listening to BoagWorld podcast #173 and mentioned a site that has taken on the About Us page in a whole new fashion.

Be sure to check out this most shocking example of rethinking the About Us page.

Now... how to incorporate these goals into our corporate website. Hmmm

Odd popup behavior in HATS

2009-08-11T15:08:00.002-04:00

Here is an issue that has cropped up on the 7.x release of HATS. Its very very minor one, but can eat up a bunch of hours to troubleshoot.

Lets say you have a popup selection widget, and specify you want it to display with the image rather than a button or link.

Let's also say that your HATS widget is placed within an absolute positioned element (i.e. style="position: absolute" or within a style selector of your CSS file).

You will have two issues. One, the popup will be positioned relative to the absolutely positioned element that contains it. You can get around that by forcing the popup DIV to be a child of the BODY element in the popup(popupid) function:

document.body.appendChild(content);

Next, there will be an issue in IE where if a user clicks the popup, closes it and re-opens the popup, the popup will migrate upwards or away from where it first opened. This is only an IE issue and it applies to version 6,7,and 8. You'll need to add the following to the getButton(popupid) method - just above the final return statement:


// The following is to account for a popup that is triggered by an image.
var imgs = document.getElementsByTagName("IMG");
for (i=0;i
var element = imgs[i];
var onclickstring=" "+element.onclick;
if (onclickstring.indexOf(popupid)!=-1 ) {
// now that we have found the element
return element;
}
}

Upgrading to RTC 2.0 - Lessons Learned

2009-07-20T11:07:00.004-04:00

I have recently been upgrading my Jazz/Team Concert environment to version 2.0 from 1.0. I'm using the Express-C version which is based on Apache Tomcat and Derby. These versions come in a zip file format and can easily be extracted out on a Linux server and started with minimal configuration. Upgrading from one to the other, however has had a hiccup or two. I highly recommend the Linux version. I run it on OpenSUSE 11.1 with zero issues on the OS. Its really flawless.... and cheap.

First, the two versions can work entirely independent of one another since they are just zipped up. Just don't run them at the same time as they run on the same port. When I extracted the 2.0 version, I put it under /opt/IBM/RTC, whereas my 1.0 version was under /opt/IBM/jazz. However, when I extracted it, I actually replaced the "jazz" folder with "RTC". As I had blogged earlier, there MUST be a jazz directory in the absolute file path. Once I put it extract under /opt/IBM/RTC/jazz, I was able to startup the virgin server fine.

Then came the migration. The documentation on the Jazz.net site for upgrading is accurate. There are several files that you must copy over and you MUST migrate the database using the repotools.sh script. Once I followed it exactly I got my site up and running, but only when I used the IP address. Somehow, it would not connect using the host name. Being that I connect to my server from behind a firewall (such as when I am at a customer site), I need to use the host name, as the IP address is just an internal address. Outside the firewall, it gets NAT'd, and I subsequently would timeout when trying to connect. The problem was that it would initially connect, and then give me the self-signed SSL cert error, which is fine. But then it would just sit and eventually time out. There was nothing in the log files that would ever indicate the source of the problem. That is one Friday night will never get back! I must have deleted and rebuilt the 2.0 version a dozen times before I figured out the cause problem. And it is a simple one.

Simply be sure you can ping your host from your host. Once I added a static entry into my /etc/hosts file, all was right with the world. I could connect to my server with no problem at all from outside my office as well as inside.

The last lesson learned, is that if you have installed the Team Concert client from any of the various Rational 7.5 products, you will have to uninstall it, and then install the 2.0 version using the IBM Installation Manager option from the Jazz.net site. You must completely uninstall all 1.0 clients. In my case I had Rational Developer for System i as well as Rational Software Architect installed. Both have an RTC client (one of which being for RTC for i), and both had to be removed in order to install the 2.0 client.