31 Thursday May 2018
Posted in General, Oracle, Technology
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Whilst in London Wednesday to present Microservices in a Monolith World at the Oracle Code London, I also participated in an interview streamed via Periscope. The interview can be seen at https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMKgqBrwYyJL
Not only was this interview captured, my entire presentation is available on YouTube …
31 Thursday May 2018
Posted in APIs & microservices, Books, General, Packt, Technology
Tags
Andy Bell, API, author, book, Luis Weir, Packt, platform, reflections, Sander Rensen, writing
After months of labour, the arrival of new family members for a couple of the authors the Implementing Oracle API Platform Cloud Service book as finally been published. The book has been included into Packt’s Expert series so, earns(?) the privilege of having photos of the authors on the cover. The book can be purchased directly from Packt (go here) or from book retails such as Amazon (here).
It has been an interesting experience. Whilst working as part of a team of four authors lightened the writing load, a lot more energy went into communication so things were lined up. If you want a challenge, why not read the book and try to work out who wrote which chapters!
21 Monday May 2018
Posted in API Platform CS, General, Oracle, Technology, tools
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Updated reflecting changes discussed in blog post: Making Scripts Work with IDCS Deployed PaaS
The last week or two I have been working on a new API Platform utility to add to my existing tools (see here). This tool addresses the question of generating documentation. Much as been said about API documentation and the quality of it, check out these articles :
If you look at these articles and others, there are some common themes, which are:
Apiary covers the first theme to a first class standard, and you will see Apiary called out for its ability to document APIs in a lot of articles. Well written API Blueprints will cover the bulk of the second bullet. But the other points tend to fall outside of a Blueprint and fit more the API Policies and their use.
Not everyone is so commited or enjoys writing documentation. The other driver for going beyond the use of Apiary is that some organizations feel the need to have a traditional word style document to capture/define an API’s contract in detail. With the API Platform the management portal enables an API to be published into the developer portal with the Apiary definition and a markdown file for further documentation.
18 Friday May 2018
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, General, manning
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I’ve been reading Chris Richardson’s new book Mixroservice Patterns published by Manning (here or here). Whilst I haven’t finished the book yet, I have read enough to feel I can provide worthwhile observation.
The book is supported by Chris’ website microservices.io which provides the patterns and related content in summarised form – great for a memory jogger and quick reference, but doesn’t make a substitute for the book.
When it comes to the book, Chris’ writing is extremly engaging whilst economic with its language – no long passages when a short sentence can convey everything necessary (unlike this one for example 🙂 ). For example, in three short paragraphs is an explination as to why there is a tendancy for IT people to point at particular technologies or techniques as silver bullets. As a result is incredibly informative and points to sources that inform the thinking – such references can be as diverse as Sam Newman’s Building Microservices to the (real) architect Christopher Alexander and Jonathan Haidt (The Righteous Mind).
The book is grounded in honest real world thinking being upfront and clearly pointing to when Microservices aren’t the right answer, to talking about the difficulties that can be expected in working with microservices. This won’t surprise anyone who has heard Chris speaking (here for example).
A recommended read.
15 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in General, Technology
08 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in APIs & microservices, development, General, Technology
It’s a bit controversial to say ‘Microservices are not simple’ given much is said about using Microservices to simplify and accelerate software delivery. So, how can this statement be made? It is a point actually stated in Chris Richardson’s excellent new book Microservice Patterns (avalable here and here), indirectly in Eric Evan’s Domain Driven Design (here). Martin Fowler in one his blogs says that they come at a premium (here). So, I’m not the first to say this, and wont be the last.
But the assertion that Microservices done right are simpler, and allow rapid delivery and evolution of solutions – a bit of a contradiction. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so take a look at this …
08 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in General, Oracle, OUG, Technology
Tags
The call for papers for the U.K. Oracle User Group’s 2018 Conference in December is out. The committee are looking for papers across not just core Oracle technologies like the database and SOA Suite but newer technologies such as Event Hub. With Oracle’s engagement with developers and the commitment to open source the UKOUG has moved to engage with these users as well. So the committee will welcome submissions about open source tech that maybe run on an Oracle platform. You can submit your proposals here.
If you’re considering making a submission but want some advise or suggestions then reachout to the UKOUG and its committee members – contact details are here.
We look forward to seeing you in Liverpool in December.
07 Monday May 2018
Posted in General, Oracle, Technology
Oracle Cloud is growing and maturing at a tremendous rate if the breadth of PaaS capabilities is any indication. However, there are a few gotchas out there, that can cause some headaches if they get you. These typically relate to processes that impact across different functional areas. A common middleware stack (API CS, SOA CS, OIC etc) will look something like the following:
As the diagram shows when you build the cloud services, the layers get configured with credentials to the lower layers needed (although Oracle have in the pipeline the Oracle managed version of many services where this is probably going to be hidden from us). Continue reading
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