Webinar: Build your next business application in 60 minutes

IT is at the center of change in application development as new approaches like DevOps emphasize rapid delivery of features and greater participation by end users and “citizen developers.” Middleware technologies such as integration, business rules, business process management (BPM), mobile application platforms, and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are emerging as important tools for DevOps teams, greatly reducing the traditional coding requirements for new business applications.

Join us for this webinar to learn how two middleware technologies—business process management and mobile app development platforms—can work together in the cloud to support development of process-enabled mobile business apps. Through a real-word use case, we will demonstrate:

• Development and deployment of a mobile business app using Red Hat® Mobile Application Platform.
• Platform inclusion of captured mobile information into business processes with Red Hat JBoss® BPM Suite.
• Integration of automated processes with systems of record with Red Hat JBoss Fuse.

Speakers:
Phil Simpson, senior principal product marketing manager, Red Hat
Maggie Hu, middleware specialist solution architect, Red Hat
Kenny Peeples, JBoss technology evangelist, Red Hat

Join the live event:
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• Thursday, October 22, 2015 | 11 a.m. EDT | 8 a.m. PDT

Learn Node through our introduction lab for Node.js and Mobility

Node.js, or Node, applications are event-driven, use a non-blocking I/O API and run asynchronously. Node is being used more and more with Mobile Application Development because of a fast growing Node ecosystem and the ability to use the same platform to develop server and mobile apps.  With our Node Lab you will learn the basics of Node and npm as well as essential skills for working with Node.  We will also show Node integration with Middleware products such as Data Virtualization and Fuse through a Node.js Cloud App in Red Hat Mobile.  In this lab, we will cover topics such as:

• Node.js history and overview
• Some of the basics of node such as asynchronous i/o and http 
• How to use and create npm modules -The details of Scope, Scope Chains, Closures, and Garbage Collection 
• How to create a Node.js Cloud App that makes a rest call with the request module

Red Hat Mobile Application Platform Boot Camp at RHTE

This week at the APAC Red Hat Tech Exchange we are doing a Red Hat Mobile Application Platform Boot Camp.  It is a hands-on, lab-based 2-day course.

Overview:  Mobile apps are changing the way enterprises conduct business. Organizations are demanding solutions that enable them to extend existing applications to mobile devices andto better engage with customers, employees and partners. The Red Hat Mobile Application Platform is the latest middleware product from Red Hat. By leveraging Red Hat's strengths in enterprise middleware and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technologies, both Red Hat consultants and partners can enable customers on meeting their growing mobile requirements.

Target Audience: Mobile application developers, middleware solution architects and middleware delivery consultants who wish to learn about the Red Hat Mobile Application Platform and how to develop applications with it. This training is a technical and is designed for an audience with strong development skills.

Red Hat Mobile Application Platform is an intensive hands-on, lab-based 2-day course. In this course, attendees will learn how to:

• Create applications using Red Hat Mobile Application Platform
• Develop HTML 5 applications using JavaScript and Node.js
• Install command-line tools for local development
• Create mobile application projects from scratch and import/export existing projects
• Integrate MBaaS APIs as reusable services and cloud plugins
• Leverage the Data Sync functionality
• Develop client-side apps using Apache Cordova hybrid apps and client APIs
• Quickly create Form-based apps with a Form Builder

Attendee prerequisites:

• Basic knowledge of HTML/CSS (good to have)
• Basic knowledge of JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks – ie: Angular.js, Backbone.js (good to have)
• Basic knowledge of Node.js (good to have)

To access the lab environment, every attendee will require a PC, complete with Internet Connection and minimum 8GB RAM (mandatory).

Java EE and Node.js Comparison

I was looking for a quick comparison of JavaEE and Node.js and came across a blog from StrongLoop that I thought did a good job of a quick comparison including an example for both.  

In their post, they showed how to create a REST based web service using Java EE. This service returned a list of beers from the fantastic Pabst Brewing Company. Then created the same application using StrongLoop LoopBack and Node. With very little code in Node, they created a REST web service that returns the name and description of our beers. In addition, the LoopBack API also provides default actions for the entire CRUD process.

The table below shows some of the comparisons discussed in the blog:

Feature	Java EE	Node.js
Great IDE support	Yes, multiple choices including Eclipse, Sublime and Idea	Yes, multiple choices including Visual Studio, Eclipse, Sublime
Dependency management	Maven	NPM
Enterprise ready	Yes, in use today	Yes, in use today
Large ecosystem of libraries	Yes	Yes
Requires JVM	Yes	No
Common frameworks	Spring, JEE	Express
Database support	Yes	Yes
ORM frameworks	Yes	Yes
Testing Frameworks	Yes	Yes

References:

https://strongloop.com/strongblog/node-js-java-getting-started/

http://blog.shinetech.com/2013/10/22/performance-comparison-between-node-js-and-java-ee/

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2883328/java/java-vs-nodejs-an-epic-battle-for-developer-mindshare.html

Node Package Manager Quick Overview

npm stands for Node Package Manager.   The most common use case for npm is to use it for installing modules from other people.   Also, using it in development, makes it easier to specify and link dependencies.  npm is bundled and installed automatically with the Node.js environment.  npm runs through the command line.  It allows users to install Node.js applications that are available on the npm registry.  npm is written entirely in JavaScript and was developed by Isaac Z. Schlueter.   Also npm packages can be installed Globally or Locally.  A good rule of thumb, Global packages are for anything that you need to access from the shell. By contrast local packages are for using within your apps. The video below gives a quick overview of npm.

https://docs.npmjs.com/

Learn Node.js through NodeSchool

As I am building more demos for the Red Hat Mobile Product, I wanted to become more involved in the Node.js community in addition to learning different aspects of Node.js.  One way to learn Node.js as well as become involved in a community of Node.js'ers is to find a local NodeSchool chapter or start a new one.  We have started an Augusta, GA chapter of NodeSchool and trying to start our first event.  You can find our site at http://nodeschool.io/augusta/ and the repository at https://github.com/nodeschool/augusta.  So I wanted to include more information below about NodeSchool so you can learn how to be involved.

NodeSchool is an open source project run by volunteers with two goals: to create high quality programming curriculum and to host community learning events.

Interactive tutorials

The defining characteristic of the workshopper is the interactvity and automation. Workshoppers are made up of challenges of increasing difficulty. Each challenge starts by explaining a concept, and then presents a list of requirements for solving the challenge. Learners then try and write a computer program that satisfies the criteria.

When they feel confident about their solution they submit it to the workshop for verification. The workshop runs their solution and checks if all requirements were satisfied. If any are wrong or missing the learner gets contextual feedback and they can try again. If their code passes all of the criteria then they pass the challenge and move on to the next challenge.

All of this happens in an automated way. Workshoppers can be thought of almost like a unit test suite that the learner must make pass by implementing the correct code.

A wide range of topics

All of the NodeSchool workshops are written using Node, but the subject of a workshop doesn't necessarily have to be about Node. The NodeSchool community has developed some really great tools for authoring new workshops. If you have an idea for a workshop we encourage you to check out our Building Workshops page.

Events around the world

We have had communities on every continent except Antarctica host a NodeSchool event. Anyone can host an event, and as a community we try to compile useful information, guidelines and tips for making events fun and welcoming for everyone. See our page on hosting an event to learn more.

Get in touch

We use GitHub for organizing NodeSchool. The best place to get in touch is our organizers repository. You can open a new Issue on that repository and organizers will get notified and can respond. This method is a lot better than directly e-mailing any of the organizers.

Hear and see people talk

In episode 55 of the NodeUp podcast Mikeal Rogers, Max Ogden and other community members talk about NodeSchools.  At Cascadia JS 2014 Jason Rhodes, from Baltimore, talks about running NodeSchools.

Integration Series 1 - JBoss Fuse integration bridges the gap between SAP, SalesForce and mobile apps

We have a guest blogger this week. Luis Cortes,  Principal Manager of Product Marketing at Red Hat, @licortes_redhat, will give us an overview of our Salesforce, SAP, Fuse and Feedhenry integration series.

A common need of JBoss Fuse enterprise customers is the creation of business solutions that integrate complex software products such as CRM or ERP systems (think SAP). To this day many of them reside on-premise in the companies’ data centers, although more and more companies are moving them to PaaS and private clouds. In addition, the ever-growing adoption of SaaS services adds new demands to integrate with 3rd party services hosted in public clouds, such as Salesforce.

But we’re not done yet. To add to the always on, ubiquitous nature of business, the enterprise is going mobile at a growing speed, and this requires real-time access from all type of devices to critical information that resides and interacts with the above mentioned solutions.

In the next four blogs of this series, Kenny Peeples will guide us on how JBoss Fuse can be a key element in easily integrating your systems regardless of whether they reside on premise or in the cloud, including mobile interaction.

For this we have decided to showcase Fuse-SAP connectivity via Fuse JCo connector and Fuse NetWeaver Gateway connector; Fuse-SalesForce connectivity via the Fuse SalesForce connector; and Fuse-mobile connectivity via FeedHenry (Red Hat mobile application platform) via its REST API.

Due to the variety of ways our customers run JBoss products, we also want to show you different scenarios, with Fuse running on premise and in the cloud. In the first series of articles Fuse will be running on premise and the rest of pieces in the cloud as services: FeedHenry in the could, SAP in the SAP Cloud, and SalesForce, well, in the SalesForce cloud :-) In addition, the last article of the series will showcase the same demo with Fuse also running in the cloud, as iPaaS in OpenShift. We’ll give you instructions to run both on premise and in the cloud.

With this, we will highlight four use cases:

1. SalesForce to SAP: The personal data in Salesforce of a customer that has confirmed a purchase will be used to create a new customer record in SAP.

2. Mobile to SalesForce to SAP: Using a smartphone, a sales person closes a sales opportunity, the associated opportunity in SalesForce is updated accordingly and the personal data of the customer is used to create a new customer record in SAP.

3. SAP to SalersForce: A customer is late on payments and gets flagged in SAP, and the Salesforce record is accordingly updated to alert the sales team of a potential sales risk.

4. SAP to Mobile to SalesForce: A customer is late on payments and gets flagged in SAP, an alert appears on the smartphone of its manager, which puts the customer “on hold”, and the Salesforce record is accordingly updated to alert the sales team of a potential sales risk.

As you go through them, think of all the possibilities this opens to integrate these or additional systems using Camel routes and the more of 150 connectors offered by Fuse, and how to use this on your next projects to integrate systems in disparate environments.

Presentation:

Video:

References:

Integration Series 1 (This article) - Overview from Luis Cortes

Integration Series 1 Use Case 1 - SalesForce to SAP 

Integration Series 1 Use Case 2 - Mobile to SalesForce to SAP

Integration Series 1 Use Case 3 - SAP to SalersForce 

Integration Series 1 Use Case 4 - SAP to Mobile to SalesForce