Oracle ADF Architecture TV - Planning & Getting Started - Team, Skills and Development Environments

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Planning & Getting Started: Team, Skills and Development Environments

Real World ADF Design & Architecture Principles

15th Feb 2013 v1.0


Learning Objectives

•  At the end of this module you should be able to:

– Understand what roles are required to support an ADF project

– What tools, hardware and infrastructure you need to get in place

– How do you prepare for an ADF project

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Program Agenda

•  Team Size, Roles, Expertise •  Developer Tools •  Developer PCs •  Database & WLS Setup for Development Environments

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Exercise We've an unlimited budget! What roles would we like to support our ADF project

with? Both technical and non.



How Big Should Our Project Team Be?

•  There isn't a 1 size fits all –  Team size directly relates to the

application size & requirements – Small developments = 1 team

member with multiple responsibilities

–  Large developments = multiple teams with multiple members & separate responsibilities

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ADF Development Roles Each project team

•  ADF team leader •  ADF developer(s)

Preferably

•  Database developers •  Java expert (more soon) •  Java EE expert (more soon) •  JSF expert

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Supporting Design Roles

•  Enterprise architects •  System architects •  Database architects •  FMW skilled architects •  Web designers •  User experience advocates

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Supporting Technical Roles

•  Change control administrators •  Database administrators •  WebLogic Server administrators •  LDAP administrators •  Firewall administrators •  SSL security administrators •  DevOps

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Software Development Roles

•  IT manager •  Project manager •  Enterprise architect •  Change control officers •  Risk managers •  QA managers •  Documentation writers

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Supporting QA Roles

•  Development and Code QAs •  Load/stress testers •  Functional testers •  Users/system custodians

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Users

•  Expert users •  Domain knowledge experts •  End users

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It would be great to have a team of Java experts, but most of our team are just

starting out. What Java does the average ADF team member need to know?

Exercise



How competent in Java do I need to be for ADF?

“Not everybody who writes needs the skills of Shakespeare. But everybody who writes need to follow rules of spelling and grammar in order to make themselves understood. Every programmer on the project needs to know Java as a programming language and to be able to write syntactically correct Java code. But not everyone who writes Java code needs to be a virtuoso with full command of inheritance, interfaces and inner classes.”

Sten Vesterli’s Oracle ADF Enterprise Application Development Made Simple


Java Skills for Average ADF Developers Java SE 7 Programming I þ  Java Basics

þ Working with Java Data Types

þ Using Operators and Decision Constructs

þ Creating and Using Arrays

þ Using Loop Constructs þ Working with Methods and Encapsulation

þ Working with Inheritance

þ Handling Exceptions

Java SE 7 Programming II þ  Java Class Design

þ  Java Advanced Class Design

þ Object-Oriented Principles

☐ String Processing

þ Exceptions ý Assertions

☐ Java I/O Fundamentals

☐ Java File I/O

☐ JDBC

ý Threads ý Concurrency

☐ Localization

?

?

?

?

?


Java EE Skills •  At least 1 team member should be knowledge in the following Java

EE technologies: –  Servlets –  HTTP Session –  Vanilla JSF and the JSF lifecycle

•  Be warned –  Some highly skilled Java EE programmers will not want to work with ADF –  They are trained and knowledgeable in core Java EE technologies and competing

frameworks –  Typically will have open-source preference –  And human nature dictates experts can be defensive of their preferences –  Be careful they don't convince you against why you chose ADF in the first place


ADF Competence

•  Ensure to have at least one experienced ADF programmer on the team

•  Put all the team on ADF training •  Preferably both! •  Start with a small project – THINK BIG (not the

other way round)

•  ADF is a massive framework with a huge array of features •  Teams will struggle to learn everything in a short timeframe •  = A large risk to ambitious deadlines or complicated projects

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ADF Community Participation Encourage staff to:

•  Read the ADF manuals

•  Share experience internally •  Participate & use the JDeveloper/ADF OTN Forum •  Search Oracle Supports notes •  Lodge (quality!) SRs with Oracle Support •  Keep up to date with ADF announcements & blogs •  Join ADF community groups like the ADF EMG

•  Blog and present on ADF •  Attend ADF sessions at conferences like Oracle Open World


Other Team Expertise

What other expertise does your average ADF programmer need?

Source control? ...?


Program Agenda

•  Team Size, Roles, Expertise •  Developers Tools •  Developer PCs •  Database & WLS Setup for Development Environments


What software tools besides JDeveloper do you think we should provide our

developers to make building software easier?

Exercise



Tools to Assist ADF Developers

•  Source version control software –  e.g. SVN

•  Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) software

•  Automated testing software –  e.g. JUnit, Selenium, OATS

•  Build & Continuous Integration (CI) software –  e.g. Ant, ojdeploy, Hudson, Cloud Developer Services

•  Others? –  e.g. SoapUI, FireBug, UI design tools...


Program Agenda



Developer PCs – General Rules

•  For any development team over 1 person –  Standardize developer PC setup –  Document everything & update this periodically

•  Download and keep the JDeveloper install files from Oracle •  Standardize on

–  One JDeveloper edition (e.g. studio edition) –  Set of extensions –  Patches

•  Track carefully what version of JDeveloper each application uses


Developer PCs - JDeveloper •  JDeveloper installations need to cater for

–  Build scripts that assume location of services –  Case sensitive build scripts –  Moving between operating systems

•  Standardize base installation location & allow for multiple installs –  Standardize the directory case across all installations –  Do not use spaces or special characters –  C:\Oracle\JDeveloper\JDev111160 or C:\Oracle\JDeveloper\JDev112200

•  Standardize "system" installation location too –  Especially useful for requesting Virus Scanner corporate exemptions

(more soon) –  Be mindful however different OS versions do move this by default


Developer PCs – JDeveloper Configuration

•  JDeveloper Configuration: document and standardize on – Any changes to ide.conf or jdev.conf – Any Tools – Preferences updates –  Integrated WLS configurations (consider WLST scripts) – Database connections – Change control connections – Application server connections


Developer PCs – Hardware Requirements •  Oracle dictates minimum hardware requirements •  But these are the minimum, developers' productivity will suffer •  JDeveloper is memory and IO intensive, and has lots of windows

•  The productivity of developers will be enhanced by: –  Additional memory (4GB minimum) –  Large displays (24") –  SSDs (or at minimum 7200RPM or

Hybrid HDD) –  Faster CPUs

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Developer PCs - Performance

Virus scanners: •  Potentially major silent killer

of JDeveloper performance •  McAfee virus scanner worst

offender •  Ensure to put in appropriate

Java exemptions •  Get ready for a fight with

enterprise policy bureaucrats


Developer PCs - Browsers •  Preconfigure PCs with every browser possible

–  Enterprise apps: even test with browsers that aren’t corporate standard to identify issues early

–  Encourage developers to use a different browser each day –  Previous versions of IE may require VMs as they can't coexist –  Consider same setup for QA PCs as well –  Consider browser extensions such as Firebug


Developer PCs – Other Setup Options

Consider preconfigured virtual machines


ADF Source Code

•  Log an Oracle Support Request •  Make available on your local network •  In JDeveloper source editor provides:

– Quick JavaDoc lookup – Meaningful parameter insight

•  Debugger – Allows breakpoints and to see values in Oracle source

•  Configure: http://bit.ly/adfdevguide111210s3681 •  See Support Note: 971256.1


Program Agenda



Development Environment Setup

•  Later parts of course will consider server topologies and more •  What infrastructure do we need to get development rolling?

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Development/Test/Production Environments

•  Enterprises typically support 3 types of platforms to assist development: development/test/production

•  Typically one set per system or application •  Change control process

–  Enhancement & bug fixes recorded in change control system –  Allocated to developers on approval –  Are never applied straight to production –  First developed in “development” –  Once completed tested in (1 of many) “test” environments –  Once ready migrated to “production” for users

Production

Test

Development


Development/Test/Production Environments

•  Development/test/prod considerations – Ownership of each environment – Change control procedures – Change control software – Who manages patching/updating –  Team communications & notifications

Production

Test

Development


Development Environment

•  Development environment –  Typically 1 per system – Developers share & work with code in

development –  Little administrative control, backups not always

required – Code can be inherently bug prone, incomplete,

the wrong version, experimental – Required early on in system lifecycle

Production

Test

Development


Testing Environments •  Testing environment(s)

– Code formally released from development for testing

– One of a number of environments, e.g. • QA testing, nightly sanity build & deployments,

automated regression testing, user acceptance testing, load/stress testing, release testing

–  Ideally rebuilt from production regularly –  Ideally a duplicate of production systems + changes – Not required at the beginning of system lifecycle – However ideally should be built early on Production

Test

Development


Production Environments

•  Production environment – Most important environment – Strict administrative controls – Backups critical – Code only migrated once passed all tests – Single point of truth for “released”

development code

Production

Test

Development


ADF Environments

•  Each environment split into database and WLS •  Test/production environments inherently more

complex (e.g. LDAP servers, web servers, clustering. Covered later in course)

Production

Test

Development


ADF Environments

•  ADF applications on the same ADF Runtimes can share WLS environments

•  But different ADF Runtimes require different WLS servers

Production

Test

Development


ADF “Database” Environments

•  Database changes can have large impact on ADF developers

•  Options – One development database only – Separate database per team – Separate database per developer PC

•  Who manages patches/updates?

Development


ADF “WLS” Environments •  Development WLS may be unnecessary as

developers have an integrated WLS with JDeveloper

•  Counter arguments – A dedicated development environment gives

developers another environment to play and collaborate

–  Integrated WLS doesn’t reflect production WLS environments

– Sharing web service development required dedicated WLS

Development


How do Independent Software Vendors support clients on multiple releases?

How to support multiple releases?

Do we keep development and test servers for each release?

How do we deal with outmoded hardware, O/S, servers tech?

What about production copies to test against?


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I was just on the phone with our local Oracle sales office. They want to sell us a full Oracle cloud based

solution for our development efforts.

Can it really do everything we need?


Conclusion

•  Medium to large scale ADF projects require:

–  Experienced and trained staff, including non technical –  Standardized & documented development PCs & infrastructure –  Available tools and expertise –  Documented processes and procedures –  And planning to put all these in place –  You wont have a lot to show, but are essential for successful ADF projects


Further Reading

•  Sten Vesterli’s Oracle ADF Enterprise Application Development Made Simple


Technology

Oracle ADF Architecture TV - Planning & Getting Started - Team, Skills and Development Environments