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chatbots and openedge

Marian Edu — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 06:25:11 +0000

Getting started with akera.io – Part two

Marian Edu — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 07:25:45 +0000

application server

akera.io server is a full blown application server for Progress OpenEdge specifically designed for web/mobile applications.

Because of the efficient non-blocking I/O provided by node.js together with the myriad of modules available in npm ecosystem writing an application server to easily expose business services (REST) for web/mobile applications in node.js makes a lot of sense.

The result is a modular and very lightweight solution that is both easy to start with and can also scale as needed.

Prerequisites

Being an application server for Progress OpenEdge, akera.io does require the Progress runtime (AVM) to be available – either part of the RDBMS product if ran on the same computer as the database server or ‘Client Networking’ product if network connection is used.

4GL Development product is not required as 4GL components are delivered in xcode format, the optional ‘Development Studio’ component does require the option to compile code and therefore will have limited functionality without it.

akera.io is built on node.js therefore the first thing that need to be done is to install node.js on your system if not available already.

Head over to the node.js download page and select the installer for your platform.

Because of the Progress runtime dependency any platform supported by Progress can be used, for the rest the only option is to run it in a Docker environment (Linux).

Installation

After all prerequisites were installed we can proceed with the installation.

Since the de-facto package manager for node.js is npm all akera.io components are built as packages – the public ones available directly on npmjs.com while for the rest we have our own private repository.

// set the npm registry to our private repository

$ npm set registry http://repository.akera.io

// avoid installing dev dependencies

$ npm config set production

// install using global flag

$ npm install -g akera-server

This would take some time – about 30 seconds (depending on the internet speed) and make sure the system have enough space left before starting the installation as it does require nothing less than 9 MB to be available (if need be, please be prepared to drop 2-3 of your favourite mp3 songs to make room for it).

Test the installation by running the control script in a terminal.

$ akera-server help

Akera application server version: 1.2.13

Broker control script, usage:

akera-server  [-h ]

start – start all brokers set-up in home folder

stop – stop all brokers set-up in home folder

status – show status for all brokers set-up in home folder

trim – trim agents of all brokers set-up in home folder

list – list all brokers set-up in home folder

akera-server  [-h ] [-i]

start – start the broker

stop – stop the broker

status – show status for the broker

trim – trim agents for the broker

new – create new configuration for the broker

config – edit configuration for the broker

delete – remove configuration for the broker

-i interactive if set the process remains in foreground, only valid for start

Configuration

Now that you have everything installed you can set-up your first application server instance using the configuration option of the control script but first few things about akera.io configuration:

there is no single ‘unified’ broker configuration file, akera.io uses one configuration file per broker
configuration file uses a simple JSON format
is recommended to use a ‘configuration folder’ to group them in one central place
unless specified otherwise the control script will use the user’s configuration folder as default – $HOME/.akera

The easiest way to create a new application server configuration file – sports – is to use the control script with the new command:

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera new sports

? Progress installation directory /usr/dlc

? Port that the server will listen on 8900

? Initial number of agents 5

? Minimum number of agents 2

? Maximum number of agents 10

? Agent PROPATH (comma separated). /opt/apps/sports

? Agent accessible path (PROPATH relative entries, comma separated) web,rest

? Agent working folder /tmp

? Agent session temporary folder /tmp

? Agent start-up parameter file

? Procedure to run at startup

? Enable development studio (not in production). No

? Expose database content as REST No

? Expose WEBPATH file-system content as REST No

? Keep persistent procedures between requests Yes

? Messages language en

? Log File akera-server.log

? Maximum log file size(kb) 50000

? Maximum log files 3

? Log level info

? Execution timeout 3000

? Require SSL connection from clients No

? Administrator password

? Message packet size 64

Most of those are pretty much self explanatory and somehow familiar to those experienced with Progress Application Server.

The only one thing that might look odd is the ‘accessible path‘ – although it’s possible to run any business logic procedure available on PROPATH we think it’s safer to just limit client access to only those ‘services’ that were meant to be exposed instead of just everything available in PROPATH. In this example we only allow execution of procedures from ‘web‘ and ‘rest‘ sub-folders – in any of the PROPATH entries.

Database connection(s) can be specified in the start-up parameter file (.pf) if so desired just we like more to have them set in a separate configuration section – the control script will ask for this at the end, you can add as many database connections as needed (shared memory or network connection).

? Databases New

? Database logical name sports

? Database physical name/path /opt/db/sports.db

? Network connection No

? Databases (Use arrow keys)

❯ New

Config

Delete

List

Done

When you’re done adding all database connections select ‘Done’ and you’ll be prompted to save the configuration.

? Databases Done

? Save changes Yes

To update the configuration later on you can either do that directly on the JSON file if you are a vi freak or start the control script with the ‘config‘ option and follow the same flow just with the current configuration values used as presets – if you don’t want to update a property just hit enter and previous value will be kept.

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera config sports

Starting

Now you’ve passed the most boring part you can go ahead and start the application server instance you’ve just configured, again use the control script for that just with the start option (yeah we know, all too original).

akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera sports start

info> Starting broker: sports…

warn> Broker admin password not set.

info> AGT[9134] Agent started(34533) [201]

info> AGT[9135] Agent started(52577) [201]

info> AGT[9136] Agent started(35380) [201]

info> Broker listening on port 8900 [9125].

There is also an ‘interactive’ (-i) option for the start command, this will keep the process in the foreground and also display log messages on the console – can be used if you want to deploy it in a docker environment (more about this later on).

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera sports start -i

Starting broker: sports…

Broker admin password not set.

AGT[9115] Agent started(52355) [201]

AGT[9116] Agent started(44206) [201]

AGT[9117] Agent started(37419) [201]

Broker listening on port 8900 [9106].

This can be used for debug purposes – setting a different log level for the console can be done right after the ‘-i’ switch.

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera sports start -i debug

Starting broker: sports…

Broker admin password not set.

Create a non-secure server socket.

Create a secure server socket.

Secure server socket using PFX

Admin server listening on port 56647.

Starting agent.

Create a non-secure server socket.

Agent listening for Progress connection on [44560].

AGT[9162] Progress agent running: 9162.

AGT[9162] Progress agent connected.

Control

Once we have our application server instance up and running you might well need to check-out what is doing or bring it back to order if needed.

status

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera sports status

Running for : 14:01:42

Load        : 0%

Free        : 5

Busy        : 0

Requests    : 8247

Completed   : 8247

Memory      : 78289408

trim agents

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera sports trim

Trim agents for broker: sports…

Trim agents successfully.

shutdown

$ akera-server -h /opt/apps/akera sports stop

Shutting down broker: sports…

Broker shutdown successfully.

Getting started with akera.io – Part one

Marian Edu — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 08:22:41 +0000

akera.io & docker

This is the first part of the getting started series we are preparing for akera.io and since we love docker let’s start with a post on how you can easily have your Progress OpenEdge application nicely packed in containers.

Being very lightweight and modular all akera.io components are a great fit for Docker containers so, although optional, we do recommend running them in a Docker environment.

Docker

An open platform for distributed applications for developers and sysadmins ...

Prepare Installer Image

Have the OpenEdge linux installation kit at hand.
Create a Dockerfile image description that will be used to build the ‘installer’ image and serve as base image for other OpenEdge images.
Start from a linux distribution of your choice – make sure it’s supported by Progress if you plan to use it in production.
Copy the installation kit to the image on build (ADD will automatically unarchive the content for known archive types).
Build the base image

Dockerfile

# Base image with OpenEdge 11.6 installer

FROM ubuntu:latest

MAINTAINER Marian Edu
LABEL version=”11.6″

LABEL description=”Progress OpenEdge 11.6 installer image.”

RUN mkdir /proinst

WORKDIR /proinst

ADD PROGRESS_OE_11.6_LNX_64.tar.gz /proinst/

Build the image

$ docker build –rm=true -t oe:11.6 .

Prepare OpenEdge Image(s)

The same image description – Dockerfile – can be used to build OpenEdge images with different products/components installed. You always start from the installer image builded in the first step and use a unattended install response file appropriate for the environment you need to build.

Have the OpenEdge licenses file at hand.
Create a Dockerfile image description that will be used to build the OpenEdge image.
Start from the installer image.
Prepare a response.ini file for OpenEdge unattended installation – easiest is to do the installation manually and use the content saved in $DLC/installresponse.ini file.
Copy the response.ini and start the unattended installation.
Clean-up by removing the unnecessary installation files.
Build the image

Since the image will have OpenEdge licensed products installed is probably not a good idea to share the image on Docker Hub.

Dockerfile

# OpenEdge 11.6 runtime image

FROM oe:11.6

MAINTAINER Marian Edu

LABEL version=”11.6″

LABEL description=”Progress OpenEdge 11.6 runtime image.”

#change the working folder for installation

WORKDIR /tmp

#copy the unattended installation file

ADD response.ini /tmp/response.ini

# set environment variable

ENV TERM xterm

# start unattended setup

RUN /proinst/proinst -b /tmp/response.ini

# remove installation files

RUN rm -Rf /proinst

Prepare OpenEdge Runtime Image

This is how a response.ini file looks like, to install the OpenEdge runtime required by akera.io Application Server just replace the license information and adjust installation path and localisation settings to better suits your needs.
You can start building the image using the Dockerfile from previous step together with this response.ini file – easiest have them both in the same folder or use a full path for response.ini file in image description.

response.ini

; DESCRIPTION of Configuration Count

[Configuration Count]
NumberofConfigurations=1

[Product Configuration 1]
name=Your Company Name

serial=123456789

version=11.6

control=XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX

prodname=Client Networking

[Type and Destination]
type=COMPLETE

path=/usr/dlc

workpath=/usr/wrk

oem_path=/usr/oemgmt
oem_workpath=/usr/wrk_oemgmt

[Language Default]
DefaultLanguage=English – International

[Language Choice]
lang1=English – International

[International Settings]
cpinternal=ISO8859-1

cpcollation=Basic

cpcase=Basic

dateformat=mdy

numsep=44

numdec=46

Build the image

$ docker build –rm=true -t oe-runtime:11.6 .

akera.io, lightweight application server @ emeapugchallenge

Marian Edu — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 13:06:45 +0000

akera.io, the lightweight application server

for OpenEdge was officially launched at this year EMEA PUG Challenge event in Copenhagen.

We want to thanks everyone that attended our session, was such a pleasant surprise to see the interest received (hope not everyone was there just to see how the ‘penthouse’ looks like).

The session was about a much more lighter approach to the OpenEdge application server based on the node.js platform.

For those that were not attending the event or for whatever reasons missed our presentation the slides are now available for download.

Click Here
To Download Slides!

LoopBack Discoverer

Marian Edu — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 08:56:23 +0000

Since Arc, the StrongLoop’s nice looking model designer GUI seems to be very picky about the supported connectors had no other choice than to write a small command line discovery tool that can work with our new LoopBack connector.

The module is now available on npmjs.org.

Enjoy.

>loopback-discovery -d sports