The first Oracle Technology Network Virtual Developer Day (OTNVDD) took place on Wednesday May 27, 2009 and was hosted by Oracle Technology Network and Amazon Web Services. One of the key components of this event was to provide developers with free access to prototype Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) for Oracle® Fusion Middleware which helped enabled virtual hands-on training on Java and Rich Enterprise Applications.
Read on to learn more about what took place and how CDEs can help your development efforts.
OTNVDD Event Recap
If you joined us last week you’ve seen and heard how REA and Cloud Computing are changing enterprise development. I hope you took the opportunity to work with the virtual hands on labs – if you did, you experienced first-hand how we built rea.oracle.com – using a prototype Cloud Development Environment.
Live keynotes from senior vice presidents Ted Farrell and Steven G. Harris kicked off the OTNVDD and included demos of REA technology like Data Grids, Eclipse, Oracle WebLogic, Oracle ADF Faces, JSF, GIS data, iPhone and Adaptive Rendering to mobile/AJAX/HTML/Flash. The keynotes were followed by a lively 20 minute Q&A
Next we headed into the virtual hands-on labs. While Cloud Development Environment can refer to any virtualized environment, the prototype we used was built as an Amazon Machine Image (AMIs) and public Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshot that together contain pre-configured, pre-installed development environments with Oracle development licenses.
The cool thing we demonstrated with the prototype CDEs is that they can enable pilot projects and “throw away” development environments to be set-up quickly, forgoing lengthy procurement cycles and allowing developers to immediately start building Rich Enterprise Applications, or custom Java applications.
With automatic provisioning, the CDEs enabled attendees to instantly create complete Oracle Fusion Middleware development and test environments, without installing and configuring software on their own machines, eliminating configuration errors and speeding up the development cycle.
These prototype CDEs have another benefit, they leverage standard JavaServer Faces, enabling developers to concentrate on learning one framework rather than many, to render user interfaces in multiple channels, including Flash, HTML and AJAX as well as for mobile devices. Additionally, portal services could be accessed along with many other enterprise services using the same framework, reducing both the front-end and back-end integration work required to deliver next-generation user interfaces.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provided highly available and reliable storage volumes, enabling the prototype CDEs to provide a complete, on-demand Java application testing platform.
Twitter, mix, chatroom, email feedback
Our first OTNVDD inspired a good bit of discussion via Twitter (#OTNVDD) and at mix.oracle.com ranging from Amazon access questions, to questions about Oracle ADF Faces / JSF labs, Grid technology like Oracle Coherence, Oracle JRockit, Oracle WebLogic Server and EclipseLink.
Here are a few posts…
"Everything worked great including the VNC experience. The lab instructions for the "Building Rich Internet Applications with JSF and Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client Components" seemed to assume I was using Windows instead of the OS in the image with I assume was Linux or Unix (I didn't bother to check.
In fact, makes you think that with the cloud operating system can become irrelevant.). But, I had no trouble figuring things out. JDeveloper had a few minor differences too, but again I think it was operating system based and didn't distract from the experience for me at all. I didn't get to do as much as I had hoped for the conference, but I thought the concept and execution by you and your colleagues at Oracle was stellar. Thank you for the opportunity to participate. Oh, I loved ADF!"
"Jamie,
This was my first ever use of AWS. That too was extremely pleasing and I learned a lot. Most especially, I learned that I could get going very quickly."
- CSC Architect
"OTNVDD - REA, Eclipse, JRockit & Coherence - Great technical event of 2009
I appreciate whoever had created this event taking all the pains to create an excellent QUICKSTART to Oracle's showcase of Technology & Tools for J2EE and Web 2.0 Developers. Jdeveloper having a new look with all the JSF retooling. JRockit's powerful instrumentation made visible thru' the lab with some trick Java 101 questions.
The training guide & material is of high quality. Some of the developers while trying to move quickly from the Design palette to code structure for editing may have gotten "SEVERE" errors etc but having quickly verifying saved steps and running the Application as you go would have smotthened such pains - if any had encountered those.
The Jdeveloper tooling reminds me of early editions of several MDA tools [ using MOF from OMG etc] that used to have trouble in navigation and generating and referencing wrong code/function tree etc. Also need to mention the Netbeans versions of IDE's that perpectually had trouble syncing between design view and code structure view..
Several developers using Backbase, JackBE, Flex & hm Silverlight/Team Center may like several features offered in this version of the tools.
I hope Oracle SOA suite [ that had a big LAB that spanned days] need to be recast in this form - taking BPM, BPEL & Data & Service Integration as themes. Also Hyperion, Essbase as well as the new Testing tools from oracle need a showcase like this.
I would recommend Oracle to create a MOBILE version of the whole tools and technology be it ADF faces or several applications used in cross industries spanning telecom, manufacturing etc. Another area would be bringing WCM - Web Content Management and COllab suite together on the CLOUD horizon.
OTNVDD - was a great event that superceded the early hypes Microsoft used to do in Movie theaters showcasing MS-Developer day.
I appreciate all the great folks behind the scenes for this event as it is very useful to Developers and Enterprise Architects with right content."
- attendee comment on mix.oracle.com
Summary
A Cloud Development Environment is an ideal model for jump-starting Java development as it provides a way for developers to instantly create testing environments – allowing them to get straight to development faster and cheaper.
Oracle's JSF-based approach to building Java and Rich Enterprise Applications is inherently server side, which provides a developer a layer of integration to other back end services like Portals and Content Management, LDAP, etc. In contrast, with conventional AJAX development, a developer can be isolated in the client address space where it’s harder to get at server side data and functions. Also, AJAX approaches typically involve a developer needing to learn several different client-side programming models. JSF and the Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client Components allow developers to work within one API and framework to render AJAX, Mobile, Flash and JSF, delivering the rich user interface that today’s enterprise applications demand.
If you missed the OTNVDD, check out the content WIKI and the on demand sessions. You can also run the virtual hands on lab with the prototype CDEs. PLEASE NOTE: CDE access is no longer free. Amazon’s usage charges, terms, conditions and restrictions apply. Lastly, the keynote replay is available to registered users.
Let us know what you found most useful about OTNVDD.
Cheers,
the Virtual Developer Day Team
