Of HTTP Analyzers and Web Conferences

Just had a call from a colleague about some work we had done together.  A customer really liked the ideas and schemas behind Oracles Customer Data Hub (CDH), but they also liked a third party visualisation tool that allowed them to graphically see relationships between individuals.  The third party tool was written as a rich client front end and a web service back-end.  So we just replaced the back-end with our own web services that pulled data from CDH.  This was done using JDeveloper 10.1.3 which allowed us a lot of fine grained control over the way the web service was generated so we were able to match exactly the API that the client expected to talk to.

The client was pleased with this, but now other areas at the client are getting interested in the combined solution and there is some muttering about smoke and mirrors, they didn't believe we could have done what we did in just a few days.  So to help show that this is real my colleague wanted to show them the web service messages flowing up and down on the wire.

To do this we used the HTTP Analyzer that ships with JDev 10.1.3.  This can act as either as a proxy to intercept messages and forward them to an arbitary target, or as a dedicated proxy or filter in front of a single target.  Either way it can capture HTTP messages and display them with request and response alongside each other.

My colleague is a data architecture type of guy, if you pushed him he might be able to spell Java, so he needed a little assistance in setting all this up in JDeveloper.

Web Conferencing to the Rescue

After spending 10 minutes on the phone, you know the sort of conversation, click that shiny button in the top left hand corner, now pull down the tab halfway down the screen ...., we decided it was easier to show him.  He logged onto Oracles web conferencing software - http://conference.oracle.com - and started an instant conference.  I joined the conference and he granted me presenter priviliges and control of his desktop.  I then showed him how to set up the proxy in a couple of minutes, proving that a picture or better still a demo is worth a thousand words.

I often use web conferencing with customers, it allows me to give a demo at short notice over the phone, without me having to go onsite.  Its not the same as face-to-face interaction but for quick problem resolution it has a lot to commend it.