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Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 03:01:59 +0100
From: Ate Douma <ate@douma.nu>
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To: Jetspeed Developers List <jetspeed-dev@jakarta.apache.org>,
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Subject: [J2] JS2-210: deployment refactoring branch updated with JBoss 3.2.7
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Dear all,

Today I committed a big update for the deployment refactoring branch.
I've added the following features:

- Moved Deployment interfaces and related components to the jetspeed-api subproject,
   as well as the ApplicationServerManager interface and its new Result component.
   This allows access to these services for portlet applications.

- Provided a new ManagerServlet somewhat like the ManagerServlet of Tomcat.
   It allows remote control of portlet applications and the registry with the
   following functions: start, stop, reload, list, undeploy and deploy (upload).
   I also created a new JetspeedConsole CLI using the ManagerServlet which works
   well, but which I haven't committed yet because I need to clean it up first.

- The ManagerServlet depends for several of its tasks on a ApplicationServerManager
   implementation. With the TomcatManager all of its features can now be used.
   The implementations of the JBossManager and WeblogicManager are still empty
   shells though and probably someone else with more knowledge of these
   application servers should take a look at those.

- A new PortletApplicationManager portlet. Yes, another PAM indeed, and the
   naming of these is getting confusing.
   This new portlet though provides (almost) the same functionality as the ManagerServlet.
   Its lists all registered portlet applications in a table with action links for:
   start, stop, undeploy and delete (unregister from the registry).
   It also shows if an portlet application actually is running or not.
   Because I wanted to provide this functionality in table layout, I decided to not
   implement it in the already existing PAM (PortletApplicationBrowser) portlet which
   presents the portlet applications and its portlets in a tree.
   For now, this portlet is accessible from the Administrative folder (pam2.psml).
   We probably need to discuss though if and/or how these two portlets should be
   integrated.
   This portlet also depends on a ApplicationServerManager. If none is configured (like
   for JBoss) it will still show if a portlet application is running or not and allow
   to delete (unregister) an portlet application.

- J2 on JBoss
   Because one of the premises of this deployment refactoring was that it should make
   it easier to deploy J2 on other application servers as well, I decided to prove this
   and got my feet wet trying it out for JBoss (3.2.7).

   With success!
   I wrote a list of things to do to get this branch running on JBoss in a comment to
   JS2-210: http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JS2-210#action_60983
   Once this branch is merged into the head branch I'll provide proper instructions on
   the website or wiki (although I'm not much of a wiki jockey yet).
   I also tested with JBoss 4.0.1sp1 which looks to be working just as well. I didn't
   have time to test that one a lot though.

   Of course, there were quite a few problems to solve, but *none* were related to
   (re)deployment. And many of the problems as indicated by the wiki pages for JBoss
   deployment of the M1 or current head version of J2 seems to be resolved :-)

   The following issues are important though:
   - commons-logging and Log4J dependencies
     JBoss provides commons-logging and Log4J, as well as the Log4J configuration from
     a shared classloader to all the applications.
     This really is conflicting with the way we use them in Jetspeed-2 under Tomcat
     (although Tomcat 5.5 also is giving more headaches with this now).
     One simply cannot have the commons-logging and log4j jars anymore in WEB-INF/lib
     because it definitely is giving classloader problems under JBoss.

     Furthermore, our own log4j configuration conflicts with the global configuration
     provided with JBoss. If you initialize a new log4j configuration from a web application
     like we do with J2, you end up closing and detaching existing loggers and appenders
     and rerouting them into the J2 logging. Likewise, if some other web application
     deployed after J2 does the same, the J2 logging might get closed and detached and
     rerouted into this other web application its logging.

     Anyway you look at it, dynamic log4j configuration is very problematic under JBoss.
     And, while scanning the internet for a way around this, I found out many others
     encountered the same problem and not only on JBoss but other application servers
     as well.

     After a long investigation of the concrete implementations of commons-logging and
     log4j though I've come up with a solution which I called IsolatedLog4JLogger.
     As I put a lot of javadoc into that class I'm not going to reproduce it here.
     But, I invite everyone to have a look at it. Its currently only committed to the
     deployment_refactoring branch under portal/src/java/org/apache/jetspeed/util.

     Whats left is a future solution of the packaging of these jars. Having to remove
     them after a war is build is quite dumb and easy to forget as well.

   - JBoss UniversalClassLoader
     I don't think I have to explain anyone interested in JBoss what this means.
     Anyway, with a few tweaks to the JBoss configurations I managed to get it working
     "properly" ;-) Other solutions are also possible (like providing a jboss-web.xml
     in *all* portlet application war files).

   - JAAS authentication
     This was quite simple to implement but in the end turned out to be working only
     half way.
     The authentication itself is easy to do by configuring our DefaultLoginModule in
     the JBoss login-config.xml.
     But, the propagation of the Subject principals to JBoss is quite a problem.
     Simply put: none is.
     JBoss requires the Subject to be configured with a java.security.acl.Group named
     "Roles" containing all the "Role" principals. As our security principals don't
     implement java.securitry.acl.Group (yet) none is recognized by JBoss.
     After some further investigation, it turns out other application servers
     might require a Group implementation as well. So, we might need to refactor our
     security principals a bit to get this to work.
     As we don't actually *use* request.isUserInRole(roleName) in our demo portlets
     yet (except for the security demo portlet), the default J2 deployment actually
     works quite good.

Well, I'd be very interested in others experiences with this branch (the latest and
from before my last changes). I know some are trying it out on different platforms as
well.

Seth Ford is still unsuccessful with getting M1 running on WebSpere. Seth, I can't
really help you out with WebSphere but I really would suggest you try it out with the
latest from this branch (check the JBoss deployment instructions as reference).

I think that with a few success stories of other deployments on different platforms
of this branch it might be almost ready for merging with the head.
Deleting (unregistering) of portlet applications is now provided for, as well as
start, stop, (remote) deployment and undeployment for Tomcat.

If anyone has some requirements which should be fixed/implemented on this branch
before considering it ready for merge with the head (besides more proof it works
too on other platforms), please let me know. If possible and reasonable, I'll try
to provide for it.

Regards, Ate


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