- Why Is This Book Necessary?
- About the WebSphere Application Server Product
- This Book and Its Organization
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This Book and Its Organization
We tried to organize this book in an easy-to-understand manner. To begin, we discuss Jython.3 Chapters 2 through 5 describe Jython with enough detail that those unfamiliar with it should be able to readily “pick up” the language and use it effectively.
It should be noted that this book is not meant to be an introduction to programming or even an introduction to the Jython programming language. We could easily fill hundreds more pages on just the topic of “Programming with Jython.” There are lots of books, papers, and websites that discuss the syntax and semantics of Python and therefore the Jython programming language.4 This book is not intended to replace nor duplicate the information available elsewhere. If you already feel comfortable with Jython (or more precisely Python) as a programming language, you might be able to skip the chapters that describe Jython and begin with Chapter 6.
For those readers who might be less familiar with Jython as a programming language, this book attempts to present the rules, characteristics, and properties of Jython in a logical order, so as to build a solid foundation of information. A little is presented at time and then revisited and expanded upon, providing reinforcement through repetition. Additionally, each chapter is filled with working examples to help you better understand not only the Jython code, but the wsadmin scripting objects as well. Almost all of the examples described are available from the IBM Press website for this book5 and are provided to minimize the need to search other sources for useful examples.
Chapter 6, “wsadmin,” explores the wsadmin command in detail and explains the command and its parameters thoroughly. A number of the parameters don’t seem to get a lot of use. That may be because when you first start using wsadmin, you can quickly get to a subset of the parameters that you use “all the time.” For many tasks, this is a reasonable approach to getting the job done. However, in so doing, you might have forgotten or not even realize that some wsadmin parameter exists that might make your life easier. This chapter will help broaden your understanding of this command. You never know, you may even find something that you can use right away.
Chapter 7, “Introduction to Admin Objects,” is a must-read because it explains how to configure wsadmin in order to use many of the examples shown later in the book. The wsadmin properties that are shown in this chapter (specifically the changing of the profiles directive) provide an environment upon which many of the later examples depend.
Chapter 8, “The AdminConfig Object,” is the beginning of the explanation of the wsadmin scripting objects. Specifically, it explains the AdminConfig scripting object in great detail. Many administrative scripts deal primarily with the AppServer configuration use and depend upon this scripting object for the vast majority of these manipulations. A number of useful examples are provided to demonstrate just how helpful this scripting object can be.
Chapter 9, “The AdminControl Object,” describes the AdminConfig scripting object in similar detail. This object is used by scripts that need to manipulate active AppServer objects (MBeans). So this chapter is full of useful information for those types of scripts.
Chapter 10, “The AdminApp Object,” covers the AdminApp scripting object in detail. This object is used to list, view, install, uninstall, and modify AppServer applications. As such, this chapter explains how to perform these operations using the AdminApp object methods.
Chapter 11, “The AdminTask Object—Server Management,” is where we begin the description of some of the AdminTask scripting object methods. The AdminTask object is enormous. Additionally, as is explained in this chapter, the methods included vary based upon a number of factors. The scope (as in breadth and depth) of this object is huge. It includes hundreds and hundreds of methods. As such, there is no way for it to be adequately covered in a single chapter. In fact, Chapters 12 through 15 largely deal with AdminTask object methods. That’s not all they cover, but it is at the core of each of these chapters.
Chapter 12, “Scripting and Security,” deals with scripting and security. As such, it addresses a number of security-related items. Anyone who needs to administer an enterprise application server should be familiar with the topics described in this chapter.
Chapter 13, “Databases and Authorization,” covers databases and authorization. Even though the configuration and administration of database-related resources can seem overwhelming, this chapter presents these topics in a simple fashion. You discover the easy way to configure the database-related resources (“the plumbing,” if you will) required for interactions with a database. These explanations include descriptions about the properties you can control and those that are automatically configured for you. The chapter then moves into exploring and manipulating the more complicated aspects and properties of database-related resources and then finishes with a detailed explanation of commonly used database and authorization AdminTask methods.
Chapter 14, “Messaging,” is all about messaging. This complicated topic is explored in detail but explained simply. The chapter starts by discussing messaging basics and then adds a discussion of security. It ends by explaining the more commonly used messaging AdminTask methods in great detail.
Chapter 15, “Administering Web Services,” is all about Web services. So what exactly are Web services? The IBM online documentation has this to say about Web services:
- Web services are self-contained, modular applications that can be described, published, located, and invoked over a network. They implement a services-oriented architecture (SOA), which supports the connecting or sharing of resources and data in a very flexible and standardized manner. Services are described and organized to support their dynamic, automated discovery and reuse.
This chapter describes Web services and explains how they should be managed. It also discusses policies, policy sets, bindings and even the use of keystores for the security-related aspects of Web services.
Lastly, Chapter 16, “Version 7.0 Scripting Libraries,” is about the scripting object libraries that are included in version 7 of the AppServer product. These Jython libraries demonstrate some techniques for the management and manipulation of AppServer entities. Some people find the programming interface provided by some of the wsadmin scripting objects difficult to understand and even harder to work with. These libraries present another approach and provide methods that use simpler parameter lists to some of these scripting object methods.