Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

Mule School: Introducing Mule 3.3 in Studio (Error Handling, Caching, Iterative Processing and Expressions) by Nial Darbey.

From the post:

Today I am going to introduce you to some powerful new features in Mule 3.3:

• Improved Error Handling: New exception strategy patterns fully integrated in Studio. Included are Try/Catch, Rollback processing and Conditional Exception processing in Choice routers based on exception type, or just about any criteria!
• Iterative Processing using Foreach Scope: Allows for iterative loop type processing while maintaining the original message context
• Mule Expression Language: A new, unified expression language to improve consistency and ease of use when validating, filtering, routing, or transforming messages
• Cache: Improve performance with “In memory” caching of messages, such as the results of service calls
• Graphical Data Mapper: A new graphical tool to easily transform from one data format to another data format while also mapping specific fields within the message structure. Formats supported include XML, JSON, CSV, POJOs, collections of POJOs, and EXCEL

We will do so by walking you through the development of a Mule Application which exploits each of these new features. As we work our way through the development process we will describe what we want to achieve and explain how to achieve that in Mule Studio. For the sake of simplicity we will refer you to our online documentation when we touch on features already available in previous releases.

I need to install the most recent release (Mule 3.3) but just walking through the post I stumbled at:

Graphical Data Mapper

….

Here we need to transform our OrderItem instance into an OrderRequest as expected by Samsung’s webservice.

The image that follows shows a mapping from:

name: string -> name: string

quantity: integer -> quantity: integer

But I didn’t see any naming of the OrderItem or OrderRequest objects?

Not to mention the mapping seems pretty obvious.

A more useful case of documentation would be “who” created the mapping and when? Even more useful would be the ability to define what caused the mapping from one to the other. Not just the fact of mapping.

Like I said, I will have to install the latest version and walk through the examples, so expect further posts on this release.

Your comments and suggestions, as always, are welcome.

Very rough notes on the basic introduction to Mule Studio.

Getting Started with Mule Studio

Under What’s Next, the first line reads:

Cloud computing is closer than ever before. Why not start by checking out our fifteen-minute Basic Tutorial?

What does “Cloud computing is closer than ever before.” have to do with Mule Studio? The implication is that the “fifteen-minute Basic Tutorial” is going to teach me about “cloud computing.”

Basic Studio Tutorial

Suggestion: Either call the software MuleStudio, or Studio or Mule, or start with one and say: “we use herein ….” and then use it. Consistent naming isn’t that hard.

BTW, documentation should be updated to reflect current directory structure used with examples.

Documentation says: \MuleStudio\Examples\SpellChecker\InXML.

MuleStudio\examples\SpellChecker\spellcheck.xml is the actual directory

OK, so the directory is missing the InXML and OutXML directories.

Ah, it is expecting an empty InXML directory so it fails if you point to the directory structure as delivered.

So:

MuleStudio\examples\SpellChecker mkdir InXML, and

MuleStudio\examples\SpellChecker mkdir OutXML

I left spellcheck.xml in the SpellChecker directory (remember to copy, not move so you don’t lose the file, or you could create another one).

Works.

For a confidence building example I would not switch back and forth between Windows and Unix file/path syntax. Pick one and stay with it.

I would not suggest other thing to explore during the first example. Could have a staged follow up after the first example, but only afterwards.

Oh, and fix the paths or say they have to be built in order for the first example to run. If possible configure the default window so the message box isn’t so small. Users need to see something happening.

One more thing, the example is vague about whether the OS moves the file or if the file can be moved in MuleStudio. I used the OS just out of habit. I did look and there was no obvious way to copy/move the file in the application.

The narrative could be smoother and with the technical errors fixed it would be an adequate introduction to the software. It would be a better introduction if there was some motive giving for the example application, why would I care? sort of thing. Leveraging the power of Google or something like that.

Watch for notes on the intermediate tutorial in a day or so.

Summary:

In the SpellChecker directory (under MuleStudio/example) add InXML and OutXML directories, thus:

mkdir InXML

mkdir OutXML

Leave spellcheck.xml in the SpellChecker directory until told to copy it into InXML

From my inbox:

Blog About Mule Studio, Get a T-Shirt

Are you as excited about Mule Studio as we are? If so, blog about it and send a link to your blog and your postal address to reply@mulesoft.com and we’ll send you a Mule T-Shirt.

Even if you don’t need the T-Shirt download Mule Studio and take the tour.

Interfaces are always slightly different, range/ease of operations offered vary, documentation varies wildly, so if nothing else, you will learn something in the process.

And, if you blog about it, etc., you will get a new T-Shirt.

Something to look forward to in the mailbox!

A couple of notes on getting started, not that you need them but someone else may:

Step 1 reads:

Before you unzip the muleStudio
package, ensure that it has the permissions required for installation.
To set these permissions, open a console and execute the following command:
chmod u+x muleStudio

The muleStudio folder or directory appears when the unzip operation completes.

Err? Permission to install?

Permission to install is a user privilege question, not setting the file to be executable.

On Linux (Ubuntu 10.10) I just tossed it into my /home/patrick/working directory where I keep all manner of software. It’s just me on the box so I don’t have to worry about making apps available to others.

But, after you unzip the file you do have to:

chmod u+x muleStudio*

BTW, the folder I got was: MuleStudio, so my path is /home/patrick/working/MuleStudio.

Step 2 Execute reads:

Unzip the muleStudio package, which is located in the following path:
/MuleStudio
Enter the following command in the console to launch muleStudio:
./muleStudio
Alternatively, double click the muleStudio file in the Linux graphic interface, as shown above

Err, but we just unzipped it, yes?

Let’s re-write steps 1 and 2:

Step 1:

Unzip the MuleSoft package for your system into a convenient location.

The folder or directory name will be MuleSoft

Step 2:

Change to the MuleSoft directory.

Make the muleStudio* file executable with the command:

chmod u+x muleStudio*

Start the program by:

Double-clicking on muleStudio* in the graphic interface, or

entering the command:

/.muleStudio*

That is trivial in terms of improving the use of MuleStudio but when clear writing becomes a habit, more difficult topics become easier for users.