Java based Phonetic Search using SoundeEx, MetaPhone, DoubleMetaPhone algorithms and String Similiarity Metrics

I work on software projects for US based life insurance companies. One of the most common requirements is to ascertain if the applicant has bought insurance cover prior to the current application. This is an extremely important and relevant step in life insurance underwriting; an insurer would like to limit its risk exposure by limiting the total coverage amount offered per insured. Also he/she would be interested in knowing whether the person was refused insurance cover due to some adverse information. Doing a simple search on first name and last name may not reveal the right information. We could miss the insured in case the applicant changes her name from say Elizabeth to Liz or from Apoorva to Apurva. So basically we need some methodology to overcome such restrictions and find suitable  name based matches. This post covers some of the phonetic algorithms and possible techniques to further fine-tune the results.

Web Application Performance Tuning Tips

In my role as a Java Technical Architect, I am forced to wear different thinking hats. Some times I am a Solution Architect, Subject Matter Expert on some technology and the last few days I have been wearing the hat of performance tuning expert. Today I am going to pen down some thoughts around what a person should focus on once he or she is by design or default selected to tune an application.

Developing RESTful Web Services using JBoss RESTEasy

Enterprise integration was and remains a key challenge in ensuring availability of enterprise data as a single source of truth in real time manner. Over the decades number of techniques/technologies have come and gone. We have seen EAI,JMS, Web Services, SOA etc that have contended providing true enterprise integration solutions. The latest to join this bandwagon is REST and its implementation avatar is described as RESTful Web Services. In case you are interested in understanding what REST is and how does it compare vis-a-vis SOAP, WebServices et all refer the link(URL: http://2007.xtech.org/public/asset/attachment/76) for details. This post is going to provide a ready-to-use tutorial around how to implement RESTful WebServices using JBoss RESTEasy project.

Enterprise integration was and remains a key challenge in ensuring availability of enterprise data as a single source of truth in real time manner. Over the decades number of techniques/technologies have come and gone. We have seen EAI,JMS, Web Services, SOA etc that have contended providing true enterprise integration solutions. The latest to join this bandwagon is REST and its implementation avatar is described as RESTful Web Services. In case you are interested in understanding what REST is and how does it compare vis-a-vis SOAP, WebServices et all refer the link for details. This post is going to provide a ready-to-use tutorial around how to implement RESTful WebServices using JBoss RESTEasy project.

java.util.concurrent.atomic: How to use Java Atomic Classes? AtomicInteger

It has been some time since the release of Java 5. It introduced a number of improvements in terms of classes to handle concurrency concerns. Today I will cruising thru the java.util.concurrent.atomic package and looking at the package’s relevance in tackling real-life issues.

Setting anonymous/stealth login to web applications – the HTTPUnit way

public class Processor {

public Processor() {

}

public String getHTML() {

WebConversation conversation = new WebConversation();

WebRequest req = new GetMethodWebRequest(“http://www.abc.com/login”);

try {

HttpUnitOptions.setScriptingEnabled(true);

HttpUnitOptions.setExceptionsThrownOnScriptError(false);

WebResponse res = conversation.getResource(req);

WebForm form = res.getForms()[0];

String formName = form.getName();

form.setParameter(“user”, “test”);

form.setParameter(“password”, “pwd”);

WebResponse formResponse = form.submit();

String htmlText = formResponse.getText();

return htmlText;

} catch (IOException e) {

// TODO Auto-generated catch block

e.printStackTrace();

} catch (SAXException e) {

// TODO Auto-generated catch block

e.printStackTrace();

}

return null;

}

}

I am currently working on setting up Oracle WebCenter/Oracle Weblogic portal for developing a sample application. One of the aspects we need to take care of is provide navigable links to other core as well as support applications. In the production set up all the applications will be hooked up using Single Sign On(SSO), however in the demo version we are not using a SSO setup. Each application has its individual login page. Therefore, while navigating from one application to another, or from the portal to individual application, the user needs to supply security credentials, this is irritating from an user experience point of view.

I am currently working on setting up Oracle WebCenter/Oracle Weblogic portal for developing a sample application. One of the aspects we need to take care of is provide navigable links to other core as well as support applications. In the production set up all the applications will be hooked up using Single Sign On(SSO), however in the demo version we are not using a SSO setup. Each application has its individual login page. Therefore, while navigating from one application to another, or from the portal to individual application, the user needs to supply security credentials, this is irritating from an user experience point of view.

JBoss Drools – Business Rules Management System/Guvnor

I was playing around with the web interface of the JBoss Drools engine called Business Rules Management System or BRMS till version 4.0.7. In the subsequent versions i.e 5.0 it is called Guvnor. While trying to validate the newly defined business rule, I got the following error:

java.lang.ClassFormatError: Incompatible magic value 1885430635 in class file

A quick search on the internet revealed the answer. Please ensure that your java class jar files contain only .class files and not source code. Weird yes, but that’s how it is!

JBoss Drools – Defining business rules

The last two articles focused on some of the current projects that I was working on. So after kick starting Drools(4.0.7), I lost track and wrote some posts on JBoss clustering. Interesting as they were, I want to get back on defining business rules using JBoss Drools. I am just taking up from where I left off in my last Drools post. In my last post, I covered how Drools can use MS Excel spreadsheets to implement decision tables. Now I am going to talk about implementing business rules using a DRL.

The last two articles focused on some of the current projects that I was working on. So after kick starting Drools(4.0.7), I lost track and wrote some posts on JBoss clustering. Interesting as they were, I want to get back on defining business rules using JBoss Drools. I am just taking up from where I left off in my last Drools post. In my last post, I covered how Drools can use MS Excel spreadsheets to implement decision tables. Now I am going to talk about implementing business rules using a DRL. You could treat this as a tutorial.

Configuring HA-JMS on JBoss server cluster

After setting up the HTTP/HTTPS configuration for JBoss server cluster, the next assignment on my table was to set up the HA-JMS on the server cluster.

Configuring HTTP and HTTPS clustering on JBoss Server

Some collegues of mine were facing problems getting the HTTP/HTTPS clustering setup done for JBoss server. Although I have no experience on working with JBoss I decided to give it a try.

JBoss Drools – Decision Tables

I have been playing around with JBoss Drools(Version 4.0.7) – the open source rules engine.  JBoss supports business rules implementation using three techniques:

1. Decision Tables
2. Writing DRL file
3. Defining business flow using rules flow rf file

This post is going to cover the first technique for business rules definition using Drools Decision table.