Win CloudBees Goodies … and Check Out ClickStart!

Zero to 60mph in 6 seconds! This is the typical kind of promise made in an advertisement for a super horse-powered bike, right? Lately, with the pace of technological change, I started wondering if the same promise would be possible with the many languages and frameworks I see mushrooming everywhere. And then my wish was granted –- with CloudBees ClickStart.

ClickStart: Click and Test drive

This tutorial will show how to create a Java EE 6 application with ClickStart. In the background ClickStart will create a source code repository, sample web application, database and also setup Jenkins build for the application.

Once you login with your CloudBees account in console, you will see options to create ClickStart, which will give you couple of choices:

We chose “Java EE 6 web Profile” and gave it a name. The next screen shows details of what will be created.

Things are being created:

After a few minutes everything is set up and we can check out the application by going to the home page. The default application is a simple Java EE 6 web app created by a maven archetype for JBoss. We can also push a test application to the repository and Jenkins will automatically build and deploy the application.

Under the Hood

Let’s inspect what is happening in the background: based on a JSON descriptor in the snippet below, CloudBees grabbed the WAR file and provisioned the whole application stack for you! Based on key-value pairs, certain decisions were made at runtime. For example, the runtime of the application was by defined by type key’s value as jboss, and Jenkins build type was determined to be maven. Syntax is defined by CloudBees but is fairly simple to understand and read. More details on syntax here

{
 "id": "jboss-db-example",
 "name": "Java EE 6 Web Profile",
 "source": "git://github.com/CloudBees-community/jboss-db-example.git",
 "description" : "A full Java EE 6 Web Profile application, with a database and continuous deployment",
 "doc-url" : "https://github.com/CloudBees-community/jboss-db-example/blob/master/readme.md",
 "icon" : "https://raw.github.com/CloudBees-community/jboss-db-example/master/icon.png",
 "app-package" : "https://s3.amazonaws.com/cloudbees-downloads/clickstart/jboss-db-example.war",
 "runtime": {
 "type": "jboss"
 },
 "databases": [
 {
 "type": "mysql",
 "alias": "ExampleDS"
 }
 ],
 "build-with-jenkins": {
 "template": {
 "type": "maven",
 "options": {
 }
 }
 }
}

Within a few seconds, a whole application stack has been deployed and is running. Though the application we tried is fairly simple, here are a few more possibilities:

• Try out the “Scala and Lift” application or “HTML5 with Clojure” applications from ClickStart. Test the application and inspect the code to see how it works.
• Build your own custom “ClickStart” and give back to the community.

Win Cool CloudBees Stuff!

CloudBees was built from the ground up as a Java-based PaaS platform, and ClickStart has made test-driving a technology/framework a matter of a mere click. We at CloudSpring have always been excited about new technology and the benefits it brings. It is in this spirit that CloudBees, in partnership with CloudSpring and SitePoint, are giving out CloudBees T-shirts, Angry Birds goodies and hardcopy of the SitePoint book Host Your Web Site In The Cloud.

To be eligible for the giveaway, either

• Create a CloudBees account, test ClickStart out, and post a comment below in which you name your favorite feature, or
• Tweet about this article using both of the hashtags #cloudspring and #cloudbees.

Check out the great prizes on offer:

• 1st Prize: A CloudBees T-shirt and a hardcopy of Host Your Web Site In The Cloud
• 2nd Prize: A CloudBees T-shirt and a family of Angry Birds goodies
• 3rd Prize: A hardcopy of Host Your Web Site In The Cloud

The giveaway ends on October 14. Three winners will be chosen shortly thereafter. Comment winners will be notified by email (be sure to provide a valid email address in the contact form!) and Twitter winners by direct message.

Good luck and happy ClickStarting!