Open Source Solutions

Peter Delia, co-founder with Ross Mason [CTO of Mulesource], of Ricston, based in Malta, is providing today's training, starting with an overview of Mule, Mulesource and Ricston.

SOA Topologies; Mule can be configured to implement any topology

• ESB - see Mule project front page
• ESN
• Peer Network
• Client Server/Hub & Spolke
• Pipeline

Mule Architecture: Each Mule instance connects to many Applications and/or Service Components & other Mule Instances; each Mule Instance has a Mule.Manager & Service Containers; more detail on wiki; Mule supports a wide variety of transport providers.

Core Concepts - see diagram on wiki

• Service Components - can be simple POJO
• Endpoints [message receiver or dispatcher, connector, transformer] & Transport Providers [synchronous & asynchronous endpoints possible]
• Inbound Routers
• Outbound Routers
• Transformers
• Service Manager

Question - running threads in Mule, running Mule on slower, but multi-core machine - it depends on specific needs and processes, as to whether or not it is advisable, but it is possible.

Configuring Mule

• extensible
• XML file
• DTD
• root is UMOManager [Universal Message Object = Service Component]

XML Configuration File Structure

• Mule Environment
• Connectors - used to send & receive data over a particular channel: name, className, 〈ref〉 - it is possible to configure connectors on endpoints
• Transformers: name, className, returnClass, property
• Endpoint - used to control how events are sent & received, best configured on routers; transformers are configured on endpoints; Global endpoints, Endpoint Identifier
• Routers - inbound Routers, outbound Routers, response Routers, filters, catchAllStrategies
• Service Components: mule-descriptor element
• Mule Components

We'll be blogging from MuleCon2007 throughout today and tomorrow.