Modernizing the administrative console in V7.0 and V6.1 FP WS

The IBM® WebSphere® Application Server administrative console provides a graphical user interface for performing administrative tasks. In an effort to minimize your workload, new user interface design patterns have been implemented in WebSphere Application Server V7 and in the Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services.

This article describes these new user interface patterns, including information on how to use them, and how these patterns can make your admin tasks quicker and easier to perform. This information is valuable for anyone who uses the admin console.

Tags: WASv7

5 Interesting LinkedIn User Groups

LinkedIn is the most useful tool the build out a professional network. If you are interessed in optimization and business rule engines, please subscribe to the following list of User Groups.

• Belgium Dash Optimization User Group Belgium Dash Optimization User Group
  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1709217

• Dash Optimization User Group
  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1709197

• Belgium ILog User Group
  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1709087

• ILog User Group
  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1709077

• Belgium WebSphere User Group
  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=128345

Tags: ILog, LinkedIn, Optimization, Optis

The Eclipse Memory Analyzer

The Eclipse Memory Analyzer is a fast and feature-rich Java heap analyzer that helps you find memory leaks and reduce memory consumption.

The Memory Analyzer was developed to analyze productive heap dumps with hundreds of millions of objects. Once the heap dump is parsed, you can re-open it instantly, immediately get the retained size of single objects and quickly approximate the retained size of a set of objects. The reference chain to the Garbage Collection Roots then details why the object is not garbage collected.

Using these features, a report automatically extracts leak suspects. It includes details about the objects accumulated, the path to the GC Roots, plus general information like system properties.

Some screenshots:

1. Overview

2. Histogram

3. Dominator tree

4. Path to GC Roots

5. Dominator Tree Grouped by Class Loader

Product home

Tags: Eclipse, Java

IBM and ILOG technology in action

Tags: ILog

IBM Completes Acquisition of ILOG

ILOG is now part of IBM.

IBM Completes Acquisition of ILOG gives the official details. The ILOG Rules family of products is one of the best (the best?!) rules engines on the market. Sandy talked about this acquisition back in July in IBM Signs MOU to Launch Tender Offer to Acquire ILOG (as did I in IBM Buying ILOG).

A good rules engine is an important part of the middleware foundation for enterprise applications because it helps extract policies and decisions from the rest of the application and express them in a form which makes the policies easier to understand, manage, and modify. This encapsulation of decisions also makes the rest of the application easier to write because it can just delegate to a rule set when a decision needs to be made, rather than a developer having to hand code the decision logic. A good rules engine can also execute a large, complex set of rules far more efficiently than equivalent (Java, C#, etc.) code can. There tends to be good synergy between a process engine and a rules engine, where the process engine is used to guide a series of tasks over time and a rules engine is used to make a decision at a point in time.

I believe the ILOG acquisition is an exciting addition to the WebSphere SOA family of products. Being able to include this rules engine more easily within SOA application infrastructure will enable us to more easily develop better SOA applications.

Intressed? Read Bobby Woolf articles about ILog

Read the press release of ILog here

Tags: Bobby Woolf, ILog