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Anyone use TeamSite with WebSphere?

seeDerekNow

We are currently using Teamsite 5.0 to manage content for our WebSphere-developed applications. Our biggest challenges have come in the area of deployments and site virtualization. Does anyone here have experience using TeamSite with WebSphere? Anyone have success with Turbo?

Derek

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Gerard

Yes, we use it (Turbo 2.1.0 WebSphere 3.5x) in a test setup.

Not very easy to set-up though....

Gerard.

sajiddc

Derek,

I have used Teamsite with Websphere. What is the exact issue that you are facing? Please post your issue and may be I will be able to help you.

seeDerekNow

Thanks for your reply. Here are some of the main issues:

Virtualization:

Issue #1
Currently, we manage both static html content (generated from DCRs) and JSP files that contain jsp code. One of the big problems is that several of these JSPs have a good deal of content embedded in them. When a web designer modifies content on these JSP files, he will not be able to preview his work within the Teamsite environment because the jsp code calls on a servlet or EJB from the application server. Without Turbo or an app server, TS won't be able to virtualize these pages. We could try to separate the content from the code but the problem is that the content itself contains links that are generated dynamically by the app server.

Issue #2
Some of the pages that are served through the app server contain links that point to content that is managed by TeamSite. This gets tricky when we want to test these links within a development environment. The only way to test the links on these JSPs (which reside on the app server) is through proxy tricks that take the user from the app server to the TeamSite environment. I'm wondering if there is a more elegant solution to this. Perhaps Turbo is the answer?

Deployments:
I would like to know if anyone uses OpenDeploy to deploy ALL web assets to multiple environments (QA, Staging, Prod) or only assets managed by TeamSite. Is it possible to version an entire application, both code and content, before deployments? In our case, content is managed by TS while code is managed by another source code mgmt tool. Code and content have very different development cycles, hence the necessity for separate tools for management and deployment. I would like to know if anyone else has faced these same challenges.

Thanks - eagerly awaiting feedback.

Derek

sajiddc

I will try to answer your question:

Issue#1
Are you currently using the IBM Turbo? I thought IBM Turbo is supposed to do exactly this. Basically preview a JSP file that contains Code and Content from within Teamsite. No need to take the code and the content out of Teamsite for previewing and etc.

Issue#2
Yes, Turbo is the answer. Though somehow I feel that Issue#1 and Issue#2 are almost the same. I could be wrong as well.

Issue#3
In a way, yes it is possible to version an entire application, both code and content before deployment. But before I can be 100% sure, I need to understand your environment. If you do plan to implement this way, make sure you architect your system properly.

By the way, have you seen the TeamCode product demo or the Webinar that took place yesterday (8/20). from what I know and have read, TeamCode is supposed to answer your issue#3. Check the Devnet link, you might be able to find the archived presentation.

Hope I was able to answer your question.

Gerard

Source code versioning and TeamSite versioning is an interesting issue. We use another source code management tool as well, but do use TeamSite versioning for the end-products of a development cycle. I.e. TeamSite does not contain the source code, just the executable or (in our case) the jar files. So when a new release of a website goes into production, we create a new edition in TeamSite of the entire website.......

Hope this helps.

However I would be very much interested in best practices in this area, what the different approaches are and select the one that fits best........

Gerard

seeDerekNow

Thanks for the reply. I will try to fill you in on our environment the best I can:

We are currently using TS 5.0.1 and OpenDeploy 5.5running on Solaris 8.
We are using WebSphere 4.0 running on AIX 4.33

All static HTML content is managed in Teamsite primarily through Templating and Workflows. However, TS also manages quite a few JSP files that contain a mix of business driven driven content and app-server driven jsp code. It is the JSP files that add a layer of complexity in terms of virtualization. The current protocol is to manage content through TS and source code through a separate source code management tool. We have a rigorous development cycle in which assets move across four different environments: integration test, QA, staging, and production.

All fingers point to Turbo as the solution but I haven't heard too many success stories involving the product. I have heard that it's a difficult product to setup and support. If you are using Turbo, i would love to hear about how your experience has been.

Thanks

Derek

sajiddc

Derek,

I have only implemented Turbo's. I am not sure how licensing on IWOV products work, but my advice to you is that you install and configure Turbo on your dev box. See how it goes and if you like it, I guess you guys can then buy the license.

Ofcouse, if you run in to problems, you always have support and the famous "devnet" ;-)

Hope that helps.

seeDerekNow

Here's the million dollar question: has Turbo been working for you? Are you having any issues with it today? How was the install/setup?

We actually have the software but we havent gotten to installing it yet. We wanted to hear some sucess stories regarding Turbo before committing to an installation.

Derek

sajiddc

Do I really get a million dollar if I can answer your question? heh. j/k

As I have mentioned in my earlier post, I have only implemented (installed, configured and tested) IBM Turbo . It was working when we were beta-testing it. Virtualization was working as expected and the customer seemed happy.

I followed the manual during my first install and it went on well. I have not installed/configured the latest version of Turbo. In the old version, one thing that I did notice was that Turbo was using a specific port number(default) to communicate with WAS. Not sure, if that has changed or not in the recent releases.

I do not recollect facing any other issues.

As you may have figured out that I am not the end user/customer. I have just implemented Turbos back in the days when I was a consultant.

Hope I have earned my million dollars ;-)

chunk

We use TeamSite with WebSphere, both with and without Turbo giving the same virtualization.

Since the initial Java/JSP development very little has changed on the code front. JSP's are still modified here and there, but mainly they are static.

We've used Turbo to virtualize the content and code and it worked well. However, we were not using the sandbox sharing feature of Turbo. So, when we upgrade from 4.5.1 to 5.0.2 we dropped Turbo from the new server and setup a static iwproxy_preconnect_remap from specific workareas to app servers on WebSphere. The WebSphere server mounts /iwserver to allow the appserver use the workarea as the docroot. It works well.

We're looking at bringing in more java development into TeamSite for versioning, virtualization, and deployment.

good luck,

bill

Migrateduser

Hi Bill,

I'm the PM for TeamTurbo. Can you tell me how you're managing the packaging and deployment/registeration of the applications to your WebSphere server? TeamTurbo does this under the covers to support virtualization...are you doing this manually everytime you change the application or are you using a version of IBM WAS before 4.0 where you didn't need to worry about this?

Thanks and glad to hear things are working for you.

Darren Knipp

Migrateduser

I came across this post today & very much interested in a getting details about a key point. Is TeamTurbo is must? As far as virtualisation & rendering jsp pages goes we can very well manage with TeamSite alone. Whats are the things that we can not do w/o help of TeamTurbo? Can somebody explain?

As I will be doing integration of websphere with TeamSite soon (cost being the major factor as usual) I will be happy to get the details in advance before committing “against” TeamTurbo.

Migrateduser

Here's the added-value, in addition to standard product benefits such as tech-support and access to newer versions:

1) Web Interface for setting up target virtualization servers andassigning sandboxes
- Eliminates the need for creating a new regex for each workarea to be
virtualized and having to stop/start proxy each time
- No need for specialized regex skills
- No need to install Turbo on each WAS node--IWTurboServer on admin node handles automatically

2) Automatic deploy/registration of WebSphere apps on sandbox assignment
- I think in manual solution, for WAS 4 and greater, each and every web app will need to be manually registered with the WAS server

3) Workaround for the *app-cleansing* feature of WAS
- Everytime an application is undeployed from WAS it deletes the
directory the application was deployed in. If this is the TS workarea,
all content will be deleted.
-- If you've figured out a way around this let us know.

Appreciate any feedback you can provide on how you're virtualizing J2EE WebSphere apps today.

Regards,
Darren Knipp, Interwoven Product Management

Migrateduser

Thanks very much for the details Darren. Seems really strong integration. As I said I might be doing this in nearby future. I will update with my feedback soon.