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Chapter 3. Reporting Activity Information

3.1. Embedded Activity Collector
3.1.1. Execution Environments
3.1.2. Activity Interceptor
3.1.3. Information Processor
3.2. Reporting and Querying Activity Events via REST
3.2.1. Reporting Activity Information
3.2.2. Querying Activity Events using an Expression
3.2.3. Retrieving an Activity Unit
3.2.4. Retrieve Activity Events associated with a Context Value

There are two ways in which activity information can be collected for further processing by the Runtime Governance server.

  1. Integrating an activity collector into the execution environment. This will intercept activities and automatically report them to the Runtime Governance server.
  2. Manually report the activity information to the Runtime Governance server through a publicly available API (e.g. REST service)

This section will explain how to use both approaches.

The Activity Interceptor mechanism provides the means to install event processing capabilities within the activity collection environment (i.e. co-located with the execution of the business transaction).

The main reason for performing analysis of the activity events at this stage in the runtime governance lifecycle is to enable the analysis to potential block the business transaction. For an example of such a case, please see the synchronous policy sample.

The Activity Interceptor can be defined as an object model or specified as a JSON representation for packaging in a suitable form, and subsequently de-serialized when deployed to the governed execution environment.

The following is an example of the JSON representation of a list of Activity Interceptors. This particular example is from the synchronous policy sample:

[{
  "name" : "RestrictUsage",
  "version" : "1",
  "predicate" : {
    "@class" : "org.overlord.rtgov.ep.mvel.MVELPredicate",
    "expression" : "event instanceof org.overlord.rtgov.activity.model.soa.RequestReceived && event.serviceType == \"{urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:0.1.0}OrderService\""
  },
  "eventProcessor" : {
    "@class" : "org.overlord.rtgov.ep.mvel.MVELEventProcessor",
    "script" : "VerifyLastUsage.mvel",
    "services" : {
      "CacheManager" : {
        "@class" : "org.overlord.rtgov.ep.service.infinispan.InfinispanCacheManager"
      }
    }
  }
}]

This example illustrates the configuration of a single Activity Interceptor with the top level elements:

Field Description

name

The name of the Activity Interceptor.

version

The version of the Activity Interceptor. If multiple versions of the same named Activity Interceptor are installed, only the newest version will be used. Versions can be expressed using three schemes:

Numeric - i.e. simply define the version as a number

Dot Format - i.e. 1.5.1.Final

Any alpha, numeric and symbols.

predicate

The optional implementation of the org.overlord.rtgov.ep.Predicate interface, used to determine if the activity event is relevant and therefore should be supplied to the event processor

eventProcessor

The implementation of the org.overlord.rtgov.ep.EventProcessor interface, that is used to analyse the activity event

When comparing versions, for example when determining whether a newly deployed Activity Interceptor has a higher version than an existing one with the same name, then initially the versions will be compared as numeric values. If either are not numeric, then they will be compared using dot format, with each field being compared first as numeric values, and if not based on lexical comparison. If both fields don’t have a dot, then they will just be compared lexically.

JEE Container

The Activity Interceptors are deployed within the JEE container as a WAR file with the following structure:

warfile
|
|-META-INF
|    |- beans.xml
|
|-WEB-INF
|    |-classes
|    |    |-ai.json
|    |    |-<custom classes/resources>
|    |
|    |-lib
|       |-ai-loader-jee.jar
|       |-<additional libraries>

The ai.json file contains the JSON representation of the Activity Interceptor configuration.

The ai-loader-jee.jar acts as a bootstrapper to load and register the Activity Interceptors.

If custom classes are defined, then the associated classes and resources can be defined in the WEB-INF/classes folder or within additional libraries located in the WEB-INF/lib folder.

A maven pom.xml that will create this structure is:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
        <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
        <groupId>....</groupId>
        <artifactId>....</artifactId>
        <version>....</version>
        <packaging>war</packaging>
        <name>....</name>

        <properties>
                <rtgov.version>....</rtgov.version>
        </properties>

        <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.overlord.rtgov.activity-management</groupId>
                        <artifactId>activity</artifactId>
                        <version>${rtgov.version}</version>
                        <scope>provided</scope>
                </dependency>
                <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.overlord.rtgov.activity-management</groupId>
                        <artifactId>ai-loader-jee</artifactId>
                        <version>${rtgov.version}</version>
                </dependency>
                ....
        </dependencies>

</project>

If deploying in JBoss Application Server, then the following fragment also needs to be included, to define the dependency on the core Overlord Runtime Governance modules:

.....
        <build>
                <finalName>....</finalName>
                <plugins>
                        <plugin>
                                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                                <configuration>
                                        <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                                        <archive>
                                                <manifestEntries>
                                                        <Dependencies>deployment.overlord-rtgov.war</Dependencies>
                                                </manifestEntries>
                                        </archive>
                                </configuration>
                        </plugin>
                </plugins>
        </build>
        .....

To enable the Runtime Governance infrastructure, and the user policies/rules that are defined within it, to make the most effective use of the activities that are reported, it is necessary to process certain events to extract relevant information for use in:

  • correlating activity events to a particular business transaction instance
  • highlighting important properties that may need to be used in business policies

It is also important to control what information is distributed with the actvity events, for both size (i.e. performance) and security reasons. By default information content should not be distributed, unless an information processor has been defined to explicitly indicate how that information should be represented (if at all) within the activity event.

This section explains how information processors can be configured and deployed along side the business applications they are monitoring.

The Information Processor can be defined as an object model or specified as a JSON representation for packaging in a suitable form, and subsequently de-serialized when deployed to the governed execution environment.

The following is an example of the JSON representation of a list of Information Processors. This particular example accompanies the Order Management sample:

[{
        "name":"OrderManagementIP",
        "version":"1",
        "typeProcessors":{
                "{urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0}submitOrder":{
                        "contexts":[{
                                "type":"Conversation",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"xpath",
                                        "namespaces":{
                                                "orders":"urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0"
                                        },
                                        "expression":"/orders:submitOrder/order/orderId"
                                }
                        }],
                        "properties":[{
                                "name":"customer",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"xpath",
                                        "namespaces":{
                                                "orders":"urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0"
                                        },
                                        "expression":"/orders:submitOrder/order/customer"
                                }
                        }]
                },
                "java:org.switchyard.quickstarts.demos.orders.OrderAck":{
                        "contexts":[{
                                "type":"Conversation",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"mvel",
                                        "expression":"orderId"
                                }
                        }],
                        "properties":[{
                                "name":"customer",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"mvel",
                                        "expression":"customer"
                                }
                        },{
                                "name":"total",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"mvel",
                                        "expression":"total"
                                }
                        }]
                },
                "{urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0}makePayment":{
                        "properties":[{
                                "name":"customer",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"xpath",
                                        "namespaces":{
                                                "orders":"urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0"
                                        },
                                        "expression":"/orders:makePayment/payment/customer"
                                }
                        },{
                                "name":"amount",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"xpath",
                                        "namespaces":{
                                                "orders":"urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0"
                                        },
                                        "expression":"/orders:makePayment/payment/amount"
                                }
                        }]
                },
                "java:org.switchyard.quickstarts.demos.orders.Receipt":{
                        "properties":[{
                                "name":"customer",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"mvel",
                                        "expression":"customer"
                                }
                        },{
                                "name":"amount",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"mvel",
                                        "expression":"amount"
                                }
                        }]
                },
                "java:org.switchyard.quickstarts.demos.orders.ItemNotFoundException":{
                        "script":{
                                "type":"mvel",
                                "expression":"activity.fault = \"ItemNotFound\""
                        }
                }
        }
}]

This example illustrates the configuration of a single Information Processor with the top level elements:

Field Description

name

The name of the Information Processor.

version

The version of the Information Processor. If multiple versions of the same named Information Processor are installed, only the newest version will be used. Versions can be expressed using three schemes:

Numeric - i.e. simply define the version as a number

Dot Format - i.e. 1.5.1.Final

Any alpha, numeric and symbols.

typeProcesors

The map of type processors - one per type, with the type name being the map key.

When comparing versions, for example when determining whether a newly deployed Information Processor has a higher version than an existing one with the same name, then initially the versions will be compared as numeric values. If either are not numeric, then they will be compared using dot format, with each field being compared first as numeric values, and if not based on lexical comparison. If both fields don’t have a dot, then they will just be compared lexically.

Type Processor

The type processor element is associated with a particular information type (i.e. as its key). The fields associated with this component are:

Field Description

contexts

The list of context evaluators.

properties

The list of property evaluators.

script

An optional script that is used to do any other processing that may be required.

transformer

An optional transformer that determines how this information type will be represented within an activity event.

Context Evaluator

The fields associated with the Context Evaluator component are:

Field Description

type

The context type, e.g. Conversation, Endpoint or Message.

expression

The expression evaluator used to derived the context value. See further down for details.

optional

Optional field that indicates whether the value being extracted by the expression is optional. The default is false. If a value is not optional, but the expression fails to locate a value, then an error will be reported

Property Evaluator

The fields associated with the Property Evaluator component are:

Field Description

name

The property name being initialized.

expression

The expression evaluator used to derive the property value. See further down for details.

optional

Optional field that indicates whether the value being extracted by the expression is optional. The default is false. If a value is not optional, but the expression fails to locate a value, then an error will be reported

Expression Evaluator

In the context and property evaluator components, they reference an expression evaluator that is used to derive their value. The expression evaluator has the following fields:

Field Description

type

The type of expression evaluator to use. Currently only support mvel or xpath.

expression

The expression to evaluate.

These expressions operate on the information being processed, to return a string value to be applied to the appropriate context or property.

Script

The script field of the Type Processor has the following fields:

Field Description

type

The type of script evaluator to use. Currently only support mvel.

expression

The expression to evaluate.

The MVEL script evaluator is supplied two variables for its use:

  • information - The information being processed
  • activity - The activity event

An example of how this script can be used is shown in the example above, associated with the ItemNotFoundException. In this case, the message on the wire does not carry the fault name, so the information processor is used to set the fault field on the activity event.

Transformer

The transformer field of the Type Processor has the following fields:

Field Description

type

The type of transformer to use. Currently support serialize and mvel.

The serialize transformer does not take any other properties. It simply attempts to convert the representation of the information into a textual form for inclusion in the activity event. So this transformer type can be used where the complete information content is required.

The mvel transformer takes the following additional fields:

The MVEL transformer script is supplied the following variable for its use:

Field Description

expression

The mvel expression to transform the supplied information.

The MVEL transformer is supplied the following variable for its use:

  • information - The information being processed

For example, to include the content of the submitOrder message:

        "typeProcessors":{
                "{urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0}submitOrder":{
                        "contexts":[{
                                "type":"Conversation",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"xpath",
                                        "namespaces":{
                                                "orders":"urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0"
                                        },
                                        "expression":"/orders:submitOrder/order/orderId"
                                }
                        }],
                        "properties":[{
                                "name":"customer",
                                "evaluator":{
                                        "type":"xpath",
                                        "namespaces":{
                                                "orders":"urn:switchyard-quickstart-demo:orders:1.0"
                                        },
                                        "expression":"/orders:submitOrder/order/customer"
                                }
                        }],
                        "transformer":{
                                "type":"serialize"
                        }
                },

JEE Container

The Information Processors are deployed within the JEE container as a WAR file with the following structure:

warfile
|
|-META-INF
|    |- beans.xml
|
|-WEB-INF
|    |-classes
|    |    |-ip.json
|    |    |-<custom classes/resources>
|    |
|    |-lib
|       |-ip-loader-jee.jar
|       |-<additional libraries>

The ip.json file contains the JSON representation of the Information Processor configuration.

The ip-loader-jee.jar acts as a bootstrapper to load and register the Information Processors.

If custom classes are defined, then the associated classes and resources can be defined in the WEB-INF/classes folder or within additional libraries located in the WEB-INF/lib folder.

A maven pom.xml that will create this structure is:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
        <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
        <groupId>....</groupId>
        <artifactId>....</artifactId>
        <version>....</version>
        <packaging>war</packaging>
        <name>....</name>

        <properties>
                <rtgov.version>....</rtgov.version>
        </properties>

        <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.overlord.rtgov.activity-management</groupId>
                        <artifactId>activity</artifactId>
                        <version>${rtgov.version}</version>
                        <scope>provided</scope>
                </dependency>
                <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.overlord.rtgov.activity-management</groupId>
                        <artifactId>ip-loader-jee</artifactId>
                        <version>${rtgov.version}</version>
                </dependency>
                ....
        </dependencies>

</project>

If deploying in JBoss Application Server, then the following fragment also needs to be included, to define the dependency on the core Overlord Runtime Governance modules:

.....
        <build>
                <finalName>....</finalName>
                <plugins>
                        <plugin>
                                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                                <configuration>
                                        <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                                        <archive>
                                                <manifestEntries>
                                                        <Dependencies>deployment.overlord-rtgov.war</Dependencies>
                                                </manifestEntries>
                                        </archive>
                                </configuration>
                        </plugin>
                </plugins>
        </build>
        .....

This section explains how activity information can be reported to, and queried from, the Activity Server via a RESTful service.