About Application Container Cloud Service

ACCS provides a pre-configured platform (Platform as a Service or PAAS) where you can quickly deploy and host your applications.  For many of today’s applications, the hosting server is just that, a place to host the application.  Most of the time the only thing an application needs from the server is to have it support the application’s programming language and to provide in and out connections through ports.  Using a PAAS such as ACCS frees you from all of the extra work of configuring and maintaining a server and allows you to focus on perfecting your application.

ACCS supports multiple languages but for this post, I’ll focus on Node.js.

DinoDate

For the examples, I will be deploying the DinoDate application. DinoDate was written as an open source learning application that can be used to demonstrate database concepts with multiple programming languages.  It currently has both Python and NodeJS mid-tier applications and is backed by an Oracle Database.

The following instructions show how to deploy the Node.js version of DinoDate to an Oracle ACCS instance.

If you don’t have access to Oracle Cloud services, you can try the Oracle Cloud with $300 of free credit.

Download/Clone the DinoDate application.

Database

First, you’ll need a database.

Create an Oracle Cloud database or if you already have an Oracle Database, make sure that you can safely create and destroy the DD and DD_NON_EBR schema.

Connect to your database as sys with sysdba and run coreDatabase/dd_master_install.sql.  (Use your password and connect string)

Prepare the DinoDate Application

Download oraclejet.zip (version 4.1.0).  (Current versions as of the time of this post.)

• Extract the Oracle JET files
• Run bower install

• Install the NodeJS modules.  ACCS assumes your deploy package will include all necessary modules.
• Create a deploy directory.
• Copy the front end client into the deploy directory.
• Copy the nodejs application into the deploy directory.
• Change to the deploy/nodejs directory.

Create the environment variables.  (Replace YourJdbcConnecString with your JDBC connect string.)
Test the application to make sure everything is working.

• Open your browser to localhost:3000
• Log in as bob@example.com (any password will work)
• Open the search tab and execute a search.  I typically search for ‘eat’ it will return several members.

Ctrl-c to stop the node server then switch back to the deploy directory.

Package the Files to Deploy

Create the manifest file: manifest.json

This file declares that we will use Node.js version 8 and provides the command that will be used to start the application.

Create the deployment file: deployment.json

This file includes the environment variables DinoDate needs and sets the ACCS deployment to use 1G of memory and only install 1 instance.

Replace “YourJdbcConnecString” with the JDBC connect string for your database.

Important Note

ACCS is pre-configured to listen on $PORT so we set our application to listen on that port.  Do not attempt to change $PORT.  When ACCS performs its post-deploy check it will open the application using $PORT, if the application is not listening on that port and returns a 404 the deployment will fail and be removed.

Create a zip file with the required DinoDate deploy files.

Important Note

The Node.js platform in ACCS has the oracledb module pre-installed.  If we were to upload the module we just installed it would cause a conflict that would cause the deployment to fail and be removed, so we exclude it from the deployment .zip file.

Deploy to ACCS

In your browser navigate to the Oracle Application Container Cloud Service Console.

Push the Create Application button to open the platform selection panel.

 

Push the Node button to open the application definition panel.

• Populate [Name] with DinoDate.
• Click ‘Choose File’ for Archive and select the DinoDateNodeACCS.zip file.
• Click ‘Choose File’ for Manifest and select the manifest.json file.
• Click ‘Choose File’ for Deployment Configuration and select the deployment.json file.

You can change the values in the other fields as you’d like, but notice that since we defined “memory”: “1G” and “instances”: “1” in the deployment.json file those values will change automatically.

It’s also possible to include the manifest.json file in the DinoDateNodeACCS.zip file instead of uploading it separately.

Click Create.

It may take several minutes for ACCS to setup the environment and deploy the application.  Once it’s done click on the URL: link to open the application.

Try it out

You can log in with any of the existing users, such as:

• Bob
  bob@example.com
• Admin
  admin@example.com

Use any value for the password, the application doesn’t check it.

Click on the Search tab and search for ‘eat’ it should return 6 of the pre-loaded dinosaurs.

Quick Review

1. Build your application and test it.
2. Collect the required deployment artifacts and dependencies into a .zip file.
   Reminder: do not include the oracledb module.
3. Create a manifest.json file that contains at least the required Node.js version and the command used to start your application.
4. Create a deployment.json file that contains any needed environment variable definitions.  Optionally you can include ACCS environment definitions such as required memory and number of instances.  (This file is optional)
   Reminder: ACCS will use the pre-defined environment variable $PORT.  Make sure your application listens on $PORT.
5. Use the ACCS service console to upload your 3 files and create your new application.

If you run into any trouble, leave a comment and I’ll be happy to help.