Blog
Articles, tutorials, and field notes on identity, integration, API management, and application security — spanning nearly two decades of hands-on work.
What Is A REST Web Service?
REST web services are not nearly as formalized as their SOAP equivalent. A REST web service adheres to the principals laid out in Roy Fielding’s PhD Thesis. REST stands for Representational State Transition.
What is an XML Gateway?
An XML Gateway is an externally-facing DMZ tier of a web services platform. Generally, this DMZ tier will be facing the Internet, but it may simply be between business units or facing a leased line connecting one entity to another. It can be implemented using a software solution (such as web…
What is an Appliance? What is a SOA Appliance?
I suppose I’m switching gears a bit here back towards something almost philosophical rather than my usual concrete technical info So be it. In the last six months, I’ve been at several clients sites that are using SOA appliances to build XML Gateway and ESB patterns. I answer quite a few client…
JVM Heap & GC Tuning…
So, obviously, I haven’t posted anything here in a while🙂. Life has been busy. Starting several months ago, I left my job of four years and began independent consulting. Among other things, this means that the variety of topics discussed on thinkmiddleware.com should be more varied. I’m also going…
IBM Announced the New XG45 DataPower appliance
This is the first post on thinkmiddleware.com where we discuss DataPower. Guess what I’ve been doing with my career lately🙂.
JBoss 4.x and DataSource Configuration
On JBoss 4.x, a MySQL datasource looks something like:
Secure Identity Propagation using WS-Trust, WS-Security, and SAML2 — IBM Impact, 2011 Session
On April 13th, 2011, Ryan Triplett and I spoke at IBM Impact in Las Vegas. The topic was “Secure Identity Propagation using WS-Trust, WS-Security, and SAML2“. The PowerPoint presentation can be found here. The original abstract:
Secure Identity Propagation using WS-Trust, WS-Security, and SAML2
I gave the following presentation at IBM Impact in April, 2011.
HTTP Client – Form-Based Authentication
This article continues the discussion started in the Servlet Authentication article. Here we discuss Form-Based authentication; another common form of authentication when Servlet technology is used.
Servlet Container Authentication
There are three required authentication mechanisms supported by a compliant Servlet Container: HTTP Basic Authentication, Form-based Authentication, and CLIENT_CERT authentication. There is a fourth authentication method, DIGEST, that isn’t used very often in my experience. This final…
Summary of J2EE Specs
If you were ever looking for a summary of each version of the J2EE Spec, it can take a few minutes to find it. So, here is a summary. The J2EE Specification is actually collection of numerous different Java-based technology specifications.
JBossWorld 2010 Session — Securing JBoss Services
On June 24, 2010, I gave a presentation at JBoss World in Boston. This was my second time at JBoss World. The presentation covered Securing JBoss Services. It explored the use of JaasSecurityDomain MBeans to configure SSL in JBoss 4.3 (also relevent for newer versions of JBoss) for various…