Essentials of Cloud Application Development on IBM Bluemix

Essentials of Cloud Application Development on IBM Bluemix

by Hala A Aziz, Ahmed Azraq, Mohamed El-Khouly, Ben Smith, Sally Fikry
Released October 2016
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738442068

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Book description

Abstract

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is based on the Presentations Guide of the course "Essentials of Cloud Application Development on IBM Bluemix" that was developed by the IBM Redbooks team in partnership with IBM Middle East and Africa (MEA) University Program.
This course is designed to teach university students the basic skills that are required to develop, deploy, and test cloud-based applications that use the IBM Bluemix® cloud services.

The primary target audience for this course is university students in undergraduate computer science and computer engineer programs with no previous experience working in cloud environments. However, anyone new to cloud computing can benefit from this course.

After completing this course, you should be able to accomplish these tasks:


  • Describe the factors that lead to the adoption of cloud computing.

  • Describe infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service.

  • Define cloud computing.

  • Describe IBM Bluemix.

  • Describe the architecture of IBM Bluemix.

  • Identify the runtimes and services that Bluemix offers.

  • Explain how to get started with Bluemix.

  • Describe Bluemix organizations, domains, spaces, and users.

  • Create Bluemix applications.

  • Use services in a Bluemix application.

  • Set environmental variables that are used with Bluemix services.

  • Deploy and run Bluemix applications.

  • Describe how to create an IBM SDK for Node.js application that runs on Bluemix.

  • Explain how to manage a Bluemix account with the Cloud Foundry CLI.[

  • ]Describe how to integrate workstation development platforms with Bluemix.

  • Manage application code and assets with IBM Bluemix DevOps services.

  • Work with the Git repository that is used by DevOps services.

  • Describe the characteristics of REST APIs.

  • Describe the use of JSON as the preferred data format for REST APIs.

  • dentify the data services that are available on Bluemix.

  • Describe the features in Bluemix for developing mobile applications.

  • Create a MobileFirst Services Starter application on Bluemix.

  • Send push notifications from Bluemix and receive them on the mobile device emulator.


    • The workshop materials were created in August 2016. Thus, all IBM Bluemix features discussed in this Presentations Guide and Bluemix user interfaces used in the examples are current as of August 2016.

    Note: This IBM Redbooks publication references exercises that are NOT included with this book. The exercises are only available to students attending the course.

    Table of contents

    1. Front cover
    2. Notices
      1. Trademarks
    3. Preface
      1. Authors
      2. Now you can become a published author, too!
      3. Comments welcome
      4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
    4. Unit 1. Introduction to cloud computing and IBM Bluemix
      1. 1.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 1.2 References
      3. 1.3 What is cloud computing?
      4. 1.4 As opposed to…
      5. 1.5 Factors contributing to growth of cloud
      6. 1.6 Cloud and mobile computing are changing traditional IT
      7. 1.7 Cloud service models
      8. 1.8 Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) architecture
      9. 1.9 IBM SoftLayer: IaaS offering from IBM
      10. 1.10 Platform as a service (PaaS) architecture
      11. 1.11 Software as a service (SaaS) architecture
      12. 1.12 Split of provider-side and consumer-side responsibilities
      13. 1.13 Cloud computing: Benefits for developers
      14. 1.14 What is IBM Bluemix?
      15. 1.15 IBM Bluemix ecosystem
      16. 1.16 Bluemix architectural overview
      17. 1.17 Bluemix: Choice of runtimes
      18. 1.18 Bluemix: Services
      19. 1.19 Bluemix: Regions
      20. 1.20 Unit summary
      21. 1.21 Checkpoint questions
      22. 1.22 Checkpoint answers
    5. Unit 2. Getting started with IBM Bluemix
      1. 2.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 2.2 References
      3. 2.3 Getting started: Create an IBM Bluemix account
      4. 2.4 IBM Bluemix infrastructure types
      5. 2.5 What can you build in IBM Bluemix?
      6. 2.6 Cloud Foundry Apps, Containers, and Virtual Servers
      7. 2.7 Containers vs. Virtual Servers
      8. 2.8 Bluemix catalog: Boilerplates
      9. 2.9 Bluemix catalog: Runtimes
      10. 2.10 Bluemix catalog: Services
      11. 2.11 Create a Bluemix application (1 of 3)
      12. 2.12 Create a Bluemix application (2 of 3)
      13. 2.13 Bluemix application name must be unique across domain
      14. 2.14 Create a Bluemix application (3 of 3)
      15. 2.15 Bluemix application overview
      16. 2.16 Bluemix dashboard: Environment health
      17. 2.17 Testing applications through the application route
      18. 2.18 Add a Bluemix service
      19. 2.19 Bind a service to an application
      20. 2.20 Bluemix environment variables
      21. 2.21 Bluemix organizations and users (team members)
      22. 2.22 Bluemix domains and quota
      23. 2.23 Bluemix organizations: Spaces
      24. 2.24 Bluemix organizations: User roles
      25. 2.25 Managing Bluemix organizations
      26. 2.26 Checkpoint questions
      27. 2.27 Checkpoint answers
    6. Unit 3. Developing Bluemix applications from a local workstation
      1. 3.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 3.2 References
      3. 3.3 Create an application using the Bluemix dashboard
      4. 3.4 Node.js
      5. 3.5 Cloud Foundry command-line interface: Overview
      6. 3.6 Why use command-line tools?
      7. 3.7 Step 1: Review the documentation
      8. 3.8 Step 2: Install the Cloud Foundry command-line interface
      9. 3.9 Step 3: Connect to your IBM Bluemix account
      10. 3.10 Step 4: Deploy your application to IBM Bluemix
      11. 3.11 Step 5: Test your Bluemix application
      12. 3.12 IBM Bluemix and Eclipse
      13. 3.13 Step 1: Review the documentation
      14. 3.14 Step 2: Install Eclipse Luna and Eclipse tools for Bluemix
      15. 3.15 Step 3: Connect to your IBM Bluemix account
      16. 3.16 Step 4: Create a Node.js application project
      17. 3.17 Unit summary
      18. 3.18 Exercise 1 objectives
      19. 3.19 Exercise 2 objectives
      20. 3.20 Checkpoint questions
      21. 3.21 Checkpoint answers
    7. Unit 4. Using IBM Bluemix DevOps services
      1. 4.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 4.2 References
      3. 4.3 What is DevOps?
      4. 4.4 Benefits of DevOps
      5. 4.5 What is IBM Bluemix DevOps Services?
      6. 4.6 What services does Bluemix DevOps provide?
      7. 4.7 Setting up a Bluemix DevOps Services project
      8. 4.8 Add Bluemix DevOps capabilities
      9. 4.9 Web IDE: Edit Code features
      10. 4.10 Web integrated development environment: Overview
      11. 4.11 Editing source code in Bluemix DevOps Services
      12. 4.12 Editor features: Code completion
      13. 4.13 Editor features: Run bar
      14. 4.14 Bluemix Live Sync features
      15. 4.15 Source control with a Git repository
      16. 4.16 Git repository overview
      17. 4.17 Connect a Git client to your Bluemix DevOps project
      18. 4.18 Bluemix DevOps Services: Build & Deploy
      19. 4.19 Customizing the delivery pipeline
      20. 4.20 Example: Default delivery pipeline
      21. 4.21 Example: Customizing the build stage
      22. 4.22 Example: Configuring build jobs
      23. 4.23 Example: Configuring deploy job
      24. 4.24 Example: A successful build and deploy result
      25. 4.25 Track & Plan Tools
      26. 4.26 Track & Plan Tools capabilities
      27. 4.27 Enable Track & Plan
      28. 4.28 Track & Plan: Example
      29. 4.29 Unit summary
      30. 4.30 Exercise 3 objectives
      31. 4.31 Checkpoint questions
      32. 4.32 Checkpoint answers
    8. Unit 5. REST architecture
      1. 5.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 5.2 References
      3. 5.3 What is REST?
      4. 5.4 Applying REST to server-side applications
      5. 5.5 Example: Application model architecture for REST services
      6. 5.6 What is a RESTful web service?
      7. 5.7 Example: Sending an HTTP request to a REST service
      8. 5.8 Example: Receiving an HTTP response from a REST service
      9. 5.9 REST characteristics
      10. 5.10 Introduction to JSON
      11. 5.11 JSON data types
      12. 5.12 JSON data type: Objects
      13. 5.13 JSON data type: Arrays
      14. 5.14 What is Watson?
      15. 5.15 Watson Services in Bluemix
      16. 5.16 Watson API Explorer
      17. 5.17 Example: Watson API Explorer - AlchemyLanguage (Authors)
      18. 5.18 Checkpoint questions
      19. 5.19 Checkpoint answers
    9. Unit 6. Introduction to data services in IBM Bluemix
      1. 6.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 6.2 References
      3. 6.3 Database choices on Bluemix
      4. 6.4 Data services in Bluemix catalog
      5. 6.5 Cloudant capabilities
      6. 6.6 Cloudant in IBM Bluemix vs. Cloudant.com
      7. 6.7 Documents in Cloudant
      8. 6.8 Getting started with Cloudant on IBM Bluemix
      9. 6.9 IBM Bluemix Cloudant: VCAP_SERVICES
      10. 6.10 Cloudant Dashboard
      11. 6.11 Cloudant REST API
      12. 6.12 Sample database at Cloudant
      13. 6.13 Reading a document in Cloudant
      14. 6.14 View all Documents
      15. 6.15 More Cloudant REST APIs
      16. 6.16 HTTP status codes
      17. 6.17 Exercise 4 objectives
      18. 6.18 Checkpoint questions
      19. 6.19 Checkpoint answers
    10. Unit 7. IBM Bluemix Mobile Backend as a Service
      1. 7.1 What you should be able to do
      2. 7.2 References
      3. 7.3 What is Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS)?
      4. 7.4 IBM Mobile backend services (1 of 2)
      5. 7.5 IBM Mobile backend services (2 of 2)
      6. 7.6 MBaaS architecture
      7. 7.7 Push Notifications service
      8. 7.8 Push notification process
      9. 7.9 Configure push notifications in Bluemix
      10. 7.10 Send manual notifications from Bluemix
      11. 7.11 Push notification message
      12. 7.12 Mobile Client Access (MCA) service
      13. 7.13 Mobile Client Access Authentication options
      14. 7.14 Mobile Client Access (MCA) architecture
      15. 7.15 Mobile Quality Assurance features
      16. 7.16 Mobile Quality Assurance window
      17. 7.17 Getting started with Mobile Quality Assurance
      18. 7.18 MobileFirst Services Starter Boilerplate
      19. 7.19 Exercise 5 objectives
      20. 7.20 Exercise 6 objectives
      21. 7.21 Checkpoint questions
      22. 7.22 Checkpoint answers
    11. Back cover

    Product information

    • Title: Essentials of Cloud Application Development on IBM Bluemix
    • Author(s): Hala A Aziz, Ahmed Azraq, Mohamed El-Khouly, Ben Smith, Sally Fikry
    • Release date: October 2016
    • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
    • ISBN: 9780738442068