Some of you might have already spotted the project DukeCon on the JavaLand website in the menu („program“) or among the listed community activities. The makers of DukeCon show great commitment in advancing the open source project. We spoke to one of them, Gerd Aschemann from the JUG Darmstadt, about DukeCon.
Gerd, most of the Javaians already know the web application hosted on the JavaLand website. But what exactly is DukeCon?
Right, the end user only sees a responsive app and its offline capabilities. But behind DukeCon lies much more than an app, starting with a great team and lots of fun while hacking. Behind the mentioned HTML5 application, there are multiple services provided by DukeCon. In turn, we obtain the data from the organizer’s back office, the DOAG. Actually, a simple idea turned into a small IT landscape.
If my information is correct, the end users are now going to enjoy a second app ...
Yes, that‘s right. A Flex app is also in development. We want to distribute it on the AppStore and Play Store. But it’ll take a little time until it‘s done. Last weekend, we improved the Android app. It is now available for download at http://www.doag.org/go//dukecon.
What can you say about the architecture of the DukeCon infrastructure? How did you approach this project?
We were initially quite fast with Maven, Spring Boat and HTML5. Then, we very quickly added our own infrastructure with Jenkins, Nexus and Docker containers. In Parallel, the Flex client was developed. The front-end is a WAR overlay, which is integrated into the back-end server. Everything together lands in a docker image and is pushed into the various test stages and production.
But that’s not all, is it?
Over time, we added some more technologies such as Spring Security. We also used KeyCloak as single sign-on system with a login via social media services like Twitter and Google. The favorites of the conference participants are stored in a Postgres database. In the HTML5 front end, JavaScript is based on knockout. For some time, we automated integration tests with JGiven.
It sounds like a lot of work, so I guess you’re not working alone? Who else is contributing to DukeCon?
Quite a lot of people have contributed to the success of the app now. I confine myself to the „core developers“ who have made a regular and substantial contribution: Anna Maier, Stephanie Peters, Niko Köbler, Christofer Dutz, Falk Sippach, Alexander Schwartz and myself. We also had valuable discussions with the DOAG and the iJUG board.
Let us be more specific: Who does what?
Chris is mainly driving the Flex client and has, because of that, also an interest in the service interface. Steffi and Anna take care of the HTML5 client, the design, programming and data storage for offline capability and synchronization. Falk has mainly developed the server and the API, and Alexander brings in his all-round expertise in the frontend, backend and especially in the integration of KeyCloak. Niko is our specialist for JavaScript and has also a good knowledge of KeyCloak.
How about you?
I take care of a little bit of everything, sometimes of the server, sometimes of Key-Cloak, the infrastructure, the build processes and operation, Docker container or even the server support for offline capability.
You have already done a great job in the short amount of time. What will happen next?
We have already gotten a lot of feedback, not least on Monday evening, during our hacking session. During and after Java-Land, we will continue to collect and then try to implement the suggestions of the participants.
