This Developer Hat article is not really about
coding. It's more about how to easily use Bluemix to get started, and then build,
deploy and run a Java application in the cloud. For me, this would have been a fairly trivial exercise if I were developing a WAS app on my desktop. But I imagined getting it deployed to the cloud was going to be hard. I was wrong.
So today I wanted to write a simple app in Java, only because I know Java better than I know node.js or other languages. The first step, is to search Bluemix for a starting point, and since I wanted something quick and dirty I just I started with a simple WAS Liberty Profile and a simple servlet.
Bluemix guides you pretty well, explaining how to download your sample code as well as the CF and Bluemix command line utilities. I installed the utilities, and unzipped the sample code to my workspace. Even though I already have umpteen copies of Eclipse sitting around, Bluemix tells me I will need the Mars version and some add-ons, IBM Eclipse Tools for Bluemix and Liberty profile V8.5.5.5 (or later) runtime
I already have Liberty up and running for some other projects I'm working on, so I skipped that one. And just pulled down Mars and the Tools for Bluemix.
Opened the new Eclipse, Import Existing Projects and pointed at the sample code I pulled from Bluemix. I found the sample servlet class. Made my changes. Verified the descriptor. Saved the WAR file.
I had to edit the YML file. It tells CF how to build and deploy, and since I changed my servlet WAR file name, that had to go into the YML file. After that I followed the instructions on Bluemix on how to use CF to upload. A few minutes later I have a nice little servlet running on Bluemix. I'm happy.
