Installing SOA Quickstart 12.1.3

(For those who still want to install / run SOA Suite 12.1.3 for whatever reason...)

Note: Oracle's 12.1.3 Quickstart install guide is located at: https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1213/core/SOAQS/integrated.htm#SOAQS206. Or, you can use the quick cheat sheet below...

1. Download the SOA Suite 121.3 installer zip file from:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/downloads/soa1213qsdownload-2769533.html

    -accept the OTN license and open up the Recommended Install Process region to get to the download

2. Unzip installer so you have the jar file in a directory <somewhere>

3. Download and install the JDK - docs say you need JDK 7 update 55 or later. I tested with JDK 7 update  80, which can be located at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/java-archive-downloads-javase7-521261.html#jdk-7u80-oth-JPR
specifically for Windows 64 bit: http://download.oracle.com/otn/java/jdk/7u80-b15/jdk-7u80-windows-x64.exe (though this link only works if you have accepted the license agreement in the last 30 mins...)

Note: SOA Suite 12.1.3 only runs with Java 7 (not 8). SOA Suite 12.2.1 only runs with Java 8 (not 7...)

4. Open up a command prompt - RUNNING AS ADMINISTRATOR by right-clicking the command prompt icon and choosing run as administrator - and cd to where you put the SOA Suite jar files. You will also need to make sure you are picking up the right Java - both the right version you just downloaded and the one associated with a JDK and not a JRE. For me, accepting the default location on Windows 64 bit for my Java installation, I was able to run the SOA Suite installer with:
"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80\bin\java.exe" -jar fmw_12.1.3.0.0_soa_quickstart.jar
(on my laptop, it takes 2-3 mins to extract all the files and then the graphical installer comes up - the screens in the installer wizard are pretty self-explanatory so I won't go through them here...)

5. Fire up JDev and go!

Second SOA Expert Series Webinar: Upgrading to SOA Suite 12c - Apr 6 at 9AM PDT

Upgrading to SOA Suite 12c:

Tips and Best Practices from Engineering, Customers and A-team

Presented by Oracle Integration Cloud team and Middleworks
Weds, April 6, 2016
9:00 am  |  Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00)  |  1 hr

In this, the second webinar in our SOA Expert Series, we have put together a panel to share tips, tricks and best practices for upgrading to Oracle SOA Suite 12c. By now, many customers have made this transition, but there is still a very large install base of 11g deployments out there. This session will share real world experiences and lessons learned from those who have been down this path. As usual, we will have an active panel with brief, focused presentations and pointers to much more content which can be digested following the session. Come prepared with your questions and comments!

Planned participants on the panel or available to answer chat questions include:

• Antony Reynolds and Jay Kasi from the Oracle Service and Cloud Integration prod mgmt team, responsible for 12c upgrades, providing an overview and best practices for upgrade and describing some of the new features in 12.2.1 available to those who upgrade
  
• Danilo Schmiedel of Opitz, an Oracle ACE Director talking about lessons learned and best practices from a 12c upgrade experience
• Deepak Arora of the Oracle A-Team who has assisted several customers with 12c upgrades
  
• David Shaffer of Middleworks, moderating and providing additional resources
• Kathryn Lustenberger from the Oracle Service and Cloud Integration prod mgmt team responsible for this series
• Vamsee Goruganthu from the Oracle QA team, responsible for SOA 12c upgrade QA
  

The content for this session is fast, focused and highly technical, with extra materials and links to documentation provided in the slides for attendees future reference. All who register will receive invitations to future related events and the ability to access a recording of the webinar. To access this information for previous webinars, and see the schedule for future webinars, go to http://www.middleworks.com/soa-expert/

REGISTER NOW

Finally, for anyone who has upgraded to 12c already, or plans to do so in the next 12 months, we request that you fill out the one-page survey below. This information will not be shared publicly, except in the aggregate or anonymously. But it will of great value to the product team and community:
    https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/soa-12c-upgrade

After your request has been submitted, you'll receive instructions for joining the meeting. Can't register? Contact support. Have requests for future webinar topics or want to offer to be a presenter? We would love to hear from you. And, please feel free to share this information with other interested colleagues.

Cheat sheet and links for installing SOA Suite 12.2.1

I just finished installing SOA Suite 12.2.1, developer edition, on my laptop and took a few notes to try to expedite the process for others. Personally, I find each time I install I need to spend a few mins looking around for the right links, the right JDK, the right commands to run the installer. So in case these are useful for others, here are my notes:

1. Download the two SOA Suite installer zip files from:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/soasuite/downloads/index.html
    -accept the OTN license and open up the Recommended Install Process region to get to the downloads

2. Unzip installers so you have two jar files in a directory <somewhere>

3. Download and install the JDK - docs say you need JDK 8 update 51 or later. I tested with JDK 8 update 92, which can be located at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html
specifically for Windows 64 bit: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u92-b14/jdk-8u92-windows-x64.exe (though this link only works if you have accepted the license agreement in the last 30 mins...)

4. Open up a command prompt - RUNNING AS ADMINISTRATOR by right-clicking the command prompt icon and choosing run as administrator - and cd to where you put the SOA Suite jar files. You will also need to make sure you are picking up the right Java - both the right version you just downloaded and the one associated with a JDK and not a JRE. For me, accepting the default location on Windows 64 bit for my Java installation, I was able to run the SOA Suite installer with:
"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_92\bin\java.exe" -jar fmw_12.2.1.0.0_soa_quickstart.jar
(on my laptop, it takes 2-3 mins to extract all the files and then the graphical installer comes up - the screens in the installer wizard are pretty self-explanatory so I won't go through them here...)

5. Fire up JDev and go!

Starting webinar series with Tips and Tricks for Oracle SOA Suite

I've been talking about this for a couple years now, but finally did it. The initial idea is that we have offered a very popular Open World panel session, called "Oracle SOA Suite Tips and Tricks from Oracle Engineering and A-team" (and this year added a customer to the panel), and there is no reason we can't bring this content to a much wider audience via webinar. So we have scheduled that for next Tuesday, Jan 12, at 9AM PST (San Francisco time for those of you overseas...).

But beyond the initial webinar, we would like to extend this into a larger series, with the idea being to promote greater sharing of knowledge and expertise with the SOA Suite community at large. I have the commitment of the A-team management team and I think lots of good content can come from engineering, partners as well as customers. So, please check out the information below and register for the session, and/or share this information with your colleagues and associates.

And, please email me any suggestions you have for future topics or proposals you have to present content of your own.

Finally, in a bold sales pitch, if you have a need to find the right SOA Suite expertise or to improve your own organization's execution, capacity, strategy, resolve issues, etc, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at dave@middleworks.com.

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Tips and Tricks for Oracle SOA Suite by Oracle A-Team, Engineering, and Customers

Sponsored by Oracle SOA Suite product team and Middleworks
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
9:00 am  |  Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00)  |  1 hr

Join us as we recreate one of the most popular Oracle Open World sessions around the Oracle SOA Suite and deliver it to the world via webinar format. We are hoping this webinar will be the first of many and we plan to expand this into a series to create a more robust information sharing community around SOA Suite, including the Oracle product management and engineering teams, A-team, customers and partners. For this first session, we are delivering an expanded version of the OOW "Tips and Tricks for Oracle SOA Suite" session, which is always delivered to a packed room. In the webinar version, we will be able to provide a little more time to each of the speakers and topics, which are:

     - Joe Kardamis from The Sherwin-Williams Company, talking about agile development methodology with SOA
    - Antony Reynolds from the Oracle Service (SOA) & Cloud Integration Product Management team, talking about error handling and managing your dehydration store
    - Sherwood Zern of the Oracle A-Team with some common issues seen in Oracle Service Bus implementations
    - David Shaffer (dave@middleworks.com) of Middleworks, sharing tips from the SOA engineering team on working with large schemas in JDeveloper's XSLT mapping tool

The content for this session is fast, focused and highly technical, with extra materials and links to documentation provided in the slides for attendees future reference. We encourage you to come with your related project questions and ask them during the Q&A periods. If you are working actively with the Oracle SOA Suite, we guarantee you will walk away with some truly useful information! Note: Total attendees for the webinar may be limited, and since we are not sure how popular this event will be, we encourage you to pre-register and join the webinar a few minutes early. All who register will receive invitations to future related events and the ability to access a recording of the webinar in case you have any trouble connecting.

REGISTER NOW

After your request has been submitted, you'll receive instructions for joining the meeting. Can't register? Contact support. Have requests for future webinar topics or want to offer to be a presenter? Email dave@middleworks.com. And, please feel free to forward this invitation to other interested colleagues.