Category: Infor ION Grid

Hacking Infor Grid application development (part 3)

In the series Hacking Infor Grid application development, today I will illustrate how to add a JAR file to an Infor Grid application and a JAR file to a dynamic web application in that Grid application (which is trivial).

JAR for Grid application

First, create a simple Java library:

package net.company.your.library1;

public class HelloWorldLibrary1 {
	public static String getMessage() {
		return "Hello World sample library for my Grid application";
	}
}

Then, compile it with:

javac net\company\your\library1\HelloWorldLibrary1.java

Then, add it to a JAR file with:

jar cvf HelloWorldLibrary1.jar net\company\your\library\HelloWorldLibrary1.class

Then, call that library from the Grid application with:

[...]

import net.company.your.library1.*;

public class HelloWorld implements ApplicationEntryPointEx {

	public boolean startModule(ModuleContext paramModuleContext) {
		System.out.println(HelloWorldLibrary1.getMessage());
		return true;
	}

	[...]
}

Then, recompile that Grid application as usual with:

javac -cp grid-core-1.11.27.jar;. net\company\your\HelloWorld.java

Here’s the result in the command prompt:
1.1

Then, create a jars folder in the Grid application and add the JAR file to it:
1.3

The default folder for JAR files is jars. It seems other Infor Grid applications use folder lib instead. We can change the classpath in the Grid application’s properties, for instance the application M3UIAdapter has JAR files in a folder lib:
3.2b

Then, replace the Grid application:
1.2

Then, restart the Module in the Grid Management Pages:
b4

We can see the result in the logs:
1.4

JAR for dynamic web application

Now let’s create a second Java library for the dynamic web application of the Grid application; this is classic J2EE and trivial:

package net.company.your.library2;

public class HelloWorldLibrary2 {
	public static String getMessage() {
		return "Hello World sample library for my dynamic web application";
	}
}

Then, compile it and add it to a JAR file as shown above.

Then, let’s use that library from the servlet (or from a JSP):

[...]

import net.company.your.library2.*;

public class HelloWorldServlet extends HttpServlet {
	public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
		[...]
		out.println(HelloWorldLibrary2.getMessage());
	}
}

Then, recompile the servlet as usual.

Here’s the result in the command prompt:
2.1

Then, create a lib folder in the WEB-INF folder of the dynamic web application:
2.3

Then, replace the servlet (or JSP):
2.2

And refresh the servlet (or JSP) to see the result:
2.4

Summary

That was how to add a JAR file to an Infor Grid application and a JAR file to a dynamic web application in that Grid application (which was trivial). Next time I will find out how to add a WAR file.

Also, remember this is a hack that currently has limitations due to our lack of knowledge of how to develop good applications for the Infor Grid, as discussed in part 1 of this series.

Also, remember to join the campaign and sign the petition to Infor Product Development for making their source code available.

That’s it! If you like this, please click the Like button, leave a comment below, subscribe to this blog, share around you, and write about your own ideas here. Thank you.

Hacking Infor Grid application development (part 2)

As a prolongation of my previous post on Hacking Infor Grid application development, this time I will show you how to add a simple HelloWorld servlet to your Infor Grid application.

HelloWorld servlet

Create a simple HelloWorld servlet:

package net.company.your;

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

public class HelloWorldServlet extends HttpServlet {
	public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
		response.setContentType("text/html");
		PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
		out.println("<html>");
		out.println("<body>");
		out.println("HelloWorld servlet! The time is " + new Date());
		out.println("</body>");
		out.println("</html>");
	}
}

Compile it with the Servlet API library that you can find in the LifeCycle Manager runtime:

E:\LifeCycle\<host>\grid\<grid>\runtimes\1.11.27\resources\servlet-api-2.5.jar
javac -cp servlet-api-2.5.jar WEB-INF\classes\net\company\your\HelloWorldServlet.java

1 2

Deployment descriptor

Create a simple deployment descriptor web.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
	version="2.4">

	<display-name>HelloWorld Servlet</display-name>
	<description>My HelloWorld servlet</description>

	<servlet>
		<servlet-name>HelloWorldServlet</servlet-name>
		<servlet-class>net.company.your.HelloWorldServlet</servlet-class>
	</servlet>

	<servlet-mapping>
		<servlet-name>HelloWorldServlet</servlet-name>
		<url-pattern>/sup</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

File & folder structure

Set the following file & folder structure in a WEB-INF directory:

\---HelloWorld
    ...
    \---webapps
        \---HelloWorld
            ...
            \---WEB-INF
                |   web.xml
                |
                \---classes
                    \---net
                        \---company
                            \---your
                                    HelloWorldServlet.class

b3

With Eclipse

You can also use Eclipse to create the servlet and deployment descriptor and to compile:
e8

Deploy

You can create and deploy your servlet as a new application, or you can add WEB-INF to an existing application in LifeCycle Manager at:

E:\LifeCycle\<host>\grid\<grid>\grids\<grid>\applications\HelloWorld\webapps\HelloWorld\WEB-INF\

If you choose hot deployment, reload the Grid application module:

b4

 

 

Result

You can now test the result in a browser:
b5

And you can check the logs:
b6

Summary

That was how to add a simple servlet to your Infor Grid application. Next time, I will explore how to add JAR files and how to deploy a WAR file.

That’s it! Like + comment + subscribe + share.

Hacking Infor Grid application development

I just learned a technique to develop a custom application for the Infor Grid. The idea is to build a simple J2EE app using the Infor Grid as an application server. My understanding is that the Infor Grid is closed, and that this technique is currently unofficial, undocumented and unsupported. I will label this technique as a hack for now until we establish a recommended path.

History

In the past, official products such as Movex Workplace (MWP) and IBrix were built for IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS), and software developers that needed custom J2EE applications unofficially deployed their code in that same WAS; it was a somewhat symbiotic relationship. With the switch to the Infor Grid, WAS is gone and replaced by a cloud of distributed servers with embedded Jetty – that is a leap forward for M3 – but there is no official solution for custom apps.

As a workaround, we continued to sideload our JSP and HTML files in the MNE folder of the Grid alongside Smart Office Scripts; that was a parasitic relationship subject to potential loss during upgrades. There is also the option to install our own separate application server like Microsoft IIS, but there are advantages to having a unified solution. I know of the Grid Development Tools for Eclipse and the Grid Application Developer Guide and tutorials, but to my knowledge they are internal to Infor products and not available for developing custom applications.

A former colleague of mine found an alternative workaround. He told me he had managed to create a GAR file for the Infor Grid, so now he has an application called “intentia” where he puts the JSP and HTML files instead of the MNE folder. He said it involved decompiling one of the Grid applications and then compiling it back with the new application name. I invited him to write a blog post about his solution, but he responded because it is unofficial he did not want to post it and wanted to remain anonymous. After a couple of email exchanges discussing a disclaimer, he accepted that I post his solution and acknowledge him for his contribution. So thank you, Jonathan Amiran of Intentia Israel.

Call for action

This is my call to Infor Product Development. If you are reading this, please jailbreak the Grid, release the tools and documentation and embrace the community. Help us reach a mutually beneficial relationship where great ideas can get out of anonymity and flourish. I understand there are risks involved in opening up a sensitive system to all sorts of inexperienced developers and misuse as that leads to you having to assume the role of support and troubleshooting until you can prove negligence on the part of the third-party developer. But don’t be closed. Share the good practices with us, certify us, or if it’s a risk, build a system that defends against byzantine failures from third-party developers.

For you readers, please call your Infor representatives and tell them the importance of being open and working together. Meanwhile, please understand the following hack has not yet been peer reviewed so it may be either favorable or damaging.

Find the Grid core

First, go to your LifeCycle Manager server and find the JAR file for the Grid core:

E:\LifeCycle\<host>\grid\<grid>\resources\grid-core-1.11.27.jar

b1

Create the application entry point

Then, create a simple Java class that implements ApplicationEntryPointEx:

package net.company.your;

import com.lawson.grid.node.application.ApplicationEntryPointEx;
import com.lawson.grid.node.application.ApplicationEntryPointEx.GlobalState;
import com.lawson.grid.node.application.ApplicationEntryPointEx.RemainingTaskCount;
import com.lawson.grid.node.application.ModuleContext;

public class HelloWorld implements ApplicationEntryPointEx {

	private boolean isInitialized = false;

	public boolean startModule(ModuleContext paramModuleContext) {
		return true;
	}

	public void onlineNotification() {
		this.isInitialized = true;
	}

	public void offlineNotification() {
		this.isInitialized = false;
	}

	public void stopModule() {
		this.isInitialized = false;
	}

	public ApplicationEntryPointEx.RemainingTaskCount getRemainingTaskCount() {
		return null;
	}

	public ApplicationEntryPointEx.GlobalState getGlobalState() {
		if (this.isInitialized) {
			return new ApplicationEntryPointEx.GlobalState(true, new String[] { "OK" });
		}
		return new ApplicationEntryPointEx.GlobalState(false, new String[] { "Initalizing" });
	}
}

And compile it with:

javac -cp grid-core-1.11.27.jar net\company\your\HelloWorld.java

Create the application deployment descriptor

Create the application deployment descriptor in a file GRID-INF\application.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<application xmlns="http://schemas.lawson.com/grid/configuration_v3" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" typeName="HelloWorld" version="10.1.0.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.lawson.com/grid/configuration_v3 http://schemas.lawson.com/grid/configuration_v3">
	<description>HelloWorld Grid Example</description>
	<moduleDefinitions>
		<moduleDefinition typeName="HelloWorld" entryPointClass="net.company.your.HelloWorld" horizontallyScalable="false" verticallyScalable="false">
			<webApp name="HelloWorld" distributedSessions="false" sessionAffinity="true" />
		</moduleDefinition>
	</moduleDefinitions>
	<nodeTypes>
		<nodeType name="HelloWorld">
			<module typeName="HelloWorld" />
		</nodeType>
	</nodeTypes>
	<connectionDispatchers/>
	<properties>
		<propertyList name="grid.module.classpath">
			<value>classes</value>
			<value>jars/*</value>
		</propertyList>
		<property name="grid.jvm.maxHeapMB">64</property>
	</properties>
</application>

Add the resources

Add the static (HTML, images, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) and dynamic (JSP) resources in a webapps sub-folder, for example index.jsp:

<%@ page import="java.util.*" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <body>Hello World! This is my first Grid application. The time is <%=new Date()%></body>
</html>

With the Infor Grid we don’t have a web server plugin to optimize serving static from dynamic content by URL path so I keep everything in the same folder.

Zip to a Grid archive

Create a file and folder structure like so:

+---classes
|   \---net
|       \---company
|           \---your
|                   HelloWorld.class
|
+---GRID-INF
|       application.xml
|
\---webapps
    \---HelloWorld
            image.png
            index.jsp
            script.js
            static.html
            style.css

ZIP the contents of the folder into a file and rename the file extension to .gar (make sure to ZIP the contents of the folder and not the folder itself or you will end up with an incorrect folder structure):

b1_

With Eclipse

You can also use Eclipse for this.

For that, create a new Java project, change the Default output folder from /bin to /classes, and add the grid-core as an external JAR:
b2

Create the file and folder structure as explained above:
b3_

ZIP the entire contents of the folder and change the file extension to .gar as explained above:
b4

Install the application

  1. Go to the Grid Management Pages > Advanced > Configuration > Configuration Manager > Applications and select Install New Application:
    b5
  2. Click Upload, browse to your GAR file, and click Upload:
    b6
  3. Select the hosts on which to deploy the app and click Finish:
    b7
  4. It will say “Operation completed.” Click Close:
    b8
  5. It will say “The application has no bindings defined”. Select Fix this problem:
    b9
  6. Enter Min 1 and Initial 1 and click Add Binding:
    b10
  7. It will say “The web application ‘HelloWorld’ of module ‘HelloWorld’ has no context root defined”. Select Fix this problem:
    b11
  8. Enter a Context Root Name and click Add:
    b12
  9. It will say “There are unsaved changes”. Click Save:
    b13
  10. Click Save to confirm the changes:
    b14
  11. The application is now deployed on the Infor Grid:
    b15

Result

Now we can try the application by going to /HelloWorld/:
18

My understanding of the Infor Grid is that applications run in a node, and that a node runs in its own JVM (probably to avoid collateral damage if the app crashes). We can confirm this by finding our app in the server’s Windows Task Manager:
b16

 

Updates

[UPDATED 2014-07-24]

At this point, you can update your files (JSP, HTML, JavaScript, etc) directly in the LifeCycle Manager deployment folder, refresh the browser, and the server will serve the new version of your files. This is the same type of updates we do with Smart Office scripts. If you do this, remember to backup your changes.

E:\LifeCycle\<host>\grid\<grid>\grids\<grid>\applications\HelloWorld\webapps\HelloWorld\

Limitations

Because of the distributed topology, fault tolerant, load balanced, scalable, and redundant nature of the Infor Grid, it is our responsibility as grid application developers to design them correctly. But we don’t yet know how to do that on the Infor Grid. Remember to call Infor about that. So keep it simple for now:

  • Make the application stateless until we find out how to store and share and synchronize state and make distributed sessions on the Grid.
  • Don’t make direct connections to any servers with network sockets until we find out how to abstract the communication with the Grid routers.
  • Don’t change any shared resources anywhere to avoid race conditions until we find out how to run critical sections on the Grid.
  • Don’t expect to do parallel programming since we don’t yet know how to communicate with multiple instances of the application.
  • Don’t persist data on disk as we don’t yet know how to abstract storage for failover and redundancy.

Summary

This was a hack to start developing simple applications on the Infor Grid. This technique is unofficial, undocumented and unsupported. It is our responsibility as developers to design applications correctly. Ask Infor to open up and support us.

That’s it! If you liked this, thank Jonathan, click Like, leave your comments below, subscribe to this blog, share with your peers, ask Infor to be open and embrace the community, and be responsible with your code. Thank YOU.

How to decrypt network traffic from Infor Grid

Here is a technique to intercept and decrypt the TLS (HTTPS) network traffic from the Infor Grid using Wireshark and the server’s private keys.

Why does it matter?

This technique is useful for troubleshooting products like M3 Web Services (MWS) and Infor Process Automation (IPA) which don’t log the HTTP requests and responses in their entirety. For instance, MWS Runtime can optionally dump the SOAP requests and SOAP responses but misses the HTTP request headers and HTTP response headers, and IPA only logs the HTTP response body but misses the HTTP request’s header and body and the HTTP response header, and neither MWS nor IPA let us hook to a proxy such as Fiddler. Sometimes it’s necessary to troubleshoot the HTTP requests and responses in their entirety. For example, I’m currently troubleshooting for a customer the case of a rogue white space somewhere in a request that’s throwing a syntax error down stream in a parser, and I need to chase the bug down by analyzing the hexadecimal values of the bytes, and for that I need un-encrypted traffic.

We could use Wireshark to intercept all network packets but if the traffic is encrypted with TLS (HTTPS) it’s unreadable. In public-key cryptography, a client and server initiate a TLS connection using asymmetric cryptography, and then switch to symmetric cryptography for the rest of the session. Fortunately, the Wireshark SSL dissector can decrypt traffic if we give it the server’s private keys. I had previously showed this technique a long time ago to decrypt Lawson Smart Office traffic and more recently to intercept un-encrypted IPA traffic. This time I update the technique for encrypted traffic of the Infor Grid.

Don’t get exited about hacking and don’t freak out about security because this technique is only available for those administrators that have access to the servers private keys and passwords.

Server’s private keys and passwords

First, we will need to find the Infor Grid’s private keys and passwords. I don’t do Grid installations so I don’t know where the keys are stored (if in the same path on any Grid, or if at a path defined by the installer), nor how the keys are generated (if automatically by the Grid, or if manually by the installer). In my case, I was testing on two different Grids and I found the keys in LifeCycle Manager (LCM) server at these two different paths:

D:\Infor\LifeCycle\<host>\grid\<grid>\grids\<grid>\secure\
E:\Infor\LifeCycle Manager\LCM-Server\grid\<grid>\keyStore\

This non-consistency tells me the path is defined by the installer.

Here is a screenshot:
b1

The paths contain many files of type *.ks and *.pw. The KS file type is a keystore encrypted with a password. The PW file type is the password in clear text; it looks encrypted but it’s just long random clear text. In my second Grid, there were about 50 pairs of files where the file names seem to follow a specific naming convention. That tells me the keys and passwords are generated automatically by the Grid.

Export and convert the private key

Now that we have the keystores and the passwords, we need to export the private key from the keystore and convert it to a format supported by Wireshark. For that, we can use the keytool of the JRE to export and OpenSSL to convert, or use KeyStore Explorer that will both export and convert.

Here’s with the keytool (export to PKCS12) and OpenSSL (convert to PEM):

keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore mykeystore.ks -destkeystore myexportedkey.p12 -deststoretype PKCS12
openssl pkcs12 -in myexportedkey.p12 -out myexportedkey.pem -nocerts -nodes -passin file:mykeystore.pw

b2

And here’s with the KeyStore Explorer (directly to PEM):
b3

Now we have a file with —–BEGIN PRIVATE KEY—–:
7

Import the private key in Wireshark

Now we import the key in Wireshark > Edit > Preferences > Protocols > SSL and set the Infor Grid server’s IP address, port and private key (PEM):
b4

Intercept and decrypt traffic

Now we are ready to intercept and decrypt traffic, for example we can go to the Grid Management Pages with HTTPS:
b5

Then we filter for ssl, see the decrypted traffic, the key exchange, and Follow SSL Stream:
b6

Summary

That was a technique to intercept and decrypt network traffic of the Infor Grid using Wireshark and the server’s private keys which is useful for troubleshooting purposes. This technique is only available to the administrators that have access to the servers.

If you know of a simpler technique please let me know.

That’s it. Please like, comment, subscribe, share. Thank you.

Grid MobileUI Management Pages

I recently came across Grid MobileUI, a mobile version of the Infor ION Grid Management Pages to efficiently monitor Grid Applications such as M3 on tablets and mobile phones like iPads and iPhones. I believe the Grid MobileUI was released with the new M3 13.1 in July. Here are some screenshots of the Grid MobileUI to spread the goodness.

The Grid MobileUI strips out the extra fat of the Grid Management Pages, keeping only the necessary information for an efficient user experience on a mobile device: you can easily see the list of Grid applications, you can check the errors and warning logs of each application, and you can automatically compose an email and it will paste the link to the page application details.

The Grid MobileUI is important to continue monitoring your M3 when you are on the move, for example when you are away from your office, commuting in the train, or waiting at the boarding gate at the airport. You can now pull up your tablet or your phone, and quickly address issues until you get back to your computer. It helps address issues faster and helps make more efficient use of your downtime.

In order to access the URL from your mobile device, you will have to use a VPN client on your mobile device to access your office network, or setup the web server in your DMZ and setup some form of encrypted authentication.

Here is a screenshot of the Infor ION Grid Management Pages for M3 showing the link to the Grid MobileUI:

2_

Here are two screenshots of the Grid MobileUI on an iPad, showing the main page, and one of the page application details:

5 6

Here is a screenshot of my iPhone’s Home Screen with the shortcut to the Grid MobileUI:

IMG_2487

Here are four screenshots of the Grid MobileUI on my iPhone, showing the main page, one of the page application details, the logs, and composing an email:

IMG_2489 IMG_2490 IMG_2491 IMG_2461

And if the Grid MobileUI is not enough for your administration needs, you can always request the desktop site on the iPad of the Grid Management Pages to get the full user interface, with the entire set of options, and all the detailed information:

7

That’s it!

Related articles:

  • H5 Client, a new HTML5 user interface for M3 that runs on mobile devices and modern browsers like Google Chrome.