Configuring Mule involves XML, and though using a decent XML editor can help a lot (thanks to the contextual help it provides from Mule’s schemas), there is still a enough angle brackets to warrant a coffee break as projects get more complicated.

As the number of services in a Mule project increases, so does the amount of noise in its configuration files, making it harder to understand and maintain them. We recommend splitting service configuration files, but in Mule 3 we’ve decided to go further and tackle this problem with the introduction of pattern-based configuration.

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Mule 3 GA is getting closer with each day, and brings numerous updates with it. Welcome a new member of the Mule family – a “Mule Application”!

What’s in the name? Some of you may have met this baby in its infancy before, or maybe were around to see it make first steps. Those would be even more pleased to see it running around today and welcoming you to play with it What did the baby learn in the meantime?:

• We can now name all our body parts (structure defined, app descriptor introduced, registry custom properties file added)
• We can stand the cold, all packed up (zipped application archive) or run in our summer shorts (exploded app archive support)
• We can ride our bike (on-the-fly app deployment), know how to get off it (undeploy at runtime), or even fix it on the go! (runtime app updates)

Pretty exciting stuff, I must say Meet the baby in the next public release, and enjoy some docs for now (free Mule account required). Follow the suggested links if things get moved around in the meanwhile:

• Application Layout and Deployment
• Application Deployment Descriptor

The Mule ESB team is pleased to announce the next milestone towards our final Mule 3.0 release. Recent work includes the following areas:

Hot Deployment – Mule now supports multiple applications running within the same Mule instance and deployment descriptors for specifying the contents of your deployment (e.g., multiple configuration files). Most of the Mule examples have been converted to the new deployment format*. If you have not yet read about the application deployment model new to Mule 3.0, read this blog post.

Message Exchange Patterns – Message Exchange Patterns (a.k.a. MEPs) give you more explicit and flexible control over the way messages flow through Mule. For example, you can now specify whether you expect a response on a given endpoint or not (see the new attribute “exchange-pattern” on endpoints). In the future, we may introduce additional exchange patterns that allow for different communication styles as well.

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Lat week we released Mule ESB 2.2.6 Enterprise. This release represents the most stable version of Mule ESB, with over 350 bug fixes since Mule ESB 2.2.1 Community.
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If you have used the Mule IDE you know it helps greatly to simplify setting up a Mule project in Eclipse, editing XML, and debugging and testing your application.

However, it still requires you to delve into the world of XML and understand how the different elements of a Mule configuration can be chained together. An exciting new project is underway at MuleSoft to revolutionize the simplicity and ease of using Mule. MuleStudio is the next generation of Mule tooling and will provide an Eclipse-based graphical IDE for designing Mule integration flows. (more…)

Right now TCP inbound endpoints are implemented as TCP servers that listen for data coming from different clients. In Mule ESB 2.2.6 we are adding a new feature to inverse the control: TCP inbounds can now poll data from remote servers.

It is really easy to switch to this strategy. Let’s take a look of how a mule configuration looks like:
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When you take a look at the examples that come with the latest Mule 3 milestone release, you’ll notice that endpoints have an exchange-pattern attribute now:

This attribute replaces the synchronous attribute we used before. Why did we change the configuration? The old synchronous attribute was purely a two-way state: it was either true or false. With the exchange-pattern attribute on endpoints we’re free to allow additional values in the future. Also, the term exchange pattern is more accurate than the old synchronous flag. When you define the exchange pattern “request-response” on an inbound endpoint, it’s clear that you are expecting a response.

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Over the past months, we’ve been regularly blogging about the cool new features that are coming in Mule 3. So far, we’ve presented these features in high level terms. In the coming days, we will start posting more detailed information about all the good stuff Mule 3 will offer and how you will be able to benefit from them.

Obviously, the most visible changes will concern the XML configuration. But, like the tip of the iceberg, that will only be a small part of the whole story. Deeper changes have occurred; and they were all about empowering Mule’s users.

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The Mule ESB team is pleased to announce the next milestone towards our final Mule 3.0 release. Recent work includes the following areas:

Hot Deployment – Mule now supports multiple applications running within the same Mule instance and deployment descriptors for specifying the contents of your deployment (e.g., multiple configuration files). All Mule examples included in the distribution have now been updated to use the new application deployment format. If you have not yet read about the application deployment model new to Mule 3.0, read this blog post.

Message Exchange Patterns – Message Exchange Patterns (a.k.a. MEPs) give you more explicit and flexible control over the way messages flow through Mule. For example, you can now specify whether you expect a response on a given endpoint or not (see the new attribute “exchange-pattern” on endpoints). In the future, we may introduce additional exchange patterns that allow for different communication styles as well.

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Do you have applications that rely on data or application logic in CICS/COBOL systems? Do you need to integrate those mainframe applications with the rest of your Java applications and services? Do you need an easy way to get COBOL data in and out of your mainframe environment? Do you need to safely bring high-value mainframe assets into your SOA, ESB and integration projects?

On July 14th at 10am PT,  join us for a live webinar on how Mule ESB and Mule Data Integrator allow the modernization and integration of mainframe CICS/COBOL systems.

In this 45 minute demo-driven event, Francis Upton, lead architect of Mule Data Integrator, will show how you can use Mule Data Integrator and Mule ESB to:

* Wrap a CICS/COBOL application as a web service in Mule ESB
* Use Mule ESB to integrate the COBOL service with a Java service
* Use Mule Data Integrator to transform the COBOL data to and from the Java objects
* Improve reuse and accessibility to mainframe data and logic

Logistics:
When: July 14, 2010
What time: 10am PT / 1pm ET
Click here to register!