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

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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Though a veteran language and platform, Erlang has recently gained a lot of traction, as very visible web sites and open source projects decided to use it in order to leverage its intrinsic support for highly concurrent, fault tolerant and distributed applications. To name a few, let’s mention: Facebook Chat, Mochiweb, ejabberd, RabbitMQ, riak and CouchDB.

Without opting for Erlang as a development platform, companies may still be tempted to leverage an Erlang-built middleware: most of them offer public interfaces accessible over generic protocols, like HTTP, and are easy to integrate quickly and efficiently. That said advanced scenarios can require a tighter integration like, for example, creating a module for ejabberd that requires to call custom Java code or reaching server functions on RabbitMQ that are not accessible through AMQP.

This is when the Duke meets Erl. And this is when Mule ESB can help, thanks to the new and coming Erlang Transport for Mule 3. Read on for more information about the transport and a walk-through a simple use-case of RabbitMQ integration. (more…)

We are pleased to announce that MuleSoft has joined the Activiti BPM project; this is a much-needed initiative in the industry. While there are many BPM players out there (with more cropping up every day it seems), none of them focus on the gaping hole in the market. No process is an island. There seem to be so many scenarios a stand-alone BPM solution just isn’t suitable, yet BPM capabilities can be used in many different contexts. Activiti is being written from the ground up with the requirement that the engine should be easily embedded and that the project would be aimed at developers not the business. This is a very natural fit for MuleSoft since our approach to middleware starts with the developer.
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Last Tuesday night’s  demonstration of the MuleSoft’s Eclipse Tool Suite at the Vancouver Eclipse Demo Camp went well. I almost got Nerf-gunned for a (slight) overtime but the organizers’ mercifulness has allowed me reach the end of the demo with a running sample For those who weren’t there, here is a summary of my presentation.

The challenge I’ve set to myself for this demonstration was the following: let’s figure out what’s the total length of roadworks currently happening in the city of Vancouver. Think of it as a reality check for your tax dollars at work!

Because Vancouver exposes plenty of its data on the web, this was really just a matter of pulling the right data source and transforming it to the desired output. Read on to find how I achieved this using Mule Data Integrator and Mule IDE…

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In 2010, MuleSoft is getting very proactive about energizing the partners segment of our community.  This month we are really happy about a new partnership we’ve entered into with a bunch of ex-Red Hatter’s via a new start up called Axial.  Axial aims to disrupt the traditional proprietary handling of electronic medical record management by a few dozen large healthcare ISV’s by driving down the cost and level of effort required to enable medical record sharing.  Axial has just announced Axial360, a new open source interface engine project that hopes to enable the creation of an open library of connectors to the vast landscape of healthcare systems and electronic medical record repositories.  MuleSoft is excited to support and participate this endeavor and encourage all interested Mule developers to check it out and lend a hand.

Interested in participating?  Go here and download 360 today.  Interested in formalizing a partnership with MuleSoft on this or other projects or our commercial products, visit www.mulesoft.com/mulesoft-partner-program.

Just as we’re always driving Mule ESB to make it easier to use, we’re also always taking user feedback and revving the Mule Community website to make it easier to find what you need, when you need it. The Mule Community website has a new look, so check it out!

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What is BPM and why would you use it with Mule?
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In a recent post by Loraine Lawson on ITBusinessEdge, an informal survey was cited that referenced a majority of mid-market CIOs who “said they had no current business need for SOA.” I was a little surprised by the headline since MuleSoft continues to see tremendous adoption of our open source Mule ESB and subscriptions of our enterprise version among companies I would describe as mid-market. So, I decided to read further and try to learn more. (more…)