Monthly Archives: April 2017

Guidelines to avoid null check statements

If you are tired of seeing NullPointer Exception, you are not alone. In this post, I show some guidelines to avoid null check. Have you ever seen code like below?

Object obj = anotherobj.getObject();
if(obj != null)
{
    // do something with obj
}

Imagine if you have to write such if-statement block for every object or variable you retrieve from different contract objects in your code, it would make the code cumbersome and unreadable. Also, it gives an impression of the naivety of developers in such cases.

I am writing this post based on a heavy discussion happening on StackOverflow Avoiding Null Statements. I am only using this post as a reference and writing my own guidelines based on my own experience. Answers to that post on StackOverflow are worth to checkout.

Guidelines to avoid checking null statements

  1. If callee keeps a contract of never returning a null, then the caller doesn’t have to add any check statement for a null value. But this is the basic premise a developer should follow when writing methods.
  2. Most of the time, the issue is not method returning null, but the logic implemented in these methods is not accurate. If the business logic of a method knows a way to handle errors in cases when it can return the right data, it should return an error instead of returning null.
public String getEmployeeInformation(String empcode)
{
   if (empcode == null)
   {
     // instead of returning null, throw an error
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(" empcode is null ");
   }
}

3.  Java 8 offers a new keyword optional 

public Optional<Employee> getEmployeeInfoWithSSN(String ssn) 
{ 
  .............. 
}

 

So if the employee information with particular SSN is not found, then the caller of this method has to explicitly think about the type system.

4.  Intellij Idea offers Java annotations like `Nullable` and `NotNull` 

5.  Write junit test cases for your classes which check for `assertNotNull()`

6.  Java 7 offers a utility method for Objects , Objects.requireNonNull();

Conclusion

In this post, I showed guidelines to avoid null check. Once you use these strategies, you make your life as a programmer way easier.

References

  1. Avoid null check statements
  2. Optional keyword

 

 

Consuming a SOAP Webservice over HTTPS

In the previous post, we talked about producing and consuming a SOAP web service here. This post will be a sequel to that post since recently I faced a similar issue during my project. In this post, we will talk about how to consume a SOAP Webservice over HTTPS. Since this will be a small post, we will not be posting any code on GitHub.

Problem –

While consuming a SOAP web service which is behind SSL, if you don’t handle SSL certificates, you will run into the following error


sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:387)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(PKIXValidator.java:292)
at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Validator.java:260)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:324)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:229)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:124)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1351)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:156)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:925)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:860)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:1043)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1343)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.writeRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:728)
at sun.security.ssl.AppOutputStream.write(AppOutputStream.java:123)
at sun.security.ssl.AppOutputStream.write(AppOutputStream.java:138)
at SSLPoke.main(SSLPoke.java:31)
Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.build(SunCertPathBuilder.java:145)
at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(SunCertPathBuilder.java:131)
at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(CertPathBuilder.java:280)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:382)
... 15 more

 

Solution –

Basically this error is happening if your SOAP web service is on SSL and the client is trying to connect to web service, web service doesn’t recognize the client and throws this error.

To resolve this error, you can download an SSL certificate from the server where you are hosting the SOAP web service and import that certificate on your client machine’s Keystore. In a production environment, you should have a way to access this Keystore when a call is made to the web service.

Let’s assume that our web service from the post is on SSL, like https://localhost:8943/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl. If you access this URL in the browser, you will be able to see the SSL certificate. Export this SSL certificate in base 64 format file, example sslcertificate.crt. Import this certificate in

keytool -import -alias sslcertificateofserver -keystore truststore.jks -storepass changeit -file sslcertificate.crt

Now, we will change the configuration class we wrote to configure web service components.


package com.betterjavacode.benefits.views;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller;

@Configuration
public class ClientAppConfig
{
   private Resource getKeyStore()
   {
     Environment.getProperty("betterjavacode.com.keystore");
   }

   private String getKeystorePassword()
   {
     Environment.getProperty("betterjavacode.com.keyStorePassword");
   }

   @Bean
   public Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller()
   {
     Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller = new Jaxb2Marshaller();
     marshaller.setContextPath("com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap");
     return marshaller;
   }

   @Bean
   public UserClient userClient(Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller) 
   {
     // WSDL URL - http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl
     UserClient uc = new UserClient();
     uc.setDefaultUri("http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl");
     uc.setMarshaller(marshaller);
     uc.setUnmarshaller(marshaller);

     FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(getKeyStore());
     KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
     ks.load(fis, getKeyStorePassword().toCharArray());

     try 
     {
       fis.close();
     } 
     catch (IOException e) 
     {
     }
     KeyManagerFactory keyManagerFactory = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance(KeyManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
     keyManagerFactory.init(ks, keyStorePassword.toCharArray());

     FileInputStream fisTS = new FileInputStream(getKeyStore());
     KeyStore ts = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
     ts.load(fisTS, trustStorePassword.toCharArray());

     try 
     {
       fisTS.close();
     } 
     catch(IOException e) 
     {
     }
     TrustManagerFactory trustManagerFactory = TrustManagerFactory.getInstance(TrustManagerFactory.getDefaultAlgorithm());
     trustManagerFactory.init(ts);

     HttpsUrlConnectionMessageSender messageSender = new HttpsUrlConnectionMessageSender();
     messageSender.setKeyManagers(keyManagerFactory.getKeyManagers());
     messageSender.setTrustManagers(trustManagerFactory.getTrustManagers());

     HostNameVerifier hv = new HostNameVerifier(){
        @Override
        public boolean verify( String hostname, SSLSession session)
        {
          return true;
        }
     }
     messageSender.setHostnameVerifier(hv);
     uc.setMessageSender(messageSender);
     return uc;
  } 
}

This change should fix the error about PKIX path building failed.

Conclusion –

In conclusion, we showed how to consume a SOAP Webservice over HTTPS by adding Keystore and Truststore check during runtime.

References

Producing and Consuming SOAP Webservice with Spring Boot – Part V

In this post, we will describe how to create a SOAP webservice from our existing Spring Boot REST API. In the last few posts, we have covered the following

  1. Spring Boot REST CRUD API – Part I
  2. Swagger Documentation for Spring Boot REST API – Part II
  3. Error Handling and logging in Spring Boot REST API – Part III
  4. Consuming RESTful Webservice – Part IV

This SOAP webservice will provide us user data from the database which is we have connected through Spring-data in Spring REST API.

1. Requirements

  1. Eclipse Mars2
  2. Maven 3.1 and above
  3. Spring 1.4 and above
  4. Java 7
  5. Tomcat 8

2. SOAP Web Service

We will use our existing Spring Boot REST API to build an application that will act as a SOAP web service to provide users data. For a given user id, web service will return user data.

Let’s create a schema file in src/main/resources directory and maven will create java classes based on this schema file.


<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:tns="https://betterjavacode.com/benefits/soap" targetNamespace="https://betterjavacode.com/benefits/soap" elementFormDefault="qualified">
 <xs:element name="getUserRequest">
  <xs:complexType>
   <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="id" type="xs:int"/>
   </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
 </xs:element>
 <xs:element name="getUserResponse">
  <xs:complexType>
   <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="user" type="tns:user"/>
   </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
 </xs:element>
 <xs:complexType name="user">
  <xs:sequence>
   <xs:element name="id" type="xs:int"/>
   <xs:element name="firstname" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="middlename" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="username" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="createdate" type="xs:date"/>
   <xs:element name="jobtitle" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="email" type="xs:string"/>
  </xs:sequence>
 </xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>

 

3. Update Maven dependencies

Now to generate classes from schema, we have to make sure we have all the right dependencies in our pom.xml. We will also add spring boot service dependency to create a SOAP web service.


<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 <groupId>com.betterjavacode</groupId>
 <artifactId>Benefits</artifactId>
 <packaging>war</packaging>
 <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
 <name>Benefits Maven Webapp</name>
 <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
 <parent>
 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
 <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
 <version>1.4.2.RELEASE</version>
 </parent>
 <dependencies>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
 <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
 </dependency>
<dependency>
 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
 <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>mysql</groupId>
 <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
 <scope>runtime</scope>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
 <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
 <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
 <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>io.swagger</groupId>
 <artifactId>swagger-jersey2-jaxrs</artifactId>
 <version>1.5.12</version>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>io.springfox</groupId>
 <artifactId>springfox-swagger2</artifactId>
 <version>2.6.1</version>
 <scope>compile</scope>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>io.springfox</groupId>
 <artifactId>springfox-swagger-ui</artifactId>
 <version>2.6.1</version>
 <scope>compile</scope>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
 <artifactId>log4j-api</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
 <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
 <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web-services</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>wsdl4j</groupId>
 <artifactId>wsdl4j</artifactId>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
 <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
 <version>2.1</version>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
 <groupId>junit</groupId>
 <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
 <scope>test</scope>
 </dependency>
 </dependencies>
 <build>
 <plugins>
 <plugin>
 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>3.3</version>
 <configuration>
 <source>1.8</source>
 <target>1.8</target>
 </configuration>
 </plugin>
 <plugin>
 <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>2.6</version>
 <configuration>
 <warSourceDirectory>WebContent</warSourceDirectory>
 <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
 </configuration>
 </plugin>
 <plugin>
 <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
 <artifactId>jaxb2-maven-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>1.6</version>
 <executions>
 <execution>
 <id>xjc</id>
 <goals>
 <goal>xjc</goal>
 </goals>
 </execution>
 </executions>
 <configuration>
 <schemaDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/</schemaDirectory>
 <outputDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/java</outputDirectory>
 <clearOutputDir>false</clearOutputDir>
 <schemaLanguage>WSDL</schemaLanguage>
 <generatePackage>com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap</generatePackage>
 <forceRegenerate>true</forceRegenerate>
 <scehmas>
 <schema>
 <url>http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl</url>
 </schema>
 </scehmas>
 </configuration>
 </plugin>
 </plugins>
 <finalName>Benefits</finalName>
 </build>
 </project>

 

If we run the project with maven build now, the plugin jaxb2-maven-plugin will generate classes under com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap directory. It will also enable our wsdl SOAP url for users. This will generate following java objects

  • GetUserRequest
  • GetUserResponse
  • ObjectFactory
  • package-info
  • User

4. Defining the service

Next, we will define an interface for our service. This will look like below


package com.betterjavacode.benefits.services;

public interface UserAccountService
{
    public com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap.user.getUserDetails(int id);
}

Implementation of this service will be mapping out entity class User to generated class for soap service User. Using the id as a key to get user data from repository, we will map to soap service user. For post purposes, we will not show the implementation of this interface.

5. Creating the Service Endpoint

What is a service endpoint? When a SOAP request for defined URL is handled by Spring servlet, Spring servlet redirects that request to service endpoint. Service endpoint then processes that request to create a response. Our spring-boot-starter-web-services dependency will bring all the necessary classes for annotation purposes.


package com.betterjavacode.benefits.services.endpoints; 

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired; 
import org.springframework.ws.server.endpoint.annotation.Endpoint; 
import org.springframework.ws.server.endpoint.annotation.PayloadRoot; 
import org.springframework.ws.server.endpoint.annotation.RequestPayload; 
import org.springframework.ws.server.endpoint.annotation.ResponsePayload; 
import com.betterjavacode.benefits.services.UserAccountService; 
import com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap.GetUserRequest; 
import com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap.GetUserResponse; 
import com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap.User; 

@Endpoint 
public class UserAccountServiceEndpoint 
{ 
  // private static final String TARGET_NAMESPACE ="http://com/betterjavacode/benefits/webservices/useraccountservice";  
  private static final String TARGET_NAMESPACE =   "https://betterjavacode.com/benefits/soap"; 
  @Autowired private UserAccountService userAccountService; 
  @PayloadRoot(localPart = "getUserRequest", namespace = TARGET_NAMESPACE) 

  public @ResponsePayload GetUserResponse getUserRequest(@RequestPayload    GetUserRequest request) 
  {  
     GetUserResponse response = new GetUserResponse(); 
     User user = userAccountService.getUserDetails(request.getId()); 
     response.setUser(user); 
     return response; 
   } 
}

@Endpoint annotation allows the class to be defined as service endpoint and included in @Component annotation for scanning. Make sure the namespace defined in this class matches with XSD schema definition. Otherwise, you can run into error for “No Endpoint defined for“.

6. Configuration

Next, we will configure our configuration class to generate wsdl endpoint. This configuration class will be annotated by @EnableWs to provide web service configuration.


package com.betterjavacode.benefits;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ServletRegistrationBean;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
import org.springframework.ws.config.annotation.EnableWs;
import org.springframework.ws.config.annotation.WsConfigurerAdapter;
import org.springframework.ws.transport.http.MessageDispatcherServlet;
import org.springframework.ws.wsdl.wsdl11.DefaultWsdl11Definition;
import org.springframework.xml.xsd.SimpleXsdSchema;
import org.springframework.xml.xsd.XsdSchema;

@Configuration
@EnableWs
@ComponentScan("com.betterjavacode")
public class AppConfig extends WsConfigurerAdapter
{

    @Bean
 public ServletRegistrationBean messageDispatcherServlet(ApplicationContext applicationContext)
 {
  MessageDispatcherServlet servlet = new MessageDispatcherServlet();
  servlet.setApplicationContext(applicationContext);
  return new ServletRegistrationBean(servlet,"/benefits/endpoints/*");
 }

 @Bean(name="users")
 public DefaultWsdl11Definition defaultWsdl11Definition(XsdSchema usersSchema)
 {
  DefaultWsdl11Definition wsdl11definition = new DefaultWsdl11Definition();
  wsdl11definition.setPortTypeName("UserAccountService");
  wsdl11definition.setLocationUri("/endpoints");
  wsdl11definition.setTargetNamespace("http://com/betterjavacode/benefits/webservices/useraccountservice");
  wsdl11definition.setSchema(usersSchema);
  return wsdl11definition;
 }

 @Bean
 public XsdSchema usersSchema()
 {
  return new SimpleXsdSchema(new ClassPathResource("employees.xsd"));
 }
}

Few important points about this configuration class are

  • MessageDispatcherServlet is a required servlet to dispatch web service messages. We set this servlet with a bean to handle the URL from which request will be coming.
  • DefaultWsdl11Definition creates SOAP for the given XSD schema
  • XsdSchema provides an abstraction for our users XSD schema

7. Running the SOAP Webservice

Now build our project with maven. Run the spring boot application through eclipse to start the embedded tomcat server. Once the tomcat server starts, if we access url http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl

Output in the browser will be as below

SOAP Webservice - wsdl endpoint

Here we showed how to create a simple SOAP webservice which we have combined with Spring Boot REST API service. We can also test this SOAP webservice using Soap UI, as shown in below screenshot

SOAP Webservice - SoapUITest

8. Consuming the SOAP web service

In previous steps, we showed how to produce a SOAP web service, now we will show how to consume this SOAP web service programmatically.

8.1 Create a client class

Under package com.betterjavacode.benefits.views, define a class UserClient which will extend a WebServiceGatewaySupport class. WebServiceGatewaySupport class provides web service methods.


package com.betterjavacode.benefits.views; 

import org.springframework.ws.client.core.support.WebServiceGatewaySupport; 
import org.springframework.ws.soap.client.core.SoapActionCallback; 
import com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap.GetUserRequest; 
import com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap.GetUserResponse; 

public class UserClient extends WebServiceGatewaySupport 
{

   public GetUserResponse getUserById(int userid) 
   { 
      GetUserRequest userrequest = new GetUserRequest(); userrequest.setId(userid); 
      GetUserResponse response = (GetUserResponse) getWebServiceTemplate().marshalSendAndReceive(userrequest, new SoapActionCallback("http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/getUserResponse"));  
      return response;  
    }  
}

8.2 Configure the client for Spring Bean support

We will configure Jaxb2Marshaller to support JAXB to set context path. This will help us marshal and unmarshal our xml request and response through.


package com.betterjavacode.benefits.views; 

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean; 
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration; 
import org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller; 

@Configuration 
public class ClientAppConfig 
{ 

   @Bean 
   public Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller() 
   {  
       Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller = new Jaxb2Marshaller(); 
       marshaller.setContextPath("com.betterjavacode.benefits.soap"); 
       return marshaller;  
    } 
    
    @Bean 
    public UserClient userClient(Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller)  
    {  
        // WSDL URL - http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl 
        UserClient uc = new UserClient(); 
        uc.setDefaultUri("http://localhost:8080/benefits/endpoints/users.wsdl"); 
        uc.setMarshaller(marshaller);  
        uc.setUnmarshaller(marshaller);
        return uc; 
     }  
}

8.3 Run the SOAP web service client

We will define a class with the main method to pass an argument of user id. Our client will call the web service with a passed argument to return the data if that user id exists in the database.

9. Conclusion

In this article, we showed how to create a SOAP web service and how to build a client to consume the same SOAP web service using Spring Boot. The code for this is available at github

10. References

  1. Spring Web services tutorial
  2. SOAP Web service producer and consumer
  3. Consuming a web service in java and SOAP UI

 

Consuming a RESTful Webservice – Part IV

Continuing the series of posts on Spring Boot, in this post, we will investigate how to consume a REST API service we built previously. This will be a short post on how to use Rest Template to call REST service. We will show how to read the data and how to post the data with some of the features Spring Boot offers to consume a REST service for the client-side.

The eventual goal is to use this feature to call our rest service during runtime to use the data from the database to display on views that a user will be able to see.

You can read previous posts on this series Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Purpose

The purpose of this post is to read company data from Company REST API and also to create a company by posting company data using the same REST API.

Build a client with Rest Template

To consume a rest service programmatically, Spring provides a feature called RestTemplate. RestTemplate is the easiest way for a client to interact with the server-side code with just one line of code.

In our client code, we will need a RestTemplate object, REST service URL. Since this is a sample we are building, we will be adding the main method in this class to run this client side of the code. In real-life scenarios, during runtime, client code will call the rest template to get server-side data, and use that data to massage or display to the user on the user interface.

 

RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
String resourceAPI_URL = "http://localhost:8080/benefits/v1/companies/{id}";
Company company = restTemplate.getForObject(resourceAPI_URL, Company.class, 1);

This code is showing that we are calling REST service to read company data for a company with id that a client will pass.

Similarly, we will have another request to post the data on the server side to create a company. The code for that will look like below:

String resourceAPI_POSTURL = "http://localhost:8080/benefits/v1/companies/";

Company comp = new Company();

comp.setName("XYZ Company");
comp.setStatusid(1);
comp.setType("Corporation");
comp.setEin("9343423232");

Company newcomp = restTemplate.postForObject(resourceAPI_POSTURL, comp, Company.class);

In this post, we showed how to use RestTemplate a feature that Spring Boot provides to consume a REST service. The code for this is available here

Home » Archives for April 2017

 

Notes from the book – Getting Real

Here, I will post the notes from the book Getting Real by 37Signals. You can download the copy on their website Getting Real.

The entire book can be summarized in the fact that you build a simple software and then add features. Do not complicate initial design and release. Get it done and ship it.

Notes

  • When there’s too many people involved, nothing gets done. The leaner you are, the faster – and better – things get done.
  • Getting real is a low-risk, low investment way to test new concepts.
  • Build less
    • Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave hairy, difficult, nasty problems to everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.
    • When you solve your own problem, you create a tool that you’re passionate about. And passion is key. Passion means you’ll truly use it and care about it. And that’s the best way to get others to feel passionate about it too.
    • Outside money is plan B. Fund your own innovation and your ideas. Constraints drive innovation. If you’re creating software just to make a quick buck, it will show. Truth is a quick payout is pretty unlikely. So focus on building a quality tool that you and your customers can live with for a long time.
    • Launching something great that’s a little smaller in scope than planned is better than launching something mediocre and full of holes because you had to hit some magical time, budget and scope window.
    • Setting expectation is key.
    • The ability to change is key. Having everything fixed makes it touch to change. Injecting scope flexibility will introduce options based on your real experience building the product. Flexibility is your friend. Scope down. It’s better to make half a product than a half-assed product.
  • One bonus you get from having an enemy is a very clear marketing message. People are stroked by conflict. And they also understand a product by comparing it to others. With a chosen enemy, you’re feeding people a story they want to hear.
  • Your passion – or lack of – will shine through. The less your app is a chore to build, the better it will be. Keep it small and managable so you can actually enjoy the process.
  • When it comes to web technology, change must be easy and cheap. If you can’t change on the fly, you’ll lose ground to someone who can.
  • For first version of your app, start with only three people. That’s the magic number that will give you enough manpower yet allow you to stay streamlined and agile. Start with a developer, a designer and a sweeper.
  • Embrace the constraints, let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage.
  • Details reveal themselves as you use what you’re building. You’ll see what needs more attention. You’ll feel what’s missing.
  • Don’t sweat stuff until you actually must. Don’t overbuild. Increase hardware and system software as necessary. If you’re slow for a week or two it’s not the end of the world. Just be honest to your customers, explain them you are experiencing some growing pains.
  • The customer is not always right. The truth is you have to sort out who’s right and who’s wrong for your app. The good news is that the internet makes finding the right people easier than ever.
  • In the beginning, make building a solid core product your priority instead of obsessing over scalability and server farms. Create a great app and then worry about what to do once it’s wildly successful.
  • The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for features, they are looking for an approach. Decide what your vision is and run with it.
  • What you really want to do is to build half a product that kicks ass.
  • The secret to building half a product instead of a half-ass product is saying no. Each time you are saying yes to a feature, you are adopting a child. The initial response is “not now”. If a request for a feature keeps coming back, that’s when we know it’s time to take a deeper look.
  • Build products and offer services you can manage. It’s easy to make promises. It’s much harder to keep them.
  • Don’t force conventions on people. Instead make your software general so everyone can find their own solution.
  • Just because x number of people request something, doesn’t mean you have to include it. Sometimes it’s better to just say no and maintain your vision for the product.
  • More isn’t the answer. Sometimes the biggest favor you can do for customers is to leave something out.
  • Running software is the best way to build momentum, rally your team, and flush out ideas that don’t work. It should be your number one priority from day one. Real things lead to real reactions. And that’s how you get to the truth.
  • Don’t expect to get it right for first time. Let the app grow and speak to you. Let it morph and evolve. With web-based software there’s no need to ship perfection. Design screens, use them, analyze them, and then start over again.
  • From Idea to implementation
    • Big questions – What does the app need to do? How will we know when it’s useful?  What exactly are we going to make? This is about high level ideas, not pixel-level details.
    • Get your ideas out of your head onto the paper. Sketches are quick, dirty and cheap.
    • Make an HTML version of that feature. Get something real posted, so everyone can see what it looks like on screen.
  • Preferences are evil because they create more software. More options require more code.
  • Decisions are temporary so make the call and move on. Done means you’re building momentum.
  • There’s no substitute for real people using your app in real ways. Get real data. Get real feedback. Then improve based on that info.
  • During alone time, give up IM, phone calls, meetings and emails. This is the time you can get in the zone for real work.
  • Simple rules for a meeting
    • Set a 30 minutes timer. Meeting should get over in 30 minutes. Period.
    • Invite as few people as possible.
    • Never have a meeting without a clear agenda.
  • Quick wins that you can celebrate, are great motivators. Release something today.
  • Too many apps start with a program-first mentality. That’s a bad idea. Programming is the heaviest component of building an app, meaning it’s the most expensive and hardest to change. Instead, start by designing first.
  • For each screen, you need to consider three possible states:
    • Regular
    • Blank
    • Error
  • You need to speak same language as your audience too. Just because you’re writing a web app doesn’t mean you can get away with technical jargon. Good writing is good design.
  • The fewer screens you have to worry about, the better they’ll turn out.
  • Solving 80% of the original problem for 20% of the effort is a major win.
  • Don’t be afraid to say no to feature requests that are hard to do.
  • Your code can guide you to fixes that are cheap and light.
  • Functional specs are useless. You know the least about something when you begin to build it. The more you build it, the more you use it, the more you know it.
  • Write one page story about what the app needs to do. Use plain language and make it quick. If it takes more than one page to explain it, then it’s too complex.
  • Build, don’t write. If you need to explain something, try mocking up and prototyping it rather than writing a long-winded document.  An actual interface or prototype is on its way to becoming a real product.
  • To build a better interface, do as your customers do and you’ll understand them better.
  • Your product has a voice and it is talking to your customer 24 hours a day.
  • Make signup and cancellation a painless process. Make sure people can get their data out if they decide to leave.
  • Hollywood Launch
    • Teaser
    • Preview
    • Launch
  • Start off by creating a blog that not only touts your product but offers helpful advice, tips, tricks, links etc.
  • Get advance buzz and signups going asap.
  • Promote through education
    • When the subject you are teaching is your app, it serves dual purpose. You can give something back to the community that supports you and score some nice promotional exposure at the same time.
    • Update your blog regularly and post tips & tricks, articles that help your customer and community
  • If the comments you are receiving for your app, are negative, pay attention. Show you’re listening. Respond to critiques thoughtfully.
  • Listening to customers is the best way to get in tune with your product’s strengths and weaknesses.
  • Strive to build a tool that requires zero training. The less complex is your app, the less you’ll need to help people out.
  • Be as open, honest and transparent as possible. Don’t keep secrets or hide behind spin. An informed customer is your best customer.
  • Go with the flow – be open to new paths and changes in direction. Part of the beauty of web app is its fluidity.

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