las2peer is a Java-based server framework for developing and deploying microservices in a distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) environment. las2peer was developed by the Advanced Community Information Systems (ACIS) group at the Chair of Computer Science 5 (Information Systems & Databases), RWTH Aachen University, Germany. It's main focus lies on providing developers with a tool to easily develop and test their microsservices and deploy them in a P2P network without having to rely on a centralized infrastructure.

Developers can develop and test their microsservices locally and then deploy them on any machine that has joined the network. For communication between nodes, the FreePastry (http://www.freepastry.org/) library is used.

Service Development

This project contains las2peer itself. To develop a service for las2peer, please use the las2peer Template Project and follow the instructions of the project's ReadMe.

If you want to learn more about las2peer, please visit the las2peer Template Project's Wiki Page.

Preparations

Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Installation

This step is not required with the following Java versions:

• any Java 9, Java 8u162 or later, Java 7u181 or later, Java 6u191 or later

las2peer depends on strong encryption enabled in its Java Runtime Environment (JRE). If you use an Oracle Java version, you have to enable strong encryption by replacing a set of policy files in subdirectory ./lib/security/ of your JRE installation.

Policy files for strong encryption can be downloaded via Oracle: JCE for Java 8

Each las2peer node performs an encryption self test on startup. If you want to make a more detailed test, use the JUnit-tests provided.

Build dependencies

• Apache ant
• Node 6 / npm

Project structure

Modules

This repository contains three las2peer modules:

• Core (/core)
• REST Mapper (/restmapper)
• Web Connector (/webconnector)

Each of them lays in its own subfolder, containing a build file providing the following tasks:

• ant or ant main_jar will build the respective jar of the submodule. The jars will be stored in /export/jars.
• ant junit_tests will run the respective junit tests. Test reports will be stored in /tmp/test_reports.
• ant javadoc will create the javadocs for the respective submodule. The results will be stored in /export/javadoc.
• ant all runs all the tasks from above.
• ant deploy-local deploys the respective submodule to the local ivy repository. If you have set up a project to resolve dependencies from the local repository, you can conventiently test your local changes to the code without pushing and publishing them to everyone.

Hint: If you want to build a module that depends on another module and want to test them together, run ant deploy-local on the dependency!

Bundle

las2peer has a modular structure and many dependencies. However, most installations use all modules together, this is why we provide a bundle of all submodules and their dependencies in one single jar. The build script for the bundle can be found in /bundle.

The build script provides the following tasks:

• ant or ant main_jar will build the fat jar. The jar will be stored in /export/jars.
• ant deploy-local deploys the bundle to the local ivy repository.

If you want to bundle your local changes, run ant deploy-local on all modules.

Super build script

To make life easier for us developers, this repository contains a build script for convenient building multiple submodules.

• ant or ant build-only will run deploy-local on each submodule
• ant all will run ant all and deploy-local on each submodule

CI

All subprojects and bundles will be built by Jenkins and be published as snapshot.