End-to-end testing Java web applications with an embedded Tomcat

In this instalment on assembly testing [1] I'll talk about how automated system tests run over my Java web applications. The set-up is rather cheap, not very labour-intensive and can incrementally evolve from a simple assembly test (aka smoke test) to a full-fledged system test. Since this post is rather concrete naming tools and frameworks, … Continue reading End-to-end testing Java web applications with an embedded Tomcat →

Assembly tests

Assembly tests: a cheap way of testing "Lights on, lights off, no smoke. Works." A delivery manager from a large consulting firm once told me about a peculiar breed of automated system tests his team was using to catch regressions with minimal effort. He called those tests "assembly tests", essentially they start an entire application, … Continue reading Assembly tests →

Securing a development server

In this post I talk about setting up and securely operating development tools like Jenkins and Gitlab on a server connected to the internet. All applications run behind a firewall and a reverse HTTP proxy which allows only HTTP requests from selected users through who authenticate themselves with client certificates. Putting web-facing software on the … Continue reading Securing a development server →

Defensive software architecture

In this, hopefully, last post on this blog of the year I will try to gather my scattered thoughts on software architecture and specifically the need for defensive software architecture, and substantiate it with anecdotal evidence from my own project work. I will first talk about my definition of architecture and that of an architect … Continue reading Defensive software architecture →

SSLHandshakeException: unsupported certificate

When: loading client certificates from a custom keystore Reason: multiple certificates for the same domain but different purposes, e.g. one certificate handles email authentication, the other authenticates the user against a web server Solution: either fix the buggy code that selects the wrong certificate from the keystore or make sure only one certificate per domain … Continue reading SSLHandshakeException: unsupported certificate →