Can I extend WebSphere Liberty buildpack?

Question

I am looking for extending WebSphere Liberty buildpack included in Bluemix with some third party libraries from our application architecture, so the size of EAR file will decrease a lot and cf push command will be more fast and agile. Is it possible?

I know there is a WebSphere Liberty buildpack open sourced at Cloudfoundry.org but as far as I know, it is not so powerful like the one included in Bluemix and we would loose some interesting features.

Thanks!

Answer 1

To customize a Liberty server in Bluemix, you can also use the server package command of a local Liberty server, and then cf push the generated zip.

See https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/msardana/entry/developing_with_bluemix_customizing_the_liberty_build_pack_to_add_your_configurations for details

That, of course, defeats your goal of smaller deployment times, but I wanted to add the possibility for completeness and to prevent someone from forking the buildpack without needing it.

Answer 2

If you want to be more efficient during the development cycle where you constantly push changes, you can try the 'development mode' support in the Bluemix Liberty buildpack. This allows you to push incremental file changes without even restarting the Liberty server (not to mention the whole application container, aka no cf push). See the doc here: https://www.ng.bluemix.net/docs/manageapps/eclipsetools/eclipsetools.html#incrementalpublish. You can also do remote debugging with development mode.

Answer 3

The Liberty buildpack you find on GitHub should be pretty similar to the one Bluemix uses especially in terms of features. Beta features are included and auto-configuration should work so in theory if you do cf push appName -b https://github.com/cloudfoundry/ibm-websphere-liberty-buildpack.git -p myapp.war it should work the same way if you did cf push appName -p myapp.war.

If you want to modify the buildpack you can fork it and add the jars you want although I am unsure on the process for adding the jars. Maybe someone else can add an answer that points you in the right direction.

Answer 4

You can find an alternative buildpack for Websphere Liberty here. As you will notice, it is actually a CloudFoundry buildpack -- normally all of them will work in Bluemix. To use it, add a buildpack: line to your manifest.yml or a -b option to cf command line tool.

There is not much detail in your question as to what libraries or modifications you need, but this buildpack is in github and you can freely fork it and modify it. The buildpack prepares the runtime, and you should be able to add your own downloads in some hooks and replicate the directory structure you must be using locally. It is also very well documented, so you should find your way through the configurations if you are doing anything non-standard.

You are welcome to share your own new buildpack too!