How to add Buildpacks to Bluemix you want to use. By @HansB001

In this article I want to explain how simple it is to add your own Buildpacks to Bluemix.

According to IBM, a buildpack is the following:

A buildpack is a collection of scripts that prepare your code for execution on the target PaaS. A buildpack gathers the runtime and framework dependencies of an application. Then, it packages them with the application into a droplet that can be deployed to the cloud.

The Bluemix catalog offers 4 buildpacks:

• 

  Liberty for Java™

• 

  SDK for Node.js™

• 

  Ruby on Rails

• 

  Ruby Sinatra

If you can’t find what you need in the Bluemix Catalog you can add one of the more than 15 open-source, Cloud Foundry-compatible buildpacks. You specify the buildpack when you deploy your application by using the cf push command.  There fore you need to install the Command Line Interface (CLI) from Cloud Foundry.

Here you can find  the installer: https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli

 

Here you can find a list of Cloud Foundry Buildpacks:

https://github.com/cloudfoundry-community/cf-docs-contrib/wiki/Buildpacks

 

The command to add your own buildpack is the following:

 

> cf push [$NEW_APP_NAME] -b [$GIT_REPO_URL]

 

Source: http://www.bluemix.net

Internet of Things is cool! Here is how to get started. By @HansB001

I will explain how to get Node-RED ready to get you started building apps.

First let me explain what Node-RED is,

According to IBM:

Node-RED provides a browser-based flow editor that makes it easy to wire together devices, APIs, and online services using the wide range of nodes in the palette. Flows can be then deployed to the Node.js runtime with a single click.

Sounds like fun, right?

There are a few options to get started. I start with the easiest option.

First Option

In this case you don’t need to install anything, just an internet connection and a browser you prefer will do.

Get a free account for Bluemix: www.bluemix.net Bluemix is a cloud platform (PaaS) based on IBM’s Open Cloud Architecture and Cloud Foundry

When you have access to Bluemix, go to the catalog. Then you will see a lot of nicely colored building blocks.

You only need one: Node-RED Starter.

Click on it, give it an unique name,(on the right side) and click on create.

Wait a few seconds and…. Voila! Your Node-RED instance is running,

When your application is deployed, you see the URL in the top left of your screen, click on it and see you application running.

Now you can create flows! 🙂

You can customize your Node-RED instance in several ways: you can replace the landing page with your own, even adding new nodes to the palette, if you know a little bit about node.js.

There are some very nice sample flows and nodes available in Github.

Second Option

The second option to get started with Node-RED is a little bit more work. You are going to install Node-RED.

I want to describe how to install it on a device, in this case a raspberry Pi.

You will start with installing node,js, that is prety easy.

In a terminal use these commands:

wget http://node-arm.herokuapp.com/node_latest_armhf.deb

sudo dpkg -i node_latest_armhf.deb

Then install Node-RED, first you need to download the latest release. Download the latest release from the link on http://nodered.org. Then extract the file. The zip-file contains a folder called node-red-x.x.x (x.x.x is the version number).

Run the following command from this folder, :

$ npm install –production

Here you go, you installed Node-RED!

To run Node-RED, do the following from this folder:

Run: $ node red.js

You can then access Node-RED at http://localhost:1880.

For more information and samples go here:

Sources:

www.bluemix.net

http://nodered.org/

Beep beep boop a unique cloud video is born! By @HansB001

Hi all,

This week i did a lot of new things with social media. today I recorded a video via Google Hangouts. It is very nice and prety easy when you know someone who can help 🙂 I got help from John McNamara @j0nnymac. We talked about some nice video’s available on Youtube regarding Softlayer and Bluemix. John is very interested in gaming, so we mentioned two video’s of gaming on Softlayer and Bluemix. Here is the video: Bluemix and Softlayer.

It is my first video, the next one will be different I assure you!

Yesterday I promised to write something about the internet of things, that will come a few days later I am afraid.

Have a nice weekend!

First post! By @HansB001

Finally! Finally I took the step to start writing! I hope to add interesting things to the world. I specifically will write about the Internet of Things, Bluemix and all related and interesting stuff. I mostly like development in the cloud, for the cloud and with the cloud. But also other technologies like Watson, Big Data.

I am in the lucky position to  work in the IBM Innovation Center in Amsterdam. I work with a lot of new technologies from IBM and share the word about it.

In the next few days I will ad me first real post about Internet of Things, so come back soon!