Parodos is a Java toolkit to help enterprise's with a legacy footprint build internal developer platforms (IDP) that enable their developers to get access to the tools and environments required to start coding with less time, friction and frustration.
This repository contains the backing services for Parodos. The user interface for Parodos are Backstage (https://backstage.io/) plugins that will be contributed to Red Hat's Janus-IDP initiative (this work is in progress). https://github.com/janus-idp
The focus of Parodos is around Workflows (composed of WorkflowTasks) that bring together the existing tools and processes of the enterpise in an end-to-end experience that developers, quality assurance, produnction support and other enterprise software development/delivery team members can consume (through our Backstage plugins or by your own interfaces calling these backing services) to get the outcomes they need with less tickets/meetings/frustration.
Building an IDP provides a centralized place to improve the experience for developers trying to build and release code in large environments.
For many enterprise environments, especially regulated ones, the source of some of the friction preventing a positive developer experience is that they are entangled with long standing processes and tools which are tied to audit, compliance and regulation. These components are often:
- Unique to the enterprise
- Providing a necessary safeguard
- Difficult to change or remove
For more thoughts and opinions on the challenges in making changes to an existing software culture in an enterprise environment, please review the following blog:
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/modernization-why-is-it-hard
For more information about building IDPs in regulated enterprise environments, review the following:
Parodos is focused on building solutions based on technical stacks that are both familiar, and have a history of success for enterprises described in the preceding articles.
Although frameworks and ecosystems might exist to help build developer portals, getting some of these approved for production use in certain enterprises, especially if they have a large ecosystem written by disparate developers, might be difficult.
Some enterprises may struggle with Javascript heavy approaches. That is not to say such libraries, frameworks and platforms are not suited for the task. On the contrary they might be just what is needed, but a chasm might exist to fully adopt in an enterprise environment that has legacy technology and processes.
Other enterprises might have existing IDP tools that are home grown over years and might need to be leveraged in the initial stages of any new IDP work.
Parodos is ancient Greek and translates to 'a side-entrance to the stage'. In this theme, Parodos provides Java based building blocks (specifically Spring beans) to bring together backend processes and components that might be considered more 'legacy' as workflows (including existing IDP components) that can be consumed in Backstage.
The most common usecase for Parodos is giving developers a place where they can provide inputs for Assessments (ie: a link to their project code and/or an application identifying code), and based on logic determined by the enterprise a list of Workflows are presented to them.
Examples might be:
- Upgrade to existing tool stack and environments to newer versions
- Migrate to new tooling and environments
- Onboard for the first time to tooling and environments
- Add/Remove developers to a project
- Change properties of an environment (ie: add more memory to QA)
Developers will be presented with simple Wizard based steppers that collect information as needed and update them of any back-end approvals that are kicked off during the workflow which might result in a pause in the workflow.
In the backend Parodos will be calling the exact tooling to create enterprises approved blueprints for that specific use case.
All the logic of Parodos can be maintained in a seperate Java project using Spring beans as a means of creating and configuring workflows (future versions of Parodos will support other means of configuration).
The following describes who would benefit the most from Parodos:
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Enterprises that are struggling logistically (or technically due to challenges hiring in a specific technology stack) Javascript heavy products in the developer portal space
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Teams that are comfortable building and operating a custom Java based application
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Environments where there are existing tools for building, deploying and observing application that can be integrated with
If all of these exist, your enterprise may benefit from using Parodos to build some workflows to help developers deliver code faster.
Parodos is composed of the following components
workflow-service
Provides the APIs to run Workflows defined usinmg the Parodos model. It also persists Workflow definitions (and tracks changes of definitions), persists execution state and provides scheduling for long running WorkFlowTasks.
parodos-model-api
This is the model used by all services. It also contains some abstract definition of WorkflowTask for specific use cases (ie: Assessment, checking a downstream approval). At present all Workflows and WorkflowTasks are define as Spring Framework beans. More information can be found the the READ of the workflow-service, parodos-model-api and workflow-examples.
workflow-examples
A stand alone project that can be added to the workflow-service's classpath to provide some samples of what WorkFlows could look like. This is basically a 'Hello Wold' for the workflow-service
workflow-engine
The current library for exeucting WorkFlow(s) in Parodos service
notification-service
Simple API for posting read-only messages related to downstream processes. The Parodos Backstage plugins provide a UI to display these messages. This service might be useful for those team members who might not have access to other commonly used communication systems (like Slack). It also provides a means of providing the users with updates in the same interface where the workflow is being executed
pattern-detection-library
A java library that can be used in AssessmentTasks to identify application/configuration patterns that can be associated with specific workflows (ie: Batch applications might have a different pipeline and environments than a .NET based MVC application).
For more information on each of these, please review the README location in the root folder of each component.
Stay tuned to this repository as more Parodos components will be added in the coming weeks.
In the root of this folder execute:
mvn clean install
This will build the dependencies and install them into your local mvn directory. This last part is important as the Parodos 'workflow-engine' is not in Maven Central. If you wish to use it in a project like the workflow-examples, you will need to build it locally first.
Parodos provides an API and object model that can be used as a backing service for an IDP. If Backstage is in use, the Parodos Janus-IDP plugins can be used to provide a user experience to teams. If the enterprise has chosen to build their own IDP, or have an existing custom IDP they wish to enhance, the Parodos backing services can be consumed directly.
In this model the Parodos backing APIs are deployed in the enterprise environment along with Backstage where the Parodos plugins are deployed. Users interact with the plugins via Backstage, the plugins maintain state and call backend systems via the Parodos backing services
In the event that an environment is chosing to enhancing an existing IDP, or create their own, Parodos's Java APIs can be used to provide backing Workflows.