Using Dagger for Dependency Injection with Cucumber Tests (4 mins read).
How and why to add Dagger for your Cucumber tests' dependency injection.
Blog posts from 2021
Back to /posts/.
Gotcha: PicoContainer requires Zero-Argument Constructors (2 mins read).
A little gotcha around using PicoContainer (with Cucumber) where it may not be usable unless you have zero-arg constructors.
by 
Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#cucumber
#picocontainer.
Publishing a NPM Package to npmjs.com from GitLab CI (1 mins read).
How to publish an NPM package to the public NPM registry, using GitLab CI.
Announcing a new package: @jamietanna/spectral-test-harness (1 mins read).
Announcing a new NPM package for easier testing of Spectral API linting.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#spectral-test-harness
#api
#unit-testing
#testing
#javascript
#nodejs.
Test Driven Development for Your Spectral Rules, using Jest (7 mins read).
How to write unit tests for Spectral API linting, in a test-driven development fashion.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#spectral-test-harness
#spectral
#api
#unit-testing
#testing
#javascript
#nodejs
#tdd.
Autowiring your controllers automagically when using MockMVC and Spring Cloud Contract (2 mins read).
How to automagically set up your Spring controllers when using MockMVC with Spring Cloud Contract.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#spring
#spring-boot
#spring-cloud-contract.
Decompiling Java Class Files On the Command-Line (2 mins read).
How to use the Fernflower decompiler on the command-line to decompile compiled Java classes.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java.
Validating a Spring (Boot) Response Matches JSON Schema with MockMVC (3 mins read).
How to perform JSON Schema validation for a Spring (Boot) service's response when testing using MockMVC.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#spring
#spring-boot
#java
#json-schema.
Retrieving All Dependencies Required by a JAR at Runtime (3 mins read).
How to handily retrieve the full runtime classpath required for a JAR file, using Gradle.
Use a (JSON) Schema for the Interface Portion of your RESTful API (3 mins read).
Why you should be using a well-defined (JSON) Schema for the data classes that your API consumers will need to utilise.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#api
#json-schema
#rest.
Getting the Date from a Week Number in Java (1 mins read).
How to get the date from a week number and year in Java.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java.
Debugging Chef Variables With Logs (3 mins read).
How you can use different means of logging to make operations with Chef cookbook a little easier.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef.
Getting the Battery Status of a Bluetooth Device on Linux (1 mins read).
How to use dbus-send to retrieve the percentage of battery left on a Bluetooth device on Linux.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#command-line
#bluetooth
#linux.
Converting a Kitchen YAML to Chef Attributes (2 mins read).
How to convert attributes being set for your Chef Test Kitchen integration tests to an attributes.rb format.
Using systemd-tmpfiles to manage temporary files and directories (2 mins read).
How I'm using systemd-tmpfiles to manage a temporary working directory and automagically clean it out.
Should That (Secret) Thing Be In Your Querystring? (2 mins read).
Why you should be very cautious about putting potentially sensitive values into the querystring of web APIs.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#api
#security.
Owning my Hashtags (2 mins read).
Why I decided to treat hashtags in my (syndicated) content as tags on my site.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#indieweb.
Extracting the Default Private / Secret Keys from OpenAM/Forgerock AM (2 mins read).
How to retrieve the contents of the private or secret keys from an OpenAM/Forgerock AM installation.
Converting an Image to a Base64 data URL with Node.JS (1 mins read).
How to convert an image to a data URL using Node.JS on the command-line.
Appending Values to a Querystring with Ruby (1 mins read).
How to append a query parameter to a URL's querystring in Ruby.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ruby.
Making Zoom Notifications/Windows Float on BSPWM (1 mins read).
How to get BSPWM to handle Zoom notification windows as floating windows, instead of tiles.
Automagically Assuming AWS Roles for EC2/ECS (1 mins read).
How to set up your AWS infrastructure to automagically assume IAM roles.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#aws.
Reducing Risk of Supply Chain Attacks with Reproducible Builds in Gradle (1 mins read).
How to enable Gradle's reproducible builds functionality to allow others to verify your released libraries don't contain uncommitted, malicious code.
Packaging Wiremock Stubs into a Standalone JAR (2 mins read).
How to use Gradle to package a standalone JAR for Wiremock, including any stubs needed.
Testing Data Serialisation/Deserialization in Java (with Moshi) (3 mins read).
How to validate your JSON types correctly serialise/deserialise when using the Moshi library.
Generate Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) from JSON Schema Definitions with Gradle (3 mins read).
How to generate POJOs really quickly and easily, with no manual work, using the Gradle jsonschema2pojo Plugin.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#gradle
#java
#json-schema.
Shift Your Testing Left with Spring Boot Controllers (5 mins read).
How to break down your tests for Spring Boot controllers, which could be used when performing Test Driven Development.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#testing
#tdd
#spring-boot.
Generate Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) from XML Schema Definitions with Gradle (1 mins read).
How to generate POJOs really quickly and easily, with no manual work, using the Gradle XJC Plugin.
Use (End-to-End) Tracing or Correlation IDs (4 mins read).
Why you should be requesting, and logging, a unique identifier per request for better supportability.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#production
#incident-management
#supportability.
Lessons Learned from Running Java in Serverless Environments like AWS Lambda (10 mins read).
Some recommendations for running Java as a Serverless application language, for instance on AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Functions.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#aws
#aws-lambda
#serverless
#google-cloud.
Determining the Version Of Libraries Packaged into the Java AWS Lambda Runtime (3 mins read).
How to determine what libraries, and their respective versions, are packaged into AWS Lambda.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#aws
#aws-lambda
#serverless.
Generating Dynamic Identifiers with Thymeleaf (1 mins read).
How to generate a dynamic ids for elements in Thymeleaf.
Controlling the Linux Backlight via the Command-Line (1 mins read).
How to manage your screen backlight on the command-line, without installing any tools.
Make Your RSS Feed Discoverable (1 mins read).
Why and how you should make it possible to automagically discover your feed(s).
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#rss
#feed.
Why You Should Avoid using Client Secret Authentication for OAuth2 Client Credentials (7 mins read).
Why I recommend against using client secret authentication for OAuth2 and OpenID Connect APIs.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#oauth
#oauth2
#oidc
#security.
Running a Java WAR File on the Command-Line (2 mins read).
How to run a WAR file locally, using Jetty, without installing anything.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#war.
Querying and Interacting with CSV Files More Easily with SQLite (1 mins read).
How to use sqlite3 to parse and query comma-separated value files.
How We Built a Team with a High Net Promoter Score (24 mins read).
Sharing the "Secret Sauce" of why the Purple Pandas was a team that was highly effective, and had a high NPS, too.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#capital-one
#job
#communication
#diversity-and-inclusion.
Creating More Descriptive and Fluent Assertion Helpers (4 mins read).
How to improve test readability, and developer experience, using assertion helpers.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#testing
#java
#ruby
#rspec
#assertj.
Using Middleman Redirects with a Custom, Non-HTML Content Type (2 mins read).
How to get Middleman's redirect to work with files that are not HTML.
Improving Team Efficiency By Measuring and Improving Code Review Cycle Time (9 mins read).
How measuring how long code review took as a team lead to being able to change our processes, and then deliver much more effectively.
Using JitPack to Install Gradle Plugins from Git Sources (2 mins read).
How to use JitPack to use an unreleased Gradle plugin from a Git repo in your Gradle projects.
Listing Which GitHub Pull Requests are in a Project (2 mins read).
How to list the PRs inside a Project on Github, for example, via a Ruby client.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#github
#github-projects
#ruby.
Things I Learned Migrating My Personal APIs To Kubernetes (10 mins read).
What I learned while migrating from a number of Java applications on Virtual Private Servers (VPS) to a Kubernetes cluster.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#kubernetes
#personal-infrastructure
#sysadmin
#java
#spring-boot.
Updating a Secret in Kubernetes with the Java Client (3 mins read).
How to use the Kubernetes Java SDK to patch a secret through Kubernetes' secrets API.
How to Undo a git push --force (5 mins read).
How to recover from a force push with Git.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#git.
Debugging Middleman Code With Middleman's Logger (1 mins read).
How to diagnose issues in Middleman, using logging output.
Lightweight and Powerful Dependency Injection for JVM-based Applications with Dagger (7 mins read).
How and why you should be using Dagger for your dependency injection.
Implementing IndieAuth Server Metadata (2 mins read).
Announcing support for OAuth Server Metadata on my IndieAuth Server.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#www.jvt.me
#indieauth.jvt.me
#indieauth
#oauth2
#oidc.
Announcing a Service for Creating an iCalendar feed for event RSVPs: rsvp-calendar.tanna.dev (2 mins read).
Creating a shared service to allow creating iCalendar feeds for tracking what events you're attending.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#calendar
#indieweb
#rsvp-calendar.tanna.dev
#architect-framework.
"I Thought You'd Be Paid More" - What I Learnt From Posting My Salary Publicly (3 mins read).
A writeup of my lightning talk at Tech Nottingham about my salary post.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#salary
#job
#public-speaking
#talk
#tech-nottingham.
Testing Data Serialisation/Deserialization in Java (with Jackson) (4 mins read).
How to validate your JSON types correctly serialise/deserialise.
Setting up fluentd to Parse Nested JSON from Docker (2 mins read).
How to configure fluentd to parse the inner JSON from a log message as JSON, for use with structured logging.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#fluentd
#logs
#docker
#kubernetes
#logz.io.
Tips for Reducing Dependency Upgrade Toil with Renovate (5 mins read).
Some tips I've picked up while working with Renovate to keep my projects up-to-date.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#renovate
#open-source
#security.
Packaging Wiremock Extensions into the Standalone Server Runner (2 mins read).
How to use Gradle to package a standalone JAR for Wiremock, including any extensions needed.
Testing Java Callbacks with Mockito (1 mins read).
How to test invoking a real callback in a Java project, as a unit test.
Providing a Public Salary History Page (2 mins read).
Publishing my salary and compensation history for public use.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#salary
#job.
Releasing a Java Library for Gherkin Formatting (4 mins read).
Announcing the release of a Java library that can pretty-format a Gherkin feature file.
Pushing Back to Git In a Jenkins Multibranch Pipeline (1 mins read).
How to push back to a Git repo using a Jenkins multibranch pipeline.
Using Bill of Materials to Simplify Dependency Management (3 mins read).
Producing a Bill of Materials to simplify dependency management for Java projects.
Making Your Gherkin Scenarios Written Using Human-Readable Language (4 mins read).
A lukewarm take about why you should use natural language, so someone not-as-technical can read it and still derive value.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#software-testing
#cucumber
#communication.
I'm Joining the Cabinet Office (5 mins read).
Announcing my move into the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) as a Tech Lead.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#personal
#job
#announcement
#capital-one
#cddo.
Using Abstract Test Classes To Reduce Duplication in Java (4 mins read).
How to use Java's abstract classes to reduce duplication of code across unit tests with common functionality.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#junit5
#testing.
Introducing a Microformats API for Books: books-mf2.fly.dev (2 mins read).
Announcing the Microformats translation layer for book data.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#microformats
#micropub
#reading
#books-mf2.
Encoding Strings for Embedding in JSON with Ruby on the Command-Line (1 mins read).
How to easily convert a string to a format that can be used as a value for JSON strings.
Programatically Comparing Versions Using Chef's Versioning Schemes (1 mins read).
How to use Chef's versioning classes to determine whether a version constraint is matched.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#ruby.
Parsing Encoded JSON Strings on the Command-Line with Ruby (1 mins read).
How to decode an encoded JSON string.
Testing that your Spring Boot Application Context is Correctly Configured (2 mins read).
How to improve the tests you've got to validate that Spring Boot's context is set up correctly.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#spring-boot
#testing.
Decrypting Encrypted JSON Web Tokens (JWE) with Ruby (1 mins read).
How to use Ruby to decrypt encrypted JSON Web Token objects.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ruby
#jwt.
Running Multiple JDK Versions with the Gradle Toolchains Configuration (2 mins read).
How to use the Gradle's toolchain configuration to configure multiple JDKs on your machine.
Testing Data Serialisation/Deserialization using JsonTest with Spring Boot (3 mins read).
How to use the @JsonTest test type in Spring Boot to validate your JSON types correctly serialise/deserialise.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#testing
#spring-boot
#blogumentation.
Writing Better Wiremock Stubs (3 mins read).
How to improve the specificity of Wiremock tests to allow for not clobbering other scenarios, and enabling scalable test runs.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#software-quality
#software-testing
#quality-engineering
#testing
#wiremock.
Default Your Tests to run in Parallel (2 mins read).
Discussing the benefits you can achieve by having parallel-by-default.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#software-quality
#software-testing
#quality-engineering
#testing.
Writing Better Tests (1 mins read).
Announcing a new series of posts about improving the way we write tests.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#software-quality
#software-testing
#quality-engineering
#testing.
Migrating Your Spring Boot Application to use Structured Logging (6 mins read).
How to make your Spring Boot services more supportable by migrating to JSON-emitting structured logging.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#spring
#spring-boot
#java
#slf4j
#logs.
Avoiding NoClassDefFoundError errors when using slf4j-test with Logback and Maven (2 mins read).
How to exclude Logback from the classpath when testing your logs using slf4j-test and Maven.
Marking up my Curriculum Vitae with Microformats2 (2 mins read).
Creating a public, metadata-rich Curriculum Vitae / Resume for myself at https://hire.jvt.me.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#microformats
#cv
#interviewing
#hire.jvt.me.
Configuring a Jenkins Multibranch Pipeline to Specify the Trust Permissions with Job DSL (1 mins read).
How to specify the trust permissions for a GitHub project on a Jenkins Multibranch pipeline, when using Job DSL.
Features I Want In My Social Reader (6 mins read).
What sort of functionality do I want in my social reader, so I can follow awesome people's thoughts more easily?
How to get a field with Reflection in Java (1 mins read).
How to use Java's Reflection to get access to a private of a class.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java.
Server-less Wiremock, or Using Wiremock Without an HTTP Server (3 mins read).
How to match Wiremock's stubs without running an HTTP Server.
Adding API Versioning to your Environment-Agnostic Functional Acceptance Tests (6 mins read).
How to adapt the Proxy pattern to allow for testing against a versioned API.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#testing
#testing
#software-testing
#cucumber
#software-quality
#quality-engineering.
Building a Multibranch Pipeline on a Schedule (2 mins read).
A more convenient solution for setting up periodic rebuilds of certain branches in a Jenkins Multibranch pipelines.
Disabling a Multibranch Pipeline using Job DSL (1 mins read).
How to disable all branches of a MultibranchWorkflowJob with Jenkins Job DSL.
Uploading Community Cookbooks from Supermarket to Chef Server (1 mins read).
How to upload a given community cookbook from Chef Supermarket to Chef Server, using Berkshelf.
Constructing an Ordered Dependency Graph for Chef Cookbooks, using Berkshelf (3 mins read).
How to create a dependency graph for a given cookbook's dependencies to understand the order to install them in.
Using Dynamically Generated Non-AWS Owned SSH Keys with Test Kitchen on EC2 (3 mins read).
How to set up kitchen-ec2 to use an SSH key that isn't available in AWS by amending the user-data of the created EC2 instance.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#test-kitchen
#aws
#ssh.
Waiting for SSH service on Test Kitchen with the Docker driver (1 mins read).
How to resolve Waiting for SSH service when running kitchen-docker.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#test-kitchen
#docker.
Setting up a Test Environment for Job DSL Projects (6 mins read).
How to tweak your Job DSL configuration to allow working with test environments, to validate jobs configure correctly.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#jenkins
#job-dsl.
Working with a Git remote's default branch, using origin/HEAD (2 mins read).
How to interact with the default branch for a remote repo, as well as update it if needed.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#git.
Better Chef Reporting for Automated Pipelines (1 mins read).
How to get better machine-parseable reports for your Chef Pipelines.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#jenkins
#test-kitchen
#rubocop
#cookstyle
#rspec.
Managing Your Chef Gem Dependencies More Easily in your Gemfile (2 mins read).
How to source your Chef Gem dependencies from your Chef cookbook's metadata.rb instead of duplicating them between files.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#ruby.
Programatically Determining the Version of a Chef Cookbook (1 mins read).
How to determine a Chef cookbook's version programatically, using Ruby.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#ruby.
How to Use Cookstyle to Autocorrect Style Issues (1 mins read).
How to use the cookstyle tool with Chef cookbooks to autocorrect style issues.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#ruby
#chefdk
#chef-workstation
#cookstyle.
Ensuring Consistent Code Style with Job DSL Repos (3 mins read).
How to make sure that your Job DSL configuration repos are managed with consistent code style.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#jenkins
#job-dsl
#spotless.
Speeding Up Gradle Executions with Parallelisation (2 mins read).
How to make your Gradle builds faster, by taking advantage of parallelisation.
Testing Time with Java (4 mins read).
How to make your Java tests better when dealing with java.util.time.
Introducing tokens-pls, a Web Application to Test OAuth2 Code Flows (2 mins read).
Announcing my new project, tokens-pls, which allows for easier manual testing with the OAuth2 code flow for Public Clients.
Using Proof of Key Code Exchange (PKCE) Using rack-oauth2 as an OAuth2 Client (1 mins read).
How to use the PKCE extension when using the Ruby library rack-oauth2 as an OAuth2 client.
Determining the (Git) Branch of the Jenkins Pipeline Job (1 mins read).
How to find out what branch the currently executing script has been checked out from.
Encrypting and Decrypting Text with OpenSSL (2 mins read).
How to use openssl to encrypt text with a shared passphrase.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#openssl
#security
#privacy.
Getting Started With Jenkins Job DSL Plugin for Standardising Your Pipelines (10 mins read).
A worked example of how to use Jenkins Job DSL to set up a standardised pipeline for Java libraries.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#jenkins
#job-dsl.
Installing Gems From Your Gemfile When Developing Chef Cookbooks using the ChefDK / Chef Workstation (2 mins read).
How to install Ruby Gems in local development using your Gemfile.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#ruby
#chefdk
#chef-workstation.
Moving meetup-mf2 and eventbrite-mf2 to Heroku (1 mins read).
Moving my APIs meetup-mf2.herokuapp.com and eventbrite-mf2.herokuapp.com to Heroku-hosted apps.
Autogenerating Postman Collections for IndieAuth Servers (2 mins read).
Creating Postman collections programmatically for a user's IndieAuth server.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#postman
#ruby
#indieauth
#indieauth-postman.
Implementing the Refresh Token Grant in my IndieAuth Server (4 mins read).
Announcing support for long-lived refresh tokens as part of my IndieAuth server.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#www.jvt.me
#indieauth.jvt.me
#indieauth
#oauth2.
Executing javax.servlet.Filters in aws-serverless-java-container Jersey Apps (2 mins read).
How to add a javax.servlet.Filter to a Jersey application, built using the AWS Serverless Container for Java.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#jersey
#blogumentation
#aws
#serverless.
Writing Environment-Agnostic Functional Acceptance Tests (7 mins read).
How to structure your (Java) functional acceptance tests to make it easier to add environment-specific configuration.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#java
#testing
#testing
#software-testing
#cucumber
#software-quality
#quality-engineering.
Autogenerating Postman Collections for Micropub Servers (3 mins read).
Creating Postman collections programmatically from a Micropub server's supported configuration.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#postman
#ruby
#micropub
#micropub-postman.
Releasing Two Lightweight Libraries for Server-Driven Content Negotiation (2 mins read).
Introducing two new Java libraries for performing server-driven content negotiation.
Why I Consistently Reach for Server-Driven Content Negotiation (For Versioning) (5 mins read).
Why I use server-driven content negotiation for APIs to allow for versioning and allowing different representations of APIs.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#api
#content-negotiation
#rest
#web
#versioning
#version-pinning.