Combining Services in Bluemix

Bluemix has a set of services that can be combined in a single web application (e.g., output of one service will serve as input of another service).

In this tutorial you will learn how to combine services in IBM Bluemix.

Prerequisite:

You are required to do the Creating a Web Application using Gradle Tutorial.

The steps used in this tutorial is based from Creating a Web Application using Gradle Tutorial.

You are not required (but recommended) to do the Bluemix Basics Tutorial.

However, ensure that you have a Bluemix account.

Your account should have the space dev under the region US-South. The creation of the space dev is discussed in Bluemix Basics Tutorial.

Make sure that the cf tool is installed. The installation of cf tool is discussed in Bluemix Basics Tutorial.

You are not required (but recommended) to do the GitHub Basics Tutorial.

However, ensure that you have a GitHub account.

Copy Sample Codes from Git repository

Open a terminal window and create the directory gradletemp in the root directory. Go to the created directory.
```
> mkdir bluemixtemp
> cd bluemixtemp
```
Clone the git repository https://github.com/pong-pantola/bluemix-combined-services.git and go to the created bluemix-combined-services directory.
```
> git clone https://github.com/pong-pantola/bluemix-combined-services.git
> cd bluemix-combined-services
```
Assemble the Gradle project.

Make sure that you are in the bluemix-combined-services directory before issuing the command below.
```
> gradle assemble
```
Output:
```
:compileJava
:processResources
:classes
:war
:assemble

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 9.289 secs
```

Deploy the Web Application in Bluemix

Login to your Bluemix account using the cf tool.

Make sure that you are in the bluemix-combined-services directory before issuing the command below.
```
> cf login -a https://api.ng.bluemix.net -s dev
```

Upload the web application to your Bluemix account.

> cf push combination-<your_name> -m 512M -p build/libs/webapp.war

Example:

> cf push combination-pong -m 512M -p build/libs/webapp.war

Add Bluemix Services to the Web Application

Open a web browser and login to your Bluemix account.
Click the widget of your application (combination-<your_name>) to see its overview.
Click the ADD A SERVICE OR API link. You will be redirected to the Catalog page.
Look for the AlchemyAPI service and click it.
In the Service name text box, use the default name.
Click the CREATE button.
When asked to restage your application, click the CANCEL button.

If you click the RESTAGE button, your application will restart. It is advisable to click the RESTAGE button once you have added all the services, otherwise your web application will keep on restarting every time you click RESTAGE which will make the procedure of adding services longer.
Repeat the steps above to add the following services:
- Language Translation
- Speech To Text
- Text To Speech
- Cloudant NoSQL DB
- Object Storage
- mongodb (not MongoDB by Compose)
- redis (not Redis by Compose)
VERY IMPORTANT:

For monogdb and redis, as mentioned above, do not use the version "by Compose". Instead, in the Catalog page, scroll down in the CATALOG page until you see the Bluemix Labs Catalog link. Click this link. Look for the services named mongodb and redis.

When you add the last service (redis), you will be asked to restage your application, click the RESTAGE button. If you don't click the RESTAGE button, your application will not restart and it will not recognize all the services you added.
Wait for your application to restart.

On another browser tab, go to http://combination-<your_name>.mybluemix.net.

Output:

Alchemy-Cloudant

Alchemy-MongoDB

Alchemy-Redis

Alchemy-TextToSpeech

LanguageTranslation-TextToSpeech

ObjectStorage-SpeechToText

TextToSpeech-ObjectStorage

You have successfully deployed the web application in Bluemix.

Test the Application

Each hyperlink demonstrates how two services are combined. For example, the link Alchemy-Cloudant demonstrates how the output of Alchemy API is used in Cloudant NoSQL DB.

Alchemy-Cloudant

This asks a user to enter a URL of an image file. The image should contain at least one person. Alchemy API will extract information from the image. Specifically, it will extract the age and gender of the person in the image.

The extracted age and gender are saved in a Cloudant NoSQL DB service.
Alchemy-MongoDB

This is the same as Alchemy-Cloudant except that the extracted age and gender are saved in a mongodb service .
Alchemy-Redis

This is the same as Alchemy-Cloudant and Alchemy-MongoDB except that the extracted age and gender are saved in a redis service .
Alchemy-TextToSpeech

This is the same as Alchemy-Cloudant, Alchemy-MongoDB, and Alchemy-Redis. However, instead of saving the age and gender, it will create a WAV file that contains the following sound: Information Extraction Complete. The person in the picture is a <GENDER>. <His/Her> age is <AGE>.
LanguageTranslation-TextToSpeech

This asks a user to enter a text in Spanish. Using the Language Translation service, it will convert the text to English. The English text is converted to a speech (i.e., WAV file) using the Text To Speech Service.
ObjectStorage-SpeechToText

This asks a user to select a WAV file containing an English sentence. The WAV file is uploaded in an Object Storage service.

From the Object Storage service, it will download the WAV file and convert it to its equivalent to text using the Speech To Text service.
TextToSpeech-ObjectStorage

This asks a user to enter a text. The text is converted to speech (i.e., WAV file) using the Text To Speech service. The WAV file is uploaded in an Object Storage service.

Clean up

Delete your Bluemix application combination-<your_name>.
Make sure to delete as well all the created services.

End of Tutorial

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