The MicroProfile community is thriving and always on the lookout for new members to join the family. This Open Source community cares about its members and will do its best to keep the hurdles of getting involved as low as possible.

We asked David to be interviewed (git issue) to share his on-boarding experience into MicroProfile with César Hernández, as the interviewer. David’s interview aims to provide a valuable input in optimizing the MP welcoming process and hopefully inspires you to join if you are not yet a user/contributor already.

Introducing David Salter

David is a proud contributor of multiple Open Source projects like Apache TomEE, MicroProfile, and Java EE now Jakarta EE. When he is not coding, writing blogs or creating video tutorials, he is an interplanetary cheese-eating champion.

How do you start working with Java EE?

I first started developing with a ZX Spectrum after I saw one at a local computer show. This started my passion for software development where I became a professional software developer in the 1990s working with C and writing Windows 3.0 applications. I love working on front end and back end technologies, but my passion is in Java EE, no Jakarta EE and the cloud. I now work in the telecoms industry as a Principal Engineer working on Enterprise applications. I have  loved the Java EE platform and how it has, and continues to evolve.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been working with Java since it was first released. With the release of JDK 1.0, I saw the advantage of using Java Applets to bring more interactivity to web sites, which until then had been pretty much static text. Initially, my interest was in writing mapping solutions using Applets so customers could get interactive maps onto their web sites. Around this time I worked in Java, C, and C#, before discovering Enterprise application development with J2EE 1.3. I was lucky to be on several courses held by the JBoss core developers and first saw what Java Enterprise computing was all about. I wrote many apps in Java EE, and Spring and rejoiced the day that Java EE 5 was released – no more complicated XML to define systems. I love the Java community and have written several Java books and posted many blog entries as well as contributed to several open source projects.

How did you first hear about MicroProfile?

I first heard about MicroProfile in 2017 when version 1.1 was released. I had been investigating WildFly Swarm because of its ability to create Uber Jars that I could deploy easily. When I heard about MicroProfile, I was intrigued as this seemed to be a way of generating JAX/RS applications using a “standard” approach. As my background was in Java EE, I was interested in being able to write services that used a standard API that could be built and easily deployed from within a CI pipeline. Deploying an application as a single Jar, whilst still having access to Java Enterprise features was very compelling to me.

How are you applying MicroProfile in your projects?

It’s still early days, but I am pioneering and promoting using MicroProfile within my organization.  I’m advocating MicroProfile to my co-workers and proving the savings of migrating legacy applications to MicroProfile technologies.  Writing enterprise software means I deal with a lot of APIs and lots of configuration data which MicroProfile is ideally suited for. 

The main MicroProfile specific APIs I use are configuration, health check, and REST client API. Together with JAX/RS and CDI, these make a formidable toolset.  On top of MicroProfile, I typically use JPA and JMS, so I occasionally need to dip into Java EE 8 to complete a MicroProfile application.  I don’t see this as a bad thing, I see MicroProfile offering a base set of services that allow us to write reliable and robust applications.  Occasionally a bit of Java EE 8 is also needed, but it’s the developer’s choice of what they use.

How has been your experience with the MicroProfile Community?

My initial, and continued impressions of the MicroProfile community is that MicroProfilers are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Everyone I’ve interacted with has been more than happy to help. It’s sometimes daunting when you see the collective knowledge that people have in the community, yet everyone is still approachable and always happy to help. It’s like one big family.

The MicroProfile community is full of knowledgeable, driven people who want to make the platform succeed.  I think of these as role models setting good standards not just for the MicroProfile community, but for the Java community as a whole.  It makes me proud to be a part of this community. I definitely want to continue contributing and helping out this ecosystem as much as I can.  I will continue blogging about MicroProfile and committing code/documentation where I can. My goal is to talk about MicroProfile at one of the local meetups

What would you like to share to new members of the community?

To new members of the community, I’d say “Welcome, please join in”.  The MicroProfile community is a fantastic community to be a part of. Everything is done in the open, and there are no big egos.  Everyone is welcome at whatever level they can help at, whether its code, documentation, blogs, or other support – everyone is welcomed.  I’ve learned a lot, both professionally and personally being a part of the community and long may that continue.

Note from the WordPress MicroProfile Editor:

Just like MicroProfilers David & César, should you feel inclined to share your commencement into this Open Source Project, this MicroProfile fun interview welcoming initiative is ready for YOU!   Amelia