A java and PHP implementation of the Rice University Bidding System (RUBiS).

RUBiS is a free, open source initiative. This implementation is a fork of version 1.4.3 of OW2 RUBiS. As of 2012, the original 1.4.3 version can still be downloaded at the OW2 site

RUBiS is an auction site prototype modeled after eBay site (one of the largest online marketplace) that is especially used to evaluate application design patterns and application servers performance scalability.

The auction site benchmark implements the core functionality of an auction site: selling, browsing and bidding. Complementary services like instant messaging or newsgroups are not currently implemented. There are three kinds of user sessions: visitor, buyer, and seller. For a visitor session, users need not register but are only allowed to browse. Buyer and seller sessions require registration. In addition to the functionality provided during visitor sessions, during a buyer session users can bid on items and consult a summary of their current bids, rating and comments left by other users. Seller sessions require a fee before a user is allowed to put up an item for sale. An auction starts immediately and lasts typically for no more than a week. The seller can specify a reserve (minimum) price for an item.

In the OW2 RUBiS, several versions of RUBiS are implemented by using three different technologies: PHP, Java servlets and Enterprise Java Bean (EJB). The main purpose is to compare the trade-off between performance and complexity obtained with these technologies, as shown in the paper [(Checchet et al.,2002)][checchet-2002-performance].

In our implementation, unlike the OW2 one, we do not focus on the performance evaluation of different technologies and design patterns. Instead, our aim is to provide a fully functional implementation that can be used to benchmark real computing systems and evaluate their performance. Most of the changes will focus on stability and improvements to the original OW2 version.

For these reasons, currently we only provide an implementation based on Java servlets and on PHP.

Also, you need to setup the RUBiS database. If you use MySQL, you can perform the following steps.

1. Log in to the DB server

2. Add the rubis user:

   $ mysql -uroot mysql

   mysql> CREATE USER 'rubis'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'rubis';

   mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON . TO 'rubis'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'rubis' WITH GRANT OPTION;

   mysql> CREATE USER 'rubis'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'rubis';

   mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON . TO 'rubis'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'rubis' WITH GRANT OPTION;

   mysql> exit;

Finally, you have to check possible firewall settings on both Web and DB server in order to enable the Web and DB server to accept remote connections. For instance, if you use Apache Tomcat and MySQL, you typically need to instruct the Web server firewall to accept TCP connections on the 8080 port, and the DB server firewall to accept TCP connections on the 3306 port.

In the following we refer to the variable $RUBIS_HOME as a variable containing the path pointing to this version of RUBiS.

No compilation is required. You only need to copy the $RUBIS_HOME/php directory to the document root of your Web Server and properly configure it. For instance, if you use the Apache HTTPD 2 server under Linux, the document root is typically located in /var/www. So, you only need to copy the $RUBIS_HOME/php directory to /var/www/. For instance:

$ mkdir -p /var/www/rubis
$ cp -r $RUBIS_HOME/php /var/www/rubis/PHP

To compile the Java Servlets incarnation of RUBiS you need Java ≥ 1.5 and Apache Ant. To run RUBiS you need a Java Servlet container ≥ 2.5, like Apache Tomcat, and a DBMS like MySQL.

While the code should compile and run fine with every J2EE container and DBMS, we have currently tested it only with Apache Tomcat 6 and MySQL 5.6.* (with MySQL Connector/J 5.0.*).

1. Move to the $RUBIS_HOME directory.

   $ cd $RUBIS_HOME

2. Copy the template property file setup/user.properties.template to file user.properties

   $ cp setup/user.properties.template user.properties

3. Edit the file user.properties to set properties to a proper value (e.g., if you use Apache Tomcat this is the same of $CATALINA_HOME).

   $ vi user.properties

4. Move to the servlets directory.

   $ cd servlets

5. Edit the file src/java/edu/rice/rubis/servlets/Config.java to set the following properties

• J2eeContainerPath: this is the path to the J2EE container (e.g., if you use Apache Tomcat this is the same of $CATALINA_HOME).
• DatabaseConnectionStrategy: this is the type of strategy you want to use to connect to the database. You can choose among the following values:
  • UNPOOLED_DRIVERMANAGER_DB_CONNECTION_STRATEGY: don't use connection pooling and connect to the database by means the java.sql.DriverManager class.
  • POOLED_DRIVERMANAGER_DB_CONNECTION_STRATEGY: use connection pooling and connect to the database by means the java.sql.DriverManager class.
  • DATASOURCE_DB_CONNECTION_STRATEGY: setup and manage database connections by means of javax.sql.DataSource class (recommended).

6. Edit the database properties

   • If you chose DATASOURCE_DB_CONNECTION_STRATEGY as database connection strategy, you have to edit the context file to set properties to a proper value:

     $ vi web/META-INF/context.xml

   • Otherwise, if you chose either UNPOOLED_DRIVERMANAGER_DB_CONNECTION_STRATEGY orPOOLED_DRIVERMANAGER_DB_CONNECTION_STRATEGY as database connection strategy, you have to create a property file in src/conf/dbms.property directory (optionally, replace dbms with the name of your DBMS). For instance, if you use MySQL you can edit the file src/conf/mysql.properties to set properties to a proper value (e.g., the host name where the DBMS runs).

     $ vi src/conf/mysql.properties

     Then you have to edit the file src/java/edu/rice/rubis/servlets/Config.java and change the value of DatabaseProperties to point to the name of your dbms.property file. If you use MySQL, you can use the default value.

7. Copy the JAR file of the JDBC database driver in $RUBIS_HOME/lib. For instance, if you use MySQL you have to copy the Connector/J JAR file in that location (we assume that you have already download and unpacked the Connector/J binary package in /tmp/mysql-connector-java-5.1.25):

   $ mkdir -p $RUBIS_HOME/lib

   $ cp /tmp/mysql-connector-java-5.1.25/mysql-connector-java-5.1.25-bin.jar lib/

8. Run Ant:

   $ ant clean all

9. Copy the WAR file to your container. For instance, if you use Apache Tomcat:

   $ cp dist/rubis_servlets.war $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/

10. Try to connect to the RUBiS web application by pointing your browser at the RUBiS home page. For instance:

$ elinks localhot:8080/rubis_servlets

[checchet-2002-performance]: Emmanuel Cecchet, Julie Marguerite and Willy Zwaenepoel, Performance and Scalability of EJB Applications. In Proc. of the OOPSLA'02, Seattle, WA, USA, Nov. 4-8, 2002