[tor-dev] Question to Java developers: what are good frameworks for Tor's server-side Java applications

[Noah Rahman]

Hi Karsten,

A lot of people I respect seem to use Dropwizard for this sort of thing.

https://dropwizard.github.io/dropwizard/

As for deployment on Debian (dunno if it's in the standard Debian universe)

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/dropwizard-user/gv4TDQbcHBc/LGJz0egMNWQJ

Hope that helps
Best

Noah


On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 12:54 PM, Karsten Loesing <karsten at torproject.org>wrote:

> Hello devs,
>
> I'm seeking advice from people with experience in writing server-side
> Java applications.
>
> Let me give you some background about this request: for the past five
> years, I have been developing server-side Java applications which all
> process large amounts of Tor directory data and provide their output via
> a web interface.
>
> Examples:
>
>  - The metrics data processor (metrics-db) fetches Tor descriptors from
> the Tor directory authorities, the bridge authority, etc., performs some
> sanity-checks, and provides descriptors by type as tarballs.  We're
> talking about roughly 7 GiB new bzip2-compressed data per month.
>
>  - The metrics website (metrics-web) uses the output from the metrics
> data processor, stuffs everything into a database, computes aggregates,
> and presents results in graphs and .csv files.
>
>  - The Onionoo service processes the same data from the metrics data
> processor, but provides statistics per Tor relay, not for the Tor
> network as a whole.  The processing is done every two hours and may take
> 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on how overloaded the server is.
>
>  - The ExoneraTor service, again, uses the same data and puts it in a
> database to answer whether a certain IP address has been a Tor relay at
> some point in the past.
>
> That's what is done.  And here's how it's done under the surface:
>
>  - There's one or more cronjobs, each of which starts an ant task to
> process data.  Some of these tasks import data into the database, others
> store results in the file system.
>
>  - Each application uses a web application deployed in Tomcat to provide
> results to web users.  Most things are written in servlets, some use JSPs.
>
> My problem is that this approach is rather fragile and difficult to
> setup for new volunteers.  I'm aware of that, and I'd like to improve it.
>
> My question is: what Java frameworks should I be looking at for the
> applications described above?  Bonus points if something is in Debian
> stable.
>
> Note that "switch to $some_other_programming_language" is not a very
> useful answer to me, at least not for the larger applications.  There's
> just too much existing code and not enough developer time to port it.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> All the best,
> Karsten
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