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I have troubles using articles. I have not understood the algorithm when to use them. Could you review my older text and describe me, if an article is incorrectly used or omitted and why? Bold formatting is put where I think I missed some article.

I have developed and tested new web service. I used SoapUI for testing a local endpoint. Next step was to deploy the service into a/the testing environment. But suddenly I failed to connect to this endpoint. I was able to open its WSDL description in Firefox, but SoapUI failed with SSLPeerUnverifiedException: peer not authenticated. The setup was a network with a proxy and there was an Apache proxy translating URLs for the service.

There were many similar complaints on web but no solution. I tried many proposals like trusting the certificate (because StartCom is not trusted certification authority in Java) but nothing helped. Until I posted a question on StackOverflow. It lead me to the solution:

(Computer code solution follows)

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    Suggested reading: ell.stackexchange.com/a/17433/3281. Also consider using this for some of your the.
    – Damkerng T.
    Jun 26 '14 at 8:01
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    Could you write your proposal in the asnwer? Thanks
    – Leos Literak
    Jun 26 '14 at 8:10
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    ELL is not a proofreading site, so I'm reluctant to answer it that way. (I hadn't felt that way until I saw your comment.) Also, to choose those articles properly, it would depend on your context (such as what you'd written in paragraphs before the text). If I could assume a typical context, and ignore other issues, I might use these: "a new web service", " a local endpoint", "The next step", "the testing environment", "a network with a proxy", "an Apache proxy", "this solution".
    – Damkerng T.
    Jun 26 '14 at 8:29
  • I don't mind letting this question stay open, so long as the answers use the sample text provided as the basis for explaining the usage of articles in general, and don't simply constitute a "free proofreading service" for the O.P.
    – J.R. ♦
    Jun 26 '14 at 9:26
  • @DamkerngT. I do not want to proof read this particular text but to learn the principles of using articles on practical example. The comments are too short to provide good way for this request. Can you reopen this question please?
    – Leos Literak
    Jun 26 '14 at 13:59
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Next step was to deploy the service into a/the testing environment.

You can use either one. If you use the, your readers will probably assume there was only one testing environment you could have used. If you use a, readers will probably assume more than one testing environment could have been used. If the number of possible testing environments is irrelevant to your narrative, then you could just about flip a coin to decide; it won't matter.

It lead me to a/the solution:

If you want to imply this is just one of many possible solutions, use a; however, using the doesn't necessarily mean there is only one solution. "It lead me to the solution" could mean, "It led me to the solution we ultimately chose" (or, perhaps more simply, "It led me to this solution").

Your other uses of the indefinite article seem fine; I wouldn't regard those as "interesting" cases from the English learner's perspective.

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  • Thanks, such explanation is very worth to me and what I look for.
    – Leos Literak
    Jun 26 '14 at 14:02

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