Coordinating COTS Applications via a Business

Event LayerPresented By: Maria Baron

Written By: Lemahieu, Snoeck, Goethals, De Backer, Haesen,

Vandenbulcke and Dedene

COTSCommercial off-the-shelf componentsTypically chosen for domain specific featuresEach application covers a particular functional domainHow are COTS components/applications integrated with other applications?

Typical integration based on one to one message exchange

Problems?Abstraction level is too low to efficiently design an integration architecture

BECOAuthors propose business event-based coordinationBased on concept of business eventsHigher level units of coordination that enforce consistent processing in all participating applicationsCan be layered on top of existing technologiesStill utilize one to one messaging at its lowest level

Telecom ExampleOrganized around 4 business units

Sales & marketing – set prices, complete sales transactions and notifies finance and service provisioning units of ordered products

Service Provisioning – Coordinates the installation of all telecom services ordered and notifies finance unit of completed installation and customer service unit of installed configurations

Example continuedOrganized around 4 business units

Finance – handles invoicingCustomer Service – responsible for all after-sales service

Information flow in a telecom company

Example cont.Each business unit relies on COTS software from different providersEach handles its own functionality well, but the lack of integration and coordination between the standalone products is problematic

Potential Issues - ExamplePeople data storage – person may exist in each functional domain’s dataData will be scattered and all applications must be notifiedHow to notify each of the apps?Requires integrated coordinated processing of actions among all COTS applications

Integration of Enterprise applications

Typically integrate COTS applications enterprise wide

Mom – message oriented middlewareApplications interact by exchanging messagesOne sender and one receiver

RPCs – remote procedure callsRepresent interactions as procedure calls from one component to anotherOne procedure caller and one procedure callee

Integration of Enterprise applications

COTS IntegrationIntegration brokers – evolved MOM products

Enacts specified business processes by managing the desired sequence of message exchangesWeb services using SOAP

Represent one to one communication

IssuesAbstraction level doesn’t allow easily for the design of activities that involve coordinated processing in multiple applicationsMay involve a different sequence of events depending upon who initiated the process Cannon abstract process events from the notification patternsEx: telecom company, purchase orderCould use one to one messaging but would be intricate to design and debug

Business EventsDefined as a real world phenomenon that requires coordinated processing in one or more application or componentAtomicAll parties involved may enforce business rules and constraints as preconditionsIf all preconditions are satisfied by the event, all participants process itViolations of preconditions should initiate a rollback of some sort

Component Event TableEvent based integration of components Columns identify the applications or components to be integratedRows identify business eventsCells denote which application is involved in realizing which eventAllows introduction of a new abstraction layer – business event layer

Interaction StackBusiness event layer – deals with business events Notification layer – deals with one to one message exchanges or RPCsEvent dispatcher – notifies participating applications by initiating the appropriate message exchanges and coordinates business event processing

General Event Dispatching execution scheme

Business ProcessesFeasible sequences of business eventsSeparate the underlying notification aspect form the business process sequencing BECO decouples event sequencing

ConclusionSeparation of concernsHighly flexible environmentAllows for independent modificationCan be extended to B2B event based coordination

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