Hope is not an Architecture : Composite Apps

Public Sector and Forms

nilsv — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:37:09 GMT

The two go hand in hand don't they?

How many different forms do people need to fill out for the requirements of different government departments? It seems that every department has a process and a bunch of forms that require automation. It'd be fair to say that Forms in the Public Sector are a recurring IT pattern in projects.

Now with the release of the dubiously named OBA RAP for E-Forms processing in the Public Sector at least forms sound somewhat sexy ...?..... right?

The OBA RAP for E-forms is a reference architectures that leverages Microsoft Office as an "application platform" or what is now termed an OBA - an Office Business Application.

The reference solution framework is generic and can be adapted to enable end-to-end processing of a number of electronic forms in the Public Sector.

The solution was built using a number of technologies from the 2007 Office System and .NET 3.0 platforms. Among those technologies include:

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Microsoft Office InfoPath Forms Services
Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Communication Foundation
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

Also included as a part of the RAP are a number of supplementary materials including a click through demo, videos, technical and business presentations, and architecture whitepapers.

MOSS interop

nilsv — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:38:46 GMT

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) had some great ways to consume services, aggregate information and compose applications from a variety of sources. The article Resources for interoperability with SharePoint Server 2007 sets it out nicely.

Architect Journal 10 - Composite Applications

nilsv — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:23:00 GMT

The latest issue of the Architect Journal has some great articles including some interesting ones on composite applications.

Building Composite Applications using ..... what?

nilsv — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:33:38 GMT

Wikipedia defines composite applications as "... a perspective of software engineering that defines an application built by combining multiple services. A composite application consists of functionality drawn from several different sources ..."

What the composite "container" might be could, vary from a portal approach, to a richer smart client perhaps built in WinForms or perhaps Java client technology.

What many folks don't know is that Office 2007 makes a great platform (yes I said PLATFORM!) that provides rich services for composition of presentation, logic and data.

There is now a book available about composite applications and how they can be developed using the 2007 Microsoft Office System. This is a good reference that provides an overview of the technologies available in the 2007 Microsoft Office System, and gives several examples from various industries of how to build Office Business Applications.

Check it out at http://msdn2.Microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb220803.aspx