Web systems integration - Essay Example

Web System Integration. Question a) Flight Bookings. Confirmation August 7, Airline ID: 120 Airline: Jetclub Items: Flight Code Date Time From To No. of Seats 987 6-08-2013 10:00 AM Cyprus Germany 160 988 7-08-2013 11:00 AM Cyprus Kenya 180 Representation in XML. 2013/08/07 123 Eurocypria 443 7/08/2013 12:00AM Cyprus France 120 444 8/08/2013 01:30PM Cyprus China 130 the XML schemas can validates XML documents that can be processed easily by tools like XML Authority, XML spy, XML Editor in Studio Application Developer. DTD is less powerful than XML schemas. Every element that DTD defines, can equally be defined by the XML schemas, but not the other way round. For instance DTD only offers validation on items already specified by XML schemas. An example of DTD is shown below. From the above DTD, the elements define the below data that is already created by XML schema (Source of DTD data). 2013/08/07 123 Eurocypria 443 7/08/2013 12:00AM Cyprus France 120 444 8/08/2013 01:30PM Cyprus China 130 XML schemas can support a collection of data types, same as those used in most programming languages, and offer the ability to develop additional types. The content of a document can easily be constrained to the appropriate type. This is because the properties of fields that are found in DB2 can easily be replicated. XML schemas can support the common expressions that set constraints on the data’s character, which is impossible with DTD. XML also offers better support for namespaces, which enables the user to validate the documents with more than one namespace, and to use again schema’s constructs that are already defined in other namespaces. For instance, in the below example the two airlines used the same XML schema but with different information. XML1. 2013/08/07 123 Eurocypria 443 7/08/2013 12:00AM Cyprus France 120 444 8/08/2013 01:30PM Cyprus China 130 Question 2 a) Implementation of BizTalk Server as an Enterprise Service Bus in between applications can eliminate hard coded integration lines which are very direct between applications and in turn create a rather manageable layered integrated platform which applies a loosely coupled, service oriented design. BizTalk server has inbuilt adapters for all kinds of systems which leads to the creation of new integrations which were previously impossible to create. BizTalk server provides a number of key functionalities that would help in supporting Business Process Management. The following key functionalities can help in addressing a business integration needs. Business-to-Business (B2B) Integration: By integrating suppliers, customers and logistics providers in the business processes, it creates effectiveness in supply and demand chains by means of standardized business dealings. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI): BizTalk connects different multiple applications that are hosted on their own infrastructure, maintaining their own databases. This helps in facilitating event driven data streams between applications and processes. Business Process Orchestrations (BPO): BizTalk visually designs and executes business processes to expose composite functionalities hosted in different applications and services thus creating new “virtual” applications. Cloud Integration: Hybrid solutions are created to span applications in the business’s datacenter running in the cloud and with that it adds significant value adding to the ‘one-size-fits-all SaaS solutions applied in every company these days. Business Process Management (BPM): BizTalk, by means of orchestrations, business intelligence and business rules continually improve, hosts and visually designs composite business processes. Proven patterns and practices, used day by day by system integrators (SI), have been developed and fine-tuned so as to implement the Microsoft Application Platform technologies for each of the above BizTalk functionalities. Additional benefits of using BizTalk Influence current investments in applications: By integrating existing applications with others, their life expectancy is enhanced and their usefulness made effective. Composite business processes: combining functionalities in various applications and ‘cloud’ services into better business processes, it enhances the overall usability and effectiveness. Agility through flexibility: It makes it easier to change business processes and adjust them according to customer needs by implementing the business process orchestrations. Time-to-market: you are in control of the addition or modification of business functionalities to your applications rather than waiting for the application vendors to do so. Channel renewal: Adding modern ways of organizational interaction, various groups of customers are attracted. When using BizTalk, there is no third party software required. b. Other components besides BizTalk that make up the BPM system Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) Microsoft Popular Integration Server Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager Server. Microsoft SharePoint Server Oracle SOA Suite c. Features of this system that makes it relevant to this module. It provides integration features as part of the middle tier in Microsoft’s Application platform. With its stack of server products and functionalities, it can host packaged applications. REST-ful services- it provides adapters that invoke REST endpoints and at the same time expose BizTalk server artifacts as a REST-ful service It allows for SharePoint-BizTalk integration with a file share. BizTalk Server is the newest system unlike all the others which are out-dated. This makes it the leader in enterprise integration due to the fact that it comes with all the connectors and services needed. It is powerful as it has all the necessary capabilities required to streamline and automate the business processes at an enterprise scale and performance that is, delivers visibility at the transaction level. It has a broad interoperability as it has a rich adapter pack and other third party adapters that allows it to connect with anything hence its flexibility. Question 3. The principles that underpin REST web services include: Addressability Addressability principle works on the concept that each and every resource has its own address. The address is commonly referred to as URI.Examples of resources include academia the perfect company, getting a degree in the United Kingdom, attaining higher grades, and also how to become the best writer in the world. Illustration. http://www.perfectinfo.com/customers_academia.asp https://www.gov.uk/recognised-uk-degrees http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Good-Grades http://beyondthemargins.com/2013/06/how-to-be-the-best-writer-ever-of-your-own-writing/ Uniform interface. Restful web service use already defined method by HTTP. Each and every RESTful has similar interface. The most common methods of HTTP include “GET” which requests a resource, ”POST” submits data, “PUT” uploads a resource, and “DELETE” is used to delete a resource.RESTful service is easy to predict because it comprises of uniform HTTP outlined above. Users call one of the listed methods instead of having a constant station. In REST the sought answer is a resource that is easily addressable and has a specific URI. This can be achieved by either using GET option or using browser pointer. Illustration. Assuming the user has a movie entity Movie ====== id directorId categoryId A developed DAO will be: MovieRepo.GetByDirector(intdirectoryId); MovieRepo.GetByCategory(int category); Using uniform Interface the GET request will be: IEnumerableGet(); Movie Get(int id) Representations. A resource will always exist on the server. The feedback of a GET request is its representative and takes different forms. It can either be text,web page, PDF, image, and XML. Similar resources can have more than one representation which might have the same or different URI. They normally use content negotiation process, whereby the user specifies acceptable representation. Illustration. Assuming the sematic account is XML, representation can be illustrated as paul Connectedness. This principle enables the clients to move from one page to the other using hyperlinks. Hyperlinks make it possible for users to browse and find the required information. REST makes it easy for users to navigate, through well-developed URI structures and by incorporating relevant hyperlinks that respond to the request of clients. Illustration. Based on the illustration below the user will only be concerned with the URI root i.e collection 1. /collection1 collection1 |-sub1 |-sub1sub1 |-sub1sub1sub1 |-sub1sub1sub1sub1 |-sub1sub2 |-sub2 |-sub2sub1 |-sub2sub2 |-sub3 |-sub3sub1 |-sub3sub2 Question 4 Service Oriented Architecture’s (SOA) basic design principle targets service-orientation and applies to services that expose their functionality through interfaces that are comprehensive for the best use by other applications and services. Service Oriented Architecture is easy to operate hence serves as the best software methodology for a software development program. Service Oriented Architecture operates under strict principles that should be adhered to in its development, maintenance and usage. The basic Service Oriented Architecture principles include: All standards must be complied with; mostly the industry-specific ones. Condition for classification and categorization of services Diverse systems should be quintessential in their interoperability. A framework designed to implement and deploy an SOA could support each of the SOA’s principles by taking into consideration the following basic guidelines; Define goals, Strategy and Constraints. The organization’s SOA goals and strategies must first be defined and must be in alignment with the business objectives and strategies such that Service Oriented Architecture efforts can be of great value. Although the companies have their objectives around making profit, growth, DSO, margin and time to market, applicable constraints must be taken into account. SOA’s efforts are best justified when the business objectives are understood and aligned such that every policy, process, architecture and decision is traceable back to these businesses. The SOA strategy that an organization selects should indicate the person who has the rights to make decisions in formulating certain governance policies. Define Policies and Procedures Standards, policies and procedures must be defined, as there is no “one size fits all” SOA strategy that constitutes governance with SOA, in order to address the alignment of operations, portfolios, finance and projects. Companies that place their objectives in a project-based approach usually has their SOA efforts and tools justified and within the scope and budget of a development project. Service Oriented Architecture endeavors, which are project-based, leverage existing tools in the selected project. In order to be in line with the SOA principles, SOA goals, standards, policies and procedures should be established and they should be proportionate to the SOA maturity as it becomes more mainstream and its reuse increases. Define metrics for success After identifying your position in the SOA strategy execution, success factors and key performance indicators should be defined so as to assess whether objectives have been achieved. In order to deliver on your SOA strategy, metrics to measure the success of Service Oriented Architecture project must be defined and the right governance mechanisms established. Initial metrics, which are simple and almost anecdotal, must mature as the SOA and EA efforts mature and should be obtained in order to show the progress in maturity. Measuring your progress is vital. Therefore, goals should be realistic. Put governance mechanisms in place This is concerned with how metrics are evaluated, how policies and procedures are enforced and how the architects that create sharable services and the users of such services are rewarded. Automating governance processes makes it easier to scale enterprise-wide SOA efforts. Lack of governing some Service Oriented Architecture projects leads to the creation of a ‘junk drawer’ of services that ends up leaving a worse off EA group than the one that was present before the implementation of an Service Oriented Architecture. For efficient implementation of an SOA, education about the governance process should be made prior to the actual enforcement. Analyze and Improve processes The results of the governance policies put in place should be analyzed and metrics on the governance processes gathered and should also include their effectiveness. The progress made on the Service Oriented Architecture Roadmap should be measured, highly restrictive policies relaxed where it makes sense and corrective action taken where necessary. The main issue here is to have an environment which is open so that people can communicate actions and experiences encountered when they tread off the beaten path. According to the notion of Kaizen (continuous improvement), production efficiency is achieved when focus is placed on removing major obstacles processes. As the highest-priority bottlenecks and hindrances are eliminated, attention is placed on the next-highest-priority items. As governance and overall EA practices are improved continuously, issues that might have gone unnoticed will tend to rise and command attention until they are resolved, automated or improved. Feedback from the users of the metrics is important in order to improve this process. Refine your SOA As the SOA processes put in place mature, there is the need to create new policies and procedures that will help in increasing the Service Oriented Architecture maturity and deliver on the set business objectives. The set SOA strategy should be re-evaluated and refined in accordance with the SOA objectives and new policies and procedures instituted to enable you to advance on your SOA Roadmap. At this level, policies become more formal, assessments more complete and communication is greatly improved. Therefore, in order to deliver on SOA and business goals, policies should be put in place as Service Oriented Architecture maturity increases. Conclusion SOA should be driven by business objectives that are tactical and strategic. For efficient delivery of its business objectives, there should be an alignment between technology, information portfolios, architecture, project execution, people, finance and operations. In order to deliver Service Oriented Architecture on its full potential within your enterprise, there must be executive-level buy-in. You should ensure that executive buy-in for enacting cross-departmental governance policies are present without burdening the governance regimes. The enterprise should innovate in order to move in the right direction. Reference Microsoft BizTalk Server - Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)." Microsoft Corporation. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Aug. 2013. . Read More