Enterprise SOA

Chapter TWELVE. The Architecture and Development Tools of Composite Applications

Composite applications are the vehicle through which all of the elements of ESA come together to create value. The idea of composite applications is wonderful: flexible solutions constructed out of services, knit together with process modeling, and made accessible with easily constructed and adaptable user interfaces (UIs). Making this idea work in practice requires that many things interact precisely. The goal of this chapter is to explain the mechanisms that will make composite applications work in the real world of IT.

The architecture of composite applications

This chapter is divided into two major sections. In the first section, we’ll describe the architecture of composite applications in detail. In the latter half of the chapter, we’ll describe the development tools you use to create composite applications.

What is the purpose of composite applications in ESA?

The world of composite applications in ESA goes far beyond generic definitions of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and composite applications. At the most basic level, a composite application is an application based on services provided by other applications. Using this broad definition, everything from a portal that consolidates information from several applications to an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) application that brings together services from many web sites qualifies as composite applications. But this definition leaves the ...