RAD SOA using WebSphere Portlet Factory

Jacob Vinzent
Delivery Manager

IT FACTORY A/S
Agenda

 Introduction

 IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory

 SOA & Portlet Factory

 Simple SOA implementation in single Web App
 Tiered SOA implementation with separated layers

 Wrap up
Introduction

IT FACTORY focused on:

 Out-of-the-box applications/ Solution Templates
 Portal Solutions using WebSphere Portal/ Portlet Factory

 Lotus/ Domino Solutions using IT FACTORY architecture

 Tools, architecture
 Lotus/ Domino tools & architecture

 Solution components
IT FACTORY has:
 More than 10 years of experience with IBM technologies in general
 Several years experience with Portlet Factory & Portal technologies
 Key Features of IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory

 Tight integration with WebSphere Portal

 Rational Application Developer plug-in
 Portlets without coding
 Robust integration capabilities
 Maximum customization with minimum overhead
 Business user configuration
 Rapid iteration and change
 Portlet Factory: Key Concepts

Builder
An adaptive, reusable
component that
generates Java, XML,
and JSP for specific
portlet functionality

Profile
A set of parameters
that vary Builder inputs
to dynamically
generate unique
versions of the portlet

Model
A container of Builders
Introduction

WebSphere Portlet Factory

(Formerly: Bowstreet Portlet Factory)
 Rapid Application Development tool
 Generates portlets (WPS + JSR 168), web apps., and web services
 Model-based visual development
 Generates J2EE compliant code
 Integrates into Rational RAD/ Eclipse
 Profiling functionality to dynamically generate variations of code
 Comes with a large amount of builders (building blocks) that take advantage of J2EE, web services, SOA, and
integration components that make integration with SAP, Siebel, Domino, a.o., as easy as accessing a SQL/jdbc
data source.
Demo of IBM Portlet Factory Designer
SOA & Portlet Factory

SOA – Service Oriented Architecture Presentation

(Portlets , applications )
 Presentation
 Portlets, Web Apps, Managed Clients, etc.
Orchestration
(Business Process )
 Orchestration
 Defines flow between multiple services

 Service Service
(Local services , web services )

 Specialized wrapping of functionality

 Component
Component
 Business logic: EJBs, Components, etc. (Business Logic )

Access
 Access (typically an abstraction as part of component) (Data/System Access )

 Data access specific components/code

 System System
(Legacy Applications , SAP, SQL, Domino, LDAP, AD...)
 The operational ”legacy” back-end systems
SOA & Portlet Factory

Builders used in SOA

 Service Operation
 Service Definition
 Service Consumer
 Service Documentation
 Service Stub
 Service Test
 Web Service Enable
 Web Service Call
 Profiled Service Call
 Web Service Properties
Simple SOA implementation in single Web App

Implementation: Presentation
(Portlets , applications )

 Presentation layer
 Uses Service Consumer builder to locally consume
the entire service Orchestration
(Business Process )

 Service layer
 Represented by the Service Definition builder and
defines a set of operations – not a specialized Service
service layer as such – more a data service (Local services , web services )

 Component layer
 Represented by multiple Service Operation builders Component
and other business logic specific builders, e.g. (Business Logic )
Linked Java Objects, EJBs, etc.
Access
 Access layer (Data/System Access )

 Represented by data-specific builders like Domino

View & Form builder, SAP View & Form builder, SQL
Call builder, etc. System
(Legacy Applications , SAP, SQL, Domino, LDAP, AD...)
Simple SOA implementation in single Web App

All implemented layers running within same

application under Portal Server
1 Presentation
Pros: (Portlets , applications )

 Simple implementation
 Only local calls = no WSDL/ SOAP
Orchestration
(Business Process )
 Simple switch between multiple Component/ Data models
within same project using dynamic service mapping

Cons: 1 Service
(Local services , web services )
 Not really full SOA as especially the presentation layer is
strongly coupled, and there are no real specialized service
layers
Component
 ESB and other integrators must access Portal Server instead (Business Logic )
1
of specialized WAS Access
(Data/System Access )

System
(Legacy Applications , SAP, SQL, Domino, LDAP, AD...)
Tiered SOA implementation with separated layers

The separate layers can run in same or separated

applications
Pros: 1 Presentation
(Portlets , applications )

 More ”true” SOA implementation with optional real

specialized service layers
 Choice between local calls & WSDL/ SOAP Orchestration
(Business Process )

 Separation enables different layers to run on different

boxes, and web services can run under e.g. WAS
 Presentation layer now loosely coupled 2 Service
(Local services , web services )

 Simple switch between multiple Component/ Data

models within same project using dynamic service
mapping Component
(Business Logic )
Cons: 3
 A bit more complex – not as “clean” Access
(Data/System Access )

System
(Legacy Applications , SAP, SQL, Domino, LDAP, AD...)
SOA & Portlet Factory

Which approach to use?

Simple SOA approach

 Small to medium solutions where the solution is running on same box/ cluster.

Tiered SOA approach

 Medium to large solutions where isolation of services and business logic is required and/ or
where Portal cannot meet a requirement at the back-end but only at the front-end tier.
Demo of SOA with IBM Portlet Factory Designer
SOA & Portlet Factory

IT FACTORY SOA Architecture

Based on Tiered SOA model – plus:
 Server side paging of data
 End <-> End paging
 Paging all the way from Front to System layer
 Generic search and filtering mechanism
 Built-in security paradigm utilizing Credential Vault
 Built-in ASP model support
 Same server/ setup – multiple customers
 Multilingual
 Same server/ setup – multiple languages

All IT FACTORY WPS & WSE releases will be based on this architecture
Questions