uCosminexus Application Server Overview

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8.1 Introduction to the Service Platform

This section explains the purpose and positioning of a service platform.

The service platform is a product that serves as the development and operating infrastructure in systems that implement a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). With this product, you can perform operations right from building and executing processes up to connecting the services in an integrated development and operating environment. Therefore, by tapping the merits of SOA, you can flexibly integrate services and rapidly build and execute a new system. The pivotal point is process integration that integrates services with processes. The service platform implements process integration. An example of implementing a system using the service platform is shown in Figure 2-1.

Figure 8-1 Example of implementing a system using the service platform

[Figure]

Figure 2-1 shows an example of applying SOA in a product flow system. Services can be invoked automatically along with the flow of business. Figure 2-1 contains the following merits:

The service platform consists of the Service Platform and Service Architect. In addition to the functionality for the execution environment provided by Application Server, Service Platform includes functionality for integrating services in the execution and operating environments. The Service Platform contains the enterprise service bus function that is the focal point of SOA, and can build a system in response to the strategic changes to be executed, by freely combining services. With the Service Platform you can also set up a highly reliable system by freely combining the services taken from the existing system and services provided from an external source.

The Service Architect corresponds to the development environment, and has a function for integrating services as well as the functions of the development environment in Developer Professional. The Service Architect can use the definition tools required for process integration, such as business process definitions, data transformation definitions, and service adapter definitions, as plug-in of Eclipse. Process integration can be achieved through a series of operations on Eclipse, ranging from business processes to connection of services.

Among the techniques for developing a system in which SOA is applied, the Service Architect supports the operations right from detailed designing of business processes including interfaces up to the implementation and testing. You can use the functions of service platform to design and implement components.

As a result, you can integrate the services already running in the execution environment of the application and services running in environments other than service platform, and provide new services to users.