EAI Blog

   Our group project is going well. It looks like we were able to successfully integrate all the pieces- web application, web services, and SAP. Everything seems to work well. Although we may need to make some minor changes, the main functionality seems to be in place.
   It is amazing how by using a relatively easy and efficient process several independent modules based on different technologies can be assembled into a single application.
   On Wednesday night I was planning to work from home on my part of the deliverable for the Milestone 3. However, after the class I learned that for some reason there was no signal in the telephone line at my house and therefore our DSL Internet was not working either.
   Because of that I had to stay late in the lab in order to complete my part of the deliverable and then drove back to Madison.
   Today I learned that our telephone line is being affected by the major AT&T outage which hopefully should be resolved by 10.00 a.m. on Friday, May 2. 

   I completed working on the term paper in rpML format. It was an interesting task that allowed me to get some experience in working with XML-based documents. 
   Our group project is moving forward. The web service is fully functional in exception with the SAP integration that has not been completed yet. There is also an issue with registering new customers that needs to be resolved.
   The basic application functionality has been developed. The Order screens, including Order review and Order submission still need some work as well as the overall user interface design.  

   I set up the web service for our group project.   
   Most of the methods are fully functional with the exception of GetProductList and ProcessOrder, which return dummy values because they are not integrated with SAP yet.  
   While using the convenient automatically generated web test form that can be invoked by typing the URL of an .asmx file, I noticed the regrettable limitation of that form. Unfortunately, it works only for simple data types and does not work for complex types like classes, etc.
   If a method accepts or returns a complex data type, the test form would show the following message: "The test form is only available for requests from the local machine." For simple data types, everything works fine though.
   I continue working on converting my term paper to rpML format. So far I completed approximately 30% of the work.

   Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the last class meeting because I was on a trip out of the city. Now I will need to review the slides and the textbook and complete Lab 4 from home.   
   On Monday, April 7, our team submitted the first deliverable of our group project (Project Design document). We are looking forward towards working on the second deliverable - service setup, which is due by Thursday, April 24.
   During the past week, I was very busy and did not have time for working on converting my term paper to rpML format. I hope that on the weekend of April 12-13 I should have some time to work the paper conversion. However, most likely, I will spend most of the weekend studying for the midterm examination for BUS ADM 814 (Business Intelligence Systems) which is scheduled for next Wednesday. 

I completed my term paper in MS Word format.

Working on the paper was definitely an interesting, enjoyable, and rewarding activity. It was a good opportunity to conduct and independent research, to think, to analyze and evaluate the findings.

Actually, working on the term paper was among my favorite experiences at UWM together with the great business case studies in Professor Ramamurthy's classes.

I was even wondering if it would be beneficial to add student term paper presentations to the syllabus when the course is offered next time. It would allow students to familiarize themselves with the topics researched by peers and share their thoughts, ideas, and findings with the rest of the group.

I continue working on the Term Paper.
The more I read about ESB, the more I can see how controversial the topic is.  

People cannot agree on almost everything related to ESB.
For example, some people think that an ESB is not a product, but an architectural pattern.
Others, however, describe ESB as a coherent piece of infrastructure available for purchase through a number of vendors.

I believe that both notions are correct. ESB is definitely an architectural pattern with some distinctive features, but at the same time, it is a coherent piece of software and not just a composition of traditional middleware in a new packaging. 

I was also finally able to create a short homemade ESB definition based on the Dave Chappel's article: “ESB is a SOA-based Enterprise Application Integration Broker”. I think that the definition above gives a good idea of what ESB really does and what role it plays in the enterprise architecture.

   Lab 3b

   I have completed the second part of Lab 3. Everything seemed to be fine until I tried testing the whole configuration and received an error message saying that the Receiver Agreement was not found.

   I inspected the Receiver Agreement and did not find any errors in it. Then I compared it with the already existing agreements and eventually discovered that instead of being active, my Receiver Agreement was still in the "Being Processed" state.

   It turned out that although I was activating all the entities, some of them failed to activate which I did not notice because the errors were displayed in the very small window at the bottom of the screen.

  After I activated all the entities, the test started working properly and I was able to complete the lab.

   Term paper

   I started working on the term paper and found out that it was not so easy to find a good definition of the ESB. Most of the articles introduce the ESB just by describing its key features without giving any formal definition. Therefore, I had to perform some additional web search in order to find a clear, compact, and useful definition of the ESB.