Ellipse Technical Overview

Ellipse 6.0 Technical Overview

TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER

Copyright

2006 Mincom Limited All rights reserved.

Legal disclaimer

Information in this document is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute a warranty of any kind nor does it amend or expand any existing warranty that Mincom may have with a customer. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

QSDS0292.001 2006 Mincom Limited Page 2 of 33 Ellipse 6 Technical Overview

Technical Overview

Executive summary

The purpose of this document is to provide a technical overview of the Ellipse 6 product. For further information contact Mincom or refer to the appropriate reference manuals.


Technical Overview

Table of contents

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5 Ellipse Enterprise Services .......................................................................................................................... 5 Mincom Ellipse Reporting (MER) ............................................................................................................. 5

The Technology........................................................................................................................ 7 Scalability........................................................................................................................................................ 8 Openness........................................................................................................................................................ 9 Integration...................................................................................................................................................... 9 Security ......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Ellipse Enterprise Services ...................................................................................................... 11 Mincom Ellipse Reporting ......................................................................................................13

Mincom Ellipse Reporting ........................................................................................................................ 13 Mincom Connector ..................................................................................................................17 Mincom Background Processing ............................................................................................18

Mincom Scheduler ...................................................................................................................................... 18 Mincom Background Event Connector .................................................................................................. 18

Ellipse 6 Architecture...............................................................................................................20 Windows 32 bit Clients ............................................................................................................27

Look and Feel.............................................................................................................................................. 27 Ellipse Deployment .................................................................................................................28

Installation ................................................................................................................................................... 28 Ellipse Integration ...................................................................................................................30 About Mincom .........................................................................................................................33


Technical Overview

Introduction Ellipse 6, the latest release of Mincom's flagship product, Mincom Ellipse, which is a fully integrated application set specializing in the management of assets, work and logistics for capital intensive industries such as Mining, Utilities, Transportation and Defence and is well known in the industry for rich functionality, logical workflow and scalability. Ellipse 6 business components provide integrated functionality for the management of Maintenance, Repair and Operations, Materials Management, Human Resources and Financials

Ellipse 6 is Web Service enabled and introduces Mincom Ellipse Reporting powered by Business Objects as the underlying reporting technology. Ellipse 6 continues the evolution of its architecture to a fully Service Oriented Architecture with the introduction of Mincom Ellipse Enterprise Services as the technology platform that provides customers with unprecedented access to the business logic of Mincom Ellipse using Web Services.

Ellipse Enterprise Services

Ellipse Enterprise Services will be delivered in Ellipse 6 introduces the foundation required for Ellipse to operate within a customers Service Oriented environment. Mincom Ellipses business objects have been exposed as Web Services allowing customers to integrate and interoperate with Ellipse using open standards.

Mincom continues to develop new features to its products using a Service Oriented design philosophy. Mincoms integration framework utilises Ellipse Enterprise Services to deliver a comprehensive suite of services for its business logic.

Mincom Ellipse Reporting (MER)

Mincom has chosen to consolidate all reporting in Mincom Ellipse into a best of breed reporting product supplied by one of the market leaders, Business Objects. Many of Mincoms customers already use third party products to either supplement the reporting features of Mincom Ellipse or to provide advanced analytical functionality. Business Objects is already strongly represented within the Mincom customer base.

The Mincom Ellipse Reporting Solution uses the reporting tools provided by Business Objects running over an Ellipse aware semantic layer provided by Mincom, the Business Objects Universe. In this manner, organizations can quickly develop specific standard reports in addition to those provided by Mincom. More advanced users can develop ad hoc queries to suit their reporting requirements.

Features of Mincom Ellipse Reporting Solution include:-

Fully integrated with Mincom Ellipse including single sign on and integrated security that encompasses District, Employee and Inventory Category.

WYSIWYG report formatting and printing, delivering advanced layout, design, and formatting capabilities that allow report authors to build professional quality documents with the exact look and feel they desire

WebIntelligence providing a thin client solution to enable users to easily track, understand and manage organizational data over intranets and extranets


Technical Overview

Advanced reporting capability allowing users to drill down and perform advanced sorting, calculation creation and complex graphing

Semantic Layer (Business Objects Universe) which maps complex database structures and terminology into a simplified and readily understandable structure using familiar business terms

Report template components that help report authors to build reports quickly and easily by allowing them to drag and drop tables, charts and other report components onto a report

Intelligent Information Delivery which deliver business driven alerts and mission critical information to the users


Technical Overview

The Technology

Figure 1 - Ellipse Layered Architecture

Ellipse is an n-tiered application architecture. The key benefit is the products scalability and flexibility, with tiers responsible for discrete parts of the application delivery. For example, the presentation tier deals with presentation issues while the transaction and database tiers are responsible for data integrity, security and business logic.

Mincom Ellipse supports Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 or higher, Windows application clients and the server components are supported on platforms from Windows, UNIX through to Z/OS. Figure 1 - Ellipse Layered Architecture shows the layered technology within Mincom Ellipse.


Technical Overview

Figure 2 - Webview Deployment Options

The application layers use a mix of J2EE session beans and faade beans in the existing business transaction layers to exploit the existing business services. All business functions have a representation in J2EE, and applications are built using this representation. This provides a degree of abstraction from implementation and to the user and developer, the applications are entirely J2EE.

The database layer manages all of the database interactions and ensures consistent and efficient use of the physical database implementation. The integration layers allow access to all of the business logic for the purpose of integration to other systems. Because of the layered approach of the architecture, it is possible to deploy the application under different deployment configurations. Figure 2 - Webview Deployment Options outlines one of the possible deployment scenarios for Webview. Consult the Mincom Deployment guide for different options and case studies.

Scalability

Ellipses architectural tiers can be installed in many configurations, ranging from all tiers installed on a single machine through to a separate machine for each discrete tier, or with multiple servers for various discrete tiers. A common deployment model is to have a separate database server with multiple application servers and Web servers to provide high availability and scalability.

Combined with regular benchmarking and load testing and its layered architecture, Ellipse can meet the stringent performance requirements of our customers.


Technical Overview

Openness

Mincom has always operated with the philosophy of customer choice. This philosophy avoids lock-in to proprietary vendors and future-proofs the investment in Mincom by ensuring an ongoing migration path to new technologies. Ellipse 6 is offered on a range of hardware platforms, including IBM Z/OS, Sun Solaris, HP UX, IBM AIX, and Microsoft Windows 2000, 2003. It also supports a full range of database servers, including DB2/UDB, Oracle and SQL Server. Mincom can support the heterogeneous environments that exist in most organisations, leveraging existing investments. The same flexibility is crucial to integrating with the technologically diverse nature of the Internet.

A key requirement of an enterprise application is to offer easy and open access to the rich functionality contained within. Unlike many products where the business logic is locked away in hard to get at database stored procedures, Ellipse 6 is architected using a Service Oriented Architecture and all new business functionality is developed using SUNs Java and J2EE technologies.

Mincoms Service Oriented Design allows the Ellipse 6 Enterprise Services to expose" their services through open, standard interfaces using Web Services allowing easy interoperability to other products, and to the Internet.

Integration

Mincom Ellipse supports interoperability between disparate application systems based upon the proven Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) paradigm. This model leverages application-specific adapters and integration tooling such as IBM WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker to expose and automate the flow of business information between application systems to solve real business needs. Each application system adapter communicates with a centralized message broker to coordinate, translate, data enrich, secure, and route messages between the participating enterprise application systems. Business messages are described using standards-based XML schemas. Any JMS-compliant messaging middleware, such as IBM WebSphere MQ, is leveraged to provide a robust, reliable messaging transport.

Within this framework, Mincom leverages the most appropriate technology to achieve integration. Mincoms preferred approach is a standards-based integration utilizing J2EE, JMS, XML, Web Services and other related technologies.

Mincom can provide a comprehensive suite of adapters for each Ellipse business entity. These adapters encapsulate Ellipse business rules and can be deployed in Business Integration Suites such as the WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker. This enables Ellipse to integrate with other commercial and in-house applications using EAI philosophies. Mincom supports two distinct integration approaches. The first is integration of products that are considered part of the Mincom family of products. This integration is synchronous and tightly bound to the product, using technologies such as Web Services, JMS, RMI, direct Java, or Mincoms internal connector product. These integration options are available to Mincoms customers if simple point-to-point integration is required.


Technical Overview

Where customers require integration to other commercial products or in-house systems, an Enterprise Application Integration framework can be adopted. This framework is built on the Ellipse Enterprise Services available in 5.2.3.7. In Ellipse 6 Mincom can provide a suite of adapters which utilise WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker and BEAs Integration suite, which can be used to successfully integrate these systems. As the adapters are based on Ellipse Enterprise Services other integration platforms such as WebMethods can be incorporated into the integration framework based on customer requirements. These adapters along with available technology adapters can meet the most demanding integration requirements.

Security

Ellipse has multi-level security integrated by design. Users are granted security privileges either on an individual basis, a group basis or based on the role they perform in the system. Role-based security linked to the Mincoms establishment hierarchy determines what a user is authorized to perform based on that persons position within the hierarchy.

Mincom requires only one sign-on to access all of the inherent functionality. This can be managed either via Mincoms internal security or alternatively, Mincom allows the use of any third party security package to provide user identification and password checking that is linked to Ellipse user IDs, which in turn are linked to the users positions within the hierarchy.

The use of a third party security package thus allows for single sign-on across the enterprise. Through this mechanism, Mincom can support a number of user stores for user identification, including DCE, LDAP, Active Directory and similar mechanisms.


Technical Overview

Ellipse Enterprise Services Ellipse 6 delivers the foundation technology for Mincoms Service Oriented Architecture. It delivers each of the Mincoms business objects described using Web Services Description Language (WSDL). These services are available to be used within customers Service Oriented Application environments.

What are Enterprise Services? An Enterprise Service is a Web Service Description of Mincom business logic described using WSDL. The service represents a distinct business service such as a Workorder service and the operations that can be performed by the Work order Service against the Workorder business entity such as Create, Delete, AddDurations and other business level operations.

Mincom has taken the hard work out of interfacing to Mincoms business logic and provided standards based interface that allows customers to invoke the logic from the environment that best suits their individual circumstances.

Ellipse Enterprise Services are the core of Mincoms Service Oriented Architecture.

Why Enterprise Services? Enterprise Services are business functions that can be invoked as Web Services. The advantages of doing this include

Standards based access to Mincoms business logic Interaction with Mincom business logic without the need to install

Mincom Middleware software as is the case with Mincom Connector.

Popular Interactive Development Environments (IDEs) such as Eclipse, WebSphere Studio Application Developer, JBuilder, Visual Studio and others can understand the WSDL interface which will facilitate the development of new applications using the customers choice of IDE.

The interfaces are described using open standard mechanisms such as WSDL, XSD and no longer do customers have to understand Mincom proprietary interfaces.

What is being delivered? WSDL descriptions for all of Mincoms object based business logic will be delivered in Ellipse 6.

In addition 6 will contain java-based interfaces to the Ellipse Screen Oriented applications. This is a similar interface to the Mincom Connector style interface and allows customers to programmatically access the Ellipse business logic through the Screen interface. This interface is useful for customers who wish to automate many processes that are only available via the screen.


Technical Overview

As is the case with Mincom Connector it is not envisaged that customers would build production applications using the screen interface. The Mincom object based interface is the preferred mechanism for these applications.

Through these interfaces customers can incorporate Mincoms business logic into their own applications.

Extended Enterprise Services Extended Enterprise Services are services that are made up of multiple services. These services could be Mincom Ellipse Enterprise Services or a combination of customer Services, other Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) services and Mincom Enterprise Services.


Technical Overview

Mincom Ellipse Reporting Ellipse 6 delivers a new reporting infrastructure powered by Business Objects. The reporting solution replaces the other forms of reporting and will be the predominant reporting mechanism used for obtaining Business Intelligence out of the customers business data. By utilising a commercial best of breed reporting solution customers are able to get real time quality reports and are able to extend the reporting capabilities into data warehouse and business analytics across their entire organization.

Mincom Ellipse Reporting

Ellipse Reporting is totalling integrated with Ellipse with the ability to run and schedule reports using the existing interfaces and mechanisms.

Customers can view their reports via Business Objects InfoView to using a browser interface or through the integrated view built into the Mincom Ellipse Explorer. Reports leverage the formatting capabilities available to browser based viewing mechanisms. In addition to HTML, customers can view reports using PDF; Microsofts Excel and in CSV formats.

Customers are able to customise reports to their own specific needs and quickly generate sophisticated professional reports for all areas of the system with the one tool and skillset.

Mincom has provided a simplified view of the sophisticated Ellipse data model for reporting by specifying relationships and data type mapping for quick and convenient use within the report development environment. Mincom has provided a comprehensive set of Business Object Universes that customers could use to build their own custom reports.

Figure 3 - Mincom Ellipse Reporting (MER)


Technical Overview

Figure 4 - Sample Report 1


Technical Overview

Dynamic Reports When viewed from the InfoView interface customers can dynamically affect the data they see on the report by drilling down to look at the detail behind these reports without having to redesign the report or rerunning it.

Figure 5 - Sample Report 2

Output Formats Reports can be produced in several popular output formats, which suit the specific needs of each individual. Formats include HTML for rich graphical report content, PDF the de-facto document format today, to Excel for further analysis using Microsofts Excel. If these formats do not suit then comma delimited CSV format can be used and customers can use their favourite analysis tool.

Output Media In addition to the various output formats customers can choose to send reports to a variety of different media, including

Printers Email Fax


Technical Overview

File output Ellipse applications can also launch Business Object reports as part of the application. For example the Work Order Application can launch the work order report directly allowing customers to view the report and subsequently print, email, fax and file the report as required.

Delivery for Ellipse 6 Ellipse 6 is the initial release for Mincom Ellipse Reporting using Business Objects and delivers the foundation infrastructure for Business Objects, plus most of the Ellipse significant reports. Further enhancements to Mincom Ellipse Reporting will include additional reports and Business Intelligence capabilities.


Technical Overview

Mincom Connector In addition to Ellipse Enterprise Services Mincom will continue to provide Mincom Connector for customers who prefer to use Microsofts COM interface for accessing Ellipse business logic.

Mincom Connector provides a number of interfaces, components and documentation that allows third parties to reuse the Ellipse business logic other than through Web Services.

The use of Microsofts Component Object Model allows developers to access Ellipse object based business logic in a Windows Environment using most languages (C++, Visual Basic, Java) and most development environments (Visual C++, Delphi, Visual Interdev).

Mincom Connector has been designed to assist customers and third parties

Create their own GUI applications Use products to provide a different Interface to the product. For example

using Microsoft Project to provide a different user interface to Ellipse projects and Work Orders.

For use in simple point-to-point integration. Mincom Connector can be used to load data for data collection activities

Mincom Enterprise Services is the preferred and recommended mechanism for integration and application extensions.


Technical Overview

Mincom Background Processing Mincom has a comprehensive framework for processing background processes made up of two main components for initiating and scheduling background processes:

Mincom Scheduler Mincom Background Event Connector

Mincom Scheduler

Mincom Scheduler is an asynchronous lite weight scheduler offering full scheduling capabilities. The Mincom Scheduler uses a socket for the inter-process communication protocol and runs as a daemon process, polling for messages continuously. Messages are processed and stored in first in first out (FIFO) order, therefore reports, streams and jobs are presented /processed in FIFO order. All messages processed by the scheduler are written to a log file which is date stamped for easy maintenance (bes_YYYYMMDD.log).

The Mincom Scheduler is designed to be installed as a scheduler process for each Ellipse instance created, inheriting the username and the environment of that instance so that jobs are executed directly without need to change user or source an environment file.

The Mincom Scheduler keeps its entire storable context in memory to simplify its installation and operations maintenance. Communicating with the scheduler can be achieved either through the Ellipse Admin Console (EAC) or the command line interface.

While the primary function of the scheduler is to execute Ellipse jobs, there is no limitation for executing ad-hoc jobs for the same username and environment. I.e. backups procedures, msclean and other housekeeping style programs.

Mincom Background Event Connector

Mincom Background Event Connector (BEC) is the component within Ellipse, which initiates the processing of background tasks as requested. It initiates and tracks the execution of jobs for Ellipse and initiates these within Mincom Scheduler.

Ellipse 6 has been re-architected from a single-threaded Perl application to a multithreaded java application that queues and executes jobs. This improves the performance and scalability of background job execution.


Technical Overview

BEC has been redesigned to "plug-ins" style architecture to support different type of processing, current plug-ins include:

Cobol Runtime Connector Business Objects Connector Batch Table interpreter Keyword interpreter Housekeeping Ellipse Connector

Future release will see additional plug-ins developed to meet the ever-increasing demands of background event processing.


Technical Overview

Ellipse 6 Architecture With the release of Ellipse 6, Mincom provides an architecture ready for e-business in the demanding environment required by capital-intensive operations.

The n-tier architecture for Ellipse 6 architecture comprises of a number of discrete logical and physical layers.

Figure 6 - Mincom Ellipse Architecture

Ellipse 6 achieves much of its power from the underlying application server and web server technology. Mincom has not developed these technologies itself, but rather has formed strategic partnerships with specialists such as IBM and BEA to provide the embedded platform middleware.

The layers described in the Mincom Ellipse Architecture are:

Presentation Tier Presentation

Delivery Systems

This layer supports a number of different client application, platforms and technology.

Application Server Tier Business Process This logical layer takes the services and business logic from the

underlying layers and forms business processes. This layer QSDS0292.001 2006 Mincom Limited Page 20 of 33 Ellipse 6 Technical Overview

Technical Overview

Layer represents a statement of intent by Mincom to incorporate Workflow and business process technologies such as Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).

It will utilize the service layer as its source of business logic.

Service The Service layer is the WSDL representation of the underlying business logic within Ellipse.

This service layer exposes the underlying java components via Web Services. The Web Service binding for Ellipse 6 will be SOAP/HTTP however over time other transports will be included, such as SOAP/JMS and EJB.

This layer makes use of the JAX-RPC specifications, JSR101 and JSR109.

Business Logic

J2EE and J2EE Facades

The business logic layer is where the actual business logic is written or exposed for Ellipse. In the case of new development the business logic will be 100% J2EE. Existing business logic that exists in the Transaction Systems has been exposed via J2EE Session Beans, and plain java beans for use by application developers.

The complexity of interacting with the transaction systems has been eliminated via the J2EE faade layer which presents the Cobol applications as java components for use by java applications and the service layer above.

Transaction System Tier Transaction Systems The transaction system layer is the traditional business logic that is

developed using Cobol. Mincom no longer develops new applications using Cobol, but significant existing business logic is available in the transaction systems layer and is exposed into the J2EE faade layer.

J2EEs Java Connector Architecture (JCA) is used to bridge the two technologies.

Database Tier Database Systems The database layer is available to the transaction and application

server systems using such technologies as JDBC, and embedded SQL.

User Interfaces Mincom Ellipse provides a number of different presentation options that can be independently deployed, depending on the needs and circumstances of customers. The options are:

A Browser based User Interface (WebView) QSDS0292.001 2006 Mincom Limited Page 21 of 33 Ellipse 6 Technical Overview

Technical Overview

A Windows based User Interface (WinView) The user interfaces can be implemented separately or concurrently.

Support for different types of user interfaces is paramount for todays Enterprise.

Browser Based User Interface (WebView) The browser based user interface in Mincom Ellipse is based on JSP (Java Server Pages) technology and uses SUNs J2EE.

Mincom Ellipse is built around a distributed component model based on the J2EE specification. EJB (Enterprise Java Beans) are built to encapsulate business logic, and the JCA (Java Connector Architecture) will allow existing business logic that runs in a CICS or Tuxedo environment to be leveraged within the Application Server.

Ellipse Web applications provide a HTML/DHTML user interface.

There are no specific deployment options for exploiting the browser based user interface. The only requirement is a device capable of running Microsofts Internet Explorer Version 6.

Currently with Ellipse 6, Microsofts Internet Explorer V6 (IE6.0 or higher) is the only supported browser interface.

The following are two example screens of the 5.2.3.7 WebView user interface. Figure 7 shows the initial menu after logging on to Ellipse. The new feel includes

better layout and more economical use of screen real estate consistent Submit and Cancel operations less and lighter images to reduce bandwidth consumption for he web interface consistent brand and logo positions within applications better use of scroll bars within applications Better colour schemes

Figure 7 - WebView Initial Menu


Technical Overview

Figure 8 - Webview Warehouse Requisition Initial Page

Figure 8 shows the initial Warehouse Requisition screen. Included in this layout are

Search fields are underlined for population of fields Mandatory fields are indicated with a red asterisk. Use of tabbing around logical business functions Use of colours to indicate read only fields

Windows based User Interface (WinView) WinView is the Ellipse Windows based User Interface, it provides a functionally rich user interface on the desktop and caters for users that need to manipulate data, link to other front office tools, carry out what if scenarios, or review large amounts of data.

WinView provides a true Windows look and feel with explorer style navigation, use of icons, grids that can be scrolled up and down, and from left to right.

The user interface can be customised by the end user. Some of the customisation features available are:

Setting field background colours (eg. All mandatory fields set to yellow, all protected fields set to red)

Setting the size of tool bar buttons to large or small Sorting of columns within grids

It is also possible to apply a corporate look and feel by making modifications to the layout to reflect the way the application will be implemented. Customisations include


Technical Overview

Hiding non mandatory fields Defaulting various values Moving fields to different tabs on the interface

The Windows 32 bit Ellipse Applications have been developed using Borlands Delphi and consists of the following:

Ellipse/Explorer provides the user with a Windows Explorer style application that allows the user to access any Ellipse Win 32 bit application. It also allows the user to create links to their favourite applications

The Ellipse/UI provides access to all the Ellipse business logic. This is a highly graphical user interface that supports a Microsoft Office look and feel, graphics support and utilises standard Windows features such as drag and drop. It can also be customised by the user without programming support.

Custom Interfaces Customers can develop their own interfaces by utilising the various programmer interfaces offered in Ellipse 6. These programming interfaces include:

Windows 32 bit applications developed using Mincom Connector Custom Web Applications using Ellipse Enterprise Services. Custom Web Applications using Ellipse J2EE components and including

Ellipse session beans, screen java objects and Ellipse subroutines other than via Web Services.

Third Party Interfaces Third Party User Interfaces integrated with Ellipse are useful where

The third party application can be used as a User Interface to Ellipse. I.e. usage of MS Project for managing of Ellipse Projects and Work Orders

The third party application compliments Ellipse. For example a GIS can be used to compliment Ellipse functionality. Ellipse/UI COM interfaces and Mincom Connector can be used for the integration.

The recommended approach is to utilise Ellipse Enterprise Services and Web Services to develop these applications.

Application Server Ellipse 6 is deployed using either IBMs WebSphere Application Server or BEAs WebLogic Server. Ellipse uses application servers, which adhere to SUNs J2EE specification and can be deployed on all of Mincoms supported operating systems.


Technical Overview

Server Side applications and components need a deployment platform that will scale, provide security and transactional capabilities. Application and Web Servers provide the environments for highly scalable applications such as Ellipse 6. In the new world of eBusiness applications must be able to scale from hundreds of users to tens of thousands of users and beyond.

The Ellipse applications layer provides all the business rules and business processes inherent to the product. The Ellipse applications layer provides a number of business components. Each component consists of a business logic represented as java classes with its associated Methods and Attributes.

In Figure 6 - Mincom Ellipse Architecture, the application server runs all of the J2EE components within the Ellipse Layered Architecture. Within the application server there are separate discreet layers that provide services to the layers above. Within the application server there are several logical layers that the Ellipse application server is built on namely,

Java Server Pages, Struts / Java Server Faces (JSF) Business Process Execution Layers BPEL Choreography Service Layer J2EE business logic / Object Layer J2EE Faade Layer

Java Server Pages, Struts / JSF

This layer supplies the runtime support for the Web based presentation layers. This includes support for Java Server Pages and over time the Struts framework and Java Server Faces. This layer provides the necessary infrastructure for delivering web user interface sequencing.

Business Process BPEL Choreography

The business process layer represents the application business logic for J2EE based applications. Over time the way business applications are developed will include BPEL Choreography and external workflow to extend the already inbuilt workflow capabilities.

Service Layer

The service layer exposes the business services of Ellipse via Web Services. In Ellipse 6 the introduction of Ellipse Enterprise Services is achieved at this layer.

The service layer could include services that are developed at the business process layer.

J2EE business logic / Object Layer

At this layer business logic developed using 100% J2EE technology. All new applications within Ellipse will be developed at this layer.

J2EE Faade Layer

This layer is an abstraction layer of the Ellipse Non Java application logic. The facades provide for java programmers the ability to exploit this business logic without having to be concerned with the interactions with the transaction servers using JCA.

The Ellipse business objects (traditionally known as Ellipse Business Objects MSK), the Ellipse screens (traditionally know as MSOs) and Ellipse subroutines (MSSs).


Technical Overview

Java Connector Architecture Ellipse 6 provides and Ellipse JCA adapter allowing application servers to communicate to transaction systems whilst maintaining the qualities of service such as atomic transactions and security that Mincoms customers expect of an Enterprise system.

Transaction Servers Ellipse has a significant amount of business logic running under the traditional transaction servers CICS Transaction Server (Z/OS), TXSeries / CICS (Open Systems, and Windows) and BEAs Tuxedo (Open Systems and Windows).

The transaction servers are designed to efficiently execute and manage application logic and database resources allowing the application to scale to thousands of users.

At this layer application logic is written using COBOL. When Ellipse and its predecessor MIMS Open Enterprise was first developed COBOL was chosen because:

It was open, non proprietary standard controlled by an independent standards body (some vendors have their own languages);

Cross platform and wide support from third party products; Compiled into a native executable for superior performance (many proprietary

languages are interpreted at run time: meaning poorer performance);

Mature, proven, and robust; Large pool of expertise available in the market place.

Significantly, Mincom chose Java and J2EE for its future development platform for identical reasons to those used to originally choose COBOL.

Database Layer The Database Access layer supports the popular Enterprise databases such as DB2, Oracle, and SQL/Server. The database access layer provides services to the application layer (i.e. creating a row on the database, or retrieval of several rows in a database according to a selection criteria).

The Ellipse Database Layer can be physically deployed onto a different database server if the customer so wishes.


Technical Overview

Windows 32 bit Clients Ellipse 6 provides a user interface for Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional operating systems. The user interface adheres to Windows standards as well as the look and feel of Microsoft Office. The Ellipse 6 Windows User Interface provides the user with a highly graphical user interface that can access all functionality within Ellipse 6.

Look and Feel

Ellipse 6 provides a look and feel that adheres to Windows and Microsoft Office look and feel.

The Ellipse 6 applications use standard windows controls such as menus, Drag and Drop, grids, graphics such as pie charts, tree views and buttons.


Technical Overview

Ellipse Deployment Ellipse has a number of different ways of being deployed, each one supporting different enterprise requirements.

Figure 10 - Ellipse Technology Platforms

Installation

Installation of the Ellipse Server components is performed via the Mincom Ellipse Administration Console (EAC). It manages the environments and dependencies for Ellipse and ensures a consistent installation of the Ellipse product across the Mincom customer base. This improves supportability by ensuring environments are consistent.

Mincom WinView is installed through windows installshield simplifying the installation of Ellipse Windows components for customers. The WinView installshield is also fully MSI compliant to help ease administration.

Mincom Webview installation is managed through the Mincom Ellipse Administration Console.

Windows Client Installation Ellipse 6 can deploy its windows client across the standard windows deployment options including

Windows 32 bit client Natively installed onto the PC or onto a File Server


Technical Overview

Windows Remote Desktop Client When All Ellipse applications are installed in a Windows Terminal Server and Citrix environments.

Web Server Deployment Ellipse 6 can be deployed using the standard deployment capabilities of IBMs WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment and BEAs Weblogic Server It can take advantage of clustering and multi server capabilities as well as the different platform capabilities of the Application servers.

Additionally Ellipse 6 can be deployed as a web application by utilising Citrix nFuse technology.


Technical Overview

Ellipse Integration Ellipse 6 comes with a comprehensive integration framework and adapter suite. The integration framework exploits the Ellipse Enterprise Services to deliver a standards based integration framework into Ellipse.

Ellipse 6 integration framework is delivered on IBMs WebSphere Integration Message Broker and BEAs Weblogic Server Integration suite.

Integration Overview

Figure 11 Integration Overview

Figure 11 describes the problem of integration. There are two applications A and B that that need to share data. They have different interfaces formats for passing data and different types and meanings associated with the data.

Integration frameworks take the native interface from one application and convert it to the native interface of the other application.

If the integration only required the two applications to pass data between each other then the integration framework would consist of just one program which would contain the rules and formatting and there would be no requirement to convert to XML as an intermediate step.


Technical Overview

Typically, applications require integration from many sources. The integration framework in this case converts the interface to a common form, typically XML. Then the XML has a series of rules for converting to the required XML format for the destination application. If a new application is introduced, all that is required is a new set of rules to convert the XML to the required format. This approach allows for a centralised management approach to integration and avoids the need of each application to understand the different applications and formats of other applications.

The fundamental approach to integration hasnt changed over the years, rather the expectations and qualities of service have. For example, historically application A and B typically were integrated by extracting data from one application in its native format, some separate program written to reformat (the rules and formatter part of Figure 11) the native interface into application Bs interface and then loaded into Application Bs system.

The qualities of service that have changed include

Integration must be real time and it is no longer acceptable for integration to occur overnight or even on an hourly basis.

Integration must be accurate and reliable. More systems require integration today as compared to only a few in the past. Integration needs to occur beyond organisational boundaries. Common business languages need to be supported in the various integration

environments.

The speed and cost of doing integration needs to be reduced. The Mincom Ellipse Integration framework helps customers meet their complex integration requirements.

Service Oriented Integration A definition from the techtarget site defines Service Oriented Integration (SOI)

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci929156,00.html

Service-oriented integration (SOI) is defined as integrating computing entities using only service interactions in a service-oriented architecture. Service-oriented integration addresses problems with integrating legacy and inflexible heterogeneous systems by enabling IT organizations to offer the functionality locked in existing applications as reusable services.

In contrast to traditional enterprise application integration (EAI), the significant characteristics of services-oriented integration are:

Well-defined, standardized interfaces Consumers are provided with easily understood and consistent access to the underlying service.

Opaqueness The technology and location of the application providing the functionality is hidden behind the service interface. In fact, there is no need for a fixed services provider.

Flexibility Both the providers of services and consumers of services can change - the service description is the only constant. Provided both the provider and consumer continue to adhere to the service description, the applications will continue to work.


Technical Overview

Ellipse 6 delivers an SOI framework based around Ellipse Enterprise Services. Each of the Enterprise Services is defined using WSDL as the source integration artefact. From this source artefact the necessary components are generated to allow interaction with the Ellipse business logic. These components are then available to the specific integration server to perform the usual mediation tasks of integrating disparate applications.

Figure 12 Service Oriented Integration

Figure 12 is a high level view of the Ellipse Service Oriented Integration framework. It shows the integration server, which manages the messaging, adapters and formatting of messages via defined rules. The integration server interfaces directly to the Ellipse Enterprise or eXtended Enterprise Services as defined using WSDL.

One size does not fit all The type of integration model chosen by will vary based on individual circumstances and need. Broadly there will be 2 types of integration scenarios namely

Broker Based And

Point to Point Customers who choose broker based integration will typically have many systems to be integrated and many integration points within the systems. These customers will have tried point to point integration and understand the value obtained from broker-based integration. Customers can choose Mincoms integration framework for this style of integration.

Point to point integration will typically involve customers with smaller number of systems and integration points. Customers can choose just Mincom Enterprise Services to do this style of integration.


Technical Overview

About Mincom Mincom is a leading global technology partner for asset-intensive industries. Since 1979, we have served customers within the mining, oil and gas, utilities, transportation, defence and government industries in more than 40 countries.

Our people have successfully linked organizations with their mission-critical assets for over 20 years. Our collaboration experience has delivered dramatic process improvement and reduced costs for our customers. Our vision provides innovative answers that maximize our customers business, assets and people.

Mincom provides enterprise solutions focused on improving business outcomes for asset-intensive industries.

To ensure our solutions are aligned to our customers business objectives and impact the bottom line, Mincom offers a range of strategic services delivered by experienced professionals with a deep knowledge of best practice for asset-intensive industries. Mincoms service offering includes strategic consulting, e-business capabilities, system integration, training and support, implementation services, project management, it outsourcing and application hosting across value chains.

To find out more about Mincoms solution, contact us at [email protected] or visit www.mincom.com

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Introduction Ellipse Enterprise Services Mincom Ellipse Reporting (MER) The Technology Scalability Openness Integration Security

Ellipse Enterprise Services What are Enterprise Services? Why Enterprise Services? What is being delivered? Extended Enterprise Services

Mincom Ellipse Reporting Mincom Ellipse Reporting Dynamic Reports Output Formats Output Media Delivery for Ellipse 6

Mincom Connector Mincom Background Processing Mincom Scheduler Mincom Background Event Connector

Ellipse 6 Architecture Presentation TierApplication Server TierTransaction System TierDatabase TierUser Interfaces Browser Based User Interface (WebView) Windows based User Interface (WinView) Custom Interfaces Third Party Interfaces Application Server Java Connector Architecture Transaction Servers Database Layer

Windows 32 bit Clients Look and Feel

Ellipse Deployment Installation Windows Client Installation Web Server Deployment

Ellipse Integration Integration Overview Service Oriented Integration One size does not fit all

About Mincom

Ellipse Technical Overview

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Transcript of Ellipse Technical Overview