Brooks Software sees “unified” user interface as key to SOA usage
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/1/2006 6:00:00 AM
Highly configurable, portal-based user interfaces (UI) will comprise an integral component for how companies exploit service-oriented architecture (SOA) and composite applications, according to Brooks Software, a provider of manufacturing execution system (MES); factory scheduling; and other applications. Brooks is developing what can be thought of as a unified user interface—or UUI—that supports SOA deployment, says Joseph Vinhais, VP of regulatory compliance.
“All the talk about SOAs and composite applications sounds great, but you need a way to deliver the solutions to users,” says Vinhais. “You need a strategy for creating a unified user interface that can assemble behaviors from applications to model a business process.”
Brooks Software's UUI strategy, says Zak Merzouki, chief software architect for the life-sciences industry, involves multiple technology layers. At the core layer are Web services-enabled applications, such as the latest version of Brooks' FactoryWorks MES. The second level is a Web services abstraction and orchestration layer, which Brooks built using Microsoft's WinFX development technologies—the same technologies Microsoft rolled into Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0.
The third layer is the UI, which uses Web Parts built using ASP.NET 2.0, and which can be hosted in Microsoft SharePoint 2007 portal. Via gateways, the underlying services can be hooked into other portals, such as SAP's NetWeaver Portal.
“The strength of this approach is the UUI also is based on SOA principles,” says Merzouki. “The framework is built on top of our SOA middleware using ASP .NET 2.0 Web Parts. It allows us to generate granular UI components and dynamically combine them to present a consistent set of interfaces to the user. That's key for building powerful composite applications, however, this technology is wholly transparent to the end user.”
The goal of the UUI and SOA strategies, says Vinhais, is greater business agility.
“One huge benefit of this configurability in the life-sciences industry—or any industry that requires systems validation—is that you can change a portal view without violating validation requirements,” says Vinhais. “We can do that because we've separated our UUI from the underlying application behaviors.”
Brooks' SOA architecture and portal-based UUI are being used for a life-sciences solution set from Brooks called the MEDIC Manufacturing & Compliance Framework, says Vinhais. This framework taps into Brooks applications, partner applications in quality management and statistical process control, and ERP data from SAP systems to deliver needed application services for the industry.
The same framework architecture, with some modifications to the Web services abstraction layer, is being used by Brooks for application frameworks for other industries such as automotive and high-tech.
As Vinhais sees it, UUIs are how users will experience SOA flexibility. “Without a UUI strategy,” he says, “how do you take advantage of a SOA? You really can't, unless you start building specific UIs for every one of these composite applications.”
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