Web Services

MitemView can quickly and easily expose legacy business transactions as web services that can be invoked by any authorized consumer from anywhere on the network. It is the ideal solution to bridge the 'last mile' gap that exists between existing applications that are not yet web services enabled.

Composite applications created with MitemView are able to marshal many different underlying transactions into a single, reusable service. All of the necessary composing and orchestration logic can be developed on either a Microsoft .NET or J2EE platform and invoked using programmatic interfaces like SOAP, JCA and JMS or, more traditionally, by a human operator via a web browser or other graphical user interface.

Composite Applications

Composite applications combine functions from multiple systems to execute a single, larger process that is invoked as an autonomous business transaction e.g. changeOfAddress or enterNewOrder . Such transactions are usually accessed by a human operator from a web browser or other graphical user interface, but they can also be published in the form of a web service. In this mode, business transactions can be invoked by any duly authorized consumer that supports standard web services protocols like XML, SOAP and WSDL.

Because the web services publishing model is loosely coupled, the consumer may potentially be any application, running on any platform, located anywhere on the network. This flexibility allows previously isolated business transactions - locked behind the proprietary interfaces of mainframe and midrange systems - to become active participants in new business processes.

The "Last Mile" Challenge

It is important to note that the family of web services protocols only handles the publishing, discovery and invocation elements of a total integration solution. There is still the 'last mile' gap that exists between existing applications that are not yet web service enabled. A specialized programmatic integration server - like MitemView - is still required to provide a complete end-to-end solution.

The Bedrock of Reliable Web Services

While every integration software vendor has rushed to enable their products with web service functionality, few have the underlying system architecture to support true composite application development - the bedrock of any reliable web services implementation. Composite applications are the most closely knit and hardest to implement of all possible integration patterns, and are therefore prone to errors and poor design.

MitemView reduces the complexity of building composite applications by providing a proven integration framework that actively manages the development and runtime tasks. MitemView reduces the application development effort by at least 80% [compared with traditional methods] and enables enterprise-class applications to be delivered at the first attempt.

Adaptability

MITEM believes that any technology choice that is promised to last is doomed to fail; therefore, the most valuable integration solutions are those that are technology agnostic; built for adaptability and change over time.

In keeping with this fundamental belief, MitemView has been engineered to function equally well in either a Microsoft .NET or J2EE operating environment.

MitemView-based applications can be developed using the Java or Visual Studio .NET languages and can be deployed in any technical architecture. Some enterprises deploy MitemView as a stand-alone integration server, providing a direct path between legacy applications and web service consumers. This approach is particularly suited to opportunistic projects that require the rapid delivery of a low-cost but scalable solution. Other enterprises deploy MitemView as part of their IT infrastructure, in which case the MitemView integration server(s) co-exists with myriad other platforms including web servers, application servers, portals, BPM engines, EAI hubs, messaging middleware, web services gateways etc.