[aperi-dev] Aperi UI Futures: a concrete strawman

[Dave Wolfe <dwolfe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

As discussed in an earlier email we
are trending towards a web based solution for the Aperi UI.
This trend requires some new infrastructure
be put into place to support the new model.
Specifically we will need a portal server
(open source, of course) and an Ajax framework.
A portal server implies an application
server and an application server has to be hosted somewhere, and once you
start talking about application servers all kinds of annoying questions
about deployment and security start coming up.
One thing that is for sure is that this
application server is for presentation services only, so it should be considered
as isolated from any other application server in the back end (or should
it?).
But, the way I envision it right now
is with the application server embedded in the data server internally accessing
data server service APIs via POBs.
I think this is probably a bit naive,
and it makes our server picture more convoluted, so I could use some help
on why this won't work and what other alternatives I have.
Asserting POBs here is saying I want
to keep the footprint small so I don't want to take on a framework (Springs,
Struts, EJBs, etc). I think this is OK given our Ajax leanings (the MVC
pattern moves to browser?).

The portlets just provide containment
for the Ajaxified controls that feed on XML streams (not pictured).
In addition to serving portlets the
application server can also serve BIRT reports (also not pictured) which
would move report generation from the client (as it is today in the V0.3
RCP GUI) to the server.
The console framework depicted above
is our rich client framework with a browser window to present the web based
content, but conceptually could be any framework.
All portlets will have to be written
and tested for portability for the day when we move from the rich client
framework to a fully browser based console.

Dave Wolfe/Portland/IBM
(dwolfe@xxxxxxxxxx)
TL: 775-3376 Office: 503-578-3376 Personal: 503-329-3960

GUI Technical Lead, Aperi Open Source Storage Management http://www.eclipse.org/aperi http://www.ibm.com

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