Navigating you to a new generation of e-business applications

Patterns for e-business are a group of reusable assets that can help speed the process of developing Web-based applications. This site breaks down these reusable assets into the following elements:

• Business patterns identify the interaction between users, businesses, and data. Business patterns are used to create simple, end-to-end e-business applications.
• Integration patterns connect other Business patterns together to create applications with advanced functionality. Integration patterns are used to combine Business patterns in advanced e-business applications.
• Composite patterns are combinations of Business patterns and Integration patterns that have themselves become commonly used types of e-business applications. Composite patterns are advanced e-business applications.
• Custom designs are similar to Composite patterns, as they combine Business patterns and Integration patterns to form an advanced, end-to-end solution. These solutions, however, have not been implemented to the extent of Composite patterns, but are instead developed to solve the e-business problems of one specific company, or perhaps several enterprises with similar problems.
• Application and Runtime patterns are driven by the customer's requirements and describe the shape of applications and the supporting runtime needed to build the e-business application.
• Product mappings to populate the solution. The product mappings are based on proven implementations.
• Guidelines for the design, development, deployment, and management of e-business applications.

The Patterns leverage the experience of IBM architects to create solutions quickly, whether for a small local business or a large multinational enterprise. As shown in the following figure, customer requirements are quickly translated through the different levels of Patterns assets to identify a final solution design and product mapping appropriate for the application being developed.

For a full understanding of the relationships between the Composite, Business and Integration patterns, review the book Patterns for e-business: A Strategy for Reuse (See right column).

This site is for anyone who needs to create an e-business solution, including:

• System architect, designing a new Web application that needs to incorporate existing applications and technology
• Solution provider, configuring a complete e-business application for a customer
• Technical sales team, completing final preparations to illustrate how their new technology is best used
• Other IT architect, needing to understand the technology and products used for e-business application development

The Patterns for e-business provide valuable information to develop your e-business application. However, before you begin using this Web site, you should understand the:

• Business problem to be solved
• Current application and data configuration
• Installed runtime products
• Available skills
• Quality of service required

In addition, you should have a development methodology that ensures:

• You fully understand the customer's total requirements.
• You and your customer agree to the use cases up front.
• All development is done within the context of an overall customer architecture.
• The implications of the availability, scalability, recovery, and other requirements are fully engineered into the physical configuration you recommend.

The patterns are designed to meet 80% of most common customer requirements. If you use the patterns within a structured development methodology, you can extend their scope to meet almost all of your customer's requirements. Note also that, where IBM products are listed as part of pattern implementations, IBM products are not the only solution option.

For advanced e-business implementations, consult the book, Patterns for e-business: A Strategy for Reuse (See right column), and choose an Integration or Composite pattern in addition to a Business pattern, to implement your advanced functionality.

For simpler implementations, the Patterns Web site is designed to navigate you through a logical, step by step process to arrive at a previously tested solution design appropriate for use in your e-business application deployment. The steps involved in this process are as follows:

1. Select a Business pattern to meet the needs of the application you're developing.
2. Select an Application pattern that can implement the application's specific functionality.
3. Review Runtime patterns and select a pattern that satisfies the system requirements of the solution.
4. Review Product mappings to determine which products have been successfully used for the Runtime pattern selected in step 3.
5. Review Guidelines and related links for the Application pattern and product mapping you selected in steps 2 and 4. The Guidelines tell you how to design, develop, and manage an e-business application. Additional related links reference more material that might prove helpful in developing or maintaining your Web-based application.

This process can be followed using any of several navigation tools. The left column of every page on the Patterns Web site features a navigation area that depicts this step by step process, and shows which step in the process you currently occupy. Aside from the pages where you select an Application pattern directly, the bottom of each page prompts you to define which of several described circumstances applies to your business situation, and offers navigation links based on your response. Lastly, "shortcut" links on the left column allow you to quickly jump to any area you have determined you'd like to explore.

Do one of the following:

• If you're just beginning the application development process, first review introductory information for each of the Business, Integration, and Composite patterns, and then select a pattern appropriate to your needs.
• If you already know certain details about your solution requirements, use the shortcut map to quickly jump to a specific design level. For example, if you already know you must implement a Self-Service::Agent solution on an AIX platform, the shortcut map can quickly take you to a design that fits these specifications.

• Patterns for e-business Timeline

  Updated: 08-13-2009
  The Patterns for e-business Timeline keeps track of updates to the Web site.

• Updated ESB Topology patterns

  Updated: 08-13-2009
  Updated and added new pattern to the ESB Topology patterns.

• Updated Application Integration pattern

  Updated: 08-13-2009
  Added new product mappings to the Application Integration::Broker and Router application patterns using WMB V6 and WESB V6.

• Updated Extended Enterprise pattern

  Updated: 08-13-2009
  Added new product mappings to the Extended Enterprise::Exposed Broker and Router application patterns using WMB V6.

• MS Visio Stencil

  Updated: 06-05-2006
  A Patterns for e-business MS Visio Stencil is available to download at the Patterns resource page.

• Other languages

  Updated: 11-07-2005
  The translated pages are only available as zipped offline web sites. Please refer to the Patterns resources page to download the files.

• Pattern Solutions Website

  Updated: 09-30-2005
  The Pattern Solutions web site provides a one stop entry point for pattern solutions content and resources that will assist you in automating the development of complex enterprise applications.

• Order the Patterns book

  Patterns for e-business: A Strategy for Reuse is out of print but you can order it second hand from any of the booksellers at bestwebbuys.com.
  This book documents proven designs and new directions in reusable e-business architectures.

• Updated: 08-13-2009

  The Patterns Resource page provides links to Patterns development resources: Redbooks, White papers, Screen Cams, WebCasts, Customer references and the zipped translated web sites. All these resources are now centrally located on the Patterns Resources page for easy access.