Front-End Integration general guidelines

To help you determine if the Front-End Integration pattern is appropriate for the design of your Web-based application, the following information details the business and IT scenario into which an Front-End Integration solution fits.

Businesses developing a solution needing the following characteristics should consider using the Front-End Integration pattern:

• The end-users and customers need to directly interact with business processes.
• The business activity has a need to aggregate, organize, and present information from various sources within and outside of the organization.
• The business process must be reachable in a common, consistent, and simplified manner through multiple delivery channels.

The Front-End Integration pattern is commonly observed in e-business solutions that provide users a seamless and consistent user experience that combines access to multiple applications, databases, and services. It is used as a front-end integration pattern, and is also observed when information needs to be presented through multiple delivery channels (devices). The Front-End Integration pattern does not stand alone in a solution, but is typically used to combine Business patterns to create custom designs and Composite patterns are used to solve complex business problems.

The Front-End Integration pattern typically consists of:

• Business applications and data that need to communicate, interact and integrate with other business applications and data that exists within the organization or in business partner organizations
• Users who:
  • May be within the enterprise, in business partner organizations, or in any other location across the globe
  • Will typically access the solution using a web browser or a browser-based Internet appliance. The enterprise has very little or no control over how this device is set-up or configured.
  • Can access the solution from any location across the Internet
• A network that:
  • Is based on TCP/IP and other Internet technologies
  • Can be a dedicated LAN connection, a broadband connection or a dial-up connection
• Business applications and data that can be:
  • Custom developed systems (old and new)
  • ERP systems and other packaged applications such as SAP, BAAN and PeopleSoft
  • Databases
• Front-End Integration services that can include one or more of the following services:
  • Device support
  • Presentation
  • Personalization
  • Security and Administration

This pattern can be observed in Solutions such as:

• Customer-facing solutions such as online stores that provide a personalized user interface that can be customized by users to suit their individual requirements and preferences.
• Online Portals that allow users to customize their interactions with the portal and specify their preferences for multiple access devices such as a browser, a custom client, Personal Digital Assistants, Web-enabled phones, and interactive set-top boxes.

If you have determined that the Front-End Integration pattern can provide an appropriate solution design for the application you are developing, next select an Application pattern.

If the Front-End Integration pattern is not appropriate for your development efforts, review the Business patterns to determine which pattern best addresses your e-business needs.