Composite Application

A composite application is one whose functionality is implemented by invoking services. Because multiple applications can use the same service, multiple composite applications may share some of the same parts.

Composite application captures what I came to call The Two Parts of an SOA Application:

• Service provider
• Service coordinator

Personal finance application and services

This idea evolved into the techniques documented in Streamline SOA development using service mocks.

The SOA application head is the service coordinator, which invokes multiple services and combines their results. The coordinator might be a business process performing a planned service orchestration, or it could be a GUI invoking services ad hoc as directed by the user.

So is the composite application just the head/coordinator, or is it that plus all of the services it uses (and thus potentially all of their providers)? Yes, the term seems to be used both ways.