SOA Manifesto - Released

Experts met at 2nd Annual SOA symposium and finally worked on SOA manifesto. Various experts have mentioned that after 3 days of discussions and sometime heated discussions they have agreed with the following manifesto

Service orientation is a paradigm that frames what you do. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a type of architecture that results from applying service orientation. We have been applying service orientation to help organizations consistently deliver sustainable business value, with increased agility and cost effectiveness, in line with changing business needs.

Through our work we have come to prioritize:

Business value over technical strategy
This is most common issue or factor that leads to delays and final product as the focus seem to tending or pulled either way and its balanced well. Technical strategy should help increase the business value not degrade it.

Strategic goals over project-specific benefits
Although strategic goals are always the priority, tactical goals also need to taken in consideration.
As we all know the business is not always on cruise control and shits happen and tactical goals need priority sometimes.

Intrinsic interoperability over custom integration
In many cases , if you try hard you can find a way out of custom integrations.

Shared services over specific-purpose implementations
This has been the trend recently and certainly has greater value at harder times

Flexibility over optimization
umm.. this is a fine line to walk.

Evolutionary refinement over pursuit of initial perfection
Most SOA projects i have seen have fallen into the initial perfection pit hole. Certainly what governance preaches you might lead to this pit fall. This is absolutely a good point and this needs to be on the top

That is, while we value the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Guiding Principles... Please check them out at SOA Manifesto Site

Foundation for Innovation

Foundation for innovation is the tag line for the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g. Which came long way since the initial version of Oracel FMW.

Key addition to this version is incorporation of some of the key BEA components into FMW. Most prominent addition is certainly WebLogic application server to replace Oracle's own application server. Which certainly is the right move to have stronger product into the mix. Although the product is delayed due to BEA aquisition, its worth the wait for many customers.

Issues with Emails Generated by BPEL Human Task Activity

Issue in Oracle Fusion Middleware 10.1.3.X and Resolution: If you use email activity in BPEL human task notification, emails generated shows up as attachement in outlook.

Resolution: Apply patches 6262989 and 6062334, available in metalink

Other issues solved with these patches

1. Too many notifications
2. No mime types associated or included in attachments

SOA Gateway for Oracle E-Business Suite

Finally, Oracle has come up with the solution for Oracle E-Business Suite in line with their product strategy. "Integrated SOA Gateway" is part of Oracle EBS 12.1.1, which enables EBS customers with a robust SOA based Integration infrastructure to consume and deliver services natively

This module comes loaded with functionality that is need for integrations using service oriented architecture. So far, customer had to rely on building custom components and features in Fusion Middleware to integrate or to expose EBS transactions as web services.

Features of SOA Gateway

1. Integration Repository: This has been traditionally a repository of all integration points available in EBS, as an collection of all API's( and Interface tables). Now this module got a face lift or make over, certainly in right direction. Following are the features of integration repository

• Service Enablement UI: As the name says, its the front end for generating and deploying web services.
• Business Events in repository: This has been good feature that is gaining popularity among developers/designers from past few years. Now, you should be able see all the events from repository.
• Composite Services: This feature allows to build composite services utilizing the natively available services in E-Business suite.
• Business Service Objects: This provides the methods for accessing and operating on standard business service objects and standard set of guidelines and implementation instructions for developing services.

2. SOA Provider : This consists two components that allow SOA enablement of Oracle E-Business Suite during run time and design time.

• Service generator exposes integration interface from integration repository, while service deployer deploys the web service

3. Service Invocation Framework: Oracle E-Business Suite now provides the Service Invocation Framework (SIF). SIF from within Oracle E-Business Suite is enabled though Oracle Workflow Java Business Event System and is based on the Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF) support from Oracle Application Server.

4. SOA Monitor : Traditionally this is one feature that oracle ignores to provide a tool/feature and customers end up developing a custom solution. This is "FIRST" monitoring solution that is available part of Oracle E-Business suite. Thanks to Oracle for recognizing the need after ...well 2 decades of ebusiness suite in development.

For me this looks like a glorified XML Gateway module with addition to all the above features. Certainly this is the right direction and will analyze the solution in our labs for an in depth evaluation.