EXTOL Technology Blog

Camels can be stubborn and angry animals if you don’t take care of them. Lucky for you the EXTOL development team has figured out how to tame them. And we even taught them how to work with data! 

Everywhere we look today we can see patterns. They’re in your shirt or tie. You witness traffic patterns (big or small) on your way to work. There are even patterns of integration – Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP). These patterns allow you to define standard ways of dealing with messaging systems. Examples of these patterns include content-based routing and wiretapping.  Read more…

In my previous blog post I talked about the SQL standard.  It is tempting to visualize a standard as a list of rules nailed to a wall.  However things in this industry have a habit of becoming a moving target.   Read more…

Successful EDI implementations must begin with the development and employment of efficient object naming conventions using “best practices”.  This will avoid aggravation and redevelopment at a later time.  “Doing it correctly the first time” is a most-relevant piece of advice.  This is of particular advantage when creating files (tables) to store EDI data (the implementation and deployment of EDI interface / staging files and in support of both inbound and outbound EDI transactions).

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I started out expecting to write a blog on dashboards, but quickly found myself thinking in broader terms about user interfaces (UIs). Anyone that has spent just a brief amount of time in the software industry has been exposed to countless UIs. Stop and think about all of the applications and Web sites that you have experienced over your career. For me, it is easily more than 10,000. After 20-plus years, that’s a safe guess.

But, let’s step outside of “our software” and into the more esoteric realm of our day-to-day lives. We encounter many more UIs, as well. What about that microwave, coffee maker, your vehicle dashboard, credit card interface at the McBreakfast or even the security pad at the entrance to the office? They are all examples of UIs that we interact with every day.

So, let’s get it right out in the open: “The best user interface is no user interface at all.” There, I’ve said it. Now the heretical flaming can begin from the RIA pundits. I’ve heard it over and over through the years. However, it’s an interesting idea and doesn’t truly speak to an absolute magical way to control things (hint: that’s still an interface!) but to the notion of simplicity. Simplicity is the key to making a usable, understandable and productive interface. Read more…

Recently, I was having dinner with some old friends and the conversation centered on our respective fields that we work in.  When the conversation turned to me, I chatted up how I worked in commercial software, particularly the Integration space.  I received some curious looks, like my friends were trying to get a grasp on what I was talking about.  Then it hit me….What does Integration mean to someone unfamiliar with the discipline? Why does it matter? What are the benefits, and the risks? How much of a problem is this? So, I decided to write a blog, from my perspective, on why Integration is important.

First, let’s think about the meta-types of challenges that businesses face today. Two flavors emerge quickly; problems of the moment (tactical) and visions of where they want to go (strategic). Read more…

In previous blog posts, we have discussed Eclipse and how we are using this platform for our Developer Studio in the next major release of EBI.  This blog will focus on installing Eclipse, accessing its documentation, and installing a feature for Eclipse so that you become familiar with the environment for the future version of EBI Developer Studio.  Even though many link Eclipse to programming, I will focus on the non-programming aspects of Eclipse so anyone can follow along.

With that said, we will tackle installation, which will probably be the hardest part of working with Eclipse.  Read more…

Looking out my window, I can see fluffy clouds floating by.  I find myself wondering how I would feel if I knew my applications and data were stored in some great electronic nebula, a cluster of computers far away, possibly scattered around the globe communicating through thin copper and glass connections.  Makes you go…hmmmm.

Thanks for indulging my philosophical moment. Cloud computing is classically categorized into three areas: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  SaaS and PaaS have been popular for quite some time; just look at Google Mail (SaaS) and Salesforce.com (PaaS) for great examples. 

I think that the real excitement is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).  I had recently attended a Gartner conference on Application Integration and enjoyed a fascinating presentation by Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, on how his company is not only virtualizing servers but also virtualizing relational databases and networks.  Read more…

Switching the EBI Developer Studio from a homegrown client to using the Eclipse platform will require changing how EXTOL developers implement everything related to the GUI, including how to access help from within the product. One of the projects I was assigned to do for EBI 3x was to look into the Eclipse help system. I enjoyed working on that project because the Eclipse team did a fantastic job producing a very advanced help system that we will certainly be taking advantage of. Read more…

Enterprise Service Busses (ESBs) offer an interesting communications layer that enables an enterprise to expose data to interested parties (i.e. applications, data-feeds, etc.) with a Publish/Subscribe model.  The Pub/Sub model originated in the printed media world, utilized as a distribution model for newspapers and magazines. It has evolved with modern times into the electronic age in the form of email-subscribed newsletters, and more recently, RSS feeds such as blogs.

In the enterprise, there is a growing need to share data among systems, both internally (A2A) and externally (B2B).  However, as new demands for sharing data surface, we need a way to “bolt in” the new requestors without impacting our current implementations.

ESBs commonly implement a variant of the GoF Observer Pattern.  This exposes a Publication/Subscription model allowing information sources (publisher) to expose data (message) on a queue.  One or more interested parties (subscriber) consume the data.  The key benefit of loose coupling in a Publication/Subscription model is that the Publisher does not need to know, or care, about “who” is subscribing.  The data is published and downstream subscribers use the data as they see fit.

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