I think this is an "it depends" area. In general, I would think that
the 'smaller' the task, the better fit. For example, I have a percentage
bean that visually displays percent complete and is completely decoupled and
reusable in several areas ( show multiple 100% bars for graphs; optionally
use no foreground with alternative text and you have a 3D label; set to not
visible and use the listener mechanism for just passing changes to another
object, etc. )
San Francisco is a good idea marred by ( among other things ) A) having
to digest the entire framework and B) a nightmare agreement that wards off
most developers unless one is willing to lie down with IBM for a LONG time.
Still, most business areas have the same requirements, i.e. an invoice
needs sold to, items, date; general ledger wants debits and credits, etc.
Is this an area where XML might be handy ( so that data names and types
don't kill the play? ) Also, interfaces for custom operations?
So, is this a design/understanding area that will get better over time
or is it intrinsically doomed? Comments?
Joe Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Monson-Haefel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, May 17, 1999 7:23 AM
Subject: Re: Business Component Reuse
>I agree with Jim completely. Business component reuse seems to be more
myth
>than reality. I can not imagine, given my project experience in several
>different domains, how an off the self business component could be reused
across
>industries or even business within the same industry. Domain models from
one
>business to the next are very different, not to mention persistence
>requirements. The only exception, of course, is if the component is part
of
>larger framework. IBM San Francisco is an example where there is reuse,
but in
>this case you have to purchase the whole thing including the vertical tower
>specific to your domain.
>
>How successful has MTS been in this area?
>
>Jim Frentress wrote:
>
>> What is the experience out there regarding the reuse of Business
Components,
>> particularly distributed components? My experience has been that systems
>> level stuff can be componentized and reused (an example is EJB). However,
>> when it comes to domain objects, reuse has largely eluded me. I have yet
to
>> completely or even largely reuse a Customer, Partner, Address, Phone, or
>> other business object. When I refer to reuse, I really mean reuse outside
of
>> a business domain. No points will be awarded to solutions demonstrating
>> reuse within a tight domain.
>>
>> I hope this isn't yet another fault in my crack-ridden capabilities. One
has
>> only to look at the work of groups such as Rosetta.net, XML/DTD in
general,
>> EDI, CrossWorlds, and ERP vendors to see that reuse is important but
>> elusive. As another poster (ok Imre) said, it turns out that there is
some
>> "public" data and some "private" data in systems he's been involved with
(he
>> used it in another context but the idea holds here too). I've found the
same
>> to be true and apparently that's because there is no one definition
(view)
>> of anything. It also turns out that the truly "public" or sharable data
is a
>> small fraction of the "private" data. I usually refer to the difference
as
>> fixed and variable attributes but the problem remains.
>>
>> So, what are the prospects of reusable business domain components (note
that
>> an application is a component). The current rush to outsource entire
>> applications makes this reuse even more critical, but I've seen no good
>> solution to it. Every integration effort I've seen has either duplicated
>> data in disparate systems or modified the underlying systems so they were
no
>> longer truly decoupled.
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>--
>Richard Monson-Haefel
>Senior Consultant
>BORN Information Services
>
>Author of Enterprise JavaBeans
>Published by O'Reilly & Associates
>(Available June 1999)
>
>===========================================================================
>To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body
>of the message "signoff EJB-INTEREST". For general help, send email to
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
>
>
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