A three-tier design for allowing thin clients using XML lathered in soap to access legacy applications

by 1973- Procopio, Joseph Daniel

Two common problems, which face organizations today, are the lack of a generic application integration framework that encapsulates an organization’s legacy applications and the inability to access those same applications via the World Wide Web. Several application integration technologies exist today. To varying extents, frameworks built using each of these technologies can be web-enabled. This thesis first examines the predominant component integration technologies available today and identifies the pros and cons of using each. It also briefly surveys generic integration framework design options. Finally, it focuses on the Web Services technologies of XML and SOAP as the recommended integration technologies. This thesis proposes that XML and SOAP be used to create a knowledge-based application integration framework, which uses wrappers or translators to abstract both the user interface and the legacy applications from the core knowledge engine giving the framework a large degree of extensibility and flexibility. Index words: XML, SOAP, COM, DCOM, CORBA, Java RMI, EAI, Knowledge Based Systems, Application Integration A three-tier design for allowing thin clients using XML lathered in soap to access legacy applications by Joseph Daniel Procopio B.S., The University of Georgia, 1994 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Athens, Georgia 2002 c? 2002 Joseph Daniel Procopio All Rights Reserved A three-tier design for allowing thin clients using XML lathered in soap to access legacy applications by Joseph Daniel Procopio Approved: Major Professor: Walter D. Potter Committee: Hamid R. Arabnia Daniel M. Everett Electronic Version Approved: Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2002