Scenario for JBoss ESB

[daniel.brum]

I have been putting together some documentation for an example scenario I am working on which will help user's of the JBoss ESB understand how they can make use of the codebase we have today, and the features available to achieve a similar solution to their use-cases for an ESB.

The Wiki entry for more information can be found @ http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=DefinitionOfExampleToUseForCoreJBossESBScenario

If you want to provide some feedback on the example, please feel free to do so. Your input is appreciated.

thanks!

[martykells]

Daniel you might want to make a reference to the fact that this example is based on the www.eaipatterns.org sample - just so that people don't get the wrong idea ;-)

At a basic level this design would be suitable, both Mule and ServiceMix have applied the same example with this design. If you haven't tried them Mules LoanBorker-ESB verison gives a better feel as it allows you (the customer) to 'input' the requested loan amount and then produces the loan quote - instead of ServiceMix approach which didn't ask but just provided a result.

The diagram might need reworking though, as far as I'm aware in the original version the Loan Broker deals with the request and forwards this to the credit agency. The credit agency can then attach the 'customer credit profile' to the 'original loan request' it then gets returned and forwarded to a Lender Service which for an example purpose we could use to create the sample bank(s) and then forward the request (with credit profile). To get an idea see:

http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/martin.kelly/LoanBroker_with_Lender_Service.JPG

Its at this point that things can get confusing depending on implementation choice. It's possible to have the banks contact the Loan Broker service without contacting the Lender Service using a ReplyTo header on the request message but I don't know if we can support this yet!

The Loan Broker can then use an 'aggregator' (eia pattern) to assemble all the bank quote messages into one (xml) file and base a decision on this for the customer as the best quote available. But again I'm not sure we will support this 'aggregator' pattern.

We could of course create a simpler LoanBroker version and expand from there, perhaps even have two versions like Mule.

[daniel.brum]

Oops sorry forgot to add references to the Wiki, I had it my Word cover page.

I would like the ability to let the client enter in the data to process, can be just runtime arguments to the request code or even a .JSP page. We'll figure that out later.

From the credit scoring perspective, attaching a CreditScore profile to the Customer sounds good!

We could do Aggregator implementation, but not for this example I don't think. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible and not have to add functionality to our core codebase - take the "use as is" approach for now.

Thanks!

[marklittle]

We could do Aggregator implementation, but not for this example I don't think. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible and not have to add functionality to our core codebase - take the "use as is" approach for now.

I agree. I think building it up over time is the right approach and even illustrating that build up as part of the trailmap/example: take a user from a basic example to a more complex one in a number of steps.

[daniel.brum]

I've added a state/flow diagram Esteban put together for us to use as a reference of what we're trying to achieve.

[martykells]

I agree a simple approach makes more sense at this time. Having the credit agency as a local ejb would be the best way to go and an email response would be a nice touch. As you say we can always expand the front end at a later date (perhaps an optional REST implementation) but SOAP makes sense at this stage.

Where you planning on having a fixed number of banks, each configured for one the transports: JMS, EMAIL, File, etc... ? or had you another idea in mind.

I think Mule used SOAP to all the Banks (and then JMS back) leaving it up to the user to change the transport manually. Incidentally I noticed they've got some nice new diagrams for the LoanBroker if anyone is still unsure.

http://mule.codehaus.org/LoanBroker+ESB

[daniel.brum]

Yes I like the idea of having each bank use a different transport method, we will do one of course first then expand it from there.

[daniel.brum]

Begun working on this, should be done soon. You can track it here: http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JBESB-54

thanks