JBESB Data Transformation - Maintenance and Design

[ddegroff]

This post is primarily for Tom:

I shot my "mouth" off on a separate topic "eCommerce Management Facility - Functionality", to-wit

http://www.ehealthconnect.net/ehc/JBossESB-MX.pdf

Please refer to pg. 5-6 of this doc. -- "More About Data Transformation".

Today, I said the following in response to a query from Jason:

The subject has not previously been discussed, but yes, Maintenance and Designer services are to be considered Eclipse plugins.

Seam may be a "phase two" consideration, but initially Eclipse is the way to go.

As far as working on these apps., I will be proposing design specifications to the lead on JBESB-Data Transformation as soon as these specs. are complete. I surely don't want this track to get out of sync with Tom's thinking...

Please advise if I'm out of step or running ahead of your tracking on the subject of Data Transformation.

You're the lead on this subject, and I sincerely respect your position.

Best Regards,

Dave

[tfennelly]

Sorry Dave - very slow in responding to this. I've turned on the "watch" on all topics on this forum now so I shouldn't miss these in future. I was also on holidays.

I'm in meetings all this week but will go back and review this asap. Sorry again!!

[tfennelly]

Hey Dave, I eventually had a look at this - sorry about the delay.

Firstly, I don't see anything in there that's "out of sync" with anything we've done or talked about within JBoss ESB. To be honest, I think "Translation Designers" etc are possibly further up the functional stack from where JBoss ESB is currently aiming (Mark???). Something of that nature would be a great usability feature for JBoss ESB.

I would be interested in seeing more detail on your ideas in this area. In terms of developing tools/wizards for configuring/building-on an ESB Transformation Service, I think the devil will be in the detail!! That said, I think there's a lot that could be done with wizards/designers etc to make the easy things easy, allowing you to concentrate more on the nasty parts of transformation. This would be a major learning process for me anyway - how to develop a designer/wizard that is successful in making the Transformation Service easier to use, without getting in the way when the going gets tough!!

[marklittle]

"tfennelly" wrote:
Hey Dave, I eventually had a look at this - sorry about the delay.

Firstly, I don't see anything in there that's "out of sync" with anything we've done or talked about within JBoss ESB. To be honest, I think "Translation Designers" etc are possibly further up the functional stack from where JBoss ESB is currently aiming (Mark???). Something of that nature would be a great usability feature for JBoss ESB.

Yes, I think you're right. At the moment we're really looking at the lower level in terms of implementation. However, that shouldn't stop us talking about anything, in case it does need to be considered earlier in the architecture.

I would be interested in seeing more detail on your ideas in this area. In terms of developing tools/wizards for configuring/building-on an ESB Transformation Service, I think the devil will be in the detail!! That said, I think there's a lot that could be done with wizards/designers etc to make the easy things easy, allowing you to concentrate more on the nasty parts of transformation. This would be a major learning process for me anyway - how to develop a designer/wizard that is successful in making the Transformation Service easier to use, without getting in the way when the going gets tough!!

Sounds like a good approach to me.

[ddegroff]

I would be interested in seeing more detail on your ideas in this area. In terms of developing tools/wizards for configuring/building-on an ESB Transformation Service, I think the devil will be in the detail!! That said, I think there's a lot that could be done with wizards/designers etc to make the easy things easy, allowing you to concentrate more on the nasty parts of transformation. This would be a major learning process for me anyway - how to develop a designer/wizard that is successful in making the Transformation Service easier to use, without getting in the way when the going gets tough!!

Your wish is my command:

http://www.ehealthconnect.net/ehc/jbossesb-xl-functional_spec.pdf

This is my first cut at a functional spec. for the proposed D/T functionality.

I completely agree about where this fits in the phased development cycle for JBESB. Where I find myself right now (hiring on with a JBoss client 1 Aug, with a project requiring transformation beyond the complexity I published under another topic), this issue may present itself as a priority for current and near-term projects. But, this is a parallel design/ development project, not something I would recommend injecting into JBESB right away.

Thanks in advance for your attention to this issue. And, as always, any thoughts about this topic are gratefully incorporated as appropriate.

Best Regards,

David

[tfennelly]

Thanks Dave. I'll take a look at this over the weekend.