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Kuali Rice: Cross Project Middleware

Kuali Rice: Cross Project Middleware. Nate Johnson - Indiana University November 17, 2007. What is Kuali Rice?. Kuali: a humble kitchen wok; Malaysian origins Rice: it is what it is Sits on the bottom of a dish Not a very tasty meal by itself Better with some substance on top

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Kuali Rice: Cross Project Middleware

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  1. Kuali Rice: Cross Project Middleware Nate Johnson - Indiana University November 17, 2007

  2. What is Kuali Rice? • Kuali: a humble kitchen wok; Malaysian origins • Rice: it is what it is • Sits on the bottom of a dish • Not a very tasty meal by itself • Better with some substance on top • KFS - veggies & tofu • KRA - chicken • KS - seafood • Rice is the foundation to a hearty software product

  3. The Goals • The board vision for Kuali is a plug and play module by module approach to software • Kuali started as financials, but has evolved into a suite of administrative software (KFS, KRA, KS) • A lot of functionality in Kuali systems • Keeping the Kuali code base as small as possible without impacting quality is key • Highly productive development environment • For Kuali projects • For non-Kuali projects

  4. Goals Continued • A common and consistent architecture • Allow developers to understand other rice enabled projects • Infrastructure would not need to be reinvented on each project - focus on functionality! • Rice team can focus on IT standards, like SOA, that will benefit the entire Kuali software suite • Adoption of other Kuali modules feasible • Generic enough for non-Kuali applications

  5. Rice is Middleware • Made up of several, possibly standalone and swappable, middleware components • Applications become a “Rice Client Application” by easily integrating with this middleware • Interaction with other Rice enabled applications becomes seamless

  6. How We Got Here • Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW) existed in production at Indiana University • Kuali Financial System (KFS) started development and had an architecture team • Morphed into the Kuali Nervous System (KNS) team • Achieve technical consistency across all aspects of KFS • KFS --> KNS --> KEW

  7. Along Came KRA • Kuali Research Administration (KRA) needed to integrate with KFS • Align our core to support sharing services across Kuali apps in a loosely coupled fashion • All Kuali products should be technically consistent under the hood • For end user functionality • For different development methodologies

  8. Thinking Outside of the Wok • Most administrative applications have a common need for middleware services • Workflow • ESB • Notification • Avoid design and code duplication • Consolidate configuration

  9. Rice Components • KEW Kuali Enterprise Workflow • KNS Kuali Nervous System • KSB Kuali Service Bus • KEN Kuali Enterprise Notification • KIM Kuali Identity Management • We should take a look at the history of each of these products before talking in more detail how they apply to Rice

  10. The History of KEW • Kuali Enterprise Workflow existed at Indiana University as a stand alone integration project before Kuali began • Provided common engine to drive business processes electronically • Provided relatively simple API allowing choices on how to create workflows • When Kuali came along, the IU workflow engine became Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW)

  11. The History of KNS • KFS spent a large amount of development time up front, using the best talent from each of the partner institutions • Came up with a foundation on which to build KFS - the Kuali Nervous System

  12. This History of KNS Cont. • It focused on a unified approach to development of functionality • A standard way to use workflow • A standard way to maintain support tables using CRUD operations • A standard way of creating business transactions • KFS financial transactions

  13. The History of the KSB • Other Kuali projects came along: i.e. KRA • They needed to be able to seamlessly “talk” to other Kuali services/applications in real time • Reducing the need for offline batch • Increasing business process agility • The KSB was born to satisfy simple needs

  14. The History of KEN • Cornell University recognized the need for a more general notification system that could work alongside of a workflow “to-do” list • Started development of the notification system at Cornell • Recognized the synergy in leveraging KEW • Realized that Kuali applications also wanted an advanced model for end user communication • The concept of Kuali Enterprise Notification was born

  15. The (short) History of KIM • KFS has its own user tables that are specific to financial data • Also has groups, roles, permissions • KEW has its own users, groups, roles, permissions • When KEN was built, it piggy-backed on KEW’s users, groups, and roles

  16. The (short) History of KIM Cont. • KRA came along with similar needs as KFS • KS is also gearing up and shows similar needs with additional requirements • Recognized the potential for re-use and the need for context specific IdM data • Most importantly, we recognized the need for consistent service interfaces across projects • The concept of Kuali Identity Management was born

  17. Why Does a Project Need Rice? • KNS and KEW enhance developer productivity and enforce standards • KSB provides an SOA approach for cross project interoperability • KEN enhances the user experience while fulfilling a general need for notification across all rice enabled applications • Let’s take a closer look at these components

  18. The Rice Interactive Diagram • Available at http://rice.kuali.org • Click anywhere on the diagram to begin • Click on any component for details

  19. Kuali Rice - Current Status • Public beta version 0.9.0.3 available at http://rice.kuali.org --> Download • KRA is using 0.9.2 • KFS is using 0.9.0.4 • Well tested • Rice is being used in KFS; soon to be released with KFS 2.0 • Both unit and functionally tested with JUnit/HtmlUnit • Continuous Integration: https://test.kuali.org/bamboo • Let's take a closer look at each of these pieces in more detail

  20. KSB Overview - The Goals • Enable applications and services deployed on the bus to interact with other applications and services • Provide (a)synchronous communication • Provide flexible security • Provide Quality of Service (QoS) • Keep it simple (light weight)

  21. Goal 1 - General Bus Mechanics • A common registry of services • Lists all services on the bus and how they can be connected • Through simple Spring configuration, Java based services can be “exported” from a rice enabled application, which is then ready to be consumed by another application

  22. Goal 1 - General Bus Mechanics Cont. • A common resource loading layer that provides access to services (bus or local) • Services can be local to the application, in which case the bus is short circuited and services are loaded directly and efficiently from inside the application • Services can be remote, in which case the service registry is queried for a service endpoint

  23. Goal 1 - General Bus Mechanics Cont. • Most java services inside a rice-enabled application can be exported to a variety of endpoints • Java serialization, SOAP, JMS, etc. • A rice-enabled application can easily connect to any service on the bus • Let’s take a closer look - http://ksb.kuali.org

  24. Goal 2 - Communication Models • Synchronous communication = point to point : a method call that waits for a response • Asynchronous communication = usually messaging : fire and forget : possible callback • KSB has a proprietary messaging model out of the box that needs minimal configuration • JMS can be used : Good if you have IBM or Tibco • Could plug in open source JMS

  25. Goal 2 - Communication Models Cont. • Queue and Topic style messaging • Queues are a model where a single service is retrieved from a (possibly) redundant set of services and only that one is invoked • Topics are a model where all services with a given name are retrieved from a (possibly) redundant set of services and invoked

  26. Goal 3 - Security • Bus Security : Option to digitally sign internal bus communication • Service level security : done with open source standard project, Acegi • Can be protected at the service level • Can be protected at the individual method level • Can be protected by many of the standard security models such as CAS or Kerberos • Can act as the user performing the activity

  27. Goal 3 - Security Cont. • A “Security Context” is passed along with service invocations • This context holds • The logged in user • The authentication token (from CAS or Kerberos) • The user’s roles (for Authorization) • Services can then call an authentication authority to validate the user and optionally authorize the user with the roles • An application gets all of this "for free" by using the KSB via standard Acegi configuration

  28. Goal 4 - Quality of Service (QoS) • Failover - the ability to automatically switch to another service w/o the calling service noticing • Reliability - guaranteed delivery of messages • Availability - services on the bus are available real time -- if service is down, reliability ensures messages are delivered when service is available again • Time to live and retry counts - ensure that an institution can set their own QoS settings. If QoS is not met messages enter exception status

  29. Goal 5 - Simple and Light Weight • Evaluated ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, and Mule a year and a half ago • Reliability issues then, better now though • For simple needs (SOAP and Spring HttpRemoting), the messaging components of KEW sufficed in combination with XFire and Spring • Kuali Student has greater needs from an ESB (WSDL first, process orchestration, etc) • Are looking to replace the core of KSB with an OS ESB and JMS solution

  30. KNS Overview • Provides reusable code, shared services, integration layer, and a development strategy • Provides a common look and feel through screen drawing framework • A document (business process) centric model with workflow as a core concept

  31. KNS Overview Cont. • More Core Concepts / Features • Transactional documents • Maintenance documents • Inquires • Lookups • Rules • Questions • Data dictionary

  32. Understanding the KNS Paradigm CHART_T Chart(POJO) Data Dictionary ORMMapping Lookups and Inquiries MaintenanceDocuments TransactionalDocuments Workflow(KEW)

  33. Transactional Documents • These are data-entry centric documents or “transactions” that model the business processes • Examples include: Proposal Development, Journal Entry, Payment Reimbursement • Built on a case by case basis using the Kuali Rice tag libraries (encompass snippets of UI behavior): • Notes and attachments • Workflow route log (audit log) • Integrated with workflow

  34. Maintenance Documents • They do not need to be built case by case - just one JSP that draws them all • These are the CRUD documents - an easy way to maintain support tables in a Kuali database • C: Create new table records • R: Read or query table records • U: Update existing table records • D: Delete existing table records • Examples include: • Budget rates • Project codes

  35. Inquiries • A way to drill down and get more read-only information about a table record

  36. Inquiry Screenshot

  37. Inquiry Example Configuration <inquiry> <title>Travel Account Inquiry</title> <inquirySections> <inquirySection title="Travel Account"> <inquiryFields> <field attributeName="number” /> <field attributeName="name" /> <field attributeName="accountType" /> <field attributeName="foId" /> </inquiryFields> </inquirySection> </inquirySections> </inquiry>

  38. Lookups • A way to search for data by a set of criteria • Results of lookups can be returned to other lookups or documents

  39. Lookup Screenshot

  40. Lookup Example <lookup> <title>Travel Account Lookup</title> <menubar> <a href="/SampleRiceClient/index.html">Main</a> </menubar> <instructions>Look up Inst.</instructions> <defaultSort sortAscending="true"> <sortAttributes> <sortAttribute attributeName="number" /> </sortAttributes> </defaultSort>

  41. Lookup Example Cont. <lookupFields> <lookupField attributeName="number" required="false" /> <lookupField attributeName="name" required="false" /> <lookupField attributeName="accountType" required="false" /> <lookupField attributeName="foId" required="false" forceLookup="true" /> </lookupFields> <resultFields> <field attributeName="number" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="name" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="accountType" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="foId" forceInquiry="true" /> </resultFields> </lookup>

  42. Rules • These are programmatic events defined in Java • Another way to think of them are as hooks in a business process’s lifecycle • They can return errors and stop the lifecycle until user input is corrected • A lot have to do with the workflow lifecycle • processSaveDocument(…) • processRouteDocument(…)

  43. Questions • A configurable way to ask a question of the person using the Kuali application • Example: “Are you sure you want to cancel this operation? Yes or No”

  44. Questions Screenshot

  45. Data Dictionary • Configure all of the above concepts into a “usable document” • XML based configuration • Three types of dictionaries • Business Object • Maintenance Document • Transactional Document

  46. Data Dictionary Cont. • Business Object Data Dictionary • Defines how to draw an inquiry (which fields to show the user) • Defines how do draw lookup and the result fields returned from a lookup as well as the default sort order of the lookup • Defines the business object’s attributes as well as how they are drawn and validated

  47. Data Dictionary Cont. • Maintenance Document Data Dictionary • References the BO DD file that is being maintained • Defines the business rules for the document • Defines the authorizations (initiator group) • Defines the maintainable sections (tabs) and layout of the attributes • And various metadata (descriptions, summaries, titles, etc.)

  48. Data Dictionary Cont. • Transactional Document Data Dictionary • References the document POJO • Defines the pluggable business rules • Defines the document type (business process) • Defines the document’s attributes as well as how they are drawn and validated • Defines the pluggable authorizations • And various metadata (descriptions, summaries, titles, etc.)

  49. KEW Overview • Facilitates routing and approval of business processes throughout an organization • Provides re-usable routing rule creation which defines how business processes should be routed • Bind business data to users/groups that must approve • Provides hooks for client applications to handle workflow lifecycle events of business processes

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