Integrated Enterprise Architecture for

ArcStyler Modules


The ArcStyler Commander


The Convergent Business Object Modeler


The Convergent Refinement Assistant


The Convergent EJB/UML Refiner for ROSE


The Convergent Generator IDE


The Convergent Business Object Browser


Database Schemata to Component Generator Tool


The Canonical Convergent Components


EJB-Container Specific Template Cartridges


The ArcStyler Open Component Repository SDK


Optimized Build Environments for EJB-Container

the Internet Age

Have you ever wondered why enterprise application integration is so complex and error prone in spite of CASE tools, process methodologies, application servers and extreme programming? Diverse pieces alone are not enough. An architectural style is required to make these and other aspects effectively work together in synergetic harmony. The ArcStyler Tool Suite provides the missing link between confusing alternatives and solid architecture.

The consulting team at iO Software GmbH has been delivering award-winning object-oriented and Internet-centric enterprise integration for nearly a decade. Based on our experience we have developed a comprehensive architectural style for enterprises entering the Internet Age, the Convergent Architecture, with a flexible tool suite to support the architecture - the ArcStyler. Our architectural style and tools have repeatedly demonstrated their value in diverse reality-scale customer projects, from finance to government and manufacturing, by delivering flexible enterprise integration in less time at lower cost.
The ArcStyler Tool Suite in the context of the Convergent Architecture
ArcStyler Architectural Suites

Aligning IT and Business
Organizations entering the Internet Age must align their business with IT-technology to remain competitive: the convergence of business and IT is no longer an option, it is a clear necessity. Our architectural approach is unique in its focus on convergence, which not only enables managed system evolution, but also empowers IT as a business optimization tool while removing numerous sources of cost and risk. These and other significant advantages of the Convergent Engineering™ approach have been portrayed by Dr.David A.Taylor in his seminal work äBusiness Engineering with Object Technologyô. The ArcStyler Tool Suite plays a central role in the Convergent Architecture by assisting in all three dimensions of complete design: Project Design, Business Design and System Design. It is an Architectural-IDE providing tight integration of tool-supported techniques enabling flexible, full-cycle component development in a vendor-neutral environment û all in the context of a powerful and widely applicable architectural style. It combines standard, open design patterns, UML/XML modeling tools and EAI middleware such as EJB and CORBA Components to help all projects û from SAP process integration to custom value applications û significantly increase productivity using readily available technology. With the ArcStyler the architectural integrity of the entire IT environment increases with time. Each project delivers higher returns in areas such as re-use, resource optimization and personnel motivation.
Architectural Integrity
The Convergent Architecture overview illustrates the central role played by the ArcStyler Tool Suite in the overall architecture. It supports the architectural metamodel, convergent component metamodel, development process, as well as automated technology mappings to leading application server technologies. Using novel assistants, verifiers and powerful component prototypes for Organizations, Processes and Resources, the tools actively assist the project manager and developers in each step along the critical path from business modeling through to reality-scale operational systems. At each step along the way, the ArcStyler tightly integrates widely accepted modeling and technology standards to provide a completely open, standard environment.
More than a 4GL
The ArcStyler is not a proprietary 4GL tool, instead, it adds considerable value to open standard techniques and technologies by integrating them into a highly productive architectural environment. However, it also adds the advantage of a 4GL tool by providing optimized, template-based code generation for leading EJB application servers. The templates separate the implementation-specific mapping from the re-usable component model repository assuring a future-safe separation of concerns, long-term architectural integrity and the freedom to choose the most suitable implementation technology for a given situation. The templates generate highly-tuned EJB implementations for a specific EJB-Container. The templates alone represent many developer-years of applied EJB and distributed computing experience û and are delivered as source code enabling project-specific extensions while still preserving architectural integrity. The ArcStyler Tool Suite assists well defined design tasks of the architecture-driven development cycle.
Leveraging XML/UML
The tools supporting the development process are partitioned into individual pure Java modules, which are loaded according to a flexible XML configuration scheme into the integrated ArcStyler commander workspace. The modules are integrated via a common UML1.3-based EJB and CORBA Components repository as shown in the following diagram.This means that individual modules may be purchased on an as-needed basis and their results utilized by other modules without information loss or translation effort. In addition, the ArcStyler repository supports integration of additional tools through its pure Java UML-API and its lossless bi-directional model exchange via UML/XMI/XML.
Open for Reality
Although the Convergent Architecture as directly supported by the ArcStyler is widely applicable, it does not restrict modification of the style, development of derivative styles or even the development of a different style. It is a flexible, modular environment supporting diverse steps of component based design in general. As a result,the ArcStyler constitutes a decisive step to an internet-centric information architecture. Systems built with the ArcStyler are better equipped for the large-scale E-business tasks of the Information Age.
The individual modules of the full-cycle ArcStyler Tool Suite
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