Compuware's Internet/Intranet Strategy for UNIFACE

The UNIFACE development environment is at the center of Compuware's strategy for creating strategic applications for the Internet/Intranet.

Specifically, the strategy:

• Exploits the maximum possibilities of the Internet/Intranet environment.

• Integrates seamlessly with the client/server environment.

• Separates the development and deployment of the application from the underlying infrastructure.

UNIFACE also delivers the deployment features that are essential to business-critical computing on the Internet, such as data validation, and sessions and state for processing transactions. To complement the strategy for the Internet/ Intranet, UNIFACE provides the development paradigm and team facilities necessary for building large-scale applications that can run on other deployment architectures. These applications are scalable, high performance and able to accommodate change in business strategy and technology.

The Strategy Unfolds

Compuware will deliver this Internet/Intranet strategy through a range of new technologies, the first of which is a new product called the UNIFACE WebEnabler. Shipment of the UNIFACE WebEnabler and the first stage of Internet extensions to UNIFACE coincides with the release of UNIFACE Seven.

UNIFACE WebEnabler

The UNIFACE WebEnabler will allow developers to define the application's business model and then 'visually paint' the application forms, just as they do today to create an application for a client/server platform. Developers then deploy the forms on a server. UNIFACE automatically executes the business rules, accesses the data located anywhere in the enterprise, and formats responses into dynamically generated, custom interactive HTML documents for display on a Web browser.

WebEnabler: Security, Scalability, Manageability

rom a technical perspective, the WebEnabler runs on the same Web server that handles requests from Web browsers. When a request comes in, the Web server communicates with the WebEnabler, which in turn begins the UNIFACE processing (see below). The WebEnabler resides outside a security firewall; the UNIFACE application itself optionally runs inside the firewall. In this way, organizations can provide access to an application over the Internet but avoid opening their network to the outside world.

In addition to providing security, the WebEnabler overcomes performance problems associated with Internet/Intranet protocols. One of these problems is the significant overhead caused by CGI that can thwart efforts to support increasing numbers of users. Another is the inability of HTTP to recall states so that an application can keep track of multiple interactions with a single user. The WebEnabler takes an open approach, supporting not only CGI but also other emerging Web server application programming interfaces (APIs) that promise improved performance, including NSAPI from Netscape and ISAPI from Microsoft. UNIFACE's current driver technology, which will be extended to support these APIs, is central to UNIFACE's infrastructure independence and insulates developers from CGI and its alternatives. Moreover, the WebEnabler provides the ability to maintain state so that transactions can be processed accurately.

Application Life Cycle Support

Compuware's range of client/server products covers the application life cycle, from development through testing to production application management. In keeping with Compuware's goal of providing tight integration between its products, the WebEnabler will also be instrumented for systems management tools such as Compuware's EcoTOOLS. The WebEnabler will provide data about its activity, such as the number of hits on a specific UNIFACE form or the number of connections to the WebEnabler. Systems management tools rely on such data to monitor the health of the application and its environment.

Generating HTML from UNIFACE

Extensions to UNIFACE will enable developers to use the same development paradigm for client/server and Internet/Intranet applications. During development, the enhanced UNIFACE Graphical Form Painter serves as a Visual HTML Document Painter. In addition to using the forms for a conventional GUI application, the developer can choose the 'Generate as HTML' option from the Form Painter menu to generate HTML data entry and output document skeletons. No HTML coding is necessary. Developers can add formatting features unique to the Internet/Intranet environment to these skeletons, such as hypertext links and Java applets. At runtime, the form acquires its layout from the skeleton and inserts whatever data the end user has requested into a new interactive HTML document.

Increasing the Intelligence of Standard HTML Documents

HTML is a block-mode interface where no processing is done on the client and all the information is transferred as a block of data to the server. Compuware will use Java and scripting languages like JavaScript and Visual Basic Script to create more intelligent Web documents. This allows more processing to take place at the client and allows business rules defined in the UNIFACE model to be generated into extended HTML using these languages.

Using the Internet/Intranet Infrastructure

In addition to exploiting the Internet/Intranet as a deployment option, organizations will be able to create a single computing infrastructure for application distribution and management for both client/server applications and Internet/Intranet applications. Users will install only the UNIFACE runtime, download the appropriate application files from a Web server, and then run the application in conventional client/server mode. As a result, organizations need to maintain only one copy of the application files on a central server, simplifying distribution and application updates. Additionally, users will have the ability to run standard client/server UNIFACE applications directly from the browser and access all the data they need over the Internet/Intranet. By running the application from the browser, users can obtain the lively content and other benefits available with the Internet/Intranet while enjoying the advantages of client/server. To provide data access via the Internet/Intranet, Compuware will extend PolyServer, the UNIFACE client/server option, so that it can be reached through the Internet/Intranet. This feature will connect UNIFACE clients to PolyServer residing on a Web server. As a result, the need for the configuration of TCP/IP on the client is eliminated, which results in a reduced total cost of ownership. These scenarios lead the way to a single infrastructure for both Internet/Intranet and client/server applications.

Making UNIFACE Applications Internet/Intranet-Aware

Another facet of the Internet/Intranet strategy is to bring Web functionality to conventional client/server applications. Enhancements to the UNIFACE development environment will allow developers to build special Web Page Controls within standard forms. These controls will permit the display of HTML documents and the execution of Java applets. The unstructured data in Java applets and HTML documents join the structured data that have always been available to the user to provide richer content.

An Illustration

The above application illustrates how easy it is to create an Internet/Intranet-based application with UNIFACE. This shows the same customer information application running both in Windows and Internet deployment environments.