Monday, October 13, 2008

SOAFaces = RIA + SOA

Here's something promising for the Javascript RIA developer, who works constantly with SOAP/REST Web Services as back-ends and is also in touch with his inner GWT :)

SOAFaces allows GWT developers to bring SOA and RIA together. It also gets rid of the RPC involvement, which is a negative when ocnsidering GWT for realworld applications.

"Specifically, the goals of the SOAFaces project include the following:
  1. No need to write GWT RPC code anymore. Use the UniversalClient
    API to talk with POJO services that are packaged in your application
    server and/or talk with Mule accessible services/endpoints all across
    your enterprise and internet. Your GWT application will have convenient
    access to messaging services (SOAP, JMS, ESB ...etc) that can return
    JavaBeans or JSON objects back to the GWT client. All marshaling is
    handled by the framework.
  2. A framework for building SOA GUI
    applications using modular components. Build anything from a simple
    AJAX type applet all the way to a full blown web application.
  3. Package your code as a component and deploy your code as a component.
  4. SOAFaces components are packaged into a simple JAR formatted archive and easily shared, deployed, and executed.
  5. Create
    back-end workflow powered jobs and services that can be scheduled and
    run on the back-end with easy access to web services. Workflow
    properties and configuration rules can be configured using a web GUI."