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Architecture for large systems (e.g. ERP) [message #1091645]

Wed, 21 August 2013 19:56

Chris Snow

Messages: 50
Registered: December 2011

Member

Does eclipse scout fit well for large systems that have a wide bredth of functionality? For example, would scout fit well for writing something as large as Apache ofbiz?

If scout is fit suitable, how would one structure such an application so that you dont end up with a single huge monolithic application?

I guess one option would be to create separate scout applications for each functional area, e.g.

Party management
Order management
Financial management
Product management
Etc

The question would then become how do you link the individual applications? E.g. an order in the order management application will need to point to two entities in the party management component, supplier party and ordering party.

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Re: Architecture for large systems (e.g. ERP) [message #1091972 is a reply to message #1091645]

Thu, 22 August 2013 06:56

Jeremie Bresson

Messages: 1252
Registered: October 2011

Senior Member

Hi,

[Short answer]
Have you read the different material we have on the topic (I agree it a little spread everywhere):

Multi-Module Applications (Creating modularised applications using eclipse scout) (by Ivan Motsch)
Multi-Module Applications (by Stefan Mutschler)
Tutorial: modular application [wiki]
Modular Application (How to create Modular application using Eclipse Scout) (by Yassine MILHI)

I hope this give you a start. Let me know if you need more informations.
We should synthesize all this know-how in a new concept page.

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Re: Architecture for large systems (e.g. ERP) [message #1093902 is a reply to message #1091972]

Sat, 24 August 2013 21:39

Chris Snow

Messages: 50
Registered: December 2011

Member

Thanks for the info Jeremie.

Extensions look like a convenient way of partitioning an application. The info in the links above gives me a taste of what can be achieved, however, I can't see how one would create links between extensions. For example, if I have an extension for Party (E.g. Customer) and an extension for Order, in orders I would like to be able to set references to the customer party.

Is there any more detailed information available on extensions, or a demo that shows how to create references between extensions? Ideally in the interest of modulariy, the Party database schema and the Order database schema should be separate schemes, and the party schema should not be accessed directly by the Order extension.

[Updated on: Sat, 24 August 2013 21:41]

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Re: Architecture for large systems (e.g. ERP) [message #1094773 is a reply to message #1093902]

Mon, 26 August 2013 07:05

Jeremie Bresson

Messages: 1252
Registered: October 2011

Senior Member

I knew my answer isn't as complete as it could be. It is a good thing to precise the topic.

In my opinion, what you are describing is possible, because a big commercial Scout Application developed at our company (BSI CRM) is going in this direction. Through services, Extensions can "inject" fields into existing form.

So I assume you could have a PartyForm in your core application (to handle let say persons). The Order management Extensions adds a list of the orders in this form if it is installed.

We definitively want to improve this topic with Eclipse Scout Luna: better SDK tooling, some runtime modifications (we will have some modifications in our formdatas), examples of what you can do (a small demo application would be great).

I am afraid there isn't any open source example yet. This is something we could work on, if you are interested.

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Re: Architecture for large systems (e.g. ERP) [message #1094808 is a reply to message #1094773]

Mon, 26 August 2013 08:08

Chris Snow

Messages: 50
Registered: December 2011

Member

Hi Jeremie - thanks for the response.

Where can I find some more information how to inject fields into an existing form?

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Re: Architecture for large systems (e.g. ERP) [message #1095131 is a reply to message #1094808]

Mon, 26 August 2013 17:15

Jason Fauble

Messages: 10
Registered: June 2011
Location: Tallahassee, Florida

Junior Member

We are currently building a multiple-module (12 modules to date) application that supports dynamic fields. We build our forms as usual in Scout and include an AbstractWrappedFormField as a placeholder for additional fields which are injected based upon a set of custom extension points that expose the appropriate sub-form. We support user-customizable dashboards in the same way. I don't have a good stand-alone example of this right now, but if I get a chance to put one together I will post it.

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