1. Feb 24th, 2009

    You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much architecture

    Talk about swinging an elephant to scare the flies away:

    You can find it on Google if you search, but we actually built a few 1-page static HTML pages (1 per domain) which was forced to be created on BEA Portal ($40k/cpu) with a commercial CMS ($35k/cpu). It had to be developed with the BEA standard tools + the CMS (so not allowed to just make a JSP and that’s it). Total dev costs $15k (which is cheap considering the above). So total 1-page site; ($40k+$35k+$15k) + ($10k/month for hosting + 15% per year for support) = $223500 for the first year. 1 page site.

    It might not make much (any?) sense, but at least there’s an architecture behind that single HTML page. There’s a change control strategy behind it, and you know it will scale!

    Architectures are important, they breath life into everything they touch. This quote is just half the summary of this introduction-level article:

    Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) promise the dynamism and functionality of desktop applications through the browser. One of the key characteristics is moving your presentation layer to the client and backing it with a robust RESTful service layer on the server. This idea is being popularized with buzzwords like SOUI (Service Oriented User Interface) and SOFEA (Service Oriented Front End Architecture). Many organizations are pursuing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). This is often done to make your architecture more agile, allowing your business to more rapidly evolve. Of course, you probably have another pressing initiative in your organization: to modernize your user interfaces into a Rich Internet Application. It can be tough to deal with both buzz words, SOA and RIA.

    Seriously? SOFEA? SOUI? A “pressing initiative” to modernize the UI by throwing more architecture at it?

    Printable PDF | Posted by Assaf Filed in general 8 Comments »

    1. Feb 24th, 2009

      mycall

      Funny. I guess it depends on the idea being implemented. Context-sensitive “right click” menus would be a godsend for many web applications; so “rich” internet apps do have some usefulness. But that is a big if — still, HTML is definitely showing its age and it is time to try something else out. Silverlight, here I come (for now).

    2. Feb 24th, 2009

      André Heie Vik

      The point of SOFEA/SOUI/TSA (http://www.thinserverarchitecture.com/) is to have less architecture, not more. Throw out server side MVC frameworks, portal frameworks, and whatever you might use to build a web application with a lot of server side state. Instead, the server side provides persistence, business logic, and access control. The rest (the V and C of MVC) is done on the client (browser). It is not *the* way to do it, but I believe it has advantages over the way most web applications are built now.

      Obviously, this is only relevant if you are building a web application, if your can do what you want with static web pages, you don’t need any of this stuff more than you need the full BEA/Oracle/$vendor stack.

    3. Feb 24th, 2009

      Daniel Spiewak

      Speaking as someone with a body-mass index of 2 (14 is considered healthy, 30 is obese), I would quibble over your second premise. ;-)

    4. Feb 24th, 2009

      ALB

      @Daniel. Not possible to have a BMI of 2 and be alive. If you’re 6’0″ you’d have to weigh less than 40 lbs. See http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

    5. Feb 24th, 2009

      Gabe da Silveira

      Whenever I hear the phrase “agile architecture” I get a shiver down my spine. Yes, I realize all these buzzwords actually evolved to communicate an idea that at one point had real technical merit. But if a manager needs to have this stuff dumbed down to the point of losing all meaning, is he really qualified to be making architectural decisions?

    6. Feb 25th, 2009

      Daniel Spiewak

      @ALB

      Obviously we’re measuring different things. (perhaps I’m talking about some alternative body-mass scale?) Last I measured, I was 6’4″ and weighed 120 lbs. I’ve actually dropped below 100 lbs, but right now I’m probably around 140.

    7. Feb 25th, 2009

      Assaf

      Try the CDC one. 6’4″ over 140lb works out to a BMI of 17.0.

    8. Jul 4th, 2011

      Alex

      … Silverlight is HTMl but in steroids, and heading the asme way as javaFX script (and java fx in general…).
      HTML was invented in the era of mainframes and dumb text screens for christ sake. Albeit, it has its place in commerical apps in the internet where you dont know whats in the other side.
      But how many of you are in large world wide internet development, and how many of you are doing day to day applications inside your company, where you can leverage the power of hundred of CPUs in your clients ??
      Thats the point of SOFEA.
      Not new, in reality it is being used everywhere, but its not flashy and internet fiendly.
      Take a look at if you need a quick app that just works: http://k-framework.sourceforge.net/

    Your comment, here ⇓