Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services

Information Producers and Consumers: Common Patterns

In the world of IOAI the source and target systems are always entities that produce and consume information. The types of systems that produce and consume information vary greatly. For our purposes, we can place them into one of the following patterns:

• Database

• Application

• User interface

• Embedded device

Within IOAI, it's important that you understand each pattern, how each pattern behaves, and advantages and limitations of each pattern type.

Database

The most popular information producer and consumer by far, databases are natural points of integration because they were designed to produce and consume data, and thus provide the best interface into source and target applications exchanging information. ...