Developing Middleware

[chazzy]

So, just wondering, has anyone here developed or worked on any middleware components (pools collections of data together in order to build objects as if it were a single source of data, as opposed to having the applications know where they pull data from)? Any recommendations on what to do? I already know that one source will be a web service, and others will be multiple forms of databases. We're using this to control when and how we get data.

[klakloy]

You mean database- middle tier - thin client..

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[russell]

This is the heart of good enterprise application design. The approach will depend on the platform and the types of clients that will access the data. Web Services, CORBA, COM+, RIM among others are common approaches/technologies. Many situations will dictate several methods, for example a web services tier called by COM+ DLLs, or Java Classes.

What language(s)/Platform(s) are you working with? Will remote clients access the data services or just clients on your own network?

[klakloy]

I'm using midas/datasnap of Borland Delphi


What is MIDAS?
MIDAS (Multi-Tier Distributed Application Services) is used to build distributed applications on the Windows platform with DCOM, TCP/IP or OLE Enterprise. MIDAS provides a suite of advanced components for Delphi and C++ Builder, services, and core technologies for multi-tier application development. With MIDAS, you can build thin client applications whose business rules can be maintained on the server and automatically updated on the client. Focal points of MIDAS are:

* high server availability with fail-over safety
* disconnected database operations
* intelligent cached updates
* load balancing
* distributed datasets and transaction processing
* thin client applications
* automatic database constraint propagation
* high speed database connectivity
* reduced network traffic