Frequently Asked Questions

How To Set Up Up ! Application System With an Existing?

Up ! Application System is designed to collaborate with your existing applications by two means:

According to the logical planning of your information system.
The interconnection of applications is made with the respect of business interfaces that are shared into the business modeling, which is the warrant for a technical independence between the applications. There are two ways for interconnecting:
- Through data interchanges.
  The data can be encoded in one of the following norms:
  - Edifact.
  - Private-recorded file.
  - Private-recorded file format of generic vertical software that are leading this market.
    SAP's IDoc for example.
  - Xml.
  The middle-ware to interchange data can be encoded in one of the following standards:
  - Ftp.
  - Http.
  - Lpr.
  - Smtp.
- Through service integration.
  The procedure and the functions, the methods on objects are accessible through:
  - Corba of Object Management Group.
  - Com of Microsoft.
  - Soap of World Wide Web Consortium.
  - Private middleware of generic vertical software that are leading this market.
    SAP's ALE / RFC for example.
  The data interchange and the service call are bi-directional: a program that is running into Up ! Virtual Business Machine can be a client or a supplier for your existing.
Embedding your existing.
The development of the embedding layer is made:
- Automatically.
  When the existing can be exposed in one of the following standards:
  - Corba of Object Management Group.
  - Com of Microsoft.
  - Private format of generic vertical software that are leading this market.
    SAP's BAPI for example.
  - Tuxedo.
- Half-automatically.
  When the existing is written in one of the following languages:
  - Abap.
  - C++.
  - Java.
  - Visual Basic.
- By hand.
  Through the use of Up ! Workbench, Up ! 5GL and Up ! Compiler to make read and write the files or the databases.

Up ! Application System allows an incremental evolution of the information system.

How the Processes Are Taken Into Account?

The processes are described while functional designing stage realized in common with the Work Prime Organizer (WPO). They are out of the business components. No particular process is taken into account in the core of a component.

The interfaces of business objects admit only the status according to the state of art. For example, for an invoice, there is a "standard status" with the values "to do", "sent", "settled" or "canceled". It is also possible:

To add new values for a status.
As under-values of a value of a standard state. For example: "to verify", "to send", "is sent" instead of "sent".
To add new status.
For example a "doubtful" status with the values "none", "to negotiate" or "due-payment".

The running of a process consists to make flowing information between business components and to change the values of status. The status change is a particular action taken into account when designing the functional integration to build human-machine interfaces or batch programs.

How the Profiles Are Taken Into Account?

The profiles are described while the stage of functional design realized in common with the Work Prime Organizer (WPO). They are out of business components.

Each component is used in a client-supplier relation inside a particular profile set up by the caller. Before each creation, each reading, each modification, each deleting of an information, each computing, the corresponding habilitation is verified by Up ! Virtual Business Machine, either globally or locally to a business object.

For an application, the user has a view on it according to his signed-on profile:

Human-machine interfaces.
Only the screens associated with his profile are visible. Only the allowed information for his profile is printed. Only the allowed actions for his profile are offered - in particular for the changes of status values.
Batch and report programs.
Only the allowed programs for his profile are proposed.

The designers, the checkers, the administrators, the operators and the seizing people have particular profiles. It is possible to create as many profiles as necessary.

How the Business Rules Are Influencing the Business Components?

The business rules influence the business components through different ways:

As reflexes triggered when particular actions are arising.
Here are the main sources of call:
- Start-up of the application.
- Creating a business object.
  At the beginning or at the end of the treatment.
- Reading of a business object.
- Modifying a business object.
  At the beginning or at the end of the treatment.
- Deleting a business object.
  At the beginning or at the end of the treatment.
- Committing all the creations, the modifications and the deleting operations.
  At the beginning or at the end of the treatment.
- Invoking a method.
  At the beginning or at the end of the treatment.
- Ending the application.
As an external expert called by the business component.
A treatment of the business component delegates a decision to the expert system.

The business rules can also be employed for the functional integration of these components, which allows parameter setting and centralizing the behavior of the processes and the profiles.