EAI Blog

Well, Spring Break is over!  It seems like it only jst started, and now it's back to reality.  Maybe it went so fast because I spent the better part of the week in bed with the flu.  I did however manage to drag myself out for a little bit on St. Patrick's Day.  Somehow the Guinness taste sweeter on March 17th. 

From Left:  Patrick, bodhran; Emma, fiddle; Elly, fiddle at the Mitchell Street Domes

Maddie (on the right) with friends.

Anyway I've been looking at Lab 3 again, and for whatever reason I'm having a little bit of a hard time visualizing how SAP XI fits.  Is SAP XI just a go between for other applications.  If so how do those applications interface with the XI environment?  I suppose I should look at Lab 3b to see if it goes any further.  In all of this academic learning I really am finding that I just can't grasps the concepts by reading about them.  It's not until I am able to get a little hands on can I really get it. 

The same has proven to be true for Services and Service Oriented Architecture.  I am actually in the process of helping implementing a Windows Communication Foundation Service at Zywave.  (Visual flashing lights and bells ringing here!)  I can see how its being built and utilized by the actual User Interface.  At the same time I am seeing how implemention of Services can be a little problematic.  I think, just from very casual observation, that the biggest problem with services is the developers themselves.  It realy is a difficult culture to change.  If a developer has a problem the developer figures out the solution.  If the dream of a stock library of Services is to be realized then developers themselves will need to first check to see if a solution already exists when they're presened with a problem.  One of the developers at Zywave said as much.  He also said that if they had begun using services five years ago then there would be fewer developers employed there.  Perhaps therein lies the rub.  Nobody wants to develope themselves out of a job!

Not a great week.  I've got too much to do and not enough time.  Actually my internship was a bit of a snooze this week as well.  I spent the better part of two days just reading C# code.  In the end it was a useful thing to do, but boring!

It seems one of the programmers had updated a piece of the program and it messed up one of the tables so that a lot of users could not log in.  I think an intern is not a very useful accessory in such a situation.  Oh, well, it seems that one can never get away from moments of crisis.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/arcjournal/aa480028.aspx

This is an interesting article that discusses the possible disconect between developers of Web Services and users of WS.  It outlines the different goals and needs of each and some possible solutions.

I learned an important lesson this week: Never navigate away from your blog page while your adding an entry!  I learned that lesson the hard way last Thursday.  Anyway, I had an interesting 2 days at my internship.  I was "snooping" around and found the UDDI directory for the company.  I did not have a chance to explore too much, but I am hoping to look around more tomorrow.  I am very curious to see how these services are being utilized in the development process. 

Speaking of my internship, I am still learning the system and getting more familiar with the development architecture, but I am finding that I have one real frustration.  Although (surprise, surprise!!) I have actually been able to contribute to the programming projects I have been involved with I think that I've figured out why things have been so difficult.

In the academic setting projects are worked on from the ground up.  That is planning, implementing, etc. is done from beginning to the end by the student.  Now I am faced with a rather extensive application that has already been in production for years.  The projects I have worked on have really only been small modifications to existing applications.  The frustration comes from me not really knowing what the project I am working on is ultimately supposed to do.  In the end I have to realize that my understanding of the "big picture" probably doesn't matter a whole lot.  All I have to do is make my little piece work, so the project manager can fit it into place.

Just an observation I had.  At any rate, I am just happy to be working with the knowledge that I have gained through school!

I seem to be having a difficult time keeping up with the blog.  Actually this is not the only class in which it is necassary to participate in a blog or discussion.  I'm not doing very well with those either. 

I started an internship at a company called Zywave this week, and I really think that it is going to help bring a real world view of exactly what we've been studying.  To me that's a great thing since I sometimes get frustrated by thinking that the academic environment and the business environment are worlds apart.  In any event, Zywave provides product management tools, client management tools, and research to the insurance industry.  All of there applications are delivered via the web, and they recently began converting there developement model to a web services architecture.  I think that the discussion in class provided a good base for me to build my experience upon.

Also I was able this week to complete the XML exercise.  I can see that XML is a great way to organize data for processing and display, however I've never seen how to utilize it in an actual application.  I am looking forward to that.

Hi.  I'm actually very excited to be in this class this semester.  (Although I think I may have screwed myself with a very heavy load this semester!)  This seems like a subject that will be very useful in the 'real world' which I some day hope to be invited to join.