SoftCo R8 Business

Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

SoftCo R8 Business Applications

Business Applications
Architecture
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

Document Revision History

Version Author Description Date

1.0 Garret Pearse Draft Created 20/02/2008

Document Details

Title SoftCo R8 Business Solutions – Business Applications Architecture

Author Garret Pearse

Date 20/02/2008

Version 1.0

Client SoftCo Ltd.

Document Approval Sign-off

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Document Approval Signoff must be completed no later than dd/mm/yyyy, and is a prerequisite to
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Document Summary
This document is a functional specification of the SoftCo R8 Business
Applications – Applications Architecture

Note: This material is intended for SoftCoLtd., associates, and their clients. Quotation, citation, attribution,
reproduction, or utilisation of any portion of this publication by any party without expressed written permission
is strictly prohibited.
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to outline a standard design approach to be

taken when creating Business Application to run within the R8 business process
automation platform.

Overview

All business applications should be designed to run within the R8 business

process automation platformand leverage all the standard functionality that R8
provides. The custom elements to any workflow will be encapsulated in a
custom Web Application User interface and a custom workflow assembly.
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

Workflow Configuration

Each business application will be configured in the Workflow Configuration of R8

Manager. All required fields will be defined using the standard R8 Manager
interface or via the uploading of XML scripts.

User Interface - Configuration

The User Interface for the Business Application will be a Web Application built to
comply with the R8 infrastructure. The URL of the Web Application will be
specified in the Custom Template of the Workflow Configuration section of R8
Manager. Included in the URL will be all required parameters needed to be
passed from R8 to the Business Application i.e.

• SessionID (Current R8 user session ID)

• CaseID (R8 Case ID)
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

• Mode (Mode in which custom application is to be opened i.e. New | View |

Edit)
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

User Interface

By configuring the Custom Template to point to the Web Application, the custom
UI will be presented within the customer template section of the standard UI. All
custom functionality will be delivered thorough this screen while the application
can leverage all the other standard functionality of R8 such as user/role
management, comments, history, documents etc.

Application Data

All Application Data including lookup tables and application configuration data
will be stored in standard R8 Index tables. These Indexes will be managed via
the standard R8 Manager Index screens.

Where required, the bulk uploading/updating of look-up data will be carried out
using the SoftCo R8 Index Update application.

Business Logic
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

All business logic including routing/assignment logic will be managed via the
rules engine within the R8 Advanced Workflow. This is to allow for the easy
management of the workflow’s and to support the addition of more complex
rules to future versions of the application or to support customised versions for
specific customers.

Business Application/R8 Interaction

Aside from the initial URL interaction that passes in the Session ID and other
basic data, all interaction between the Business Application and R8 will be via
standard R8 Web Service function calls.

All appropriate workflow fields (e.g. custom Status fields etc) should be set to
read-only for Workflow users, thereby preventing inappropriate changing of these
field values via the standard R8 Workflow Case Data screen. All required
updates to workflow fields will be carried out at the server side by the Workflow
Execution user account.

Deployment

All R8 Business Applications should be developed in a way that makes them as

easily distributable as possible.

It should be possible to encapsulate the following modules into a standard

Windows MSI :

• Web Application
• Custom Workflow Assemblies

The Custom Workflow Assemblies will contain a method called

SoftCoInitialiseWorkflow. This method will get called once from R8 Manager after
the Custom assembly has been successfully loaded. This assembly will be
responsible for the following :

• Creating/Modifying indexes as required

• Creating/modifying Picklists, Classifications
• Creating/Modifying R8 workflow structure
• Creating/Modifying an required links between Workflows & Indexes
• Creating any required roles/keys

In addition to setting up or changing required DM indexes it will also define this

workflow (pass the ID or name as a parameter) so the fields and layout for this
workflow can be programmatically set.
 SoftCo R8 Business
Applications
Business Applications
Architecture

The following will need to be manually configured post installation :

• User/Roles membership