XPS Implementation Methodology September 2000 Please sign in and take a book from the table.

XPS Implementation XPS Implementation MethodologyMethodology

September 2000

Please sign in and take a book from the table.

Requirements, Analysis, and

DesignImplementation

of Design

Phases of Implementation

Maintaining XPS


Design

Requirements, Analysis, & Design

Evaluate business processes Evaluate user and data interaction Design implementation of XPS

Implementation of Design

Configure Portal Environment Configuration Considerations Extending XPS



of Design

Maintaining XPS

Required Skill Sets Backup and Recovery Guidelines Growing your Portal Risk Mitigation Data Maintenance


DesignMaintaining XPSImplementation

of Design


Design

Outline

I.I. Requirements, Analysis and Requirements, Analysis and DesignDesign

II. Implementation of Design

III. Maintaining XPS

Requirements, Analysis, & Design

6 Steps involved in this phase of implementation

1. Identify Portal Vision1. Identify Portal Vision

2. Identify Data Access Strategies2. Identify Data Access Strategies

3. Identify Portal Business Logic3. Identify Portal Business Logic

5. Identify Portal Security 5. Identify Portal Security

This is an iterative process…decisions made in later steps may require that you revisit previous steps.

6. Identify Portal Architecture6. Identify Portal Architecture

4. Identify Web Delivery Reqs4. Identify Web Delivery Reqs

1. Portal Vision

Objectives of this step:

Identify Users and Roles

Identify User Data Requirements

Determine Content Sources

Identify Data Types

Determine Information Flows

1. Portal Vision

Things to consider:

Who are your users?

What are the pains you are trying to resolve?

What content do your users require, and how do they use it?

Are there opportunities for business process streamlining?

Note: Think functionally, don’t try to design yet*

Portal Vision - Case Study

Customer

Support

IT

Delivery

HR

News Feed

Stock Feed

Sequoia.com

My Sequoia

Technical Docs

Press Releases

Clientele

Email

Employee DB

DiscussionGroup

PR Tracker

content source

user

Employee

Exercise

Create Portal Vision Diagram

2. Data Access Strategies

Data Presentation Implementation Smart Summary

Taxonomy

Data Entry Templates

Indexes

Metasearch

CDAs searching content directly

Data Management Implementation Spiders/DSAs

Connectors

Senders

Receivers

Repository

Indexes


Spidering Data

DataData

Polled Directory

AddContent

Data Source Adapter

LinkDB

Extending Data Interaction

XML Message


Things to consider: What are expected user, data, and request

volumes?

How time-sensitive is content?

How often is data created and modified?

How will your users use and navigate through content?

Are there opportunities to aggregate data to minimize drill-down?

What are content access requirements and limitations?


Guidelines:

Search time-sensitive content directly through a custom CDA

High-volumes of highly-transactional and relational data will fare better in a relational database than a document repository

Common URLs, Data Entry Templates, and logical categorizations of content fit well into a taxonomy

Using a Smart Summary reduces drill-down

Only content routed to an Index can be queried in a Taxonomy or Enterprise Search

Case Study – Task List

Data Presentation Role

CDA Sequoia Software Internet Site E,C

MySequoia Internet Site E,C

CNBC Stock Quotes (personalize) E,C

CNBC News Feed (personalize) E,C

Exchange Inbox (personalize) E

Discussion Group D,S

PR Tracker Application D,S

Clientelle Application S

Employee Application H

Data Acquisition Role

Spider Press Releases Directory

Technical Documents Directory

Smart Summary DB

Employee DB

DE Template Customer Support Requests

Index Press Releases, Technical Documents, Department List

MetaSearch Enterprise, default internet search engines

Exercise

Build Project Task List

Identify:

Spiders

Data Entry Templates

CDAs

Indexes

Meta Search

Request Processing

3. Portal Business Logic


Identify Requests to Process

Identify Custom Scripts

Identify Agent Flows

Identify Dispatcher Rules

Identify Transformation Requirements

Business Rules

Dispatcher Rules (simplest logic)

Evaluate for all messages

Evaluate against message (not attachment)

Evaluate to True or False

Process linearly (Always Rule1; 2 only if False)

One requested agent/flow per rule

False FalseRule 2

Agent/Flow

True

Rule 3

Agent/Flow

True

Rule 1

Agent/Flow

True

Business Rules

Flows (more complex logic) Called from Dispatcher Rule Decision Points evaluate against message (not

attachment) Process linearly or in True/False Path Process multiple agents sequentially Can be nested (to componentize logic)

Next

True

?False

Agent/Flow

Agent/Flow

Agent/Flow Agent/Flow

Business Rules

Scripting Agents (most complex logic)

Called from Dispatcher Rule or Flow

Evaluate against message or attachment

Business logic up to you

Case statements

If/then

Multiple requested processes from single condition


Things to consider: What are the types of requests coming into the

portal? How?

What information needs to be sent from the portal? How?

What are your logging, auditing, and error processing requirements?

How does data need to be manipulated within the portal?

What are the message and content structures going in and out of the portal?


Guidelines: Create smaller, reusable flows and chain

them together

Create common auditing and error processing scripts to reuse in flows

Create a debugging script to flow to after each step in a flow

Consider how agents identified in previous step interact with each other

Note: Most agents have expected message schemas as inputs and outputs (most will require some form of transformation when chained together)

Case Study – Business Flow

XMLRequest

Spider

EmailSmart

Summary

DE Form

Press Releases

TechnicalDocuments

Employee Data

CS Requests

XMLRequest

Spider

XMLRequest

Spider

Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Index

Index

XMLRequest

Spider

TaxonomyIndex

XMLRequest

EmailDE Agent

SmartSummary

Case Study – Message Flow

Complex Business LogicDispatcherRule

Data Acquisition

Data Entry Flow

Spidered Flow

XMLRequest

Spider EmailSmart

Summary

DE Form

Press Releases

TechnicalDocuments

Employee Data

CS Requests

XMLRequest

Spider

XMLRequest

Spider Index

XMLRequest

Spider

XMLRequest

EmailDE Agent

SmartSummary

spider?

dataentry?

index?

True

Fase

Case Study – Project Task List

Data Processing Flows Role

Press Release & Tech Doc

Spider to Index

Schedule Taxonomy

CS Request Data Entry to Transformation to SMTP Sender bound for CS

New Employee Spider to Script to Smart Summary and Transformation to SMTP Sender bound for IT

Smart Summary Spider to Index

Schedule Taxonomy

Data Processing Components Role

Script Create Biztalk message from Employee DB Spider attachment

Exercise

Create Business Flow Diagram

Create XPS Message Flow Diagram


Identify:

Scripts

Flows

4. Web Delivery

Objectives of this step: Determine “Look &

Feel”

Determine Personalization Levels

Identify list of CDAs (or modifications to existing CDAs)

Determine Rendering Requirements

Identify new Pages (or modifications to existing Pages)

4. Web Delivery

Things to consider: Do different users have access to different Pages?

CDAs? Functions in a CDA?

How will users navigate through the portal site (tabs, links, taxonomy)?

What are your branding requirements?

What does the layout of your Pages look like?

What CDAs can be personalized?

What are your requirements for browser support?

What content relationships need to be secured?

4. Web Delivery

Guidelines:

Involve end-users for usability studies

Consider decisions in previous steps – you may find you need to revisit some

Utilize the Role object within a CDA for role-based functionality rather than creating 2 similar CDAs

Case Study – Project Task List

Data Management Role

Smart Summary Department Contact List

Taxonomy Press Releases, Technical Documents, CS Request DET C

Press Releases, Technical Documents, Department List E

Data Presentation Role

Rendering Department Contact List

Exercise


Identify:

Smart Summaries

Taxonomy

Rendering Rules

Revisit CDAs

5. Portal Security


Identify Portal Access Requirements

Identify Content Security Requirements (roles, logins, etc)

Identify Security System and Security Broker Requirements

Authentication

5. Portal Security

Things to Consider:

Do portal roles need to be revisited based on data security requirements?

How will uniform login requirements across systems be satisfied – is the same username/password combination maintained?

Will source data require updates? What is the security level on the source data?

How will portal login be managed?

Is your portal inter- or intra- net based?

6. Portal Architecture


Identify Server Requirements

Identify Load Balancing Requirements

Create Architecture Diagram


Data Services Tier(Index, Taxonomy, Repository, Smart Summary)

Transportation Tier(Receivers, Message Processors)

Agent Tier(Load Balancing, Flow Processing)

CLU

STER

CLU

STER

Load Balancing


Things to Consider:

What are concurrent user volumes?

What are data persistence volumes? (Indexing, Taxonomy, Smart Summary, Repository)

How frequently is persistent data modified?

What are request volumes?

How complex is your business logic?

What are your fault tolerance, redundancy, and availability requirements?


Guidelines:

Each cluster has a single ConfigStore – this can be a point of failure and an availability risk

A single load-balanced server can be a point of failure and an availability risk

Use IIS configuration best practices to support user request volumes

Frequently accessed/updated persistent data services and high volumes of this data may warrant a separate server

Case Study: Portal Architecture Diagram

Hot BackupCluster Server

SQL

Cluster Server

SQL

XPS Load BalancedServers

(CDS, Receivers, IIS)

Router

Exercise

Create Architecture Diagram



of Design

Outline

I. Requirements, Analysis and Design

II.II. Implementation of DesignImplementation of Design

III. Maintaining XPS


1. Configure Portal Environment1. Configure Portal Environment

2. Configuration Considerations2. Configuration Considerations

3. Extending XPS3. Extending XPS

These steps represent the

development effort involved in

delivering an e-business portal.

1. Configure Portal Environment

Single-server development environment

Remote access for developers

Importing exported configurations

Portal/cluster auditing levels

Managing multiple portals vs. multiple clusters

2. Configuration Considerations

Message Processing

Request Processing

Spidering

Business Rules

Agents

Repository

Data Entry

Smart Summary

Taxonomy

Spidering

Repository Agent

Things to consider: Identify required metadata Identify logical data categories Identify versioning requirements Use NT file system storage best practices for media device

design Repository security rules apply ONLY to documents within

the repository and only evaluate when a user tries to open the document

Without spidering & indexing (or a custom CDA), access to repository documents is provided only through the Publish tab

Data Entry Agent

Template configuration requires schema and/or HTML form input

Default access to DET from taxonomy, otherwise, requires custom CDA

Smart Summary Agent

Taxonomy Agent

3. Extending XPS

Extending the Framework

Security Broker

Load Balancer

PMC

Configurations Extending Data Interaction Connectors

DSAs

Message Types

Custom Scripts

Custom CDAs

Extending the Framework

Configurations stored as XML

Configurations accessible through XPS objects and repository

Configuration wizards are MMC snap-ins

Security Broker COM DLL

Load Balancer COM DLL

Extending Data Interaction

Scripting Agents

Define new business logic components

Language support: VBScript, Jscript, PerlScript

Integrated with flows to allow "routing" of messages to scripts

Active Server Pages model of objects

Content Delivery Agents

Active Server Pages model of objects

“If it can be done in HTML, it can be done in a CDA”


Design

Maintaining XPSImplementation of Design

Outline

I. Requirements, Analysis and Design


III.III. Maintaining XPSMaintaining XPS

Maintaining XPS

1. Required Skill Sets1. Required Skill Sets

2. Backup and Recovery Guidelines2. Backup and Recovery Guidelines

3. Growing Your Portal3. Growing Your Portal

4. Risk Mitigation 4. Risk Mitigation

5. Data Maintenance5. Data Maintenance

These steps represent general system

considerations.

Required Skill Sets

Developer Programming knowledge in web application

development (HTML, ASP, VB, PerlScript, Jscript, VB Script)

XML knowledge (DOM, schema development, XSLT development, XPath)

Knowledge in data modeling

Possibly knowledge in some EAI tool to build connectors

If the project is larger, then they need to be able to program in Visual C/C++ and COM to build their own scaleable agent

Required Skill Sets

Administrator

Knowledge of Microsoft administration functions for SQL Server, MMC, MTS, MSMQ, IIS, NT Administration

Limited XML knowledge for troubleshooting rule problems

Familiarity with XPS configurations

Backup & Recovery Guidelines

Back-up MSMQQueues

TaxonomyRepository

User SessionIndex

ConfigStore

SmartSummary

TaxonomyRepository TaxonomyRepository

User SessionIndex User SessionIndex

ConfigStore

SmartSummary

ConfigStore

SmartSummary

Back-up- Repository Media Devices

Back-up- Xdex Index

Growing Your Portal

Consider a test role in production environment

Import tested configurations from the development portal

MySequoia

Risk Mitigation

Start small, adding users and functionality

Secure all vendor relationships – CDAs, 3rd party tools

Publish schemas early

Design and test

Data Maintenance

Schedule Data Expiration Agents

Archive data as appropriate

Perform SQL Optimizations regularly

Consider excluding XML tags from index

Conclusion

1. Identify Portal Vision1. Identify Portal Vision

2. Identify Data Access Strategies2. Identify Data Access Strategies

3. Identify Portal Business Logic3. Identify Portal Business Logic

4. Identify Portal Security 4. Identify Portal Security

5. Identify Portal Architecture5. Identify Portal Architecture

Requirements, Requirements, Analysis, & Analysis, &

DesignDesign

Conclusion

Implementation Implementation of Designof Design

1. Configure Portal Environment1. Configure Portal Environment

2. Configuration Considerations2. Configuration Considerations

3. Extending XPS3. Extending XPS

Conclusion

Overall Overall Implementation Implementation

PlanningPlanning

1. Required Skill Sets1. Required Skill Sets

2. Backup and Recovery Guidelines2. Backup and Recovery Guidelines

3. Growing Your Portal3. Growing Your Portal

4. Risk Mitigation 4. Risk Mitigation

5. Data Maintenance5. Data Maintenance

Contact Sequoia Support at Contact Sequoia Support at <http://www.sequoiasoftware.com><http://www.sequoiasoftware.com>

for help with installing or configuring the for help with installing or configuring the server.server.

You may also obtain technical support by telephone between the hours of 9:00 AM through

5:00 PM EST at 1-888-820-7918 or 410-715-4528.

XPS Implementation Methodology September 2000 Please sign in and take a book from the table.

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