Integrated Services for Web Applications
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The document outlines the integration of web applications at Broadridge, a leading provider of technology solutions for the financial services industry, emphasizing the need for a unified user experience through single sign-on and common interface elements. It details various types of integration—presentation, functional, and data layers—and discusses the frameworks and components used in Broadridge's Federated Services, including the Chrome and Auth servers. The case study also highlights the integration with Liferay, demonstrating successful prototyping and implementation of these web services.
Integrated Services for Web Applications
- 1. Integrated Services for Web Applications Suresh Kallem Kishore Devarasetty 21/04/11
- 2. Web Integration Broadridge Case Study AGENDA • Why web integration is required in Broadridge • What did we do • How did we do. 2
- 3. Why Brief introduction to Broadridge and its nature of business. 3
- 4. About Broadridge Key locations in North America, Europe and Asia Frankfurt Prague Toronto London Zürich Geneva New York Tokyo New Jersey Hyderabad Hong Kong Singapore Sydney Johannesburg
- 5. About Broadridge • A leading global provider of technology-based solutions to the financial services industry in – Investor Communication – Securities Processing – Clearing and Outsourcing • Over $2.2 billion USD annual revenues • Market leader in enabling secure and accurate processing of information for communications and securities transactions among issuers, investors and financial intermediaries. • Broadridge builds the infrastructure that underpins proxy services for over 90% of public companies and mutual funds in North America • A 1000+ associate strong team in Hyderabad 5
- 6. Nature of Business growth • 7 major acquisitions by Broadridge from 2008 • Head start and existing client base being the main reason • Technologies range from Mainframes to Java to .NET • Internal projects for business growth using latest technologies 6
- 7. Driving point for integration Impact of Acquisitions on Broadridge • Single sign on for all the products of Broadridge • All related products should look like a single product to the client • Common look and feel across products • Reuse of standard components • Easy sales 7
- 9. Types of Web Integration • Integration at the presentation layer. This layer is the human user interface, either web-based or a platform-specific GUI or terminal interface. Integration at the presentation layer lets have to access to a user interface of a remote application. • Integration at the functional layer. This type of integration provides direct access to business logic of applications. It is attained by interaction between applications and API or by interaction with web services. • Integration at the data layer. In this case we mean access to one or more databases used by a remote application • Complex integration. Commerce solutions of web-integration as a rule include all three types of integration 9
- 10. Framework Requirements Single Sign-on – User Management (Authentication) – Feature/Data (Authorization) Navigation Controls – Configurable Menus – Navigation Maps Administration – Setup Users/Entitlements – Preferences (Logos, URLs, Language, etc.) – Reporting 10
- 11. Framework Requirements cont… Integration – “Tightly” or “Loosely” – Session Management – Context Sharing – External Frameworks Customization – Adaptive look & feel (Common colors/fonts) – Localization/Internationalization Other Items – nice to haves – Development Tools: Web Resources – Lookup Control – Common UI Controls 11
- 12. Frameworks Reviewed • External – Websphere Portal – NetVibes – IBM Tivoli • Internal – Internal frameworks 12
- 13. How 13
- 14. Broadridge Federated Services A suite of web applications, web services and Java libraries providing a common application integration framework • Chrome Server - is a web application responsible for providing common UI elements to other federated web applications. – Navigation Controls – Customization – look & feel – Utility programs & Development tool kit • Auth Server - handles both authentication and authorization (hence ‘Auth’) functions for applications in the federation – Single sign-on – Integration – Administration 14
- 16. Auth Server Authentication • Authentication is handled externally by SiteMinder or other authentication mechanism • SiteMinder provides authentication and identity management • Single Log Off 16
- 17. Auth Server Authorization • Central source of feature entitlements and other limited user information • Modeled with Security Profiles, Components and Groups – Component – a feature or groups of features, in any application, that can be enabled or disable for a user – Security Profile – a named collection of enabled or disabled Components that can be assigned to a user • Equivalent to a “Role” – Group – a named collection of users • Available to applications via web service API • Managed via web interface for use by system and firm administrators • Data entitlements are expected to be handled by each application 17
- 18. Auth Server Authorization • Components can contain other Components with unlimited nesting – Visualized as a tree – Examples of Components: • An application, a set of related pages/functions in an application, a single page, an element within a page – Nesting of Components eases administration of entitlements – Each Component has a unique, well-known ID • Security Profiles organizes Component settings into named groups that are assigned to users to define their feature entitlements – Each user is assigned one profile, but a profile can be assigned to many users • Ex. “Advisor”, “Administrator” – Can inherit their Component settings from other profiles 18
- 19. Auth Server Integration • Applications can “Tightly” or “Loosely” integrated with BFS • Context Sharing – Context sharing is done through Push/Pull through web service between applications and Auth Server – Context is stored in BFS DB between user sessions, so user can resume work the next day where they left off the night before. • Session Management – Auth Server is the first point of entry for all logins – Established BFS session which is tracked across applications – Handles SLO (Single Log Off) – logs user out of all applications that they have visited. 19
- 20. Auth Server Administration • Provides multiple roles like System Administrator and Firm Administrator • Following features are provided – Manage Institutions • Establish new Institutions • Enable, at a Institution level, the set of Components purchased by the institution. • Set up root security profiles - one for each type of user expected to use the system • Assign administrators – Manage Applications – Define Components – Define Security Profiles – Edit Profiles feature entitlements – Create of Users – Define Menus 20
- 21. Chrome Server Look & Feel • UI elements provided: Style Sheets, JavaScript , Static HTML, Dynamic HTML (menus & site map), Resource Bundles (which support I18N) and Images • HTML Fragments for top, bottom, left and right regions • Any resource or HTML fragment can be overridden on a firm-by-firm basis • Whenever a resource or HTML fragment is requested, Chrome Server first looks for a firm-specific version. If found it is used; if not, the default is used. • For resource bundles, firms can override individual name/value pairs – the whole resource bundle does not need to be redefined. 21
- 22. Chrome Server Look & Feel • Each federated application must implement the basic layout in their chosen technology (JSP, .NET, etc.) • <DIV> based layout • Fragments from Chrome Server may be empty • e.g.. Left would probably be empty for tabbed navigation 22
- 23. Chrome Server Navigation Controls • Entitlement-aware menus are rendered dynamically – Menu definition for role is read from DB then intersected with user’s Security Profile to “prune” menu items to which the user is not entitled • Different types of menus can be rendered – Currently supported menu types: • Single-level tabs with flyout • Two-level tabs with pull-down/pull-over • Left-side tree • Plug-in architecture for menu rendering allows easy addition of new menu styles • Menus added to page fragments using JSP custom tag – Menu style specified using attribute • Site Map is derived from menu definition so always matches the menu’s layout 23
- 24. Chrome Server Development Kit • Common widgets to simplify application programs – Grid control – Complex directory or search widget – Allows applications to gain new capabilities as widgets gain new capabilities • Utilities and libraries for corporate defined guidelines • Integrate with third party tools 24
- 25. Web services Used by applications that are tightly integrated to BFS, Web services provide interfaces to the Chrome and Auth Servers. – From Auth Server • User information such as user id, institution id, client id • User role • User entitlement • Context data • Application lifecycle events – From Chrome Server • HTML Fragments (Top, bottom, left and right regions) • Common style sheets • Common controls 25
- 26. Integration with Liferay Case Study • Invoke Liferay services from the BFS • Send data to Portlets from the BFS and get the response back • Host Liferay on the BFS Application server • Use BFS as a container to display Liferay portal 26
- 27. Conclusion • One of the major products integrated with BFS and went live for a client • Prototyping done for various other internal products • Case study on integration with external portals like Liferay being done. 27