1. Kuali Rice: Cross Project Middleware Nate Johnson - Indiana University November 17, 2007

2. What is Kuali Rice? Kuali: a humble kitchen wok; Malaysian origins Rice: it is what it is –Sits on the bottom of a dish –Not a very tasty meal by itself –Better with some substance on top KFS - veggies & tofu KRA - chicken KS - seafood Rice is the foundation to a hearty software product

3. The Goals The board vision for Kuali is a plug and play module by module approach to software Kuali started as financials, but has evolved into a suite of administrative software (KFS, KRA, KS) A lot of functionality in Kuali systems –Keeping the Kuali code base as small as possible without impacting quality is key Highly productive development environment –For Kuali projects –For non-Kuali projects

4. Goals Continued A common and consistent architecture –Allow developers to understand other rice enabled projects –Infrastructure would not need to be reinvented on each project - focus on functionality! –Rice team can focus on IT standards, like SOA, that will benefit the entire Kuali software suite – Adoption of other Kuali modules feasible Generic enough for non-Kuali applications

5. Rice is Middleware Made up of several, possibly standalone and swappable, middleware components Applications become a “Rice Client Application” by easily integrating with this middleware Interaction with other Rice enabled applications becomes seamless

6. How We Got Here Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW) existed in production at Indiana University Kuali Financial System (KFS) started development and had an architecture team –Morphed into the Kuali Nervous System (KNS) team –Achieve technical consistency across all aspects of KFS KFS --> KNS --> KEW

7. Along Came KRA Kuali Research Administration (KRA) needed to integrate with KFS Align our core to support sharing services across Kuali apps in a loosely coupled fashion All Kuali products should be technically consistent under the hood –For end user functionality –For different development methodologies

8. Thinking Outside of the Wok Most administrative applications have a common need for middleware services –Workflow –ESB –Notification Avoid design and code duplication Consolidate configuration

9. Rice Components KEWKuali Enterprise Workflow KNSKuali Nervous System KSBKuali Service Bus KENKuali Enterprise Notification KIM Kuali Identity Management We should take a look at the history of each of these products before talking in more detail how they apply to Rice

10. The History of KEW Kuali Enterprise Workflow existed at Indiana University as a stand alone integration project before Kuali began Provided common engine to drive business processes electronically Provided relatively simple API allowing choices on how to create workflows When Kuali came along, the IU workflow engine became Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW)

11. The History of KNS KFS spent a large amount of development time up front, using the best talent from each of the partner institutions Came up with a foundation on which to build KFS - the Kuali Nervous System

12. This History of KNS Cont. It focused on a unified approach to development of functionality –A standard way to use workflow –A standard way to maintain support tables using CRUD operations –A standard way of creating business transactions KFS financial transactions

13. The History of the KSB Other Kuali projects came along: i.e. KRA They needed to be able to seamlessly “talk” to other Kuali services/applications in real time –Reducing the need for offline batch –Increasing business process agility The KSB was born to satisfy simple needs

14. The History of KEN Cornell University recognized the need for a more general notification system that could work alongside of a workflow “to-do” list –Started development of the notification system at Cornell –Recognized the synergy in leveraging KEW Realized that Kuali applications also wanted an advanced model for end user communication The concept of Kuali Enterprise Notification was born

15. The (short) History of KIM KFS has its own user tables that are specific to financial data –Also has groups, roles, permissions KEW has its own users, groups, roles, permissions When KEN was built, it piggy-backed on KEW’s users, groups, and roles

16. The (short) History of KIM Cont. KRA came along with similar needs as KFS KS is also gearing up and shows similar needs with additional requirements Recognized the potential for re-use and the need for context specific IdM data Most importantly, we recognized the need for consistent service interfaces across projects The concept of Kuali Identity Management was born

17. Why Does a Project Need Rice? KNS and KEW enhance developer productivity and enforce standards KSB provides an SOA approach for cross project interoperability KEN enhances the user experience while fulfilling a general need for notification across all rice enabled applications Let’s take a closer look at these components

18. The Rice Interactive Diagram Available at http://rice.kuali.orghttp://rice.kuali.org Click anywhere on the diagram to begin Click on any component for details

19. Kuali Rice - Current Status Public beta version 0.9.0.3 available at http://rice.kuali.org --> Download http://rice.kuali.org KRA is using 0.9.2 KFS is using 0.9.0.4 Well tested –Rice is being used in KFS; soon to be released with KFS 2.0 –Both unit and functionally tested with JUnit/HtmlUnit –Continuous Integration: https://test.kuali.org/bamboohttps://test.kuali.org/bamboo Let's take a closer look at each of these pieces in more detail

20. KSB Overview - The Goals 1.Enable applications and services deployed on the bus to interact with other applications and services 2.Provide (a)synchronous communication 3.Provide flexible security 4.Provide Quality of Service (QoS) 5.Keep it simple (light weight)

21. Goal 1 - General Bus Mechanics A common registry of services –Lists all services on the bus and how they can be connected –Through simple Spring configuration, Java based services can be “exported” from a rice enabled application, which is then ready to be consumed by another application

22. Goal 1 - General Bus Mechanics Cont. A common resource loading layer that provides access to services (bus or local) –Services can be local to the application, in which case the bus is short circuited and services are loaded directly and efficiently from inside the application –Services can be remote, in which case the service registry is queried for a service endpoint

23. Goal 1 - General Bus Mechanics Cont. Most java services inside a rice-enabled application can be exported to a variety of endpoints –Java serialization, SOAP, JMS, etc. A rice-enabled application can easily connect to any service on the bus Let’s take a closer look - http://ksb.kuali.org

25. Goal 2 - Communication Models Synchronous communication = point to point : a method call that waits for a response Asynchronous communication = usually messaging : fire and forget : possible callback –KSB has a proprietary messaging model out of the box that needs minimal configuration –JMS can be used : Good if you have IBM or Tibco –Could plug in open source JMS

26. Goal 2 - Communication Models Cont. Queue and Topic style messaging –Queues are a model where a single service is retrieved from a (possibly) redundant set of services and only that one is invoked –Topics are a model where all services with a given name are retrieved from a (possibly) redundant set of services and invoked

27. Goal 3 - Security Bus Security : Option to digitally sign internal bus communication Service level security : done with open source standard project, Acegi –Can be protected at the service level –Can be protected at the individual method level –Can be protected by many of the standard security models such as CAS or Kerberos –Can act as the user performing the activity

28. Goal 3 - Security Cont. A “Security Context” is passed along with service invocations This context holds –The logged in user –The authentication token (from CAS or Kerberos) –The user’s roles (for Authorization) Services can then call an authentication authority to validate the user and optionally authorize the user with the roles An application gets all of this "for free" by using the KSB via standard Acegi configuration

29. Goal 4 - Quality of Service (QoS) Failover - the ability to automatically switch to another service w/o the calling service noticing Reliability - guaranteed delivery of messages Availability - services on the bus are available real time -- if service is down, reliability ensures messages are delivered when service is available again Time to live and retry counts - ensure that an institution can set their own QoS settings. If QoS is not met messages enter exception status

30. Goal 5 - Simple and Light Weight Evaluated ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, and Mule a year and a half ago –Reliability issues then, better now though For simple needs (SOAP and Spring HttpRemoting), the messaging components of KEW sufficed in combination with XFire and Spring Kuali Student has greater needs from an ESB (WSDL first, process orchestration, etc) Are looking to replace the core of KSB with an OS ESB and JMS solution

31. KNS Overview Provides reusable code, shared services, integration layer, and a development strategy Provides a common look and feel through screen drawing framework A document (business process) centric model with workflow as a core concept

32. KNS Overview Cont. More Core Concepts / Features –Transactional documents –Maintenance documents –Inquires –Lookups –Rules –Questions –Data dictionary

33. Understanding the KNS Paradigm CHART_T Chart (POJO) ORM Mappin g Data Dictionary Lookups and Inquiries Maintenance Documents Transactional Documents Workflow (KEW)

34. Transactional Documents These are data-entry centric documents or “transactions” that model the business processes Examples include: Proposal Development, Journal Entry, Payment Reimbursement Built on a case by case basis using the Kuali Rice tag libraries (encompass snippets of UI behavior): –Notes and attachments –Workflow route log (audit log) Integrated with workflow

35. Maintenance Documents They do not need to be built case by case - just one JSP that draws them all These are the CRUD documents - an easy way to maintain support tables in a Kuali database –C: Create new table records –R: Read or query table records –U: Update existing table records –D: Delete existing table records Examples include: –Budget rates –Project codes

36. Inquiries A way to drill down and get more read- only information about a table record

37. Inquiry Screenshot

38. Inquiry Example Configuration Travel Account Inquiry

39. Lookups A way to search for data by a set of criteria Results of lookups can be returned to other lookups or documents

40. Lookup Screenshot

41. Lookup Example Travel Account Lookup Main Look up Inst.

42. Lookup Example Cont. <lookupField attributeName="foId" required="false" forceLookup="true" />

43. Rules These are programmatic events defined in Java Another way to think of them are as hooks in a business process’s lifecycle They can return errors and stop the lifecycle until user input is corrected A lot have to do with the workflow lifecycle –processSaveDocument(…) –processRouteDocument(…)

44. Questions A configurable way to ask a question of the person using the Kuali application Example: “Are you sure you want to cancel this operation? Yes or No”

45. Questions Screenshot

46. Data Dictionary Configure all of the above concepts into a “usable document” XML based configuration Three types of dictionaries –Business Object –Maintenance Document –Transactional Document

47. Data Dictionary Cont. Business Object Data Dictionary –Defines how to draw an inquiry (which fields to show the user) –Defines how do draw lookup and the result fields returned from a lookup as well as the default sort order of the lookup –Defines the business object’s attributes as well as how they are drawn and validated

48. Data Dictionary Cont. Maintenance Document Data Dictionary –References the BO DD file that is being maintained –Defines the business rules for the document –Defines the authorizations (initiator group) –Defines the maintainable sections (tabs) and layout of the attributes –And various metadata (descriptions, summaries, titles, etc.)

49. Data Dictionary Cont. Transactional Document Data Dictionary –References the document POJO –Defines the pluggable business rules –Defines the document type (business process) –Defines the document’s attributes as well as how they are drawn and validated –Defines the pluggable authorizations –And various metadata (descriptions, summaries, titles, etc.)

50. KEW Overview Facilitates routing and approval of business processes throughout an organization Provides re-usable routing rule creation which defines how business processes should be routed –Bind business data to users/groups that must approve Provides hooks for client applications to handle workflow lifecycle events of business processes

51. KEW Overview Cont. End users interact with central workflow GUIs for all client applications –Document Search: Allows users to search for documents (business process transactions) –Action List: One place to go to find all documents that you must take action on

52. Document Search Screenshot

53. Action List Screenshot

54. KEW Overview cont. Route log : document history, audit trail

55. KEW Architecture Stand-alone: a central hub and spoke model –Good if you just want to support one workflow server –Centralize Action List and Doc Search –Possibly easier to connect non-Java client Embedded: a decentralized, federated approach –Fast for developers because workflow is local –Distributes workflow across the university Provides distributed transactions so that workflow and client applications stay in synch with each other (embedded uses JTA) Services reachable via the KSB

56. KEN Overview Works with the action list to provide a single place for all university related communications –Workflow items come from KEW –Non-workflow items from KEN Non-workflow example items –Overdue library book –A concert on campus –Graduation checklists for seniors

57. KEN Overview Cont. Provides a secure and controlled environment for notifying the masses Eliminate sifting through email Communication broker which provides any combination of action list, text messages, email, etc... Audit trail just as in KEW

58. KEN Overview cont. User preferences for notification types End user interfaces –Viewing notification details –Maintaining the system (admin) –Sending messages (admin)

59. KEN: Sending Notifications A developer can send notifications by: –Calling the sendNotification() service on the KSB –Invoking the service via a SOAP WS (exposed by the KSB) –Future: integration with KNS’s document frameworks A user can send notifications using a provided workflow enabled form

60. KEN Screenshot: My Notifications

61. KEN Screenshot: Notification Details

62. KEN Screenshot: Notification Approval

63. KEN Screenshot: Delivery Type

64. KIM Overview Just gearing up Keep it simple to start Goals: –Clean and consistent service interfaces used by all Kuali apps; generic enough for non-Kuali apps –Leverage KNS to provide a reference implementation for services; workflow enabled management application –Flexibility for dynamic attributes associated with IdM entities (persons, groups, roles, etc) –Pluggable support for Internet2 products (Grouper, etc)

65. KIM Overview Cont. Basic concepts –Namespace (i.e. Application, any generic context) –Person - different default “sponsored” attributes for each namespace context; core shared attributes as well –Group - simply groups users; arbitrary data associated with them

66. KIM Overview Cont. –Permissions - ability to perform actions –Roles - cross context capabilities; aggregates permissions (i.e. fiscal officer, dean, etc) –Qualified Roles - specific to a context fiscal officer for chart XYZ dean for the College of ABC administrators for the College of ABC <-- this one’s a group

67. What’s Next? Looking to the Future… Rice components will piggy back on each other –KEW and KEN will use KNS to draw screens, etc. Standards –JSR 168/286 portlets for user interfaces (portals) –BPEL for process orchestration –JPA for data persistence (move to Hibernate) –WS-* support Easier configuration and turnkey upgrades Light weight service interfaces (WSDL, XSD) Open source ESB foundation for KSB

68. The main Rice web site –http://rice.kuali.orghttp://rice.kuali.org –Sign up for our public mailing list –Access to our wiki: roadmap, project plans, documentation, etc Documentation is a weakness About the website

69. The Team Current Contributors –Brian McGough - Indiana University –Aaron Godert - Cornell University –Nate Johnson - Indiana University –Ryan Kirkendall - Indiana University –Eric Westfall - Indiana University –David Elyea - Indiana University –Aaron Hamid - Cornell University –Chi-Thanh Dang - University of Arizona –Phillip Berres - University of Southern California –Tom Clark - Indiana University Past Contributors –John Fereira - Cornell University –Scott Battaglia - Rutgers University

70. That’s it! Q & A