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Capabilities
Statement
Forge Research is recognised for its
depth of skill and commitment to process. Our understanding
of the Java technology platform runs deep. Our early
Java security work was acknowledged by Sun in the US
and our expertise in building distributed systems ensures
that we know why J2EE is structured the way it is and
not just how to use it. We have been using Java since
it was first in Beta and have followed the specification
closely ever since. We have generally been ahead of
the specifications with a JSP like implementation before
JSP, a component based MVC Web framework before struts,
message services before JMS and a comprehensive access
independent business logic framework before the advent
of EJB. We are standards driven and therefore as standard
versions of these components have been proven reliable
for production systems, we have adopted the Java standard
in preference to our own.
We have written systems that encompass
a wide range of the components that make up the J2EE
platform. All of our systems follow the same basic tenets
of separation of concerns where access or display is
separated from the business logic, which in turn use
Data Access Objects to control persistence. The same
business logic component can be called from inputs as
diverse as JSP/Servlet, A Java Mail Server, an external
system or even a remote hardware device. For example
our Authorize
product may be accessed via CORBA, RMI, XML-RPC, SOAP,
JAAS (drop in adapter) or the Java Connector Architecture.
We rely heavily on the use of patterns
and build tools to aid automation where possible. For
example we have utilities that can generate access abstractions
such as RMI and Web Service interfaces and sample client
proxies from pure Java interfaces based on an adapter
engine/pattern.
Most of the systems we build involve
integration with existing or legacy systems. We have
built systems that involve complex XML manipulation
and transformations. We have written many drivers for
custom protocols to remote hardware devices or for security
purposes (eg. SSL). Since most of our systems are multi
process, we have long-term experience using trading
mechanisms to dynamically find and use published services.
We have progressed from a custom trading framework,
through COS Trading to the newer mechanisms such as
UDDI and JNDI. Similarly we are no strangers to LDAP
or JMX.
While our server side capability is extensive,
we do not forget about our end users. We have specialist
user interface designers who will workshop screen designs
and functionality with end users, build prototypes and
take advantage of user feedback.
We use frameworks built around JSP and
Servlets to build highly interactive user-friendly HTML
front ends and are experienced in the necessary trade
offs between functionality and browser independence.
Where appropriate we will use Applets that are tailored
to appear the same as the rest of the interface. As
with other technology areas, we have traditionally used
our own front-end framework.
Style sheets are mandated to ensure consistency
of behaviour and look and feel. We complement this with
the production of a professional help system. As our
systems are normally deployed to a third party operations
centre, we comply with the customers monitoring requirements
and a complete operations manual also accompanies each
system.
We understand the true importance of
rigorous testing for enterprise systems, and therefore
have a dedicated test facility. We place a lot of emphasis
on automatic testing, and the testers work in parallel
with the developers from project inception to design
tests while the system is being built.
While recording test scripts is good
for regression tests, it does not provide the necessary
initial verification. This is still performed manually
using tests designed from the specifications. Once the
system has passed these tests, automated testing takes
precedence to provide regression, load and stress testing.
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