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Revision as of 11:17, 12 February 2010

In computing, the term composite application expresses a perspective of software engineering that defines an application built by combining multiple existing functions into a new application. The technical concept can be compared to mashups. However, composite applications use business sources (e.g., existing modules or even Web services ) of information, while mashups usually rely on web-based, and often free, sources.

It is wrong to assume that composite applications are by definition part of a service oriented architecture (SOA). Composite applications can be built using any technology or architecture.

A composite application consists of functionality drawn from several different sources. The components may be individual selected functions from within other applications, or entire systems whose outputs have been packaged as business functions, modules, or web services.

Composite applications often incorporate orchestration of "local" application logic to control how the composed functions interact with each other to produce the new, derived functionality. For composite applications that are based on SOA, WS-CAF is a Web services standard for composite applications.

See also

• Service-oriented architecture
• Web 2.0
• Service component architecture
• Mashup (web application hybrid)

External links

• On Estimating the Security Risks of Composite Software Services Research paper (PDF).
• Visual Composite Applications: Magnifying Data Return on Investment (ROI) White Paper (PDF).
• IBM DeveloperWorks Composite Application Blog
• Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for SOA Composite Application Projects Gartner

References

1. OASIS Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) TC

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