Architecture Details

As described in our Platform Overview section, our technology platform allows us to deliver many real-world benefits such as reliability, security and scalability. Our applications are built using a modern, multi-tier architecture using technologies including:

Java
distributed servlets
distributed objects with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)
XML, with XSLT for document transformation and XSL-FO for PDF generation
reliable messaging with Java Messaging Service (JMS)
third-party workflow engine (BEA's WebLogic Integrator product)
enterprise edition relational database storage

As presented in the diagram below, users and systems interact with our front-end tier via a variety of means, including web browsers, automated email exchange, FTP exchange, and other protocols such as RosettaNet. Our front-end tier handles these incoming requests, and after authenticating them and performing display logic, brokers those requests to our middle tier via a variety of means including direct Java and EJB calls as well as XML-based messaging. Our middle tier contains a number of reusable components and facilities which make up the "core" system functionality. These core components include code for managing documents, users, workflow and other low-level system facilities such as error logging and configuration. Finally, our back-end tier consists of an XML/XSL-based persistence layer that uses a robust third-party RDBMS for long-term persistence of data.

Below is a diagram that presents an overview of the Direct Commerce system architecture: