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Paul Gibson, System Architect. January 2007. Next Generation Platform: Infinity. Monday 8 th October. Paul Gibson , System Architect. Agenda. Describe the Infinity Platform Demonstrate application features built on Infinity. What is Infinity?. State of the art technology platform
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Paul Gibson, System Architect January 2007 Next Generation Platform: Infinity Monday 8th October Paul Gibson , System Architect
Agenda • Describe the Infinity Platform • Demonstrate application features built on Infinity
What is Infinity? • State of the art technology platform • Designed and built by Blackbaud • Complimentary to current product offerings • The foundation for Blackbaud applications currently in development
Major Feature Themes • Open Standards, contemporary platform • Scalability and Performance • Security • Web Deployment • Solution Flexibility
Platform Feature Sub-Plots • Internationalisation • Unicode data • Localisable UI • Good Hosting Citizen • XCopy Deploy server components • Side-by-side versioning • Scriptable maintenance tasks • WebHealth events • Future Proof Architecture • Web 2.0 • RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) • Gadgets • Business Intelligence (BI)
What is a Platform? • Common Core Architecture • Web Services • Security • Data access • Configuration management (the production factory of PD) • Common Application Services • Ad-hoc Query • Security administration • Batch • Code tables • Data entry forms • User experience (shell) • Etc.
Product X Bullseye Direct Mail Marketing Constituent Management Volunteer Events Fundraising Prospect Research Major Giving Direct Mail Marketing Application Blades Security Batch Client Shell Query Form Services Database Audit Code Tables ClickOnce Services Report Services Infinity Platform Catalog System Business Processes WebHealth Monitoring Web Services Build / Configuration Management MS SQL Server 2005 ASP.Net Windows Workflow Foundation (V. 2) Windows ServerSystem SQL Report Services .Net Framework 2.0
Custom Implementation Program Management Constituent Management Fulfillment Case Management Legacy Integration Volunteer Events Fundraising Prospect Research Major Giving Application Blades Security Batch Client Shell Query Form Services Database Audit Infinity Platform Code Tables ClickOnce Services Report Services Catalog System Business Processes WebHealth Monitoring Web Services Build / Configuration Management MS SQL Server 2005 ASP.Net Windows Workflow Foundation (V. 2) Windows ServerSystem SQL Report Services .Net Framework 2.0
What we are building on • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 • SQL Server Report Services 2005 • ASP.Net 2.0 • .Net Framework 2.0 • SOAP Web Services • Visual Studio 2005 • Windows Server 2003 + • ClickOnce SmartClient
Domain Features Misc UI Widgets Database: Proprietary SQL Server 2000 Blackbaud Blackbaud Microsoft Authentication Proprietary Blackbaud Import/Export/Queue Reports Proprietary Proprietary Blackbaud Blackbaud In 7.X Architecture we rolled a lot of our own technology
Platform/Domain Features Database: Authentication Reports Misc UI Widgets Import/Export/Queue Windows (Single Sign On) DTS / SSIS Report Services 3rd Party SQL Server 2005 Blackbaud Microsoft Infragistics Microsoft Microsoft For Infinity, we leverage the Microsoft Platform where appropriate
More Effort on Better Features! Platform/Domain Features • Platform • Web endpoints (SOAP, RSS) • Customisation • Security • Scalability • Usability • Application • Specific challenges of not-for-profit organisations for each problem domain • Details embargoed
Open Standards • XML • SOAP Web Service API • Extensibility catalogue system • RSS • SQL • Direct read/write database access • SSIS/DTS • Bulk imports • No limits on the full power of TSQL • .Net Framework • Call web services from other application • Extend built in services • Implement custom client-side forms/features hosted in our shell
Scalability and Performance • Designed for Enterprise scale • MS Lab Benchmarks– 1250 users, 10 million gifts • White Paper available • Significant investment in QA automation • 2300+ Developer Unit tests • Daily load tests on multi-million record, multi-hundred user simulation • Instrumented for Operations • WMI • WebHealth monitoring
Security • Principle of Least Privilege • No client installation, supports low-rights users • Integrated Windows Authentication (Single Sign On) • Synchronise to NT / Active Directory/LDAP groups • Audit Trail • Implemented at the DB layer • Rich “Feature Level Security” model
Flexibility • Role based Security/User experience model • Every page is customisable • “Add a tab to the Constituent record” • Reorganise built-in features around custom workflow • Implement new features and integrate with existing workflows • Every feature is “pluggable” • Substitute custom “Delete record after notifying DBA and checking elaborate business rule” operation for the standard “Delete record”. • Low-code development of custom KPIs, Lists, Forms, Processes