An Architecture for Re-engineering of Client/Server Applications

Before the spread of web platform and standard technologies (http, Java, XML, Corba, UML, etc.), many companies developed their client/server application by means of integrated development environment (i.e.: CASE tools) that allowed high productivity and cross-platform code generation. Of against, such products imposed a series of ties: use of owner programming languages; generation of redundant executable code; use of owner middlewares for the communication between client component and server, often based on not-standard protocols and with low performances; generation of project resources (windows, string tables, routines, images, etc.) not handling with other market products; installation on the client of run-time components for the execution of application; After the advent of technologies that facilitate the distribution of the application, the communication between client and server, and guarantee independence from development environments, the using of these development environments are revealed uneconomical for many companies. Moreover, many of these products, today, do not came more developed and maintenanced from suppliers, creating therefore large problems of maintenance of the existing applications to the companies that in the past has used it. This phenomenon is provoking one strong increase of the market requests for re-plaforming applications that introduce such problems towards architectures using standard technologies. Obviously, in this context, it is crucial for a company as Netsiel, leader in Italy for re-engineering services, to introduce architectural solutions that hold account of the more different customer requirements.