Manual: Reference Application Features

Features of the Reference Implementation

The reference application is a representative set of functionality designed to show the breadth and depth of the openSEAL library, and to give developers concrete examples of implementation approaches. In particular, the reference application demonstrates the following highlights of the openSEAL library:

  • Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - The reference application follows a standard n-tier service oriented architecture.
  • XATransaction Support - The business service of the reference application demonstrates the use of the openSEAL ResourceManager to participate in 2PC transactions using multiple managed resources (database and MSMQ specifically). This functionality is accomplished using all managed code and most importantly, without the use of any COM+ transactions.
  • MVC Web Tier Approach - The core of the openSEAL web tier design is a MVC (Model View Controller) design similar in concept to The Jakarta Struts Project. While using the library does not require use of an MVC approach, the benefits are potentially significant if use properly.
  • Security Enhancements - The reference application uses several of the custom message sinks provided with the openSEAL library. These sinks provide enhanced security including encryption of data on the wire, thread impersonation propogation and message integrity checks using hashing.