The XFormity Engineering team has leveraged its rich history in developing best-of-class logistics and messaging software to design and build a premium Web Services platform - the Qube. Developed with rigorous performance standards, the Qube incorporates highly distinguishable architectural principles to ensure velocity in application development and multi-platform integration - with minimal practice adjustment, regardless of the client’s current software and hardware environment.

A comprehensive technology study was conducted to determine which software development framework would best deliver the foundational requirements proposed for this highly scalable messaging solution. As a pure XML ISV, XFormity’s choice was Microsoft .NET. Written in C#, the Qube uses industry XML Web service standards (SOAP, WSI, GXA) that enable software applications to interoperate, regardless of platform or programming language. Utilizing XML as the core communication medium, the Qube provides a platform that can readily be extended to deliver rapid, cost effective solutions for current and future needs of clients ranging from SME’s to Fortune 50’s.

The .NET decision has proven to deliver several distinct advantages. Programmers can easily and rapidly add components to the Qube to perform custom processing. Any .NET-compliant software language will integrate directly with the Qube; in addition, the Qube can also incorporate COM components that have already been written for a specific purpose. This allows for clients to extend the Qube through their own IT staff, outsource developers, or the XFormity team. New features and functionality are added through components without performance or service interruptions.

The Qube is Xformity's premium application development platform. By leveraging the power of Microsoft's .NET platform, the reliability of a message queueing architecture, and the flexibility of XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the Qube is able provide a highly scalable, cost effective and rapid application development environment.

The Qube brings many benefits for application design and deployment:

• Configurability Qube Server uses XML configuration files to specify system topology and data handling information. Configurations can be changed at any time with no system outage through the use of the Qube Controller.
• Scalability By using message queues as the staging area for data and commands, any application can be scaled up by simply adding Qube Server machines. Simple, low volume applications can be implemented on a single low-cost Qube Server, or build a Qube Farm to handle complex, high volume applications.
• Reliability Queued data has inherent reliability via transactioning that prevents loss of Qube messages and data. Also, Qube Server has enhanced error handling that allows administrator notification for any error situation. Recipients of error notifications receive a detailed array of information, allowing for quick resolution of any application issues.
• Extensibility Qube Server uses Activity Processor and Qube Components to make Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device a reality. By building Qube Activities, applications can implement simple or highly complex data flows. In conjunction with standard or user-created Qube Components, data of any type can be read from or written to any data store in any format.

Page Master - The Page Master infrastructure presents a powerful platform for rapid development of dynamic web content by using a core set of web building modules that can be configured through the use of XML files. These modules allow data to be extracted form multiple datasources and returned in XML format, which can then be formatted using XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transforms) to present the data to the user. By separating the data and presentation layers, it becomes much easier to change the look and feel of an application without having to modify the underlying data retrieval. This means creation of complex web applications is greatly simplified and time to market is decreased.

Qube Server - Qube Server is the heart of the Qube platform. By integrating tightly with Microsoft’s Message Queueing infrastructure, Qube Server is able to leverage the security, scalability, and reliability of a queueing architecture, while using the Activity Processor and Qube Components to flexibly process and transport a unlimited variety of data types.

Activity Processor - The Activity Processor is used by the Qube to run Activities. Qube Activities are a dynamic set of logical operations performed on any incoming data or message that instruct the Qube as to which processing is to take place. Sophisticated loop and branching logic are available to developers to handle message flow for the most complex requirements. Activities use Qube Components to perform operations on the data. A broad library of Components is available for use, and custom Components can be easily created in any .NET development environment for deployment in the Qube.

Qube Controller - Qube Controller is a hybrid load balancer, enabling a single computer to run all Qube components; or for scaled solutions, to balance process flow across multiple machines, regardless of component throughput. System health is monitored for error detection and reporting, configuration file changes, and fault tolerance