Sophisticated environments require sophisticated tools. New requirements for e-commerce involve mixing database information/update/retrieval mechanisms with real-time event handling to provide business intelligence to the appropriate user.
Business intelligence has found its way deep into the databases as database triggers, but this proved both difficult to maintain and doesn't scale up beyond the proof-of-concept.
Scripting capability (where intelligence can hide) is available when building Web pages with Visual Basic or Java scripting. But as the number of pages increase, the code and data become inseparable. The site soon becomes impossible to manage, document and maintain.
Inline tools can suffice for sequential
page-to-page viewing, but today’s e-business environment demands more.
Interactive sites with multiple clients or bartering customers, real-time
data feeds, or supply chain links need a separate engine for real-time
intelligent data aggregation---and eSCL delivers.
New tools now exist to separate the data from the presentation layer with XML---the markup language and XSL---the styling language. Similarly, eSCL can express the business logic as a separate expert scripting and control layer.
To keep it simple, your objective is to externalize the rules from the data itself. This ensures a maintainable environment for real-time decision-making. Using a dedicated rule engine with scripting capability allows you to decouple the data from the logic and reduce the complexity to a manageable level.
Consider for example the needs of building a Web presence for a bank or insurance company. Regulations vary by country, state, and even by region. Web content must be customized and algorithms tailored for each customer’s location. Typically, much of this would be hard-coded in Web applications, but as regulations, algorithms, or rates change, there is rarely a central place to make sweeping changes to all the site’s touchpoints. eSCL offers that centralized maintenance paradigm.
As you study the Microsoft documentation, Business Intelligence or Business logic is expected to be distributed among COM/COM+ objects, VBScript, DLLs, ASP pages, Database Triggers, and Database Stored procedures. This approach WILL work, however maintenance and scalability will suffer. Portability is a major issue also.
With the eSCL system, Business Rules are captured in a centralized engine in a grammar that is even higher level than Microsoft's VBScript. Additionally, the eSCL business rules are portable to UNIX systems such as Solaris and Linux (others to be announced). This allows System Integrators to develop business suites which can be fielded on a variety of platforms based on the customer's preferences.
If portability, and ease of use, development
and maintenance are an issue, then consider eSCL.
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