xml-architecture

I recently was given a large pub-sub architecture that was very complicated to understand.

So, I constructed an xml view of the architecture and decided to output the architecture visually using graphviz.

A very simple banking architecture is included here to show some of the outputs that can be created.

Services View	Adapters View

Banking Sample

Simple banking scenario with 3 Services Customer, Loans and Accounts and some of the messages that flow between them.

Configuration

The xml configuration is pretty easy to understand and can be viewed here: Source

<Architecture>
  <Service name='Customer Service'>
    <Adapter name='Customer Details Application Adapter' application='Customer Details'>
      <Publish>
        <Message name='Customer Created'/>
        <Message name='Customer Updated'/>
      </Publish>
    </Adapter>
  </Service>
  
  <Service name='Loans Service'>
    <Adapter name='Loans Application Adapter' application='Loans'>
      <Publish>
        <Message name='Loan Created'/>
        <Message name='Loan Updated'/>
      </Publish>
      <Subscribe>
        <Message name='Customer Updated'/>
      </Subscribe>
    </Adapter>
    <Adapter name='Loans Approval Application Adapter' application='Loan Approval'>
      <Publish>
        <Message name='Loan Approved'/>
      </Publish>
    </Adapter>
    <Adapter name='Loans Payment Application Adapter' application='Loan Payment'>
      <Publish>
        <Message name='Loan Payment'/>
      </Publish>
    </Adapter>
  </Service>
  
  <Service name='Accounts Service'>
    <Adapter name='Accounts Creation Application Adapter' application='Account Creation'>
      <Publish>
        <Message name='Account Created'/>
      </Publish>
      <Subscribe>
        <Message name='Loan Approved'/>
        <Message name='Customer Created'/>
      </Subscribe>
    </Adapter>
    <Adapter name='Accounts Application Adapter' application='Accounts'>
      <Publish>
        <Message name='Account Credited'/>
        <Message name='Account Debited'/>
      </Publish>
      <Subscribe>
        <Message name='Account Created'/>
        <Message name='Loan Payment'/>
      </Subscribe>
    </Adapter>
  </Service>
</Architecture>

Output

The output from the tool is a set of PNG files generated using GraphViz.

Services View

The Services view show the main services and the messages that are published.

Simple Services View

Simple Services View shows the connections between the services (but not the messages)

Top to Bottom	Left to Right

Services View

Services View shows the connections between the services and the names of the messages

Top to Bottom	Left to Right

Services and Messages View

Services and Messages view shows the services and messages as nodes.

Top to Bottom	Left to Right

Adapter Views

The Adapters view shows the services as groupings and the adapters internally with the messages that are published. Each view is generated using a top to bottom approach and a left to right alternative.

Simple Adapters View

Shows the Services and the Adapters and how they are connected by messages

Top to Bottom	Left to Right

Adapters View

Shows the Services and the Adapters and the messages that connect them

Top to Bottom	Left to Right

Adapters and Messages View

Shows the Services, Adapters and the messages as nodes and how they are connected

Top to Bottom	Left to Right

Messages Views

Soon...

I am not sure if xml-architecture is the right name for this.... will have to think up a better one soon.