An introduction to Convertigo technology from a technical standpoint.

Convertigo Entreprise Mobility Server (C-EMS) overview

A composite application (also known as a "Mashup") is a website component or application displaying mixed content combined from various sources. End-users don't have to know from which underlying sources and applications this aggregated information is coming.

In fact, developers want to build new homemade enterprise applications that combine external Web services and Web pages with existing internal applications, like Legacy applications (green screen applications on mainframe), standard websites designed without integration interfaces (APIs), XML information and databases.

Sometimes, brand new well-designed Web services or clean integration APIs are available, but in most cases existing Legacy applications have not been designed with integration constraints in mind:

• Most business critical applications deployed on large systems like IBM eSeries, IBM iSeries, BULL and some old Unix systems only provide users with screen-oriented interfaces (3270, 5250, VT100),
• Most regular Web 1.0 applications (static HTML pages, dynamic JSP, ASP, PHP) are deployed without integration interface, can not be integrated with other applications. These applications just publish HTML content, we call them Plain Old Web applications.

In addition, many external public websites targeting consumers, like Yellow Pages, company rating, government and administration forms are just available as simple HTML websites, as most of CRM and ERP packaged applications.

Moreover, all kinds of applications mentioned above are only accessible from a computer Web browser but a great majority of end-users are using smartphones or tablets. Developers have to develop mobile web applications compatible with every smartphone browser or native applications for each target smartphone.

Convertigo's C-EMS (Convertigo Enterprise Mobility Server) is thus the only comprehensive solution that allows developers to deliver composite applications and multi-platform mobile applications from existing enterprise applications, even when these applications are neither SOA ready nor Web 2.0 compliant.

C-EMS can be deployed either on-premises, i.e. installed locally on the company's servers, or in the Cloud (see the Convertigo Cloud submenu page).

C-EMS is used:

• To quickly create new Web 2.0 applications reusing legacy assets, reducing integration and development cost and effort;
• To deliver widgets from existing Web applications that can be later assembled into enterprise portals like Adobe Mosaic, JSR #168 portals, Microsoft SharePoint or Convertigo Mashup Composer (based on GateIn technology);
• To create composite applications from multiple intranet / extranet applications interacting each others
• To collect data coming from specialized websites publishing business information in order to build price comparators, product catalogs, etc.  (data harvesting);
• To easily "mobilize" existing business applications, even with applications not providing any APIs;
• To create at once web apps and multi-platform mobile applications, for iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry6.