The company describes WebCenter Suite as a user interaction environment that aims to break down the boundaries between portals, enterprise applications and Web 2.0 technologies. The aim is to provide users with a single access point to business applications, structured and unstructured content, business intelligence, enterprise search, business processes and collaboration services. It is set to become the default user environment for Oracle Fusion Applications.
A twist on the concept of the role based interface, it aims to provide a task-oriented rich user interface for users based around context-sensitive work processes. However, it goes further in that it also seeks to provide an environment within which users can create their own Web 2.0-style composite applications.
It will integrate a Java-based portal framework with content management and content integration services, desktop and application integration, enterprise search and Web 2.0 collaboration and communication facilities to provide a unified user experience.
Oracle said it will form the basis of a new generation of context-centric applications, where applications will be aware of each other, reducing the need for uses to switch between disparate applications.
The SOA-based suite will comprise six components. Oracle WebCenter Framework, a JSF and Oracle ADF-based framework that will let developers embed Ajax-based components into JSF applications; and WebCenter Services which are embeddable Web 2.0 content, collaboration and communication components are among them.
Also, WebCenter Studio, which exposes the framework and services to processes inside JDeveloper; WebCenter Anywhere to enable users to connect from anywhere by exposing task flows and services through mobile devices and desktop tools; WebCenter Composer, a browser based environment for composition and customization of application UI’s, business rules, policies, user profiles and processes; and WebCenter Spaces which is a work environment to allow groups to work together.
