Architecture

Introduction

Blueriq consists of the following components:

• Studio
• Runtime
• Publisher
• Composer

The purpose of the studio is to create and maintain an application. Creating an application consists of creating a workflow, the user interaction and the domain model. The studio typically runs on a development environment.

The goal of the runtime is to execute an application. The runtime is accessed via a browser. In the default configuration a user can specify which flow in which project should be started. It is also possible to define the language and the style. Each environment, e.g. development, test, acceptation and production (DTAP), runs its own runtime.

The publisher is responsible for publishing an application from one environment to another environment. It is the control room

With the composer it is possible to perform some changes to an existing application at runtime.

Interaction

The previously described components interact with each other as depicted in the next diagram. Note that the composer actually is a plugin which runs on the runtime.

An application which is created in studio can be tested directly in the runtime via the development plugin (typically only available on the development environment). The publisher can transfer it to a seperate database which contains all published models. Each runtime will check this database for the correct application and will execute it. By using the composer plugin it is possible to make some changes on the runtime in the application (which runs in studio).

Studio

A closer look at the Studio shows that there are two layers internally:

• Studio server
• Studio client

The Studio server provides the core functionality and is responsible for maintaining the Studio repository. It provides a management service, via Soap, which handles the connections to the Publisher, Composer and the Development plugin on the Runtime.

The interface elements (the Studio screens) are handled by the client. This client is built with XBAP technology which requires Internet Explorer to run.

Both Studio layers run on top of an IIS application server.

Key features of the Studio:

• Complete revision control
• Work with external and internal libraries
• Multilingual elements
• User and access management
• Working with multiple projects

Working with Studio provides a complete guide on the Studio.

Runtime

The runtime runs on top of an application server, e.g. Tomcat, JBoss, Websphere (all Java) or IIS (.Net). On the next layer the Blueriq SDK is available which contains the Blueriq engines. The webapp is located on the next layer, which handles all web interaction. On top of the stack a number of plugins are available, e.g. Dashboard, CMIS, which provide specific functionality.

The Runtime runs on Java or .Net and works with modern browsers.

Key features of the Runtime:

• Customizable dashboard to run applications
• Variety of plugins to extend functionality
• Different APIs to further extend and customize functionality

Working with Runtime provides a complete guide on the Runtime.

Publisher

The following figure shows the preferred setup for DTAP environments, where the Runtime is linked to the Studio on the Development environment, which allows users to test changes made in Studio directly in the Runtime. The Publisher is used to transfer the application to the following environments (TAP).

Key features of the publisher:

• 4 eyes principle
• Select a tag/revision to publish
• Administration of published/unpublished applications

More information on the Publisher can be found here: Blueriq Standalone Publisher.

Composer

The Composer allows editing simple text elements of an application at runtime, such as a question text or a button label. The changes are directly visible. In order to maintain the changes, they are stored in the Studio repository by the Composer.

More information on the Composer can be found here: Blueriq Composer.