The X2A2 is a lightweight application engine, based on a patent-pending design that allows developers to quickly build complex software from re-usable components using XML and XSLT as the core languages. Complex business rules can be coded in familiar languages using .Net, including VB.Net and C#, or they can be further encapsulated in a SOAP service, either residing on the same machine or across the Internet.
Our engine takes standard web-based requests, converts them to an XML "datacloud" and then uses that for further processing by referencing XML configuration files. What comes out is the developer's choice: HTML, Text, XML data, MIME-compliant XML documents (i.e. Microsoft Office), or even MIME-compliant binary documents (i.e. JPG, PDF, BMP).
The X2A2 was built as an AJAX/Web2.0 application framework, derived from over 10 years of enterprise internet development. It has evolved into a SaaS Application Engine, that can serve anything from simple web-sites, such as this one, to complex enterprise web-applications. The X2A2 Enterprise Development Suite is used by RelWare in their healthcare application for an Electronic Health Record, as well as by Henry Ford Health System in their Electronic Health Record. Both are complex Web 2.0 applications for use by thousands of concurrent users in a mission-critical environment.
The X2A2 Web Request Engine and X2Workflow Engine both share the following core features:
- Reduced Instruction Set Architecture
A small set of purposeful, yet highly configurable instructions provide for rapid development. A handful of execution types keep the language simple, yet their configurability provides ultimate flexibility.
The use of connectors greatly simplifies code, almost all data input/output mechanisms have a built-in connector, removing the redundant writing of similar code to perform simple tasks such as executing a stored procedure, saving a file to disk, pushing a message to a queue, or the like.
- 100% XML Programming Language
Each of the files that makes up an X2A2 or X2Workflow Application is either an XML or an XSLT file. All of the code and configuration is contained purely within XML files, that are created and maintained by the developer. This makes for easily readable, and documentable applications. Both X2A2 and X2Workflow Applications can truly provide views of their application files, making the documentation a part of the application.
- Initialization Crosscheck
Whenever an X2A2 or X2Workflow Engine initializes an application, it performs a crosscheck, optionally saving the results to file, or even preventing operation if errors were found. This validates that the entire environment for the application, from Message Queues to SQL Servers, their stored procedures, and even their data parameters are accurate and operational.
- Layered System Monitoring
Each component and “moving piece” of the X2A2 and X2Workflow Engine has a high-resolution timer that runs and reports it runtime back directly with its dataset. This allows an X2A2 or X2Workflow Application to be “self-aware” of its environment, and can perform internal “watchdog” actions, either during or after standard execution. Additionally, Windows Performance Counters are baked in at the same points to provide external monitoring just as easily, with products like Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM).
"The X2A2 Family allowed the developers in our 40-person company to build a Web-based EHR that competes head-to-head with our multi-billion dollar competitors."
-Mark Brown, CIO, RelWare
What will you have your developers build for your company, using the X2A2?
