Topics:
Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure is an Oracle Fusion Middleware distribution that provides Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Coherence, and the Oracle JRF infrastructure services.
The Oracle JRF infrastructure services include:
Oracle Application Development Framework
Oracle Metadata Services
Oracle Platform Security Services
Oracle Web Services Manager
Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control
These services are installed into the Oracle common directory inside the Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c Oracle home by the Infrastructure installer.
Note that the equivalent installer in Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g is the Application Developer 11g installer, which requires an existing installation of Oracle WebLogic Server. In 12c, the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure distribution consists of both Oracle WebLogic Server and the Oracle JRF in a single installer.
The Oracle WebLogic Server is a scalable, enterprise-ready Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) application server. The Oracle WebLogic Server infrastructure supports the deployment of many types of distributed applications and is an ideal foundation for building applications based on SOA.
Java EE is a widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language. The Java EE Platform differs from the standard edition of Java in that it adds libraries which provide functionality to deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, multi-tier Java software, based largely on modular components running on an application server.
In addition to the Java EE implementation, Oracle WebLogic Server enables enterprises to deploy business-critical applications in a robust, secure, highly available, manageable, and scalable environment. These features allow enterprises to configure clusters of Oracle WebLogic Server instances to distribute load and provide extra capacity in case of hardware or other failures. New diagnostic tools allow system administrators to monitor and tune the performance of deployed applications and the Oracle WebLogic Server environment itself. You can also configure Oracle WebLogic Server to monitor and tune application throughput automatically, without human intervention. Extensive security features protect access to services, keep enterprise data secure, and prevent malicious attacks.
For more information, see Introduction in Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server.
For an overview of Web services in Oracle Fusion Middleware, a description of the Web services and clients supported in each category, and a roadmap for implementing Oracle Fusion Middleware Web services, see What are Web Services? in Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Web Services.
Oracle Coherence provides clustered data management with a fully coherent, single system image (SSI), scalability for both read and write access, fast, transparent failover and failback, linear scalability for storage and processing, no Single-Points-of-Failure (SPOFs) and cluster-wide locking and transactions
Built on top of this foundation are the various services that Coherence provides, including database caching, HTTP session management, grid agent invocation and distributed queries.
For information about Oracle Coherence, see Introduction to Coherence in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Applications with Oracle Coherence.
Oracle HTTP Server is based on Apache HTTP Server infrastructure, and includes modules developed specifically by Oracle. The features of single sign-on, clustered deployment, and high availability enhance the operation of the Oracle HTTP Server.
Oracle HTTP Server has the following components to handle client requests:
HTTP listener, to handle incoming requests and route them to the appropriate processing utility.
Modules (mods), to implement and extend the basic functionality of Oracle HTTP Server. Many of the standard Apache HTTP Server modules are included with Oracle HTTP Server. Oracle also includes several modules that are specific to Oracle Fusion Middleware to support integration between Oracle HTTP Server and other Oracle Fusion Middleware components.
Perl interpreter, a persistent Perl runtime environment embedded in Oracle HTTP Server through mod_perl.
For information about Oracle HTTP Server, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle HTTP Server.
Oracle User Messaging Service enables two-way communication between users and deployed applications.
Key features include:
Support for a variety of messaging channels: Messages can be sent and received through email, instant messaging (IM) (XMPP), short message service (SMS) (SMPP), and voice.
Two-way messaging: In addition to sending messages from applications to users (referred to as outbound messaging), users can initiate messaging interactions (inbound messaging). For example, a user can send an email or text message to a specified address; the message is routed to the appropriate application that can then respond to the user or invoke another process according to its business logic.
User messaging preferences: End users can use a web interface to define preferences for how and when they receive messaging notifications. Applications immediately become more flexible; rather than deciding whether to send to a user's email address or IM client, the application can simply send the message to the user, and let UMS route the message according to the user's preferences.
Robust message delivery: UMS keeps track of delivery status information provided by messaging gateways, and makes this information available to applications so that they can respond to a failed delivery. Or, applications can specify one or more failover addresses for a message in case delivery to the initial address fails. Using the failover capability of UMS frees application developers from having to implement complicated retry logic.
For information about Oracle User Messaging Service, see Introduction to Oracle User Messaging Service in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle User Messaging Service.
Oracle Platform Security Services provides enterprise product development teams, systems integrators, and independent software vendors with a standards-based, portable, integrated, enterprise-grade security framework for Java SE and Java EE applications.
Oracle Platform Security Services is the underlying security platform that provides security to Oracle Fusion Middleware including WebLogic Server, Server Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications, Oracle WebCenter, and Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) applications.
Oracle Platform Security Services provides an abstraction layer in the form of application programming interfaces (APIs) that insulate developers from security and identity management implementation details. With OPSS, developers do not need to know the details of, for example, cryptographic key management, repository interfaces, or other identity management infrastructures. Using OPSS, in-house developed applications, third-party applications, and integrated applications benefit from the same, uniform security, identity management, and audit services across the enterprise.
For more information, see What Is Oracle Platform Security Services? in Oracle Fusion Middleware Securing Applications with Oracle Platform Security Services.
Oracle Data Integrator features an active integration platform that includes all styles of data integration: data-based, event-based and service-based. ODI unifies silos of integration by transforming large volumes of data efficiently, processing events in real time through its advanced Changed Data Capture (CDC) capability, and providing data services to the Oracle SOA Suite. It also provides robust data integrity control features, assuring the consistency and correctness of data. With powerful core differentiators — heterogeneous E-LT, Declarative Design and Knowledge Modules — Oracle Data Integrator meets the performance, flexibility, productivity, modularity and hot-pluggability requirements of an integration platform.
For more information, see Overview of Oracle Data Integrator in Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Oracle Data Integrator.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides an enterprise architecture that supports building connected enterprise applications to provide solutions to business problems. SOA facilitates the development of enterprise applications as modular business web services that can be easily integrated and reused, creating a truly flexible, adaptable IT infrastructure.
Oracle SOA Suite provides a complete set of service infrastructure components for designing, deploying, and managing composite applications. Oracle SOA Suite enables services to be created, managed, and orchestrated into composite applications and business processes. Composites enable you to easily assemble multiple technology components into one SOA composite application. Oracle SOA Suite plugs into heterogeneous IT infrastructures and enables enterprises to incrementally adopt SOA.
For more information, see What Is Oracle SOA Suite? in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
Oracle BPM Suite provides an integrated environment for developing, administering, and using business applications centered around business processes.
Oracle BPM Suite provides a seamless integration of all stages of the application development lifecycle from design-time and implementation to runtime and application management. Oracle BPM Suite is layered on Oracle SOA Suite and shares many of the same product components.
For more information, see What Is Oracle Business Process Management Suite? in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite.
Oracle Managed File Transfer (MFT) is a high performance, standards-based, end-to-end managed file gateway.
It features design, deployment, and monitoring of file transfers using a lightweight web-based design-time console that includes file encryption, scheduling, and embedded FTP and sFTP servers.
For more information, see Understanding Oracle Managed File Transfer in Oracle Fusion Middleware Using Oracle Managed File Transfer.
Oracle Enterprise Data Quality provides a comprehensive data quality management environment that is used to understand, improve, protect and govern data quality.
EDQ facilitates best practice master data management, data integration, business intelligence, and data migration initiatives. EDQ provides integrated data quality in customer relationship management and other applications.
For more information, see About Oracle Enterprise Data Quality in Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Enterprise Data Quality Concepts.
With Oracle Enterprise Scheduler, you can define, schedule and run jobs. A job is a unit of work done on an application's behalf.
For example, you might define a job that runs a particular PL/SQL function or command-line process. You can define a job that executes Java code.
For more information, see Introduction to Administering Oracle Enterprise Scheduler in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle Enterprise Scheduler.
Oracle Stream Analytics consists of the Oracle Stream Analytics server, Oracle Stream Analytics Visualizer, a command-line administrative interface, and the Oracle JDeveloper Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
An Oracle Stream Analytics server hosts logically related resources and services for running Oracle Stream Analytics applications. Servers are grouped into and managed as domains. A domain can have one server (standalone-server domain) or many (multiserver domain). You manage the Oracle Stream Analytics domains and servers through Oracle Stream Analytics Visualizer and the Oracle Stream Analytics administrative command-line interface.
For more information, see Event Processing Overview in Oracle Stream Analytics in Oracle Fusion Middleware Getting Started with Event Processing for Oracle Stream Analytics.
Oracle Traffic Director is a fast, reliable, and scalable layer-7 software load balancer. You can set up Oracle Traffic Director to serve as the reliable entry point for all HTTP, HTTPS and TCP traffic to application servers and web servers in the back end.
Oracle Traffic Director distributes the requests that it receives from clients to servers in the back end based on the specified load-balancing method, routes the requests based on specified rules, caches frequently accessed data, prioritizes traffic, and controls the quality of service.
The architecture of Oracle Traffic Director enables it to handle large volumes of application traffic with low latency. The product is optimized for use in Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud and Oracle SuperCluster. It can communicate with servers in the back end over Exalogic's InfiniBand fabric.
For more information, see Getting Started with Oracle Traffic Director in Administering Oracle Traffic Director.
Oracle WebCenter Content can help a corporation unify, manage, and leverage all types of content across the entire enterprise. All corporate lines of business such as marketing, brand management, web presence, accounting, sales, human resources, and engineering can share the same tools and easily access the same information in a common repository.
By centralizing information and allowing access to information by qualified users, Oracle WebCenter Content provides cost savings, eliminates redundancy and increases efficiency. At the same time, information is properly managed, tracked, and disposed of as needed.
For more information, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Oracle WebCenter Content Concepts.
Based on these components, Oracle WebCenter Portal also provides an out-of-the-box enterprise-ready customizable application called WebCenter Portal, with a configurable work environment that enables individuals and groups to work and collaborate more effectively.
Oracle WebCenter Portal provides an open and extensible solution that allows users to interact directly with tools like instant messaging, documents, content management, discussion forums, wikis, blogs, and tagging directly from within the context of a portal or an application. These tools and services empower end users and IT to build and deploy next-generation collaborative applications and portals.
For more information, see Introducing Oracle WebCenter Portal in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal.
The Oracle WebCenter Sites: Contributor interface offers a set of features for building and managing the components of your website. In addition, features such as Oracle WebCenter Sites: A/B Testing are available to help users measure their website's success so they can enhance it accordingly.
To cater to administrators, Oracle WebCenter Sites provides the Admin interface and the WEM Admin interface which, together, provide the tools needed to manage all aspects of a content management site. In addition, you can enable features such as Oracle WebCenter Sites: Insights, Oracle WebCenter Sites: A/B Testing, and Conversions which help your content contributors and marketers measure website successfulness so they can enhance it accordingly.
For more information, see Introduction to Oracle WebCenter Sites in Oracle Fusion Middleware Using Oracle WebCenter Sites.
Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (sometimes simply referred to as Oracle Business Intelligence) provides a full range of business intelligence capabilities.
These capabilities enable you to:
Collect up-to-date data from your organization.
Present the data in easy-to-understand formats (such as tables and graphs).
Deliver data in a timely fashion to the employees in your organization.
These capabilities enable your organization to make better decisions, take informed actions, and implement more-efficient business processes.
For more information, see About Oracle BI Enterprise Edition in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
Oracle Forms is used to develop and deploy Forms applications. The Forms applications provide a user interface to access Oracle Database in an efficient and tightly-coupled way.
The applications can be integrated with Java and web services to take advantage of service-oriented architecture (SOA).
For more information, see Oracle Forms in Oracle Fusion Middleware Forms Services Deployment Guide.