Architecture

The architecture for Oracle Clinical consists of three tiers: the database tier, the application tier, and the client tier.

The image below illustrates the architecture and technology stack for Oracle Clinical.

Figure 1-1 Oracle Clinical and RDC Onsite Logical Architecture

The database tier in an Oracle Clinical environment includes Oracle Database, the Oracle Clinical database server, one or more Oracle Clinical databases, and the Oracle Clinical parametrized submission (PSUB) process, which is the batch processor for Oracle Clinical. Optionally, the database tier can include SAS. The database tier can run on UNIX or Windows. (However, a Real Application Clusters (RAC) installation is supported only on UNIX.)

The application tier must be installed on Windows. It has three parts:

• Oracle Application Server, which includes Oracle Forms Server and servlet, Oracle Reports Server and servlet, Oracle HTTP Server, and Oracle JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and supports the following Oracle Clinical components:
  • Oracle Clinical Forms Server — performs all forms processing, communicates the display changes to the client, and calls forms to query, update, select, and delete data from the database for the Oracle Forms-based applications: Oracle Clinical and the RDC Administration module.
  • Oracle Clinical Reports Server — runs most batch reports, schedules all jobs, including PSUB jobs, and runs job sets. In addition, it creates PDF output for Patient Data Reports, Blank Casebook Reports, and Audit Reports.
  • Oracle Clinical Graphic Layout Editor — supports creating CRF layouts from Oracle Clinical DCIs.
  • Oracle Clinical Servlet — supports file viewing
  • DLLs — used for data entry in both Oracle Clinical and RDC Onsite
• Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Application Developer’s Runtime, also known as Oracle Application Developer’s Framework (ADF) — support Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture Onsite.
• Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Publisher — runs the Patient Data Report and the Blank Casebook Report.

The client tier communicates users' input to the application tier. It must run on Windows through a browser, using native Oracle JVM for Oracle Clinical Forms Application. Both the RDC Onsite data entry Java script and the Oracle Clinical PDF Plug-In, which is required for graphic layout design, run on the client tier. See Make the Oracle Clinical PDF Plug-in Available to Users for more information.

The Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) handles the communication between clients and the application tier.