SaaS applications are typically web applications that serve users in many customer organizations from a single instance that runs in the cloud, controlled by the SaaS provider. All customers share a single instance of the application while having private data access. SaaS applications are usually multi-lingual (or at least multi-terminology), multi-time zone and -country and run 24/7. There is a number of common requirements for SaaS applications, such as: self service management of users and roles, customization of the application for the needs of a specific customer organization including hiding and adding fields and changing the boilerplate text, specification of customer specific default values and validation rules and influencing the look and feel. Deep link navigation into the SaaS application should be supported as well as the ability to embed context sensitive links from the SaaS application. In addition, facilities for importing and exporting data to and from the SaaS application are crucial as well as support for 'SOA on the cloud' : SaaS application should publish Services for retrieving and manipulating data as well as registering listeners that the SaaS application invokes when specific events occur. This presentation tells our story of the development of three SaaS style applications based on JavaServer Faces over the past two years. It will introduce the best practices we have arrived at for implementing the requirements listed above. The presentation will include several demonstrations of both the customization and the service interface of JSF based SaaS applications. Even shorter: SaaS applications serve users in many organizations from a single application instance that runs in the remote cloud. SaaS applications are usually multi-lingual (or at least multi-terminology) and run 24/7. Common requirements for SaaS applications include: customization including hiding and adding fields and managing boilerplate text and influencing the look & feel. Deep link navigation into the SaaS application allows visual integration between the SaaS application and local apps or SaaS running in another cloud. Facilities for importing and exporting data to and from the SaaS application are crucial. SaaS applications ideally also publish Services for retrieving and manipulating data as well as allow registration of listeners - applications outside the SaaS cloud that are invoked by the SaaS application when specific events occur. This is our story of developing three SaaS JSF applications in the past two years. It shows the best practices we have arrived at for implementing SaaS requirements. It includes demos of both the customization and the service interface. Target Audience Experienced Java Web Developers, preferably familiar with JavaServer Faces Key Points What are typical requirements for SaaS style web applications? Best practices for implementing customization features in JSF applications How to implement deep link navigation into JSF web applications An infrastructure for registering and notifying remote listeners for business events in JSF applications Outline Intro of SaaS style application Brief overview of our business cases + discussion on typical requirements for SaaS application Focus on Customization (various aspects) Focus on (remote) Integration (deep link, service api, remote event listeners) Summary & road ahead Code Samples: Approach to factory, organization (customer) and user level application settings Deep Link navigation into JSF application Register Remote Listener with SaaS application + notification upon business event

1. Castle in the clouds - SaaS Enabling JavaServer Faces applications Lucas Jellema AMIS, The Netherlands http://technology.amis.nl/blog

8. Application ‘levels of reality’ Organization B Organization A

18. Integrating Application Settings during development

19. Application Settings Data Model Date Format dd-mm-yyyy Use Photo Metric/ Imperial … Y m mm/dd/yyyy dd-mm-yy N Y N i Application Settings * Name o Factory Value o Allowable Values o Description o Data Type o Level Updatable o Updatable By Customized Settings * OrgId o Value o UserId o Comment

20. Application Personalization

25. SOA across the cloud SaaS A SaaS B App D App C CMS Workflow Engine Email IM Fax Validation Service Service API internal internet LDAP Service API CMS Social API

27. SOA across the cloud: data & operations SaaS A SaaS B App D App C CMS Workflow Engine Email IM Fax Validation Service Service API Service API Service API RSS internal internet listener registration service dependency injection LDAP Export Service API CMS Social API

28. SOA across the cloud: UI / Navigation / Process/Presentation SaaS A SaaS B App D App C CMS Workflow Engine Email IM Fax Portlet API Portlet API RSS Deep link Interface CMS internal internet Deep link Interface Portlet API Portlet API ToDo RSS RSS News HTML Pages Social API

35. Register Event Listener by calling the WebService

37. SaaS in the Multi-Org world App Z SaaS A SaaS B Service API Service API RSS Export CMS internet App D Workflow Engine Service API App X Service API App Y Service API Portlet API HTML Pages Portlet API Social API

39. Lucas Jellema [email_address] http://technology.amis.nl/blog (with all source code of the demos)