I'm delighted with the web centric approach to the next gen architecture. (Although a bit skeptical about Silverlight). In the "what's in it for me" vein I'd like to pose the following question:
Is it possible to develop the UI in such a fashion that modules, parts of the UI, could be used in our public websites? The most obvious example would be the patron's address/contact information.
Thanks for the comment, Mark.
We have had this discussion about the possible reuse of parts of the internal UI and I would say at this point it's a "would be nice to have" kind of thing. Our goal at the moment is to design these things this way, but we also don't want to be constrained by HAVING to do it that way. So we're going to see how things sort out in the design as we see how easy/difficult (expensive/not expensive) that becomes.
Thanks Chuck, I suspected that would be the answer. But I'm glad it's in the discussion. There may be a middle ground, sharing source, separate compiles ect.
Certainly, this would need to be a bi-product of the development process and not a requirement.