Introduction
Scipio ERP is first and foremost a framework for business processes. It consists of a framework, applications, demo (special-purpose) applications and themes. All of these are included in our download-package.
Framework
It is important to understand, that Scipio ERP, in its core, is a modified version of the Apache Tomcat servlet container that was extended by the overarching erp-framework. This means two things:
- You do not require any additional servlet container – Scipio ERP is run as a standalone application
- Whenever you develop within Scipio ERP, you are working inside separate web-applications (components)
This is good news, as it also means that you can deploy any other type of exploded web-application (Web-Application deployment).
The framework itself provides you with a service-oriented-architecture (SOA), that is devided into three layers:
Each layer in itself works as a container for elements and handles caching & clustering. The three layers are maintained as seperate entities. Elements inside these containers (Views, Processes, Database-Tables etc.) are defined by descriptor files before they can be used inside the containers. This may be a bit counter-intuitive at first, but it serves a purpose: By wrapping each element, Scipio keeps itself language-independent and reusable. This design pattern is the foundation for the service-oriented architecture later-on.