Middleware

If Middleware is supposed to facilitate communication between front end applications and back end systems how does it achieve this by decoupling front end apps from back end data access? It sounds contradictory. Can someone explain this in layman terms for me? Thanks

Well, middleware acts like a middleman, taking some responsibilities away from frontend and backend to itself.

Although this additional layer of complexity may not looks like a "communication facilitation" if you just think of middleware as of a person - e.g. interpreter (or a lawyer) - you will see the point.

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Originally Posted by jservant76

If Middleware is supposed to facilitate communication between front end applications and back end systems how does it achieve this by decoupling front end apps from back end data access? It sounds contradictory. Can someone explain this in layman terms for me? Thanks

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Classic example.

A back end may be SQLServer, Oracle, DB2 or SAP (plus plenty more)

Writing your front end with the intimate knowledge of each of this will simply clurrer your front end, and make it impossible to maintain.

Creating a series of Web Services, that all expose the identical WSDL (interface), and have knowledge of each of the back ends respectively, "facilitates" communication.

All the fron end has to know is the uri of the desired backend.