Transports and Interfaces: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume III > EAI Transports and Interfaces Overview >

About EAI Transports

Transports allow Siebel applications to exchange data with external applications using standard technologies for both synchronous and asynchronous communication protocols.

In Siebel 7.5 and higher, transports handle all data as binary data because the IsTextData parameter that was available in previous releases is no longer supported. If you want to use character conversion on the transport, you should use the CharSetConversion parameter. Handling the data as binary defers any character set conversion until needed, and avoids conversion at the transport level to prevent data corruption. For example, treating a UTF-8 XML as text when the conversion executes leads to an XML string in the local code page, while its header still describes UTF-8. You should treat all self-describing data including XML as binary.

Character conversion argument is available in a number of business services. These business services are:

• EAI Transport business services (MQ Series, DLL, File, HTTP, MSMQ)
• XML Converter business services
• Transcode business service

When business services are invoked from a workflow process, the valid set of encodings is controlled by a picklist. If the business services are invoked through scripting or similar mechanisms, the character set name is supplied textually.

NOTE:  For data validation or conversion from one encoding to another, you can use the Transcode business service if needed. For details on the Transcode business service, its method and supported character sets, see Global Deployment Guide.

Transports provide connectivity to virtually any communication protocol that can represent data as text or binary messages, including MQSeries from IBM, MSMQ from Microsoft, and HTTP. EAI Transports allow Siebel eBusiness Applications to integrate with Web-based applications as well as legacy systems that are encapsulated using middleware. Transports are interchangeable. If you change technologies at any point, you can reuse existing workflow processes and logic by switching the transport adapter.

Transports can:

• Support bidirectional exchange of messages.
• Run within the Siebel Object Manager.
• Invoke and be invoked by Workflow Process Manager and EAI Dispatch Service.
• Be invoked within an eScript or VBScript.
• Send and receive messages in XML format.
• Pass messages through, or convert messages into, property sets for XML and MIME messages.

Available transports include:

• EAI MQSeries Server Transport and EAI MQSeries AMI Transport. For information on these transports, see EAI MQSeries Transports.
• EAI MSMQ Transport. For information on this transport, see EAI MSMQ Transport.
• EAI HTTP Transport. For information on this transport, see EAI HTTP Transport.
• EAI DLL Transport and EAI File Transport. For information on these transports, see EAI DLL and EAI File Transports.

NOTE:  EAI MQSeries Server/AMI Transport, EAI MSMQ Transport, and EAI File Transport business services are not re-entrant. For more information on transport re-entrance, see About the EAI MQSeries Transport Re-Entrance.

About Transport Methods

The method on a transport adapter's business service controls the action to be performed by the transport. There are two outbound methods and three inbound methods available for EAI Transports. Not every method is available on every transport.

For each method, there are a number of common parameters, as shown on Table 3, as well as transport-specific parameters that are discussed in the respective chapter for each transport.

Outbound Methods for a Transport Business Service

Available outbound methods depend on the transport business service in use, such as EAI MQSeries AMI Transport or EAI MSMQ Transport. The business service sends messages from the Siebel application using the appropriate communications protocol, such as MQSeries, MSMQ, HTTP, and so on. There are two outbound methods that you use to send requests from a Siebel application to another application:

• Send. Sends a message from a Siebel application when the Siebel application does not need a response. This is an asynchronous request method (with the exception of the EAI HTTP Transport, which expects a correct HTTP response), because the Siebel application does not need to wait for a response before continuing with the process.
• Send and Receive. Sends a message from the Siebel application when the Siebel application needs to receive a response before continuing. This is a synchronous request and response method, because it requires a response before the Siebel application can continue.

Inbound Methods for a Transport Business Service

Available inbound methods depend on the transport business service in use, such as EAI MQSeries AMI Transport or EAI MSMQ Transport. The inbound methods monitor a specified queue and upon receipt of a message, dispatch it to another service.

There are three inbound methods that can be used to receive requests from another application:

NOTE:  There are server components (called receivers) on top of the inbound methods that run as Siebel Server tasks. When running an EAI receiver such as the SAP IDOC Receiver, MQSeries Server, MQSeries AMI Receiver, or MSMQ Receiver—using the methods ReceiveDispatch or ReceiveDispatchSend—if the dispatch service has an error, the receiver shuts down. Check the Status column on the Component Tasks for details about the cause of the error.