What’s New in Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3

The following sections describe new and changed functionality in Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3.

Major New Features in Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3

Product Rebranding

Product rebranding from AquaLogic Enterprise Repository to Oracle Enterprise Repository has been performed in the Oracle Enterprise Repository product and documentation.

In addition, the new Oracle names for former BEA products are used in the Oracle Enterprise Repository documentation.

Enhanced My Stuff Page

The My Stuff page in Oracle Enterprise Repository has been enhanced to not only be consistent with the rest of the application, but also to accommodate an increased number of assets and projects by presenting them in an improved, scalable user interface.

The enhanced My Stuff page has queues that allow you to easily view the assets you are assigned to. These queues previously existed only in the Asset Editor.

Harvester

The Harvester integrates Oracle SOA Suite artifacts to Oracle Enterprise Repository to support visibility, impact analysis, and reusability use cases.

Users can use the Harvester command line utility (introspect.bat) to submit artifacts to Oracle Enterprise Repository or they can integrate the Harvester with Oracle JDeveloper, which enables them to use Oracle JDeveloper to submit projects or files to Oracle Enterprise Repository. For more information, see the Oracle Enterprise Repository Harvester User Guide.

Enhanced Use/Download Feature

The Use/Download feature allows users to use (download) assets, which updates metrics that are kept in Oracle Enterprise Repository to measure reuse of assets and allows users to retrieve content (for example, a WSDL associated with an Interface asset). In previous releases, Oracle Enterprise Repository supported only the downloading of FileInfo objects directly associated with assets, so users would (either via REX calls or the Asset Editor) attach FileInfos defining the location and metadata of the files which Oracle Enterprise Repository provides in the Use/Download feature.

For this release, the Use/Download feature has been enhanced so that it is aware of the asset model that the Oracle Enterprise Repository Harvester client uses. Thus, the additional feature of downloading artifact bundles for some assets is provided as well as single files manually attached to the assets. For assets which were created as a result of an Oracle Enterprise Repository harvesting and that represent Business Processes, Interfaces, or Endpoints, you are prompted to download a zip file which contains the collateral payload of artifacts. In the case of an Endpoint, this would be a WSDL file and its associated XSD files in relative locations within the zip payload.

PartnerLink Relationship Included with SOA/BPM Suite Solution Pack

In previous releases, the BPEL Solution Pack provided the PartnerLink relationship.

In Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3, the PartnerLink relationship is provided with the SOA/BPM Suite Solution Pack.

Use Workflows to Invoke the Exchange Utility

With this release, you can use workflows to invoke the Oracle Registry Repository Exchange Utility, which automates the synchronization of Oracle Enterprise Repository and Oracle Service Registry.

There are three new workflows that you can use to automate the synchronization of Oracle Enterprise Repository and Oracle Service Registry:

autoSyncAlerToUddi

This timer based workflow moves services from Oracle Enterprise Repository to Oracle Service Registry. The timer is configured to wake up based on the timerInterval settings in the workflow.xml file.

autoSyncUddiToAler

This timer based workflow moves services from Oracle Service Registry to Oracle Enterprise Repository. The timer is configured to wake up based on the timerInterval settings in the workflow.xml file.

PublishAssetToUddi

This event based workflow moves individual services and their metadata to Oracle Service Registry. The workflow wires the service to an event trigger, so that the service is moved when the service is registered or its lifecycle is changed.

Performing Container Managed Authentication

The Container Managed Setup and Configuration Guide now includes a section that describes how to configure Oracle Enterprise Repository to connect it with WebLogic Server’s security container for container managed authentication.

Support for Eclipse 3.3 and 3.3.2

Support to Modify Out-of-the-box Workflows

Oracle Enteprise Repository customers have the right to use Oracle Business Process Management with Oracle Enteprise Repository to modify and add Oracle Enterprise Repository-centric workflows without charge.

This modification provides a restricted use license to utilize Oracle Business Process Management in its entirety (not only the standalone runtime engine) to modify existing workflows that are supplied with Oracle Enterprise Repository and implement new repository-centric workflows.

Oracle Enterprise Repository includes a restricted use license of Oracle Business Process Management. Your use of Oracle Business Process Management under the restricted use license terms is limited to extending Oracle Enterprise Repository-supplied workflows, and creating new workflows that implement and execute logic to govern Oracle Enterprise Repository content. It is recommended to avoid the use of OBPM product as standalone, or any other use that is not in connection with Oracle Enterprise Repository. All other aspects of your use of Oracle Business Process Management are governed by your Oracle license agreement, or the end user license agreement presented during Oracle Business Process Management installation.

Deprecated Features

Beginning with this release, the Professional Edition and Advanced Edition licenses that were available in previous releases of this product are discontinued.
The Core Engine is no longer supported, and it has been removed from the installer.
The Jive Forum has been discontinued.
The following list explains AquaLogic Data Service Platform support for Eclipse, and Oracle Enterprise Repository support for Eclipse and AquaLogic Data Service Platform:

AquaLogic Data Service Platform 2.5 and 3.0 support Eclipse 3.2 and earlier.
AquaLogic Data Service Platform 2.5 and 3.0 do not support Eclipse 3.3.
Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3 does not support AquaLogic Data Service Platform 2.5 and 3.0.

Pre-Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3 WSDL and BPEL introspection will be deprecated in the next release. All new and existing customers (when feasible) should use the Oracle Enteprise Repository 10gR3 Harvester.
The Oracle Enterprise Repository application’s UDDI interface functionality and interactive UDDI browse and import functions will be deprecated in the next release. Oracle Service Registry serves as the UDDI interface to Oracle Enterprise Repository, and the Exchange Utility ensures that assets are imported from Oracle Service Registry.

Use Cases Supported and Constraints Defined

Table 1-1 describes the use cases supported and the constraints defined for each use case for the Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3 users.

SL. No	Use Cases Supported	Constraints Defined
1.	New Oracle Enterprise Repository Users	It is necessary to use only the new introspector. Avoid the use of the legacy WSDL introspector that can be launched from the Admin tab on the Asset Editor. The legacy WSDL introspector is being deprecated in this release and should only be used if you were an ALER customer and will continue to use the legacy introspector throughout your 10.3 deployment. Avoid the use of legacy UDDI importer (executed via Admin Tab). Avoid the use of legacy BPEL introspector. It is necessary to use the new XU (Exchange Utility) provided with the 10.3 installation. Avoid the use of samples included in 10.3 with XU to publish to Oracle Service Registry. It is recommended to introspect a new WSDL from scratch and then publish to Oracle Service Registry.
2.	AquaLogic Enterprise Repository 3.x and 2.x Users, All Flashline Users - who want to upgrade to Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3	The upgrade is supported, if you have never introspected WSDL into the ALER instance (or) you are willing to reintrospect all your WSDL and BPEL files (and) It is necessary to follow constraints documented in #1 above.
3.	AquaLogic Enterprise Repository 3.x and 2.x Users and All Flashline Users - who want to retain their introspected assets	It is necessary to continue using the legacy WSDL and BPEL introspectors. It is necessary to retain a copy of the XU from ALER 3.x and continue to use the 3.x XU to publish to OSR.
4.	AquaLogic Service Bus 3.x Users - who want to upgrade to Oracle Enterprise Repository 10.3	It is necessary to note that the AquaLogic Service Bus 3.x customers need not upgrade unless there is a specific functionality in 10.3 (BPEL introspection) that they want to utilize. Note that this use case is supported with the same restrictions as mentioned in #1. Note that this use case has the following model limitation that will not align services submitted via AquaLogic Service Bus/Oracle Service Bus and services introspected via BPEL PM.

Standards Support

For Asset harvesting and import of SOA artifacts:

WSDL v1.1
Harvesting services from UDDI v2 or v3 servers, including Oracle Service Registry 3.0, Oracle Service Registry v2.1 (supports UDDI v3), and others
SOAP v1.1
SOAP v1.2
BPEL 1.1
XSD 1.0
XSLT 1.0

FTP for accessing files on an FTP server
HTTP/HTTPS for accessing files on a HTTP server
Apache Ant Version 1.6.2 and higher for Ant Harvesting and any other use of Ant.

Release Notes