WebLogic Integration Release Notes

This document provides release note information on the WebLogic Integration 9.2 release. This section includes the following topics:

Introduction

BEA WebLogic® Integration is a unified solution for integrating business systems within an enterprise. WebLogic Integration provides a development and run-time framework that unifies the components of business integration into a single flexible environment. The components include business process management, data transformation, trading partner integration, connectivity, message brokering, application monitoring, and user interaction.

WebLogic Integration combines divergent components of the business integration picture, including ERP, CRM, legacy applications, business users, supply chains, and trading partners. It enables IT operations to meet business goals by delivering process-centric composite applications quickly and efficiently.

What’s New in BEA WebLogic Integration 9.2

WebLogic Integration 9.2 supports an Eclipse-based development environment, Apache Beehive integration controls, Java 5-compliant annotations, and a new Worklist subsystem. In addition to automated upgrade tools for applications from WebLogic Integration 8.1 SP4, SP5 and SP6, or 8.5 (including SP5 and SP6), WebLogic Integration 9.2 leverages the power of WebLogic Server 9.2, providing improved security, manageability, performance, scalability and availability.

Eclipse-Based Development Environment

The BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform 9.2 product family and WebLogic Portal 9.2 provide an Eclipse-based development environment. WebLogic Integration 9.2 adds the design capabilities of Process and Task Plan (Worklist) to the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment), delivering a unified and extensible IDE that helps developers build standards-based, enterprise-class process applications.

For information about the Workshop for WebLogic Platform 9.2 and WebLogic Portal 9.2, see the product documentation at the following URLs:

Standards Support

Components and applications you build with WebLogic Integration 9.2 are based on standard technologies such as Apache Beehive, Java 5 annotations, BPEL (import and export) and the XQuery 2004-compliant XQuery Mapper and engine.

Apache Beehive Controls

Controls are now based on the Beehive controls framework—a lightweight component framework based on annotated JavaBeans. For information about the Apache Beehive Open Source Project, see http://beehive.apache.org/.

Java 5 Annotations for Declarative Process Development

WebLogic Integration 9.2 provides support for Java 5-compliant annotations. This facility allows users to employ a declarative programming style in which the programmer annotates the process and the tool automatically generates the necessary Java code. BEA continues to provide tool support to keep the use of annotations simple—WebLogic Integration 9.2 includes a process annotation editor, in addition to the process property editor.

BPEL Import and Export

Upgraded XQuery Mapper and Engine

New Worklist Subsystem

WebLogic Integration 9.2 includes a new Worklist subsystem for integrating people into processes. The key areas of new functionality include a new metadata definition of multi-step tasks called a Task Plan, a new design editor for Task Plans in Eclipse and the Worklist User Portal.

Task Plan as Metadata Definition of Multi-Step Tasks

Form-Driven Testing in Worklist User Portal

Graphical Design Environment in IDE

Task Portlets

Dynamic E-mail Notification

Automated Task Balancing

Upgrade Tools for Applications Created in WebLogic Integration 8.1 or 8.5

You can upgrade many of your application artifacts from WebLogic Integration 8.1 SP4, SP5 and SP6, or 8.5 (including SP5 and SP6), to WebLogic Integration 9.2 automatically.

WebLogic Integration 9.2 provides a source upgrade tool that handles operations such as upgrading the application to the Eclipse-based project structure and converting the WebLogic Integration 8.x style Java annotations into Java 5-compliant annotations. You can also convert XQuery 2002 to XQuery 2004.

Deprecated Items

Following is a list of items that have been deprecated in 9.2. They will not be supported and will be removed in the next major release of WebLogic Integration. It is recommended that you follow the alternatives, where mentioned, to avoid conflicts in design of your process applications in the future.

Application Integration — All components of Application Integration are deprecated.
Using JPD as a Web Service — It is recommended you use Java Web Services as an interface with the JPD.
Service Broker Control — This control is designed to support backward compatibility. Its use is recommended only when communicating with WebLogic Integration 8.x JPDs.
Worklist APIs — Most of the 8.x Worklist API are no longer supported and have been replaced by their 9.2 variants.

Platform Support and System Requirements

This section describes the platforms on which WebLogic Integration 9.2 is supported and other system requirements. It includes the following topics:

Prerequisites

Install WebLogic Integration 9.2, apply the required patches, and create a WebLogic Integration domain as described in Installation and Required Patches.

Operating Systems

Databases and Database Drivers

Upgrading Applications

Ensuring That the Upgrade Wizard Has Enough Memory

Before using the import wizard to upgrade applications, consider temporarily increasing the maximum amount of memory that the Java Virtual Machine allows to Workshop for WebLogic. The upgrade process requires a compilation step that potentially includes a large number of files. The recommended maximum memory is 1 GB.

You can increase maximum memory in the following way: Before starting the IDE, edit the workshop4WP.ini file to replace the -Xmx value with a sufficiently high memory maximum. By default, the workshop4WP.ini file is located at: BEA_HOME\workshop92\workshop4WP\workshop4WP.ini.

For example, you can consider changing the setting from -Xmx768m (the default) to -Xmx1G (to set it to 1 GB). After you finish using the upgrade tools, set the memory maximum back to a level that is appropriate for development.

Installation and Required Patches

Complete the following steps to install and configure the WebLogic Integration 9.2 software:

Install the WebLogic Integration 9.2 Software

Install the software using either graphical mode, console mode, or silent mode. The installation program prompts you to enter specific information about your system and configuration. See the following URL for information about installing BEA Products:

Install the Required Patches

After completing the installation of WebLogic Integration, you have the option to allow the installer to apply patches to WebLogic Server, Workshop, and WebLogic Portal (if present), required for development with WebLogic Integration. If you cleared the Apply Patches check box, and opted to apply them yourself, you can use Smart Update to apply the patches.

The automatic process of applying patches may fail due to machine or general software failure or patch-related errors: in these cases also, you can use Smart Update to apply patches manually. If you are unable to apply the patches using Smart Update, contact BEA support.

After logging in, you can access public and optional patches. When you complete downloading and applying the patches, you will find them under BEA_HOME\utils\bsu\cache_dir.

You must install the patches listed in Table 1-1 to your WebLogic Integration installation using the Smart Update tool.

If your WebLogic Integration installation does not include WebLogic Portal and Workshop, the WebLogic Portal and Workshop patches are not applicable to your installation.

Table 1-1 Required Patches for WebLogic Integration
Patch ID	Passcode	Products
6MK8	7Y7F86FU	WebLogic Server 9.2
A13Q	A4KAV4WX	WebLogic Server 9.2
93HW	5V6IUZKU	WebLogic Server 9.2
6L1H	SLHPWYVJ	WebLogic Server 9.2
W17P	VQHMZ67A	WebLogic Server 9.2
BINS	J3K3II9X	WebLogic Server 9.2
KDQ7	5V4J5JJI	WebLogic Server 9.2
76ES	8UMFE4XG	WebLogic Server 9.2
XE28	QFCU24WG	WebLogic Server 9.2
JZY3	RN1HN5ZL	WebLogic Server 9.2
NSX5	8RUJSA94	WebLogic Server 9.2
YWJE	7P3F6IKV	WebLogic Server 9.2
SWV7	ZMYXA2M2	WebLogic Server 9.2
XM28	QT4XQ8JK	WebLogic Server 9.2
EJQL	FQUQNFW4	WebLogic Portal 9.2
9Z62	K2N7U4DP	WebLogic Server 9.2
T4CP	BM1MJ5BQ	WebLogic Server 9.2
P816	JGGWL8BK	BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform 9.2
S35L	PKQ6X6B2	BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform 9.2
81H9	T9P2NPG3	BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform 9.2
C8KW	H4828P67	BEA Workshop for WebLogic Platform 9.2
82WQ	JE6Z2EPM	WebLogic Server 9.2
KKQT	7X38HKMX	WebLogic Server 9.2
47D5	89QCIL88	WebLogic Server 9.2
5LT3	748HL4I7	WebLogic Server 9.2

Tutorials

To get hands-on experience with WebLogic Integration 9.2, we recommend that you try out the following tutorials listed in this section. To gain experience with WebLogic Integration 9.2, work through one or more of the tutorials listed below:

The content for each of these tutorials is described in the following sections. In addition, try out the Workshop for WebLogic Platform tutorials that are available at the following URL:

Upgrade a WebLogic Integration 8.1 Application Source to 9.2 Environment

This tutorial describes how to use the automated upgrade tools available in WebLogic Integration 9.2. The upgrade wizard scans your application, and alerts you of possible problems by displaying error and warning messages. During the upgrade process, it automatically converts your 8.1 application into the new Eclipse-based project structure and upgrades the 8.1-style annotations into the new Java 5-compliant annotations. The upgrade tool maintains a running log of status and messages, which are displayed in the IDE. The tutorial is available at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13214_01/wli/docs92/upgradetutorial/index.html.

Build a New Worklist Application

This tutorial shows you how to define a Loan Approval process using the new WebLogic Integration 9.2 Worklist subsystem. You learn how to define a task plan including task steps, actions in each step, authorized users for each step, task due date and other task attributes and properties. You will also learn how to create a task instance and test the entire task plan using a system generated portal view.

Set up the WebLogic Integration 9.2 Worklist environment.
Create a task plan.
Test the loan processing approval system using the Worklist user portal.
Manage loan processing task instances using the Worklist Console.
Create task instances using a JPD.
Accept or reject a loan using a JPD.
Develop custom business-specific user interface elements and integrate them into the user portal.

Build Your First Business Process (non-Worklist) Application

This tutorial guides you through creating and testing a new business process (JPD) using the new Eclipse-based design environment available in BEA Workshop and WebLogic Integration 9.2.

Design communication nodes in a business process—in other words, create the interface between your business process and its clients and resources. Clients of business processes can be any other resources or services that invoke business processes to perform one or more operations.
Design the interactions with clients, including creating the methods that expose your business process's functionality.
Design the interactions with resources using controls. WebLogic Platform controls make it easy to access enterprise resources, such as databases, Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs), Web services, and other business processes from within your application.
Handle XML, non-XML, and Java data types in the business process—includes working with XML schemas and transforming data between disparate data types using the Transformation tool.
Design business processes to publish and subscribe to message broker channels.

9.2 Release Notes