Configuring Collaboration Agreements

 

Collaboration agreements are the instrument business-to-business e-commerce companies use to establish and manage automated transactions among business partners. Within WebLogic Collaborate, these key agreements take the form of collaboration agreements between trading partners. Using collaboration agreements, trading partners agree on the interactions or business conversations between them. For more information, see Introducing BEA WebLogic Collaborate.

This topic includes the following sections:

• Creating a Collaboration Agreement

• Modifying a Collaboration Agreement

• Removing a Collaboration Agreement

• Configuring Collaboration Agreement Parties

• Modifying a Party to a Collaboration Agreement

• Removing a Party to a Collaboration Agreement

 

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Creating a Collaboration Agreement

To create a collaboration agreement:

1. Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreement page.

2. Click the Create a new Collaboration Agreement link at the top of the right pane in the administration console. The General tab appears.

3. Enter data in the available fields as described in the following table.

   Table 5-1 Collaboration Agreement Fields

   Field	Description
   Collaboration Agreement Name	A name for your collaboration agreement.
   Version	A version number, for example, 2.0.
   Description	A short description.
   Conversation Definition	Select, from the drop-down list, the conversation definition to which the collaboration agreement applies.

   
    

4. Click Create. The Collaboration Agreements General tab appears.

Once you create a new collaboration agreement, the new instance is displayed in the list of existing collaboration agreements. You can use your new collaboration agreement to define the parties. For more information, see Configuring Collaboration Agreement Parties.

Modifying a Collaboration Agreement

The procedure for modifying an existing collaboration agreement is similar to the one for creating a new collaboration agreement. For more information, see Creating a Collaboration Agreement.

To modify an existing collaboration agreement:

1. Do one of the following:

   • Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreements page, then locate and click the appropriate collaboration agreements desired.

   • Click a collaboration agreement listed in the navigation tree. (This option is only available if the option Display entities on the navigation tree is checked on the WebLogic Collaborate Preferences tab as described in Displaying Items in the Navigation Tree.)

     The Configurations tabs are displayed containing the values for the collaboration agreement you selected.

2. Select the Configuration tab, and then the General tab if it is not active.

3. Modify the values on the General tab as desired. For more information, see Creating a Collaboration Agreement.

4. When you complete your changes, click Apply.

You can now modify other elements of the collaboration agreement in the Parties tab. For more information about configuring parties, see Configuring Collaboration Agreement Parties.

For information about monitoring a collaboration agreement, see Monitoring a Collaboration Agreement.

Removing a Collaboration Agreement

If a collaboration agreement is no longer valid, you can remove it from WebLogic Collaborate and the repository.

To remove an existing collaboration agreement:

1. Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreement page.

2. Select the check box next to the collaboration agreement(s) you want to delete.

3. At the bottom of the window, click Remove.

For information about monitoring a collaboration agreement, see Monitoring a Collaboration Agreement.

Table 5-2 Collaboration Agreement Parties Fields

Field		Description
Trading Partner		A business entity that is authorized to send and receive business messages in a conversation. A trading partner configuration includes multiple delivery channels.
	Name	Enter a trading partner name, or click Browse to select an existing trading partner.
	Party ID	From the drop-down list, select an available party ID for the selected trading partner. You can associate only one party ID per trading partner.
	Delivery Channel	From the drop-down list, select a delivery channel for the selected trading partner. You can designate one delivery channel per service binding.
Conversation Definition		A conversation definition is a series of message exchanges between trading partners.
	Name	Read-only field showing business collaboration selected on the collaboration agreement General tab.
	Version	Read-only field showing version of business conversation as defined on the business conversations tabs.
	Role	From the drop-down list, select the required role. For more information, see Creating a Collaboration Agreement.
Enable and Register this Collaboration Agreement		Registering a collaboration agreement makes it immediately available to the other trading partners that need to start a business process using this agreement. Enabling a collaboration agreement means that the next time WebLogic Collaborate is restarted, it will find the collaboration agreement and register it for you.
Available Parties		Lists all previously defined parties for this collaboration agreement. When you select a party in the list box, the rest of the fields on this tab are propagated with the information for that party.

 

 

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Configuring Collaboration Agreement Parties

The conversation definition defines two or more roles to be used by trading partners in a conversation. A party in a collaboration agreement binds a role from the conversation definition to a trading partner. For more information, see Introducing BEA WebLogic Collaborate.

To create a collaboration agreement party:

1. Do one of the following:

   • Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreements page, then locate and click the appropriate collaboration agreements desired.

   • Click a collaboration agreement listed in the navigation tree. (This option is only available if the option Display entities on the navigation tree is checked on the WebLogic Collaborate Preferences tab as described in Displaying Items in the Navigation Tree.)

     The Configurations tabs are displayed containing the values for the collaboration agreement you selected.

     To create a new collaboration agreement, see Creating a Collaboration Agreement.

2. Select the Configuration tab, and then the Parties tab if it is not active.

3. Enter data as required in the fields shown in the following table.

   Table 5-3 Collaboration Agreement Parties Fields

   Field		Description
   Trading Partner		A business entity that is authorized to send and receive business messages in a conversation. A trading partner configuration includes multiple delivery channels.
   	Name	Enter a trading partner name, or click Browse to select an existing trading partner.
   	Party ID	From the drop-down list, select an available party ID for the selected trading partner. You can associate only one party ID per trading partner.
   	Delivery Channel	From the drop-down list, select a delivery channel for the selected trading partner. You can designate one delivery channel per service binding.
   Conversation Definition		A conversation definition is a series of message exchanges between trading partners.
   	Name	Read-only field showing business collaboration selected on the collaboration agreement General tab.
   	Version	Read-only field showing version of business conversation as defined on the business conversations tabs.
   	Role	From the drop-down list, select the required role. For more information, see Creating a Collaboration Agreement.
   Enable and register this Collaboration Agreement		Registering a collaboration agreement makes it immediately available to the other trading partners that need to start a business process using this agreement. Enabling a collaboration agreement means that the next time WebLogic Collaborate is restarted, it will find the collaboration agreement and register it for you.
   Available Parties		Lists all previously defined parties for this collaboration agreement. When you select a party in the list box, the rest of the fields on this tab are propagated with the information for that party.

   
    

4. Click Add/Apply. The Collaboration Agreements General tab appears.

Modifying a Party to a Collaboration Agreement

To modify an existing collaboration agreement:

1. Do one of the following:

   • Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreements page, then locate and click the appropriate collaboration agreements desired.

   • Click a collaboration agreement listed in the navigation tree. (This option is only available if the option Display entities on the navigation tree is checked on the WebLogic Collaborate Preferences tab as described in Displaying Items in the Navigation Tree.)

     The Configurations tabs are displayed containing the values for the collaboration agreement you selected.

2. Select the Configuration tab, and then the Parties tab if it is not active.

3. In the Chosen Parties list box, select the party you want to modify.

4. Modify the values on the Parties tab to those desired.

   For more information, see Configuring Collaboration Agreement Parties.

5. When you complete your changes, click Apply to save your changes.

Removing a Party to a Collaboration Agreement

To remove an existing collaboration agreement party from your WebLogic Collaborate repository:

1. Do one of the following:

   • Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreements page, then locate and click the appropriate collaboration agreements desired.

   • Click a collaboration agreement listed in the navigation tree. (This option is only available if the option Display entities on the navigation tree is checked on the WebLogic Collaborate Preferences tab as described in Displaying Items in the Navigation Tree.)

     The Configurations tabs are displayed containing the values for the collaboration agreement you selected.

2. Select the Configuration tab, and then the Parties tab if it is not active.

3. In the Chosen Parties list box, select the party you want to delete.

4. At the bottom of the window, click Remove.

Registering a Collaboration Agreement

Registering a collaboration agreement makes it immediately available to the repository and other entities using a servlet. Enabling a collaboration agreement means that the next time WebLogic Collaborate is restarted, it will find the collaboration agreement and register it for you. You must add a party before you can register the collaboration agreement.

To register a collaboration agreement:

1. Do one of the following:

   • Click Collaboration Agreements in the navigation tree to display the Collaboration Agreements page, then locate and click the appropriate collaboration agreements desired.

   • Click a collaboration agreement listed in the navigation tree. (This option is only available if the option Display entities on the navigation tree is checked on the WebLogic Collaborate Preferences tab as described in Displaying Items in the Navigation Tree.)

     The Configurations tabs are displayed containing the values for the collaboration agreement you selected.

2. Select the Configuration tab, and then the Parties tab if it is not active.

3. Click the check box for Enable and register this Collaboration Agreement.

4. Click Add/Apply.