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Understanding the Data Integration Plug-In
This guide describes the functionality and operation of the Data Integration Plug-In. The following topics are discussed:
Understanding XML Translation
Data that is sent to or received from legacy applications is often platform-specific binary data that is in the native machine representation. Binary data is not self-describing, so in order to be understood by an application, the layout of this data (metadata) must be embedded within each application that uses the binary data.
XML is becoming the standard for exchanging information between applications because XML embeds a description of the data within the data stream, thus allowing applications to share data more easily. XML is easily parsed and can represent complex data structures. As a result, the coupling of applications no longer requires metadata to be embedded within each application.
When you translate binary to XML data, you convert structured binary data to an XML document so that the data can be accessed via standard XML parsing methods. You must create the metadata used to perform the conversion. The translation process converts each field of binary data to XML according to the metadata defined for each field of data. In the metadata you specify the name of the field, the data type, the size, and whether the field is always present or optional. It is this description of the binary data that is used to translate the binary data to XML. Figure 1-1 shows a sample of XML data translation.
Figure 1-1 XML Data Translation of: Tom;Jones;1345;19;
What is Data Integration?
The data integration component of WebLogic Integration facilitates the integration of data from diverse enterprise applications by supporting data translations between binary formats from legacy systems and XML. Data integration normalizes legacy data into XML so it may be directly consumed by XML applications, transformed into a specific XML grammar, or used directly to start workflows in business process management (BPM). Data integration supports non-XML to XML translation and vice versa and is made up of three primary components:
To perform a translation, you create a description of your binary data using design-time (Format Builder) in WebLogic Integration. This involves analyzing binary data so that its record layout is accurately reflected in the metadata you create in Format Builder. You then create a description of the input data in Format Builder and save this metadata as a Message Format Language (MFL) document. WebLogic Integration includes importers that automatically create message format definitions from common sources of binary metadata, such as COBOL copybooks.
You can then use the run-time component in WebLogic Integration to translate instances of binary data to XML. Figure 1-2 shows the event flow for non-XML to XML data translation. A plug-in to BPM allows for easy access to configuring translations.
Figure 1-2 Event Flow for Non-XML to XML Translation Using Data Integration
The Design-Time Component The data integration design-time component of WebLogic Integration is a Java application called Format Builder. Format Builder is used to create descriptions of binary data records. Format Builder allows you to describe the layout and hierarchy of the binary data so that it can be translated to or from XML. The description you create in Format Builder is saved in an XML grammar called Message Format Language (MFL). MFL documents are metadata used by run-time in data integration and the plug-in to BPM to translate an instance of a binary data record to an instance of an XML document (or vice-versa). Format Builder will also create a DTD or XML Schema document that describes the XML document created from a translation. The Run-Time Component The data integration run-time component of WebLogic Integration is a Java class with various methods used to translate data between binary and XML formats. This Java class can be deployed in an EJB using WebLogic Server, invoked as a business operation from a workflow in BPM, or integrated into any Java application. The Plug-In to Business Process Management The Data Integration Plug-In for business process management (BPM) provides for an exchange of information between applications by supporting data translations between binary formats from legacy systems and XML. The Data Integration Plug-In provides BPM actions that allow you to access XML to binary and binary to XML translations. In addition to this data translation capability, the Data Integration Plug-In provides event data processing in binary format, in-memory caching of MFL documents and translation object pooling to boost performance, a BinaryData variable type to edit and display binary data, and execution within the process engine clustered environment. The following illustration describes the relationship between data integration and BPM. 
Using the Repository
The repository provides a centralized document storage mechanism that supports the following four document types:
The repository provides access to these document types and allows you to share them between data integration, business process management, and B2B integration. The repository also includes a batch import utility that allows previously constructed MFL, DTD, XSD, and XSLT documents to be easily migrated into the repository.
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