Overview

 

BEA WebLogic Portal 4.0 and BEA WebLogic Integration 2.1 provide an integration platform for e-business solutions. To help you learn how to make the best use of this functionality when you use WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration together, BEA provides the WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration Example.

This topic provides an overview of interoperation scenarios plus an introduction to the WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration Integration Example.

This topic includes the following sections:

• About the Example

• Interoperation Scenarios

  • WebLogic Portal Entry Points

  • WebLogic Integration Entry Points

  • Three Scenarios for Interoperation

  • Interoperability Scenario to Avoid

  • Asynchronous Scenario

  • Synchronous Scenario

• Overview of the WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration Example

 

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About the Example

WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration are part of the BEA E-Business Platform. Each product provides the following features:

• WebLogic Portal is a suite of services and templates that enables a company to build front-end portals, marketing campaigns, e-commerce solutions, and personalized content for Web applications.

• WebLogic Integration is a package of tools and processes that the company can use to integrate those applications with the appropriate back-end enterprise systems, to streamline complex business processes, and to establish connections to business partners.

The WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration Example demonstrates the unique functionality produced by interoperating the two products through a scenario involving an online hardware store. The Example is delivered in two parts:

• The WebLogic Portal part of the Example is delivered with WebLogic Portal 4.0 Service Pack 1.

• The WebLogic Integration part of the Example is available for downloading from the BEA Developer Center by WebLogic Integration 2.1 customers. This part of the Example is in Interoperating WebLogic Portal & WebLogic Integration at the following URL:

  http://developer.bea.com/code/wli.jsp

 

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Interoperation Scenarios

This section describes three scenarios for WebLogic Integration and WebLogic Portal interoperation. Interoperation is carried out through various entry points in WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration. These entry points allow you to create true process-level communication and data flow between Web applications and enterprise systems.

WebLogic Portal Entry Points

WebLogic Portal has the following integration points available for communication with other systems:

• Portlets - Portlets are applications that exist within a portal. JSP-based portlets can be built to integrate with enterprise systems.

• Unified User Profile (UUP) - The UUP in WebLogic Portal can integrate with any external system. The UUP Application Program Interface (API) can also be used by external systems to change, read, update, and delete data contained in the UUP.

• Webflow and Pipelines - The Webflow functionality in WebLogic Portal manages the flow of business logic and site presentation. Webflow contains discrete units of business logic called Pipeline Components, which execute narrowly focused processes. The Webflow/Pipeline Editor in the E-Business Control Center can be used to create XML-based Pipeline Components for integration to any enterprise systems.

WebLogic Integration Entry Points

WebLogic Integration has the following entry points available for communication with other systems:

• Application integration (AI) - A system can call a J2EE Connection Architecture (J2EE CA) adapter directly using the AI entry point of WebLogic Integration. Typically, you use this for synchronous communication.

• Business-to-business integration (B2Bi) - A system can directly invoke business-to-business integration through a message API. This provides developers a way to write custom applications that communicate with a full instance of WebLogic Integration. B2Bi also provides a JavaServer Pages (JSP) tag library for building thin-client interfaces that can communicate with a hosted B2Bi enabler.

• WebLogic Integration process engine - A system can invoke the WebLogic Integration process engine synchronously using calls to a native API or asynchronously using JMS. These calls receive and send data, start processes, execute user-assigned tasks, and pass XML data among enterprise systems.

Three Scenarios for Interoperation

Figure 1-1 shows three scenarios for the interoperation of WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration.

Figure 1-1 Three Scenarios for Integrating WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration

 

The three scenarios shown in Figure 1-1 leverage the entry points of WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration, as follows:

• The B2Bi-enabled portlet is built using the WebLogic Integration JSP tag libraries and allows a user to interact with a WebLogic Integration work list from within the context of an enterprise portal.

  For example, you could create an online marketplace that provides a unified business portal for use by all the supplier partners that access a market hub. WebLogic Portal would provide an interface through a portlet and the B2Bi JSP tag library would provide the functionality.

• The synchronous approach, shows a WebLogic Portal Pipeline Component that directly communicates using XML with a J2EE CA application integration component of WebLogic Integration.

  Typically, synchronous communication is used for bi-directional, lightweight, short-lived transactions between WebLogic Portal and one other enterprise system. Examples include: order status reports, sales forecast inquiries, and package delivery tracking.

• The asynchronous approach shows a WebLogic Portal Pipeline Component generating an XML message. This message is then passed asynchronously to the WebLogic Integration Event Processor for entry into a WebLogic Integration workflow.

  Typically, an asynchronous connection is used to transact more complex interactions between WebLogic Portal and multiple enterprise systems. Some examples include: routing an order through a multistage approval and notification process, automating an employee new-hire workflow, and pushing package delivery information from the consumer origination point through inventory and on to fulfillment.

Interoperability Scenario to Avoid

This section discusses a configuration of interoperation that is not advised and not supported.

A distributed transaction is a transaction that updates multiple resource managers, such as databases, in a coordinated manner. In WebLogic Portal, the Java Transaction API (JTA) orchestrates a two-phase commit when such a distributed transaction completes. The two-phase commit ensures that all the participants in the transaction commit their updates simultaneously. JTA coordinates this commit with databases that are updated using Open Group's XA protocol. WebLogic Integration 2.1 supports Open Group's XA transaction protocol but WebLogic Portal 4.0 does not. Therefore, it is not advised to include WebLogic Portal business objects in distributed XA transactions. However, if you require this configuration, professional services may be able to help you.

Asynchronous Scenario

Figure 1-2 shows the suggested asynchronous, round-trip integration between WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration.

Figure 1-2 Asynchronous Round-Trip Integration

 

Step 1: A commerce order originates in WebLogic Portal's Webflow. A Pipeline Component in that Webflow transforms the order into an XML representation and drops it into a JMS queue in WebLogic Integration.

Step 2: The WebLogic Integration Event Processor listens for XML messages on an internal JMS queue. After receiving the order message, it passes the order message to the appropriate message-driven bean for processing and then on to WebLogic Integration process engine for participation in a workflow.

Step 3: The WebLogic Integration process engine moves the order along a workflow.

Step 4: Once the workflow execution has completed, WebLogic Integration process engine drops an order receipt back on to a JMS queue.

Step 5: A WebLogic Portal-built listener receives the order receipt and updates the WebLogic Portal order message with the new information and also increments a custom frequent-buyer property in the UUP for use in later personalization scenarios.

The WebLogic Portal product provides a sample Pipeline Component the creates an XML message and places it on a JMS queue. This sample is discussed fully in the WebLogic Portal Interoperability Sample.

Synchronous Scenario

Because of performance issues, you generally use this method for simple data requests that do not have the possibility of timing out the run-time application. To set up synchronous communication, you need to create a Pipeline Component that communicates directly with WebLogic Integration by invoking an API. WebLogic Integration provides a way to connect enterprise systems to an application server through adaptors you can build. The following documents provide the necessary information:

• To create a Pipeline Component, see Creating a New Pipeline Component in Guide to Managing Presentation and Business Logic: Using Webflow and Pipeline.

• For information on using WebLogic Integration, see the WebLogic Integration documentation at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13214_01/wlintegration/v2_1/index.htm.

• For information on building adaptors, see Introducing Application Integration in the WebLogic Integration Application Integration documentation.

 

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Overview of the WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration Example

The WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Integration Example demonstrates asynchronous communication. It consist of two parts: the WebLogic Portal sample, which is included with the WebLogic Portal product, and the WebLogic Integration sample, which can be downloaded from the BEA Developer Center at http://developer.bea.com/code/wli.jsp.

The example shows how a purchase order generated in WebLogic Portal can be used in business processes. In the Example, a sample Pipeline Component in the WebLogic Portal commerce application (wlcsApp) converts a purchase order to an XML representation and then places the order representation on a Java Message Service (JMS) queue in WebLogic Integration. The business process management (BPM) component of WebLogic Integration then processes the order. The WebLogic Portal part of the Example demonstrates a catalog and a set of campaigns for an online hardware store. The goal is to enable a user to browse through the online catalog and request a product for purchase.

The following figure shows the process flow for the Example.

Figure 1-3 Process Flow of the Integration Example

 

When a customer submits a request, a purchase order is generated in WebLogic Portal. A WebLogic Portal Pipeline Component called ConvertOrderRepPC converts the order to a JMS XML message and sends it to a JMS queue (com.bea.wlpi.EventQueue) to which a BPM workflow is subscribed. Subsequently, the BPM event listener retrieves the message from the JMS queue and processes the message. The message either starts a workflow or triggers a workflow event listened to by a running workflow instance. The WebLogic Integration part of the Example retrieves the XML message from the JMS queue and forwards the data to a database, using the sample DBMS adapter provided by WebLogic Integration for use with its application integration component.

The XML message is used as the input document to the workflow. The workflow responds with two actions:

• It parses the XML message using XPath and passes all the input data to the application integration service.

• It calls an application integration service that is defined when the user deploys an application view for the DBMS adapter.

The application view service updates the database by updating two tables created by the user: WLI_ORDER and WLI_ORDER_LINES. Both tables reside in the WebLogic Integration repository.