test

Sun B2B Suite eXchange Integrator User's Guide

Modeling Elements

The eXchange Protocol Designer is where the user creates the Business Process flow. It provides a palette of modeling elements for designing your Business Process . Like other logical components in a project, BPs appear in the Project Explorer tree.

Elements from the Enterprise Explorer can either be dropped onto empty canvas or onto an Activity. Many elements provide custom settings so that you can model every detail of your process. Each Business Process you create consists of basic elements as described in the following sections:

Activity Elements

Adding an Activity

You can include several different kinds of activities and subprocesses in a Business Process.

ProcedureTo add an activity

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Drag a modeling element from the toolbar and drop it on the canvas.

    • Drag a web service operation from the Project Explorer and drop it on the canvas.

  2. Click the default activity name and type a new name.

    The activity appears on the modeling canvas.

    Note –

    Every activity name must contain at least one character (A-Z, a-z, or 0-9); it must start with a letter or an underscore (_), and it may contain spaces.

Activity Elements

You can include several different kinds of activities and subprocesses in a BP. For examples of each of the different kinds of activities, see Table 6–1.

Linking Modeling Elements

eXchange Integrator supports orthogonal and diagonal link styles. This setting applies to all links in a model and is an automated application of the style.

ProcedureTo link modeling elements

  1. Move your cursor over the connector portion of your modeling element.

  2. Hold the cursor over the outside edge of the modeling element until it changes from the arrow pointer to a hand.

    See Figure 6–2.

    Figure 6–2 Selected Activity

    Selected Activity

  3. Click down, and drag a line from the first activity to the connector of the second activity.

  4. When the link attaches, release the mouse button.

Activity Elements

Table 6–1 Activity Elements

Button 

Command 

Function 

Start node image

Start Node 

The Start Node is a modeling element indicating the start of the process. This element appears in the eXchange Protocol Designer by default, when you create a new BP. 

A Start Node can only link to an activity that has a receive or read capability, signaled by a subicon in the upper left resembling an opened envelope (see Receive Activity just below). 

Link node image

Link with business rule

Link 

Link with Business Rule 

Links indicate the flow of the BP by connecting elements together. When you select a link, a context menu allows you to configure how data is going to be passed to and from the underlying component or web service operation using BP attributes. 

eXchange Integrator ensures the model is being properly linked because it does not allow invalid links to connect. Links can also accept mapped values. A link with mapped values is highlighted in blue. 

End node image

End Node 

The End modeling element indicates the completed state of a BP. This element appears in the Business Process Designer by default, when you create a new BP. 
Receive activity

Receive Activity 

The Receive activity indicates the invocation of a BP or a wait state pending the arrival of an inbound message. 

The Receive activity represents the actual method by which a BP is initiated. For example: 

  • An eWay polls a file system or database and retrieves data that is passed to the engine, along with the indication that a BP instance has started.

  • A user types a URL into a browser and a servlet initiates a BP by sending a message to eGate or eInsight.

Invoke activity

Activity 

An activity is a step in the BP in which the engine will invoke a web service operation or an eGate component. Depending upon the configuration of the component, a response may or may not be required. One example would be a synchronous extraction process from a database to return the credit status of a trading partner. 

Reply activity

Reply Activity 

The Reply activity allows a BP to respond to the external system or user that originally invoked the BP. The original receive at the beginning of the BP is paired with the Reply at the end of the process. In cases where a message must be sent back to the caller of the BP, the Reply uses information that correlates the message in the calling system. 

A Reply acts as the last step in a BP in which the BP is acting as a web service operation or subprocess. A Reply correlates the outbound message back to the calling process; for example, it can reply to an external system as a web service operation. 

Business rule activity

Business Rule Activity 

The Business Rule activity sets data values, including task assignments. It is used when imported models have multiple data mappings between the invocation of human tasks or automated systems. 

Compensate element

Compensate 

The Compensate element invokes compensation on an inner scope that has already completed normally. This construct can be invoked only from within a fault handler or another compensation handler. 

Empty activity

Empty Activity 

The Empty activity allows data to pass through without any changes. 

Wait activity

Wait Activity 

The Wait activity acts as a timer. The user will build a model in which there are two simultaneous paths within a set scope, one for the BP and one for the timer. If the timer condition takes place first, an exception will be thrown and handled, and the BP path will then be abandoned. 

User activity

User Activity 

The User activity is used only by eInsight, and should not be placed on a canvas unless your site is licensed for eInsight was well as eXchange Integrator. It is used when assigning, escalating, or otherwise using human intervention to complete eInsight business process tasks. 

Branching Activities

Table 6–2 Branching Activities

Decisionactivity

Decision 

A Decision allows one of several possible paths to execute, based on expression logic. This element is used to create complex expressions that determine the path of the Business Process . It also contains the expression and connection names. 

Decisions allow you to define expressions that are evaluated to determine the proper Business Process flow. Expressions are built using the mapping interface and Business Process attributes. 

Event-based decision icon.

Event Based Decision 

Multiple possible messages can be juxtaposed against a timeout condition to allow the type of message received to determine the appropriate Business Process path. 

Flow activity

Flow 

Allows you to specify one or more activities to be performed concurrently. 

ProcedureTo add an intermediate event

Intermediate events are those activities that can interrupt the flow of a Business Process . Some intermediate events handle exceptions that may occur during your Business Process or compensate for exceptions that occur.

  1. On the toolbar, click the Intermediate Events drop-down icon, and then release the mouse button.

  2. Point at the type of Intermediate event you want to add, click, and then drag the activity from the toolbar to the eXchange Protocol Designer canvas.

    The selected Intermediate event appears on the modeling canvas.

Intermediate Events

Table 6–3 Intermediate Events

Compensation handler icon.

Compensation Handler 

Used when something in a Business Process fails and requires a rollback or upstream activities (like money has to be returned to the customer). On an automatic basis in the Business Process , upstream steps in the Business Process are notified that the failure has occurred and certain transactions need to be reversed, sometimes in a sequential order. The compensation handler allows you to design the process and circumstances in which the compensation takes place. 

Catch named exception icon.

Catch Named Exception 

Each automated system (back-end system) or web service operation can publish their possible error codes (for instance, fault 15 is “bad data”). Those codes can be mapped to exception handlers. Each exception handler is connected to the scope that surrounds one or more steps in a Business Process . The components within that scope throws the exceptions when things go wrong and the exception handler automatically initiates the appropriate process to handle the problem. 

Catch All Exceptions icon.

Catch All Exceptions 

This exception handler is configured to handle all exceptions that occur in a scope. 

Message event

Message Event 

This is similar to a Receive Activity, but it occurs only in the middle of a Business Process . Each of these elements can be a different message. 

Timer event

Timer Event 

A timeout condition is set upon Activities, sets of Activities, or a Business Process as a whole, to ensure that processes complete within given amount of time. Timeout conditions also allow you to design the Business Process branch to take after a timeout condition takes place. 

Scope

The behavior for one or more activities can be defined by a scope. A scope can provide exception handlers, event handlers, a compensation handler, and data variables. The exception handlers for the scope can be used to catch the faults caused by the possible exception responses.

Scope element

Scope 

The Scope element allows you to apply exception handlers, compensation, and transactionality to a set of sequential or simultaneous steps in a Business Process . 

While

While element

While 

This allows you to create a looping process within a Business Process (for instance, a negotiation process may take several weeks, but the manager wants to review the daily status). The loop continues until the negotiation is complete, and then the Business Process continues. 

Validating a Business Process

After creating a Business Process , you can check to see if there are any problems such as activities that are not connected or an incorrect number of output links from an activity.

ProcedureTo check the Business Process for errors

  1. On the toolbar, click Validate BP Model.

    If an error is encountered, a message box displays information about the error. If there are no errors, a message appears stating that there were no errors.

    Note –

    If an error message displays, see Saving an Unfinished Business Process for information on repairing errors. Repairing the error may entail such items as adding logic to Decisions or adding attributes to activities.

Saving an Unfinished Business Process

Even if a Business Process is not complete and/or contains errors, you can save it as a work in progress and return to it later by doing any of the following: