Preface


This preface contains the following sections:

• About This Guide

• Installation Sequence

• What You Should Know

• How This Guide Is Organized

• User Roles and Tasks

• Documentation Conventions

• Online Guides

• Related Information

About This Guide

---

This guide describes the iPlanet Application Server Unified Integration Framework (UIF) concepts, and how to configure and use the iPlanet Application Server with an iPlanet Enterprise Connector. Also described are how to write Servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSPs), and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) which use the UIF Application Programming Interface (API) to provide real time access to Enterprise Information System (EIS) applications. In addition, all APIs for the UIF classes are fully documented.

Installation Sequence

---

This guide assumes the following applications have been installed, and are up and running:

• iPlanet Web Server

• iPlanet Application Server

What You Should Know

---

This guide assumes you are familiar with the following topics:

• iPlanet Application Server programming concepts

• Internet and World Wide Web

• Common Enterprise Information Systems programming concepts

• Java programming language and Java Servlets

• JavaServer Pages

• Enterprise JavaBeans

How This Guide Is Organized

---

This guide is organized into the following chapters:

Chapter 1 "Concepts" describes concepts to be familiar with before setting up UIF or use the API in Servlets, JSPs, or EJBs.

Chapter 2 "Installation" describes how-to install UIF 6.0 SP1 on your iPlanet Application Server.

Chapter 3 "Repository" describes the repository, and how to use the repository browser to view and modify EIS information.

Chapter 4 "Pooling Concepts" describes pooling concepts to be familiar with when setting up the repository.

Chapter 5 "Programming Model" describes the UIF Application Programing Model to be familiar with before using the UIF API in Servlets, JSPs, or EJBs.

Chapter 6 "Exceptions" describes the generic exception framework implemented in UIF including the various types, scenarios and how to handle them.

Chapter 7 "API Reference" describes the classes and methods used from Servlets, JSPs, or EJBs to access and manipulate data stored on an EIS.

"Glossary" describes the terms used in this guide.

User Roles and Tasks

---

Different skill sets are involved in setting up UIF, they are as follows:

System Administrator	Installs UIF
Data Source Administrator	Mines the data to define the EIS transactions available through UIF Uses the management console to specify the enterprise connector's configuration, which end users have access to specific data, and performance characteristics such as pooling
Applications Programmer	Writes J2EE components which call the UIF APIs Uses the repository browser to determine the available data types and access methods

Documentation Conventions

---

File and directory paths are given in Windows format (with backslashes separating directory names). For Unix versions, the directory paths are the same, except slashes are used instead of backslashes to separate directories.

This guide uses URLs of the form:

http://server.domain/path/file.htm

In these URLs, server is the name of server on which you run your application; domain is your Internet domain name; path is the directory structure on the server; and file is an individual filename. Italics items in URLs are place holders.

This guide uses the following font conventions:

The monospace font is used for sample code and code listings, API and language elements (such as function names and class names), file names, pathnames, directory names, and HTML tags.

Italic type is used for book titles, emphasis, variables and place holders, and words used in the literal sense.

Online Guides

---

You can find the iPlanet Unified Integration Framework Developer's Guide online in PDF and HTML formats. To locate these files, use the following URL:

http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/ias.html

Related Information

---

In addition to this guide, the various enterprise connector comes with an administrator's and developer's guides. The administrator's guide explains how to set up users, data mining and other resources used by the enterprise connector to access EIS services which contain the business logic. The developer's guide explains how to write Java programs (Servlet/JSP/EJB) to access EIS services which contain the business logic.

The installer copies the iPlanet Unified Integration Framework Developer's Guide to ias/APPS/docs/bsp subdirectory of the root installation of the iPlanet Application Server.

In addition to these guides, there is additional information for administrators, users and developers. Use the following URL to view the related documentation:

http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/ias.html

This site includes the following documents:

• iPlanet Unified Integration Framework Release Notes

• iPlanet Web Server Developer's Guide

• The various iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector Administrator's Guides (R/3, Tuxedo, PeopleSoft and CICS)

• The various iPlanet Application Server Enterprise Connector Developer's Guides (R/3, Tuxedo, PeopleSoft and CICS)

• iPlanet Application Server Installation Guide

• iPlanet Application Server Overview Guide

• iPlanet Application Server Release Notes

• iPlanet Application Server Administrator's Guide

• iPlanet Application Builder User's Guide

• iPlanet Application Builder Installation Guide

• iPlanet Application Builder Release Notes

• iPlanet Administration and Deployment Tool