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Oracle® Retail Integration Bus Service-Oriented Architecture Enabler Tool Guide
Release 14.0
E49440-01
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1 Introduction

The purpose of the Retail Service-Oriented Architecture Enabler (RSE) tool is to provide a standard, consistent way to develop Web services for PL/SQL and Java EE applications. Because it allows them to expose their business logic, the focus of development can be on the business logic code, not on the Web service infrastructure.

The RSE tool creates Web service provider end-points, consumer clients for Web service providers, and templates for interfacing with PL/SQL APIs and Java EE APIs.

The tool also produces design time and run time artifacts. It works in conjunction with another RTG tool, the Retail Functional Artifact Generator.


Note:

For more information on the tool, see the Oracle Retail Functional Artifact Generator Guide.

Major Features of the RSE Tool

The following is a list of the essential features of the RSE tool:

Concepts

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a strategy for constructing business-focused software systems from loosely coupled, interoperable building blocks (called Services) that can be combined and reused quickly, within and between enterprises, to meet business needs (as described in Oracle Fusion Reference Architecture, SOA Foundation Release 1.0).

Service Infrastructure products focus on enabling SOA projects, rather than developing new business function, or providing for other business driven needs. The goal of Service Infrastructure is to enable delivery teams to deliver SOA projects faster, and to make the overall SOA undertaking much more manageable.

The Retail Service-Oriented Architecture Enabler Tool (RSE) is designed and developed to support the creation of Web services by allowing a high level abstraction, higher than the WSDL, and tailored to the business analyst/functional analyst. The Business Analyst can easily understand, define, and design without knowing the intricacies of WSDLs and the technical details of the implementation. This approach is also called top-down Web services development.

What is a Service?

A service can be described as a way of packaging reusable software building blocks to provide functionality to users and to other services. A service is an independent, self-sufficient, functional unit of work that is discoverable, manageable, and measurable, has the ability to be versioned, and offers functionality that is required by a set of users or consumers.

A logical definition of a service has three components:

  • Contract: A description of what the service provides (and its constraints).

  • Interface: The means by which the service is invoked.

  • Implementation: The deployed code and configuration of infrastructure.

Oracle Fusion Reference Architecture (OFRA)

It is important to understand the position and role of the RSE tool within the broader context of service-oriented architecture and development. It is beyond the scope of this document to cover the range of SOA approaches and methodologies, but it is necessary to cover some aspects to place the tool in the appropriate context.

Oracle has developed and published the Oracle Fusion Reference Architecture (OFRA) for building and integrating enterprise-class solutions, part of the IT Strategies from Oracle collection.

The Oracle Fusion Architecture Framework is a collection of assets designed to provide guidance on building solutions for the Oracle Fusion solution environment, which includes the Oracle Fusion Reference Architecture (OFRA). The following diagrams and definitions are from OFRA documentation.


Note:

See Oracle Practitioner Guide Software Engineering in an SOA Environment Release 1.0 E14486-01.

The service analysis phase of the Oracle Service Engineering Framework consists of three main sets of engineering practices: SOA Requirements Management, Service Identification & Discovery, and Service Release Planning.

As with traditional software engineering, service engineering also begins with requirements and analysis, as illustrated below:

Surrounding text describes rse1.png.

After Service Analysis, the next phase is Service Delivery, which includes the core delivery engineering activities. In this phase, a service candidate is molded into one or more services. Service candidates entering this phase have been justified for realization and scheduled for release.

Surrounding text describes rse2.png.

Service Delivery begins with Service Definition, which primarily determines service boundaries as well as the construction of the service contract.

Service Design then acts upon the Service contracts to develop the Services' interfaces. The process of defining a Service interface is much more involved than simply coming up with the input and output for the Service. Service design analyzes the contract from the consumer's perspective, and is influenced by factors such as scope (enterprise, LOB, application, and so on), message exchange patterns (MEPs) as well as non-functional requirements such as expected volume, and response time requirements (specified in the contract).

Service Implementation ensures that all aspects of the service contracts are implemented and upheld through the delivery of business logic as well as the deployment to Service Infrastructure. The implementation must faithfully realize the Service Contract and interface which are defined through Service definition and design.


Note:

See: Oracle Fusion Reference Architecture, Overview. Release 1.0 E14482-01

Where Does RSE Fit?

The Retail Service-Oriented Architecture Enabler (RSE) is a Service Infrastructure tool developed by Oracle Retail to enable the adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and avoid some of the typical pitfalls of many SOA projects. It addresses many common issues, such as versioning, contract design, security, consistency, reuse, documentation, governance, compliance, and customization. It does this by enforcing SOA Best Practices and patterns that are proven and time tested by various SOA pioneers.

The tool provides the capability for business analysts and developers to define the correct service contract. It provides ease-of-use and a level of abstraction such that the domain experts or subject matter experts are not required to understand code to design services. The SOA developers can be completely focused on implementing the business logic code behind the service and do not have to worry about SOA infrastructure issues such as versioning and customization.

The Retail Service-Oriented Architecture Enabler Tool fits within the Service Delivery phases. The appropriate use of the tool is after the service analysis phases and the development team is ready for service definition and design. The RSE tool outputs can then be used in the Service Implementation.

RSE is designed to support this type of approach, which is also called top-down Web services development.

Technical Specifications

The Oracle Retail SOA Enabler tool has dependencies on Oracle Retail application installations. This section covers these requirements.

Supported Operating Systems

Supported On Version Supported
Application Server OS OS certified with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release1 (11.1.1.6). Options are:
  • Oracle Linux 5 for x86-64 (Actual hardware or Oracle virtual machine).

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for x86-64 (actual hardware or Oracle virtual machine)

  • IBM AIX 6.1, 7.1 (actual hardware or LPARs)

  • Solaris 10, 11 Sparc (actual hardware or logical domains)

  • HP-UX 11.31 Integrity (actual hardware, HPVM, or vPars)

Application Server Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.6)

Components:

  • Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 (10.3.6)

  • Java:

    JDK 1.7.0+ 64 bit, orJrockit 1.6 R28 build or later, within the 1.6 code line. 64 bit. For Linux and Solaris OS only.