Chapter 6 Building an Executable BPM: Working with Service Description Objects

Importing and Exporting Service Providers (Executable BPM)

You can define the links between the abstract definition of service interfaces and operations in the BPM and their concrete implementation. Implementation can be designed in OOM components or in database implemented Web services.

OOM

In the OOM, components have implementation classes owning operations. You can import and export components into service providers.

During the import/export process, the following mapping is performed:

OOM object	BPM object
Web service, or EJB or any UML component	Service provider
Implementation class in case of Web Service, or a UML interface associated with the component	Service interface
Class (or interface) operations	Operations of the service interface
SOAP Input value (Input box content)	Operation Input message
InputSoapMessageName extended attribute	Operation Input name
SOAP Input schema text	Input message format text

You can use the import and export OOM feature to:

Initialize a BPM with existing implementation defined in an OOM
Use the requirement analysis of the BPM to initialize an OOM and start implementing these needs

The implementation link between BPM and OOM is preserved after import and export. These links are stored in the Implementation attribute of the property sheet of the BPM service provider, service interface and operation. This attribute references the OOM implementation object (component, class, interface or operation).

For more information about OOM components, see OOM User's Guide .

PDM

In the PDM, you can import the WSDL URL corresponding to a database Web service and create a service provider. Note that export is not available, you cannot export a service provider as a database Web service.

To import a database Web service as a service provider:

The database Web service must use the SOAP protocol
The database Web service must be generated and deployed into the database
The database server must be running in order to have a WSDL URL

During the import process, the following mapping is performed:

PDM object	BPM object
Database Web service	Service provider implementation
Web Service operations	Operations in a service interface

For more information about database Web services, see the Working with Web Services chapter in the PDM User's Guide .