4 Getting Started with Oracle BPEL Process Manager

4.1 Introduction to the BPEL Process Service Component

This section provides an introduction to the BPEL process service component in the design environment.

4.1.1 How to Add a BPEL Process Service Component

You add BPEL process service components in the SOA Composite Editor.

To add a BPEL process service component:

1. Follow the instructions in Table 4-1 to start Oracle JDeveloper.

   Table 4-1 Starting Oracle JDeveloper

   To Start...	On Windows...	On UNIX...
   Oracle JDeveloper	Click JDev_Oracle_Home\jdeveloper\JDev\bin\jdev.exe or create a shortcut	$ORACLE_HOME/jdev/bin/jdev

   
   

2. Add a BPEL process service component through one of the following methods:

   As a service component in an existing SOA composite application:

   1. From the Component Palette, drag a BPEL Process service component into the SOA Composite Editor.

   In a new application:

   1. From the Application Navigator, select File > New > Applications > SOA Application.

      This starts the Create SOA Application wizard.

   2. In the Application Name dialog, enter an application name in the Application Name field.

   3. In the Directory field, enter a directory path in which to create the SOA composite application and project.

   4. Click Next.

   5. In the Project Name dialog, enter a name in the Project Name field.

   6. Click Next.

   7. In the Project SOA Settings dialog, select Composite with BPEL.

   8. Click Finish.

   Each method causes the Create BPEL Process dialog shown in Figure 4-1 to appear.

3. Provide the required details (including BPEL process name). Click Help for details about the types of BPEL processes you can create.

   Figure 4-1 Create BPEL Process Dialog

   
   Description of "Figure 4-1 Create BPEL Process Dialog"
   
   

   Always use completely unique names when creating BPEL processes. Do not create:

   • A process name that begins with a number (for example, 1SayHello)

   • A process name that includes a dash (for example, Say-Hello)

   • Two processes with the same name, but with different capitalization (for example, SayHello and sayhello)

   • A process name that exceeds 500 characters.

   • A non-ASCII process name such as that shown in Figure 4-2. The BPEL process name is used in directory and file names of the SOA project, which can cause problems.

     Figure 4-2 Non-ASCII BPEL Process Name

     
     Description of "Figure 4-2 Non-ASCII BPEL Process Name"
     
     

4. Click OK.

Oracle BPEL Designer displays the sections shown in Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3 Oracle BPEL Designer Sections

Description of "Figure 4-3 Oracle BPEL Designer Sections"

Each section of this view enables you to perform specific design and deployment tasks. Table 4-2 identifies the sections listed in Figure 4-3.

Table 4-2 Oracle JDeveloper Sections

Element	Description
Application Navigator	Displays the process files of a SOA project. Key files include the following: composite.xml Describes the entire SOA composite application. For more information about this file, see Section 2.1.2, "What Happens When You Create a SOA Application and Project." .bpel Depending upon the process type you selected, initially contains a minimal set of activities (if you selected to create an asynchronous process, then receive and invoke activities appear). You add syntax to this file when you drag activities, create variables, create partner links, and so on. .componentType Describes the services and references for the BPEL process service component. .wsdl The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) client interface, which defines the input and output messages for this BPEL process flow, the supported client interface and operations, and other features. This functionality enables the BPEL process flow to be called as a service. monitor.config Defines runtime and deployment properties needed to connect with Oracle BAM Server to create the Oracle BAM data objects and dashboards.
Designer	Provides a visual view of the BPEL process service component that you design. This view displays when you perform one of the following actions: Double-click the .bpel file name in the Application Navigator. Click the Design tab at the bottom of the window with the .bpel file selected. Double-click the BPEL process component in the SOA Composite Editor. As you design the BPEL process service component by dragging activities, creating partner links, and so on, the Design window changes.
Component Palette	Displays the available activities to add to the BPEL process service component. Activities are the building blocks. The BPEL Activities selection of the Component Palette displays a set of activities that you drag into the designer of the BPEL process service component. The Component Palette displays only those pages relevant to the state of the designer. BPEL Activities or BPEL Services are nearly always visible. However, if you are designing a transformation in a transform activity, the Component Palette only displays selections relevant to that activity, such as String Functions, Mathematical Functions, and Node-set Functions.
Structure window	Provides a structural view of the data in the BPEL process service component currently selected in the designer. You can perform a variety of tasks from this section, including: Importing schemas Defining message types Managing (creating, editing, and deleting) elements such as variables, aliases, correlation sets, and partner links. Editing activities in the BPEL process flow sequence that displays in the designer
Log window	Displays messages about the status of validation and compilation. To ensure that a BPEL process service component validates correctly, you must ensure that the following information is correct: The BPEL process service component must have an input variable. A partner link must be selected. A partner role must be selected. The operation must not be empty. The input variable type must match the partner link operation type. If deployment is unsuccessful, messages appear that describe the type and location of the error.
Source window	View the syntax inside the BPEL process service component files. As you drag activities and partner links, and perform other tasks, the syntax in these source files is immediately updated to reflect these changes.
History window	Displays the revision history of a file and read-only and editable versions of a file side-by-side.
Property Inspector	Displays details about an activity. Single-click an activity in the Design window to display details.

Note:

To learn more about these sections, you can also place the cursor in the appropriate section and press F1 to display online Help.

4.2 Introduction to Activities

Activities are the building blocks of a BPEL process service component. Oracle BPEL Designer includes a set of activities that you drag into a BPEL process service component. You then double-click an activity to define its attributes (property values). Activities enable you to perform specific tasks within a BPEL process service component. For example, here are several key activities:

• An assign activity enables you to manipulate data, such as copying the contents of one variable to another. Figure 4-4 shows an assign activity.

  Figure 4-4 Assign Activity

  
  Description of "Figure 4-4 Assign Activity"
  
  

• An invoke activity enables you to invoke a service (identified by its partner link) and specify an operation for this service to perform. Figure 4-5 shows an invoke activity.

  Figure 4-5 Invoke Activity

  
  Description of "Figure 4-5 Invoke Activity"
  
  

• A receive activity waits for an asynchronous callback response message from a service. Figure 4-6 shows a receive activity.

  Figure 4-6 Receive Activity

  
  Description of "Figure 4-6 Receive Activity"
  
  

Figure 4-7 shows an example of a property window (for this example, an invoke activity). In this example, you invoke a partner link named StoreFrontService and define its attributes.

Figure 4-7 Invoke Activity Example

Description of "Figure 4-7 Invoke Activity Example"

The invoke activity enables you to specify an operation you want to invoke for the service (identified by its partner link). The operation can be one-way or request-response on a port provided by the service. You can also automatically create variables in an invoke activity. An invoke activity invokes a synchronous service or initiates an asynchronous web service.

The invoke activity opens a port in the process to send and receive data. It uses this port to submit required data and receive a response. For synchronous callbacks, only one port is needed for both the send and the receive functions.

For more information about activities, see Appendix A, "BPEL Process Activities and Services."

4.3 Introduction to Partner Links

A partner link enables you to define the external services with which the BPEL process service component is to interact. You can define partner links as services or references (for example, through a JCA adapter) in the SOA Composite Editor or within a BPEL process service component in Oracle BPEL Designer. Figure 4-8 shows the partner link icon (in this example, named CreditCardAuthorizationService).

Figure 4-8 PartnerLink Icon

Description of "Figure 4-8 PartnerLink Icon"

A partner link type characterizes the conversational relationship between two services by defining the roles played by each service in the conversation and specifying the port type provided by each service to receive messages within the conversation.

Figure 4-9 shows an example of the attributes of a partner link for a service.

Figure 4-9 Partner Link Dialog

Description of "Figure 4-9 Partner Link Dialog"

Table 4-3 describes the fields of this dialog.

4.4 Creating a Partner Link

The method by which you create partner links within the BPEL process in Oracle BPEL Designer impacts how the partner link displays above in the SOA Composite Editor. This section describes this impact. The WSDL file can be on the local operating system or hosted remotely (in which case you need a URL for the WSDL).

Likewise, creating and wiring a service or reference binding component to a BPEL process service component in the SOA Composite Editor causes a partner link to display in Oracle BPEL Designer.

4.4.1 How to Create a Partner Link

To create a partner link:

1. In the SOA Composite Editor, double-click the BPEL process service component.

   Oracle BPEL Designer is displayed.

2. In the Component Palette, expand BPEL Services.

3. Drag a Partner Link into the appropriate Partner Links swimlane, as shown in Figure 4-10.

   Figure 4-10 Partner Link Creation in Oracle BPEL Designer

   
   Description of "Figure 4-10 Partner Link Creation in Oracle BPEL Designer"
   
   

   The Create Partner Link dialog appears.

4. Complete the fields for this dialog, as described in Table 4-3.

The following sections describe the impact of partner link creation on the SOA Composite Editor.

4.4.1.1 Partner Links for an Outbound Adapter

Table 4-4 describes the impact on the SOA Composite Editor.

Table 4-4 Impact of Partner Link Creation on the SOA Composite Editor

Creating the Following for a BPEL Process in Oracle BPEL Designer...	Displays the Following in the SOA Composite Editor...
A partner link for an outbound adapter	A reference handle for the BPEL service component A reference representing the outbound adapter in the composite A wire connecting the BPEL service component to the adapter reference

Figure 4-11 shows how this method of creation appears in the SOA Composite Editor.

Figure 4-11 SOA Composite Editor Impact

Description of "Figure 4-11 SOA Composite Editor Impact"

4.4.1.2 Partner Links for an Inbound Adapter

Table 4-5 describes the impact on the SOA Composite Editor.

Table 4-5 Impact of Partner Link Creation on the SOA Composite Editor

Creating the Following for a BPEL Process in Oracle BPEL Designer...	Displays the Following in the SOA Composite Editor...
A partner link for an inbound adapter	A service for the BPEL service component A service representing the inbound adapter in the composite A wire connecting the inbound adapter service to the BPEL service component

Figure 4-12 shows how this method of creation appears in the SOA Composite Editor.

Figure 4-12 SOA Composite Editor Impact

Description of "Figure 4-12 SOA Composite Editor Impact"

4.4.1.3 Partner Links from an Abstract WSDL to Call a Service

Table 4-6 describes the impact on the SOA Composite Editor.

Table 4-6 Impact of Partner Link Creation on the SOA Composite Editor

Creating the Following for a BPEL Process in Oracle BPEL Designer...	Displays the Following in the SOA Composite Editor...
A partner link from an abstract WSDL to call a service	A reference handle with an interface and callback interface defined for the BPEL service component

4.4.1.4 Partner Links from an Abstract WSDL to Implement a Service

Table 4-7 describes the impact on the SOA Composite Editor.

Table 4-7 Impact of Partner Link Creation on the SOA Composite Editor

Creating the Following for a BPEL Process in Oracle BPEL Designer...	Displays the Following in the SOA Composite Editor...
A partner link is created from an abstract WSDL to implement a service	A service with an interface and callback interface for the BPEL service component is created. Note: If an external Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) reference with the specified interface and callback interface exists in the SOA Composite Editor, you can either create a new external SOAP reference and wire to it or wire to the existing external SOAP reference.

Figure 4-13 shows how this method of creation appears in the SOA Composite Editor.

Figure 4-13 SOA Composite Editor Impact

Description of "Figure 4-13 SOA Composite Editor Impact"

4.4.1.5 Partner Links and Human Tasks or Business Rules

Table 4-8 describes the impact on the SOA Composite Editor.

Table 4-8 Impact of Partner Link Creation on the SOA Composite Editor

Creating the Following for a BPEL Process in Oracle BPEL Designer...	Displays the Following in the SOA Composite Editor...
A human task or business rule is created	A human task or business rule in the composite A reference for the BPEL service component A wire connecting the BPEL service component to the new human task or business rule

Figure 4-14 shows how this method of creation appears in the SOA Composite Editor.

Figure 4-14 SOA Composite Editor Impact

Description of "Figure 4-14 SOA Composite Editor Impact"

4.4.1.6 Partner Links from an Existing Human Task, Business Rule, or Oracle Mediator

Table 4-9 describes the impact on the SOA Composite Editor.

Table 4-9 Impact of Partner Link Creation on the SOA Composite Editor

Creating the Following for a BPEL Process in Oracle BPEL Designer...	Displays the Following in the SOA Composite Editor...
A partner link by dragging an existing human task, business rule, or mediator service component from the Resource Palette to the BPEL process	A reference for the BPEL service component A wire connecting the BPEL service component to the existing human task, business rule, or mediator

Figure 4-15 shows how this method of creation appears in the SOA Composite Editor.

Figure 4-15 SOA Composite Editor Impact

Description of "Figure 4-15 SOA Composite Editor Impact"

4.5 Introduction to Technology Adapters

The Partner Link dialog shown in Figure 4-9 also enables you to take advantage of another key feature that Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Oracle JDeveloper provide. Click the Define Service icon shown in Figure 4-16 to access the Adapter Configuration wizard.

Figure 4-16 Defining an Adapter

Description of "Figure 4-16 Defining an Adapter"

Adapters enable you to integrate the BPEL process service component (and, therefore, the SOA composite application as a whole) with access to file systems, FTP servers, database tables, database queues, sockets, Java Message Services (JMS), MQ, and Oracle E-Business Suite. This wizard enables you to configure the types of adapters shown in Figure 4-17 for use with the BPEL process service component:

Figure 4-17 Adapter Types

Description of "Figure 4-17 Adapter Types"

The following adapter types are available:

• Advanced Queuing (AQ)

  For interaction with a queue. AQ provides a flexible mechanism for bidirectional, asynchronous communication between participating applications.

• Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)

  For publishing data to data objects in an Oracle BAM Server.

• Database

  For interaction with Oracle and non-Oracle databases through JDBC and Oracle Business Intelligence (which is a special data source type).

• FTP and File

  For file exchange (read and write) on local file systems and remote file systems (through use of the file transfer protocol (FTP)).

  Note:

  When calling the file adapter, Oracle BPEL Process Manager may process the same file twice when run against Oracle Real Application Clusters planned outages. This is because a file adapter is a non-XA compliant adapter. Therefore, when it participates in a global transaction, it may not follow the XA interface specification of processing each file only once.

• Java Messaging Service (JMS)

  For interaction with JMS. The JMS architecture uses a one client interface to many messaging servers architecture.

• Message Queue (MQ)

  For message exchange with WebSphere MQ queuing systems.

• Oracle Applications

  For interaction with Oracle Application's set of integrated business applications.

• Oracle B2B

• For browsing B2B metadata in the metadata service (MDS) repository and selecting document definitions.

• Sockets

  For modeling standard or nonstandard protocols for communication over TCP/IP sockets.

When you select an adapter type, the Service Name window shown in Figure 4-18 prompts you to enter a name. For this example, File Adapter was selected in Figure 4-17. When the wizard completes, a WSDL file by this service name appears in the Application Navigator for the BPEL process service component (for this example, named ReadFile.wsdl). The service name must be unique within the project. This file includes the adapter configuration settings you specify with this wizard. Other configuration files (such as header files and files specific to the adapter) are also created and display in the Application Navigator.

Figure 4-18 Adapter Service Name

Description of "Figure 4-18 Adapter Service Name"

The Adapter Configuration wizard windows that appear after the Service Name window are based on the adapter type you selected.

You can also add adapters to your SOA composite application as services or references in the SOA Composite Editor.

For more information about technology adapters, see Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Technology Adapters.

4.6 Introduction to BPEL Process Monitors

You can configure BPEL process monitors in Oracle BPEL Designer by selecting Monitor from the dropdown list above the Designer window. Figure 4-19 provides details. BPEL process monitors can send data to Oracle BAM for analysis and graphical display through the Oracle BAM adapter.

Figure 4-19 BPEL Process Monitors

Description of "Figure 4-19 BPEL Process Monitors"

For more information, see Section 47.3, "Instrumenting BPEL Processes With Monitors."

4.7 Migrating Custom SOA Composite Applications in Oracle JDeveloper

When you open Oracle JDeveloper for the first time, you are prompted to migrate existing applications. If you click Yes to migrate custom SOA composite applications to the current release, you must change the metadata namespace and store ID. Not performing these actions causes migration compilation to fail.