Introduction

IBM® WebSphere® Process Server (hereafter known as Process Server) is designed to transform your business processes and enable integration of your applications and services based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) model. This single, process-automation server with integrated service bus uses open standards-based technology to integrate business processes with a unified programming model that spans people, workflows, applications, systems, platforms, and architectures.

IBM WebSphere Integration Developer (hereafter known as Integration Developer) is the premier component-authoring tool used to create robust enterprise-wide SOA solutions that run on Process Server. Integration Developer uses business-driven design principles to discover, build, and integrate components based on the Service Component Architecture (SCA).

Figure 1. Shows where Process Server and Integration Developer fit in a process-centric approach to SOA, helping you achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness by developing and implementing innovative business models.

Before reading this article, it would be helpful to have a basic understanding of the capabilities provided in V6.0.1.x of WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Integration Developer.

Important: WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Integration Developer V6.0.2 planned availability for electronic format is 22 December 2006. See the product announcement for more details. WebSphere Process Server for z/OS V6.0.2 planned availability is 30 March 2006. See the product announcement for more details.

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A walk through the new features of Process Server and Integration Developer V6.0.2

Now, let's take a walk through the new features. The following is a high-level overview of the new capabilities and features in V6.0.2 that enrich and evolve the products. Many of these enhancements are a direct result of customer feedback and support the following themes:

• New integration capabilities
• Quality of service improvements
• Dynamicity and ease of use
• Improved enterprise service bus integration
• New platform integration
• Enhancements to additional components
• Improved performance through optimization of code paths and other enhancements

New integration capabilities

Experience simplified configuration and improved performance when connecting to IBM WebSphere MQ (WMQ) or IBM WebSphere Message Broker (hereafter known as Message Broker) via new SCA import and export bindings.

• New native WMQ binding provides easier and faster integration with WMQ and Message Broker. Messages are presented in a manner familiar to WMQ application programmers and administrators, and to Message Broker users. A framework for data bindings, tailored to WMQ conventions, is provided to allow mapping between SCA messages and WMQ message headers and bodies. Imports and exports can be configured to support a range of common WMQ request/reply correlation techniques.
• New WMQ Java™ Message Service (JMS) binding extends WMQ assets as part of your process server applications by using WMQ as the JMS provider.

Integrate more easily with WMQ and Message Broker advanced messaging networks by leveraging the new JMS import and export bindings and new JMSType function selector. Reduce or eliminate the need to write custom code by using the built-in support.

• New JMS import and export bindings now support additional JMS message types via supplied data binding classes. Built-in support is included for TextMessage, BytesMessage, ObjectMessage, StreamMessage, MapMessage, and the Message JMS message types.
• New function selector which uses the JMSType property in the message header to select the operation name allows for more efficient message routing and message replacement without requiring any message payload manipulation.

Increase productivity by more easily integrating with Java and J2EE infrastructures using automatically generated helper components.

• Improved Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) and Java consumption. A helper component bridging the invocation of a Java-typed interface from a component referencing a WSDL-typed interface, is automatically generated when an EJB or Java class is dropped on the Integration Developer assembly editor.

If your integration needs require the development of custom data bindings (datahandler support) for converting commonly used data streams into business objects and vice versa, get a jump start by reviewing two new samples that provide documentation and implementation source code demonstrating this support.

• New custom Enterprise Information System (EIS) and JMS data bindings samples are provided showing how custom data bindings for commonly used formats of fixed width, delimited, and name value pairs can be easily integrated with Process Server.

Quality of service improvements

Process Server Version 6.0.2 builds on the already robust qualities of service provided by Version 6.0.1 as well as by the underlying WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment by adding improvements in the following areas:

• New event sequencing functionality allows you to preserve the processing sequence of events in which they were remotely generated. This ensures events are processed in the intended order.
• Further support has been added in the area of clustering and federation of servers allowing for additional Network Deployment topologies.

Improved administration and dynamic enablement

New features are provided which allow for enhanced administrative ease of use and dynamic service consumability. These improvements empower administrators with additional capabilities needed in today's complex business environment.

• Dynamic endpoint administration allows administrators to react to changing business needs by enabling dynamic reconfiguration of service endpoints. Direct support provided in the administrative console provides the capability to administer, manage, and change the endpoint of a Web services import without having to rebuild or redeploy the application.
• Dynamic endpoint selection can be made by changing endpoints programmatically based on predetermined parameters such as a value contained in a message or by looking up an endpoint definition from IBM WebSphere Service Registry and Repository.
• Administrators can dynamically change the behavior of a running mediation.
• Guided activities provided in the administrative console allow for simplified configuration of network topologies consisting of clusters and multiple cells.
• The installation of Process Server now provides a new client installation option.

Additional platform integration

Additional platform integration capabilities further establish Process Server and Integration Developer as an SOA platform leader by offering total solution support.

• Integration with WebSphere Service Registry and Repository delivers end-to-end governance for all services, dynamically discovering services and service metadata information at runtime. The ability to find and import services and service metadata, as well as publish newly created services at authoring time is provided via support in Integration Developer.
• Incorporating IBM's Information Server via the new service activity enables tight integration between information services and business processes.
• Improvements in integration with Tivoli monitoring functionality, including performance monitoring infrastructure (PMI), application response monitor (ARM) and support for the Tivoli ITCAM Suite of products, allow for more advanced IT-level monitoring scenarios that cover service issues critical to your business.

Improved Enterprise Service Bus mediations

Process Server Version 6.0.2, with its integrated enterprise service bus, includes new features and pre-built mediations which increase business flexibility and responsiveness, enhance usability, provide for business activity monitoring, and save you time and development costs.

• The new endpoint lookup primitive provides integration with WebSphere Service Registry and Repository and, along with the new dynamic endpoint selection functionality, allows for runtime selection of a service endpoint. Numerous criteria can be used for selection, including metadata retrieved from the registry and repository. The capabilities provided by the registry and repository for service selection enable innovative, new dynamic application scenarios.
• The new event emitter primitive provides an easy to use, flexible way to generate a Common Base Event (CBE) in a mediation flow. This new primitive eliminates the need to write custom Java code and allows for notification and reporting of significant events within a mediation flow. This functionality is fully integrated with Common Event Infrastructure (CEI) which means generated events can be written to the event database and used by monitoring applications such as the CBE Browser or WebSphere Business Monitor.
• The new message element setter primitive provides an easy way to change data in a mediation flow and update the message without having to write custom code or define XSL transformations. Updates are performed in-place.
• New unmodeled fault support allows for the capability for all faults from a service invocation to be handled in a defined manner, including unmodeled faults. This support provides for improved error handling in a more consistent way.

Human-centric task enhancements

Several enhancements have been made in the area of human-centric functionality for better management, flexibility, and efficiency. New ad-hoc capabilities such as subtasks and follow-on tasks enable delegation and work subdivision scenarios in the area of collaboration between humans. New functionality for creating customized clients has also been added.

The following provides a summary of these enhancements.

• Enhanced support for groups allows for work to now be assigned to a specific group where any member of that group can claim it. It also provides for a work-queue based working style, where an administrator can transfer work items among groups. This support allows for efficient handling of large groups.
• Support for human ad-hoc collaboration includes subtasks and follow-on tasks. A subtask is used when the owner of the parent task creates subtasks engaging the assistance of colleagues, yet still retains responsibility for work completion. A follow-on task is used when the owner delegates unfinished work to a colleague and the owner of the new follow-on task becomes responsible for completion of the task.
• Follow-up support allows the owner to put work aside for a certain amount of time, removing it from the work list, to then return later at the specified time.
• Server controlled page flow provides for conceptually chaining a series of inline human tasks in a business process.
• Post-processing of staff query results allows the staff query result set (individuals and groups to be assigned to tasks) to be modified for more complex staff resolution.
• Customizable e-mail notification for escalations supports the ability to now specify a subject and body, add runtime context through use of context variables, and determine recipients by staff resolution.
• Binary custom properties support allows for the attaching of arbitrary binary values; for example, an audio recording or scanned image, to a human task on the fly, using key-value pair semantics.
• A wizard-based Web client generation tool provides a good starting point for creating customized clients interacting with human workflows.

Business process management enhancements

Improvements have also been made to the business process management support enabling you with more dynamic, customizable capabilities to create and run your critical business processes. Highlights include enhanced query support, dynamic invocation of sub-processes, extended API support, BPC Explorer and BPC Observer enhancements, as well as improved client capabilities offering new remote client support and a generic Web services interface.

The following provides a summary of these enhancements:

• Queries using process variables allow for the retrieval and filtering of a list of business processes based on business data; for example, retrieve process instances related to a specific customer, John Doe. This allows for the retrieval of more meaningful business data and for the support of additional scenarios.
• A new Information Service activity provides for direct interaction with the IBM Information Server platform adding new data retrieval scenarios.
• Dynamic invocation of a sub-process based on its template name gives additional flexibility. The sub-process partner link may be set in a Java snippet or in an assign statement.
• Extended application programming interface (API) support for custom properties allows for the retrieval of custom properties of a process template, creation of queries based on custom properties, and the set and get of custom properties for an activity instance.
• The BPC Explorer has been enhanced to provide a graphical view of processes, both template and instance. Actions supported include zoom and scroll, expand and collapse, and navigation to an activity details view. Custom views can now be based on search definitions.
• The BPC Observer has improved operational management capabilities by providing a graphical view of operational data. It allows for observation of state and the evolution of processes, provides customizable reports and graphical charts, and supports flexible drill-down to retrieve statistical data on processes and activities. Previously, it was delivered as a sample, but it is now delivered and supported as part of the product.
• Enhanced client support provides increased accessibility for remote clients, as well as support for clients capable of invoking Web services through a new generic Web services interface.

Enhancements to additional components

New capabilities have been added to additional components, including business rules, business state machines, and the relationship service.

Lower your development time and cost by taking advantage of the simplified business rules programming model. Experience simplified administration and monitoring as a result of the new rules audit capabilities.

• Business rules enhancements include design time, runtime, and operational improvements. There is now support for the more common business rule logic scenarios, including specifying initialization logic for a decision table, "otherwise" clause on decision table conditions, use of "return" option in rule sets, and a "copyBusinessObject" function for ruleset actions. Improved visibility to business rule changes allows for new audit capabilities. You can record what changes were made and who made those changes in the SystemOut.log or in a separately specified log. New business rule import / export capability simplifies the process of maintaining consistency between test and production environment instances.

Take advantage of the support for additional usage patterns and the improved administration and ease of use enhancements available for business state machines.

• Business state machine enhancements include new support that allows you to use part of the response message as the correlation id, instead of having to supply the value from the caller as in previous versions. You can now query business state machine variables including the display name of the current state as well as correlation set information. The BPC Explorer now has support for business state machines by providing predefined views of the templates and process instances.

Improvements to the relationship service and the relationship manager provide for a better over-all user experience, including improved performance.

• Relationship service enhancements include client-side cursor support which provides improved performance for queries. The relationship manager, used to view and manage relationship runtime data, has also received improvements in cursor and pagination support as well as in the ability to view multiple roles in the same administrative panel.

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WebSphere Integration Developer V6.0.2 features

In addition to providing comprehensive, business-driven development support for the new features and enhancements discussed so far, Integration Developer V6.0.2 also adds the following new features.

In the area of integration:

• Improved business activity monitoring available through new integration with WebSphere Business Monitor. Integration Developer allows for monitor model development using the new monitor development toolkit. The toolkit provides an integrated development environment via the business monitoring perspective which consists of a monitor model editor and monitor model editor documents. It also provides an integrated test environment consisting of a monitor test server and a simplified Web-based dashboard.
• WSDL and XSD integration, usage, and compatibility improvements.
• Enterprise service discovery wizard lets you find and import artifacts from WebSphere Registry and Repository.
• Industry schemas for data models including industry-defined and client-defined patterns: Microsoft Web Services, synchronization with Rational Application Developer, Web services interoperability.
• Enhanced wizard-driven development enabling top-down creation of Java Web services that can run on servers other than Process Server.
• Improved integration with Rational RequisitePro® allows information technology (IT) to be more closely aligned with business by helping IT better understand and track the business requirements. Integration Developer provides a RequisitePro requirement view so that a process component may be linked to a requirement managed by RequisitePro.
• Ability to interact with WebSphere MQ Workflow User-Defined Program Execution Server (UPES) application programs.

Further new features are included in the following areas:

• Faster authoring of BPM solutions and easier integration to external services
• Wizards and property settings to enable the dynamic modification capabilities of services and mediations.
• Increased performance through build and validation improvements.
• Decrease in memory consumption reduces the memory footprint.
• Enhanced refactoring support for rename, change namespace, move, and extract (embedded XSDs, WSDLs) reduces the complexity to resolve errors and dependencies. Dependencies are examined, and appropriate changes are then made to dependent artifacts.
• WebSphere technology adapters are included for development and production use, and WebSphere application adapters are included for development use. Reduce your EIS integration development time by taking advantage of this new packaging of the adapters with Integration Developer.
• Create custom CBE events with the new event definition editor. Events can be used in visual Java snippets, the business measure editor, and in Java code.
• Visual snippets support has been improved by providing new categories of visual snippets, including converter and numbers; as well as by providing more visual snippets within a category. Smaller Java files sizes are generated from visual snippets which reduce the workspace size and build time.
• User changes to Web services security information in the EJB deployment descriptor via the module deployment editor are now preserved. Rebuilds will not corrupt nor overwrite the Web services security information.
• Custom mediation primitives can now be constructed through logic in an SCA Java component or through logic in a visual or Java snippet defined as a property of the primitive. A separate SCA Java component is no longer required. Shared custom visual snippets can be used in custom mediation primitives. Development is easier and more productive.

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Conclusion

Version 6.0.2 of WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Integration Developer provide many key enhancements that evolve and mature the platform allowing you to implement new, innovative business scenarios in application, business, and process integration. In this article, you learned about new features in areas of integration, qualities of service, performance, dynamicity, platform integration, and ease of use. Process Server and Integration Developer provide you with the leading SOA platform of choice for service mediation and orchestration.

Resources

Learn

• Integrating Using WebSphere Integration Developer and Process Server
  
  
• Integration Using WebSphere Integration Developer and Process Server II
  
  
• WebSphere Process Server library: Product announcements
  
  
• WebSphere Business Integration zone
  
  
• WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Integration Developer
  
  
• What's new in WebSphere Business Monitor V6.0.2?
  
  
• What's new in WebSphere Business Modeler V6.0.2?
  
  
• WebSphere Process Server: IBM's new foundation for SOA
  
  
• Recommended reading list: Service-Oriented Architecture and WebSphere Process Server
  
  
• New to WebSphere business integration
  
  
• WebSphere education
  
  
• Development tools zone
  
  
• SOA and Web services zone
  
  
• IBM WebSphere Developer Technical Journal
  
  
• Meet the experts
  
  
• Safari bookstore
  
  
• WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus resources
  
  
• WebSphere Message Broker resources
  
  
• WebSphere MQ resources
  
  
• IBM WebSphere Business Process Management Version 6.0 information center
  
  
• How to buy
  
  

Discuss

• WebSphere forums
  
  
• WebSphere Process Server forum
  
  

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• A walk through the new features of Process Server and Integration Developer V6.0.2
• WebSphere Integration Developer V6.0.2 features
• Conclusion
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments

Next steps from IBM

• Try: WebSphere Integration Developer (in the SOA Sandbox: Connect)
• Demo: Process automation, adoption pattern
• Briefing: WebSphere flexible business processes
• Buy: WebSphere Integration Developer (in the SOA Sandbox: Connect)

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