Creating outbound integrations

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Outbound integrations enable business process authored in Process Designer to interact with other systems, such as a web service, a content management system, or an external database. Depending on the system that you are integrating with, you can implement the integration service using an Integration Service implementation or an IBM® Business Automation Workflow Integration Service implementation.

To create an outbound integration with an external database, use the predefined SQL Integration services that are available in the Business Automation Workflow System Data Toolkit.

Integration Service implementations

Integration Service implementations can contain integration step types that you can configure for the system that you are interacting with. For example, a Web Service Integration step is useful if you are not passing volumes of information. A Java Integration step gives you access to the features of the Java language, including published Java libraries and APIs. The following table describes the integration step types that are available for Integration Service implementations.

Table 1. Step types that can be used in an Integration Service implementation
Integration step type Description
Web Service Integration Uses a SOAP connection to access objects from a web service. A Web Service Integration step hides the complexity of the underlying WSDL, SOAP request, and SOAP response. It also converts inputs into the appropriate XML and outputs into the appropriate Business Automation Workflow variables.
Supported WSDL styles are:
  • RPC literal
  • Document literal
  • Document literal wrapped
Java Integration Calls methods from a Java class and interfaces with most third-party Java APIs, and thus supports various integration scenarios.
Content Integration Enables business processes that are developed in Process Designer to work with an Enterprise Content Management system.
Invoke UCA Uses an undercover agent (UCA) to invoke an Business Automation Workflow service or a business process definition (BPD).

IBM Business Automation Workflow Integration Service implementations

An IBM Business Automation Workflow integration service is the means of accessing case management cases from a business process both for searching and updating case management data.
Table 2. Step types that can be used in an IBM Business Automation Workflow Integration Service implementation
Integration step type Description
IBM Case Manager Integration Enables business processes that are developed in Process Designer to work with an IBM Business Automation Workflow case management solution.
Invoke UCA Invokes an Business Automation Workflow service or a BPD..