This topic applies only to the IBM Business Process Manager Advanced configuration.

Components

You can build applications by assembling the SCA components.

The building blocks of a business solution are Service Components Architecture (SCA) components. The SCA components are wired together to form modules that you deploy to the IBM® Business Process Manager. Components are the parts of the module that are the actual services. Modules are implemented using implementation types. Some implementation types include:

business processes
state machines
human tasks

The IBM Integration Designer tools generate implementations that the assembly editor can use for components. The component consists of the following parts:

An implementation
Optionally, one or more interfaces
Optionally, one or more partner references

Components are reusable; that is, you can invoke their services from other components or from clients through stand-alone references. The service components can pass data to other components only inside the module. Their services can be exposed for use by other modules through an export. They can access services from other modules only through an import.

The components generated by IBM Integration Designer tools and used by the assembly editor are SCA components. SCA defines a technology-independent format for describing component implementations, so that assembling components to build an application do not require knowledge of the language and technology of the implementation of the component.

When you are using the assembly editor, the component appears as a rectangle on the canvas, as shown here: component in the assembly editor The canvas is the open area in the editor view where you assemble your application.

Each component has a name and a display name (the display name is used by various runtime functions). By default, the two names are the same, but you can name them independently to differentiate the function they perform. In the assembly editor canvas, you can display or hide the display names in the assembly diagram. The following illustration shows the component with the display name visible:

The component is created by the assembly editor under the following situations:

When you select a component from the palette and drop it onto the canvas
When you drag an interface onto the canvas
When you drag an implementation onto the canvas

Interface map and selector are special components. Interface maps only deal with data; they contain mapping logic for interface operations. Selectors route requests. They allow different routing for different time frames, which can implement part of your business logic.