Overview of WebSphere Adapter for Siebel Business Applications

With WebSphere® Adapter for Siebel Business Applications , you can create integrated processes that exchange information with a Siebel application, without special coding.

Use the WebSphere Adapter for Siebel Business Applications to create integrated processes that exchange information with a Siebel application. With the adapter, an application can send requests to the Siebel Business Applications server or receive notifications of changes from the server.

The adapter creates a standard interface to the applications and data on the Siebel Business Applications server, so that the application developer does not need to understand the lower-level details (the implementation of the application or the data structures) on the Siebel Business Applications server. An application, for example, can send a request to the Siebel Business Applications server, to query or update an Account record, represented by a Siebel business component instance. It can also receive events from the server; for example, to be notified that a customer record has been updated. This behavior provides you with improved business workflow and processes to help manage your customer relations.

WebSphere Adapter for Siebel Business Applications complies with the Java™ Connector Architecture (JCA). JCA standardizes the way application components, application servers, and Siebel applications, such as Siebel Business Applications server, interact with each other.

The adapter configuration, which you generate with the Adapter Connection wizard, uses a standard interface and standard data objects. The adapter takes the standard data object sent by the application component and calls the Siebel Business Applications function. The adapter then returns a standard data object to the application component. The application component does not have to deal directly with the Siebel Business Applications function; it is the Siebel Business Applications adapter that calls the function and returns the results.

For example, the application component that needs the list of customers sends a standard business object with the range of customer IDs to Adapter for Siebel Business Applications. In return, the application component receives the results (the list of customers) in the form of a standard business object. The application component does not need to know how the function worked or how the data was structured. The adapter completes all the interactions with the Siebel Business Applications function.

Similarly, the message flow might want to know about a change to the data on the Siebel Business Applications server (for example, a change to a particular customer). You can generate an adapter component that polls for such events on the Siebel Business Applications server and notifies message flows of the update. In this case, the interaction begins at the Siebel Business Applications server.