Web Services Business Activity support in WebSphere Application Server

With Web Services Business Activity (WS-BA) support in WebSphere Application Server, Web services on disparate systems can coordinate activities that are more loosely coupled than atomic transactions. Such activities can be difficult or impossible to roll back atomically, and therefore require a compensation process in the event of an error.

The Web Services Business Activity (WS-BA) support is an implementation of the following specifications in WebSphere Application Server. These specifications define a set of protocols that enable Web service applications to participate in loosely coupled business processes that are distributed across the heterogeneous Web service environment, with the ability to compensate actions if an error occurs. For example, an application that sends an e-mail cannot unsend it following a failure. The application can, however, provide a business-level compensation handler that sends another e-mail advising of the new circumstances. A business activity is a group of general tasks that you want to link together so that the tasks have an agreed outcome.

In addition to supporting the WS-BA interoperability protocol, WebSphere Application Server provides a programming interface for creating business activities and compensation handlers. With this programming interface, you can specify compensation data and check or alter the status of a business activity.

You can also use this compensation ability with applications that are not Web services, as long as these applications involve communication between WebSphere Application Servers only. See the related topics for more information.




Related concepts
Web Services transactions, firewalls and intermediary nodes
Transaction compensation and business activity support
Related tasks
Creating an application that uses the Web Services Business Activity support
Configuring a server to use business activity support
Using WS-Transaction to coordinate transactions or business activities for Web services
Related reference
Business activity API
Local transaction containment considerations
Concept topic    

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Last updated: Feb 19, 2011 5:25:36 AM CST
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