ServiceRequestInitiator collaboration template

The ServiceRequestInitiator collaboration template is used to initiate a request to a service provider to configure a telecommunications service. This collaboration communicates with a supplier/partner order handling system.

ServiceRequestInitiator uses the Generic TelcoServiceOrder business object to represent data that pertains to the service configuration and activation management.

This collaboration template uses the ProcessContext attribute of generic business objects to maintain process information between two or more collaboration objects. In order to maintain this information, the collaboration object performs the following actions, starting from when it receives a triggering business object:

Collaboration object setup

This section includes information on port bindings and required steps for setting up collaboration objects based on this collaboration template. For information on standard features, ports, and configuration properties for collaboration templates, and for general information on creating collaboration objects refer to the documents listed in Required documents for creating collaboration objects.

Port information

The following diagram illustrates ServiceRequestInitiator's ports:

ServiceRequestInitiator collaboration's ports

Note: To keep the collaboration object from using a port, bind that port to the Port connector. Doing so indicates that the port is unused without causing the collaboration object to provide additional functionality.

The following tables describe bindings for the ports of two separate collaboration objects based on this collaboration template. The purpose of the two instances is described in Setting up the collaboration object.

Port name: From
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
TelcoServiceOrder (Instance A) WebSphere MQ Workflow Receives the triggering business object. At the end of a synchronous call, this port also returns the triggering business object to the source application when the collaboration object ends successfully. InitiateRequest
TelcoServiceOrder (Instance B) Supplier/partner order handling system Receives the triggering business object. At the end of a synchronous call, this port also returns the triggering business object to the source application when the collaboration object ends successfully.  ReturnResult

Port name: To
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
TelcoServiceOrder (Instance A) Supplier/partner order handling system Sends the triggering business object out of the collaboration object InitiateRequest
TelcoServiceOrder (Instance B) WebSphere MQ Workflow Sends the triggering business object out of the collaboration object ReturnResult

Port name: DestinationAppRetrieve
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
TelcoServiceOrder Supplier/partner order handling system Sends a reference-valued business object to retrieve the full-valued business object. The result determines which verb to use when synchronizing the TelcoServiceOrder. Retrieve

Port name: SourceApp
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
TelcoServiceOrder Supplier/partner order handling system Retrieves the source data from the master application. When the collaboration object is used in a sync mode, where it receives only the key information from the From port, it retrieves the source data from the master application, and synchronizes that data with other applications. Retrieve

Setting up the collaboration object

Since this collaboration object is assumed to handle a long-running process, a special setup for an asynchronous call model is required. In order to set up the collaboration object for an asynchronous call model, complete the following steps:

  1. Create two instances of this collaboration object:
  2. For each collaboration object, configure the ports as follows:
  3. Finally, set the configuration properties for ServiceRequestInitiator.

Collaboration template processes

This section illustrates the following business processes for this collaboration template:

Overall process logic

This section illustrates this collaboration template's process logic for its supported verbs indicated below, as well as additional process logic that will be executed if the SYNC_FROM_SOURCE configuration property is set to true:

InitiateRequest

The following diagram shows the process logic for this collaboration template's Setup verb.

ServiceRequestInitiator Setup process logic

ReturnResult

The following diagram shows the process logic for this collaboration template's ReturnSetupResult verb.

ServiceRequestInitiator ReturnSetupResult process logic

SYNC_FROM_SOURCE

The following diagram shows the additional process logic that is executed when the collaboration object's SYNC_FROM_SOURCE configuration property is set to true.

ServiceRequestInitiator SYNC_FROM_SOURCE  process logic

Standard business processes

This collaboration template uses the following standard business processes:

Configuration properties

This section describes the following properties for this collaboration template:

Standard properties

This collaboration template uses the following standard configuration properties:

Properties specific to this collaboration template

This collaboration template has a single collaboration-specific property, SYNC_FROM_SOURCE. This property specifies whether to retrieve the source data from the master application through the SourceApp port before sending the data to another application. When the triggering business object has only the key information, this property should be set to true.

SYNC_FROM_SOURCE configuration property
Possible values Usage
true Causes this collaboration object to retrieve the full-value business object and use it as triggering business object.
false (default value) Causes this collaboration object to use the triggering business object directly. In this case, the SourceApp port is bound to the Port connector.

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