UsageManager collaboration template

The UsageManager collaboration template records a use history (Usage record) for a customer. For example, UsageManager is used when a customer orders or uses a service.

UsageManager uses the Generic Usage business object to represent a a use history (Usage record) for a customer.

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 UsageManager's ports:

UsageManager 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.

Port name: From
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Usage

Caller application

Receives the triggering business object

Create, Update, Delete,  Retrieve


Port name: To
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Usage

Usage management system

Sends the triggering business object out of the collaboration object Create, Update, Delete

Port name: DestinationAppRetrieve
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Usage

Usage management system

Sends a reference-valued business object to retrieve the full-valued business object Retrieve
 
Port name: SourceApp
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Usage Source application
 
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, retrieves the source data from the master application, and synchronizes that data with other applications.

Note: Since this port is closely related to SYNC_FROM_SOURCE property, see the SYNC_FROM_SOURCE property.
Retrieve

Port name: Return
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Usage WebSphere MQ Workflow
 
Returns the result of the collaboration object's processing to an application before the collaboration object ends its process.

Note: Since this port is closely related to USE_RETURN property, see the USE_RETURN property.
Update

Port name: ToBillableItem
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
BillableItem BillableItemManager collaboration object or billing management system Sends the child BillableItem business object, if it exists, out of the collaboration object Create

Setting up the collaboration object

To set up UsageManager as a stand-alone collaboration object, complete the following steps:

  1. Create the UsageManager collaboration object.
  2. Bind the collaboration object's ports as described in Port information.
  3. Set the configuration properties for UsageManager.

Collaboration template processes

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

Overall process logic

This section illustrates UsageManager's process logic for its supported verbs indicated below, as well as additional process logic that will be executed if the SYNC_FROM_SOURCE or USE_RETURN configuration properties are set to true:

Create, Delete, and Update

The following diagram shows the process logic for this collaboration template's Create, Delete, and Update verbs.

UsageManager Create, Update and Delete process logic

Retrieve

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

UsageManager Retrieve 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.

UsageManager SYNC_FROM_SOURCE  process logic

USE_RETURN

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

UsageManager USE_RETURN process logic

Standard business processes

This collaboration template uses the following standard business processes:

Compensation processing

IBM WebSphere InterChange Server provides the ability to roll back a transaction upon the failure of any step in the transaction. For example, when this collaboration object is a member of a collaboration object group, its process is one subtransactional step in a larger process. If any step fails in the collaboration object group's processes, IBM WebSphere Business InterChange Server allows you to roll back the processing of every collaboration object in the group.

When this collaboration object is used independently of other collaboration objects, its process comprises a single transactional step. In such a situation, it is not necessary to perform a rollback.

To cause a collaboration object or a collaboration object group to perform rollback requires modifying the collaboration template. To understand transaction processing by IBM WebSphere InterChange Server, see the Technical Introduction to IBM WebSphere InterChange Server. For information on adding transaction processing to the collaboration template, see the Collaboration Development Guide.

To extend the collaboration object to handle transaction processing, complete the following steps:

  1. Add this capability to the collaboration template and to every other collaboration template used in the collaboration object group.
  2. Set the minimum transaction level of the collaboration object and all members of the collaboration object group to a value higher than None. If a failure occurs in any subtransaction step, settings of Minimal Effort or higher cause the collaboration object and member collaboration objects in the group to execute compensation for Create, Update, and Delete operations performed on all business objects.
  3. Set the USE_RETRIEVE property of the collaboration object and all members of a collaboration object group to true. Forcing the collaboration objects to retrieve values before changing them allows the collaborations objects to restore the original values in an Update or Delete process.

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

The following properties are specific to this collaboration template:

EXCEPTION_WHEN_BO_NOT_FOUND_ON_RETRIEVE

This property specifies how to handle an exception raised by the destination application when no records are found that match the search criteria.

EXCEPTION_WHEN_BO_NOT_FOUND_ON_RETRIEVE  configuration property
Possible values Usage
true (default value) Handles the exception as an error, and causes this collaboration object to fail and to raise an exception.
false Handles the exception as a zero result, and causes this collaboration object to finish successfully and to return an empty list.

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.

USE_RETURN

This property specifies whether to return the processed business object through the Return port.

Note: Exceptions from USE_RETURN process are not handled as INFORMATIONAL_EXCEPTIONS, because of the nature of the process.

USE_RETURN configuration property
Possible values Usage
true Causes this collaboration object to return the processed business object through the Return port after the completion of  processing. This is typically used when this collaboration object is called to return the result from the preceding asynchronous request.
false (default value) Causes this collaboration object not to return through the Return port. In this case, the Return port is bound to the Port connector.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2002, 2003