Using HTTP transport protocol with Message Broker

This section describes how to send and receive documents between WebSphere Business Integration Connect and WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker through the use of the HTTP transport protocol.

Note:
All references to the HTTP transport protocol apply to HTTPS as well.

Components required for documents over HTTP transport

To send or receive a document between Business Integration Connect and Message Broker using the HTTP transport protocol does not require any special components. Only Business Integration Connect and Message Broker are required. For Business Integration Connect to communicate with a version 5.0 of Message Broker using the HTTP transport protocol requires that these two components be configured. Table 84 summarizes these configuration steps.

Table 84. Configuring Business Integration Connect and Message Broker

Component Version For more information
WebSphere Business Integration Connect 4.2.2

Configuring for outgoing documents over HTTP transport protocol

Configuring for incoming documents over HTTP transport protocol

WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker 5.0 Configuring Message Broker

In addition, to send or receive a document between Business Integration Connect and Message Broker using the HTTP transport protocol, you must use version 5.3 IBM WebSphere MQ as your JMS provider.

Sending documents over HTTP transport

For Business Integration Connect to send a document to Message Broker over the HTTP transport protocol, you use special HTTP-transport nodes within the Message Broker message flow to retrieve the document that Business Integration Connect has sent as an HTTP stream. The nodes of the message flow perform the computations required and then route the document to some destination (a JMS output queue).

The following steps describe how Business Integration Connect sends a document to a message flow within Message Broker over the HTTP transport protocol:

  1. Business Integration Connect sends an HTTP message to Message Broker.

    If the packaging type of the document was Backend Integration, Business Integration Connect has provided custom properties in this message.

    Note:
    Within Business Integration Connect, you must configure a gateway that identifies the URL to which Business Integration Connect sends the message and on which Message Broker is polling. For more information, see Configuring for outgoing documents over HTTP transport protocol.
  2. The HTTPInput node of the message flow picks up the document and sends it to the next node of the message flow. This node is usually a compute node.
  3. The nodes of the message flow execute to perform the business logic.

    When business logic is complete, the message flow sends the resulting document to its HTTPReply node.

  4. The HTTPReply node, by default, sends back the output message to the client (Business Integration Connect).

    Alternatively, the message flow can put the message into an MQOutput node. The MQOutput node receives the document and sends it to the appropriate JMS queue or other application.

Receiving documents over HTTP transport

For Business Integration Connect to receive a document from Message Broker using the HTTP transport protocol, you use special HTTP-transport nodes within the Message Broker message flow to send the document that Business Integration Connect is to receive as an HTTP stream. The nodes of the message flow perform the computations required and handle the request and response (if the interaction is synchronous) with Business Integration Connect.

The following steps describe how Business Integration Connect receives a document from a message flow within Message Broker over the HTTP transport protocol:

  1. The message flow within Message Broker receives a document in its MQInput node (a JMS input queue).
  2. The MQInput node of the message flow receives the document and sends it to the HTTPRequest node.
  3. The HTTPRequest node handles the request and response interactions with the client (Business Integration Connect), using a specified URL.
  4. Business Integration Connect receives the message from its URL, as configured in its target.

    For more information on the target, see Configuring for incoming documents over HTTP transport protocol.

Creating the message flow for HTTP transport

For a Message Broker message flow to handle documents over the HTTP transport protocol, it uses the following transport nodes:

The order of use for these transport nodes depends on the direction of communication, as follows:


Table 85. Nodes for sending documents to Message Broker over HTTP

Node type Purpose Notes
HTTPInput Receives the Business Integration Connect request document into the message flow

Set this transport node's URL Selector field (in the Basic properties) to the URL where Business Integration Connect sends its documents. Therefore, it must be set to the URL configured in the Business Integration Connect gateway. The URL should have the following format:

http://hostName:port/path

where hostName is the name of the machine on which Message Broker resides, port is the HTTP port number on which the Message Broker is listening, and path identifies the location on this machine.

For more information, see Configuring for outgoing documents over HTTP transport protocol.

Compute Performs business-logic tasks, such as updating header information Use ESQL to perform the business logic. The compute node sends the resulting message to the HTTPReply node.
HTTPReply Returns a response to Business Integration Connect By default, this node sends the output message to the client. However, you can configure it to send it to an MQOutput node.
MQOutput Receives the document from the HTTPReply node and sends it to Business Integration Connect This transport node sends the resulting document to a JMS output queue, which routes it to its next destination.

Table 86. Nodes for receiving documents from Message Broker over HTTP

Node type Purpose Notes
MQInput Receives the document from Business Integration Connect This transport node receives the incoming document from a JMS input queue.
HTTPRequest Handles request/response interactions with Business Integration Connect

This transport node must set its Web Services URL field (in the Basic Properties) to the URL where Business Integration Connect is listening for documents. Therefore, it must be set to the URL configured in the Business Integration Connect target. The URL should have the following format:

http://hostName:port/bcgreceiver/path

where hostName is the name of the machine on which Business Integration Connect resides, port is the HTTP port number on which the Business Integration Connect Receiver is listening, and path identifies the location on this machine.

For more information, see Configuring for incoming documents over HTTP transport protocol.

For more detailed information on how to create and configure message flow nodes, see your WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker documentation.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003, 2004