The role of IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus data handlers

An IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus data handler converts between serialized data and an IBM WebSphere business object. These data handlers support a variety of data formats for the serialized data. The Server Access API allows the access client to send a triggering event formatted in one of several different formats. If the triggering access data is in XML, the Server Access within IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus makes calls to the XML data handler, which parses the triggering access data and converts it to the IBM WebSphere data format: a business object. Optionally, the access client can pass the resulting business object from a collaboration response to the Server Access, which calls the appropriate the data handler for conversion back to the incoming (in this case, XML) format.

To invoke a data handler, the Server Access must first locate a top-level data-handler meta-object that it uses to create an instance of a data handler. The top-level meta-object for IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus is MO_Server_DataHandler and it resides on the same machine as IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus. The Server Access Development software includes the XML data handler, EDI data handler, NameValue data handler, FixedWidth data handler, and Delimiter data handler. It also supports development of custom data handlers. By default, the MO_Server_DataHandler meta-object is configured so that the Server Access automatically calls the XML data handler when it receives serialized data from an access client. If your access client uses serialized data in some format other than XML, you need to make sure that this MO_Server_DataHandler meta-object is modified to support the appropriate data handler. For more information, see the Data Handler Guide.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004