The Server Access is an API that allows an external process to request execution of a collaboration inside IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus. A collaboration represents a business process that can involve several applications. By using Server Access, this external process, called an access client, can obtain data from applications that IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus handles through executing a collaboration.
The Server Access facility makes it possible for IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus to receive requests for execution of a collaboration directly, without receiving a triggering event from a connector. The requests that the access client sends are called access requests. To send an access request, an access client issues a call to a method in the Server Access instead of actually sending an event. Therefore, the flow trigger that an access client initiates is called a call-triggered flow, instead of the event-triggered flow that a connector initiates (see Figure 1).
The call-triggered flow is handled with the economy and transparency of an event-triggered flow. The main operational distinction is that call-triggered flows are processed synchronously and are therefore not persistent within the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express and Express Plus system. By contrast, the event-triggered flows are processed asynchronously and are persistent. For more on how these flows are processed in the system, see the System Implementation Guide.
As Figure 1 shows, an access request that an access client initiates involves the following steps:
This section provides the following additional information about call-triggered flow: