Call-triggered flow example

The Server Access Interface supports business-to-business transactions that require secure, reliable, external access by suppliers, vendors, or networked corporate units to backend applications. What follows is a business-to-business example involving two fictional firms, Firm A and Firm B.

Figure 2. Business-to-business example
 The figure shows a schematic of a business-to-business exchange. The image is a flow diagram with 4 main parts: A computer screen labeled "Firm A Browser" (also denoted "1"), a shaded rectangle labeled "Firm B WebSphere" ("2"), a larger shaded area called "Firm B InterChange server" and lastly a single node labeled "SAP enterprise application". There are double-headed arrows connecting these 4 areas in this same sequence. The arrow connecting the Firm A browser to the Firm B webserver is denoted "7" and that linking the "Firm B InterChange server" to the "SAP enterprise application" is marked "5". The "Firm B webserver" contains a node called "Servlet" which is where the arrow leading to the "Firm B InterChange server" stems. This arrow is denoted "IIOP". The same arrow ends at a node in the InterChange server labelled "Server Access Interface". An arrow (labelled "4") points from this node to a node called "collaboration", also contained within the InterChange server, and it is from this "collaboration" node that the connector runs to the "SAP enterprise application". The only other node in the diagram is back in the InterChange server area. Here a node lies beneath the "Server Access Interface" and is called "Data Handlers" 2 arrows connect these two nodes, one in each direction. The arrow running from the Server Access Interface to the Data Handlers is labelled "3" and the opposite arrow is labelled "6". The number labels correspond to entries in the text.

In this example, Firm A wishes to order 1,000 ICs from Firm B. For authorized suppliers such as Firm A, Firm B supports call-triggered flows to its IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express-integrated backend. The process unfolds as follows:

  1. A Firm A employee logs in to the Firm B Web site, entering an account ID and password. The employee then places an order for 1,000 ICs. The Firm B Web server authenticates the user as an authorized vendor.
  2. The access client initiates a call-triggered flow at Firm B's e-business server (IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express). Firm B's Server Access Interface receives and processes the API calls from the access client. The triggering access call indicates that the data is in XML format.
  3. Firm A's call-triggered flow passes data to the XML data handler. This data handler converts the serialized data into Firm B's generic business-object format. Business object definitions are extracted from the DTDs in the XML data stream and from the data-handler meta-object.
  4. Firm A's access client executes the collaboration inside the Firm B InterChange Server Express, launching an Order_Generation process. The business object uses a IBM WebSphere collaboration that is appropriately configured--one that is bound to a port with an access-client capability and that has a map to convey data to and from that port.
  5. The business object is routed to a IBM WebSphere connector for SAP, which accesses Firm B's SAP/R3 application and places the order. (Firm B routes the order to its supplier sites for fulfillment). The result--order confirmation--is generated and passed via a connector back to the access client.
  6. Firm A's access client sends the resulting business object to the XML data handler. The XML data handler parses and converts the result into an XML data stream.
  7. The result is streamed to the Web server site, which launches a separate process to e-mail the Firm A employee with confirmation of the transaction, including the order number.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004, 2005