DepartmentManager Collaboration Template

Departments represent a specialized organizational unit and generally include static information. Departments can also be defined for a specific time period that is directly related to a project. When restructuring occurs, new department definitions need to be created and other definitions updated (for example: descriptions changed or made obsolete).

The DepartmentManager collaboration synchronizes the definition of a department across different applications. The collaboration ensures that all department information, such as the department number, department name and description, and the validity period are the same for the source and the destination. When synchronizing, the collaboration first checks whether the information from the source application exists in the destination application. If it does not, the collaboration creates it.

DepartmentManager does not support:

The DepartmentManager collaboration uses the generic Department business object, which represents department information in a human resources application.

Collaboration object setup

This section includes information on port bindings and required steps for setting up collaboration objects based on DepartmentManager. For information on standard features, ports, and configuration properties for collaboration templates, see the Collaboration Development Guide. For general information on creating collaboration objects, see the System Implementation Guide.

Port information

Figure 1 illustrates DepartmentManager's ports as they are displayed in System Manager. The tables that follow the figure provide information about the ports.

Figure 1. DepartmentManager collaboration ports

Note: To prevent the collaboration object from using a port, bind that port to the Port connector. Binding the port indicates that the port is unused without causing the collaboration object to provide additional functionality.

Port name: DestinationAppRetrieve
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Department The destination application's connector Sends a reference-valued business object to retrieve the full-valued business object. The result determines the verb to use when synchronizing the Department.

Retrieve


Port name: From
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Department Source application's connector or calling collaboration. Receives the triggering business object. At the end of a synchronous call, this port also returns the triggering business object to the source application when the collaboration ends successfully.

Create Retrieve Update Delete


Port name: To
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
Department The destination application's connector

Sends the triggering business object out of the collaboration.

Create Update Delete

Setting up the collaboration object

DepartmentManager is designed to be used as a stand-alone collaboration. To set up DepartmentManager as a stand-alone collaboration object, follow these steps:

  1. Create the DepartmentManager collaboration object.
  2. Bind each of the collaboration object's ports as described in Port information.
  3. Set the Configuration properties for DepartmentManager.  

Collaboration template processes

This section illustrates the process logic for this collaboration template:

Overall process logic

Figure 2 illustrates DepartmentManager's process logic.

Figure 2. DepartmentManager collaboration process logic

Inherited process logic

This collaboration template uses the following standard collaboration business processes:

For information about these processes, see the Collaboration Development Guide.

Compensation processing

InterChange Server Express can roll back a transaction when any step in a transactional collaboration fails. For example, when DepartmentManager is a member of a collaboration-object group that participates in a transactional collaboration, its actions are one subtransactional step of a larger transaction. If any step in the collaboration-object group's business process fails, the transactional collaboration details how InterChange Server Express rolls back the processing of every collaboration in the group.

When a DepartmentManager collaboration object is used independently of other collaboration objects or the collaboration object's From port is bound to a source application rather than to another collaboration, its process comprises a single transactional step. In such a situation, it is not necessary to perform rollback.

To cause a collaboration object or a collaboration-object group to perform rollback requires modification of the collaboration template. To understand transaction processing in the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express Plus system, see the System Implementation Guide. 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 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 this collaboration object and other 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 other members of the collaboration-object group to "true". Forcing the collaboration objects to retrieve values before changing them allows the collaboration objects to restore the original values in an Update or Delete process.

Configuration properties

Note: DepartmentManager does not have unique configuration properties. All of its properties are standard.

Standard properties

This collaboration template uses the following standard configuration properties for collaboration templates:

For information on these configuration properties, see the Collaboration Development Guide.

Collaboration messages

To view an explanation of the messages of this collaboration template, launch the Log Viewer and open the collaboration template's message file. To launch the Log Viewer and open the collaboration template's message file:

  1. In the Start menu, click Programs > IBM WebSphere Business Integration Express > Toolset Express > Administrative > Log Viewer.
  2. In the File menu, click Open.
  3. Use the Look In field to change the current folder to ProductDir\collaborations\messages, and then select the message file for this collaboration template.

Upgrade information

Upgrade process

To upgrade to a newer version of the collaboration template, perform the following steps:

  1. Stop the current DepartmentManager collaboration.
  2. Back up the repository. For information about backing up the repository, see the System Administration Guide.
  3. If you have customized the collaboration template:
  4. Install the new DepartmentManager collaboration template.
  5. Add your customizations to the new collaboration template.
  6. Create the new collaboration object, binding it to the appropriate connectors. For more information, see Collaboration setup.
  7. Run and test the new collaboration object.
  8. Make changes to the collaboration object based on any problems found during testing.

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