The Server Access Interface is an API that allows an external process to request execution of a collaboration inside IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express. A collaboration represents a business process that can involve several applications. By using Server Access Interface, this external process, called an access client, can obtain data from applications that InterChange Server Express handles through executing a collaboration.
The Server Access Interface makes it possible for InterChange Server Express 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 Interface 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 InterChange Server Express 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: