Overview of the development process

This section provides an overview of the collaboration development process, which includes the following high-level steps:

  1. Install and set up the IBM WebSphereBusiness Integration Server Express software (including the Java Development Kit and all other required third-party products). See the WebSphere Business Integration Server Express system installation guide for your platform for specific installation and configuration instructions.
  2. Design and implement the collaboration.

Stages of collaboration development

The stages of collaboration development are as follows:

  1. Design the business process that the collaboration will implement.
  2. Create the business object definitions.
  3. Create the collaboration template, including meta-information and definitions.
  4. Create each scenario and its activity diagram.
  5. Customize any required code fragments.
  6. Create the message text.
  7. Compile the template.
  8. Create a collaboration object from the collaboration template.
  9. Test and debug the collaboration.
  10. Deploy the collaboration to the run-time environment.

Table 5 provides a visual overview of the collaboration development process and a quick reference to chapters where you can find information on specific topics.

Note:
Some of the overall collaboration development tasks fall outside the somewhat more narrow scope of developing a collaboration template, and therefore are not documented in this guide. For each of these tasks, Table 5 provides a reference to the appropriate document in the WebSphere Business Integration Server Express library.

Note that if a team of people is available for collaboration development, the major tasks of developing a collaboration can be done in parallel by different members of the development team.

Table 5. Overview of the collaboration development tasks
Task: Steps: Refer to:
Design collaboration architecture
  • Identify business processes
  • Investigate use of collaboration templates
  • Customize for special business flows
Designing a collaboration
Design and develop business objects
  • Design structure of business objects
  • Implement business objects
Business Object Development Guide
Build the collaboration template
  • Create the collaboration template and edit its properties
Building a collaboration template
  • Create the scenarios and activity diagrams
Using activity diagrams
  • Customize the code fragments
Using Activity Editor
  • Implement error and message handling
Handling exceptions
Create the collaboration object
  • Create collaboration definition
  • Customize run-time features, if any
System Implementation Guide
Test and debug
  • Test collaboration in WebSphere Business Integration Server Express System
  • Recode as needed
System Implementation Guide

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004, 2005