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
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
