Collaboration templates and objects

When you install a collaboration, you install a collaboration template. A collaboration template contains all of the collaboration's execution logic, but it is not executable. To execute a collaboration, you must first create a collaboration object from the template. The collaboration object becomes executable after you configure it by binding it to connectors or to other collaboration objects, and by specifying other configuration properties.

Note:
The toolset available with InterChange Server includes a collaboration design tool called Process Designer, with which you can customize and create collaboration templates.

You can use the same collaboration template to create multiple collaboration objects. For example, suppose that you are using a Contact Manager collaboration to integrate front office and back office applications. If one department of the company uses Clarify and another department uses Siebel front-office applications, and both use SAP back-office applications, you can create two collaboration objects from the ContactManager collaboration template.

Figure 17. Creating collaboration objects from a template


You then can configure each collaboration object so that both are bound to different connectors for their source application but they are each bound to the same connector for their destination application.

Figure 18. Configuring collaboration objects


Note:
This manual uses the term "collaboration" when describing behavior, design, and features. It uses "collaboration template" and "collaboration object" only when the distinction is important, usually in reference to the configuration process or the repository.

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