The Server Access Interface is an API that allows an external process to request execution of a collaboration inside IBM WebSphere InterChange Server. 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 ICS handles through executing a collaboration.
The Server Access Interface makes it possible for WebSphere InterChange Server 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 WebSphere InterChange Server 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 Technical Introduction to IBM WebSphere InterChange Server.
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: