WebSphere Process Server Glossary
-
activity
- In the process editor, the
basic building block of a process that represents the usage of an operation
that must take place to satisfy the overall business process. An activity
is connected to links through its terminals.
-
administrative console
- A graphical
interface that guides the user through systems administration tasks such as
deployment, configuration, monitoring, starting and stopping applications,
services, and resources.
-
API
- See application
programming interface.
-
application programming interface (API)
- An interface that allows an application program that is written in a
high-level language to use specific data or functions of the operating system
or another program.
-
application server
- A server program
in a distributed network that provides the execution environment for an application
program.
-
artifact
- A physical piece of information
that is used or produced by a software development process. Examples of artifacts
include models, source files, scripts, and binary executable files.
-
ASYNC
- See asynchronous.
-
asynchronous (ASYNC)
- Pertaining to
events that are not synchronized in time or do not occur in regular or predictable
time intervals.
-
attribute
- A characteristic or trait
of an entity that describes the entity; for example, the telephone number
of an employee is one of that employee's attributes. An attribute may have
a type, which indicates the range of information given by the attribute, and
a value, which is within that range. In XML, for example, an attribute consists
of a name-value pair within a tagged element, that modifies features of the
element.
-
bean
- A definition or instance of
a JavaBeans component. See also enterprise bean, JavaBeans.
-
bidi
- See bidirectional. This definition is from the Localisation Industry Standards Association
(LISA) Glossary.
-
bidirectional (bidi)
- Pertaining to
scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew that generally run from right to left, except
for numbers, which run from left to right. This definition is from the Localisation
Industry Standards Association (LISA) Glossary.
-
BPEL
- See Business
Process Execution Language.
-
business graph
- A wrapper that is
added around a simple business object or a hierarchy of business objects to
provide additional capabilities, such as carrying change summary and event
summary information related to the business objects in the business graph.
-
business object
- A set of attributes
that represent a business entity (such as Employee).
-
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)
- An XML-based language for the formal specification of business processes
and business interaction protocols. BPEL extends the Web Services interaction
model and enables it to support business transactions.
-
business rule
- A directive intended
to influence or guide business behavior in support of business policy that
has been formulated in response to business unit SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats) analysis.
-
business rule group component
- A component
that provides the interface for calling business rules, as well as a logical
grouping mechanism for managing business rules.
-
cascading style sheet (CSS)
- A file
that defines a hierarchical set of style rules for controlling the rendering
of HTML or XML files in browsers, viewers, or in print. A CSS includes a
defined order of precedence to address cases when the definitions of any style
element in a document conflict.
-
CEI
- See Common
Event Infrastructure.
-
cell
- An arbitrary grouping of one
or more nodes in a distributed network.
-
class
- In object-oriented design or
programming, a model or template that can be used to create objects with a
common definition and common properties, operations, and behavior. An object
is an instance of a class.
-
class path
- A list of directories
and JAR files that contain resource files or Java classes that a program can
load dynamically at run time.
-
cluster
- A group of application servers
that collaborates for the purposes of workload balancing and failover.
-
CMP
- See container-managed
persistence.
-
Common Event Infrastructure (CEI)
- A core technology of the IBM Autonomic Computing initiative that provides
basic event management services, including consolidating and persisting raw
events from multiple, heterogeneous sources and distributing those events
to event consumers.
-
compensation
- The means by which operations
in a process that have successfully completed can be undone if an error occurs,
to return the system to a consistent state.
-
compensation service
- The operation
that is performed to compensate for a successful operation when a process
generates a fault (which is not handled within the process).
-
connection factory
- A set of configuration
values that produces connections that enable a J2EE component to access a
resource. Connection factories provide on-demand connections from an application
to an enterprise information system (EIS).
-
connection pool
- A group of host connections
that are maintained in an initialized state, ready to be used without having
to create and initialize them.
-
container
- (1) A column or row that is
used to arrange the layout of a portlet or other container on a page.
- (2) An entity that provides life-cycle management, security, deployment,
and runtime services to components. (Sun) Each type of container (EJB, Web,
JSP, servlet, applet, and application client) also provides component-specific
services.
-
container-managed persistence (CMP)
- The mechanism whereby data transfer between an entity bean's variables and
a resource manager is managed by the entity bean's container. (Sun)
-
container transaction
- See >container-managed transaction.
-
CSS
- See cascading
style sheet. A CSS includes a defined order of precedence to address
cases when the definitions of any style element in a document conflict.
-
database response file
- A text file
that specifies parameters for configuring the event database.
-
data store profile
- An object that
defines properties used by the default data store plug-in, which is used to
persistently store events received by the event server.
-
deadlock
- A condition in which two
independent threads of control are blocked, each waiting for the other to
take some action. Deadlock often arises from adding synchronization mechanisms
to avoid race conditions.
-
deploy
- To place files or install
software into an operational environment. In J2EE, this involves creating
a deployment descriptor suitable to the type of application that is being
deployed.
-
deployment code
- Additional code that
enables bean implementation code written by an application developer to work
in a particular EJB runtime environment. Deployment code can be generated
by tools that the application server vendor supplies.
-
deprecated
- Pertaining to an entity,
such as a programming element or feature, that is supported but no longer
recommended, and that might become obsolete.
-
distributed application
- An application
made up of distinct components that are physically located on different computer
systems, connected by a network.
-
EAR
- See enterprise
archive. See also Web archive, Java archive.
-
EIS
- See enterprise
information system.
-
EJB
- See Enterprise
JavaBeans.
-
EJB container
- A container that implements
the EJB component contract of the J2EE architecture. This contract specifies
a runtime environment for enterprise beans that includes security, concurrency,
life cycle management, transaction, deployment, and other services. (Sun)
-
EJB factory
- An access bean that simplifies
the creating or finding of an enterprise bean instance.
-
EJB home object
- In EJB, an object
that provides the life cycle operations (create, remove, find) for an enterprise
bean. (Sun)
-
EJB JAR file
- A Java archive that
contains an EJB module. (Sun)
-
EJB module
- A software unit that consists
of one or more enterprise beans and an EJB deployment descriptor. (Sun)
-
EJB object
- In enterprise beans, an
object whose class implements the enterprise bean remote interface (Sun).
-
EJB query
- In the EJB query language,
a string that contains an optional SELECT clause specifying the EJB objects
to return, a FROM clause that names the bean collections, an optional WHERE
clause that contains search predicates over the collections, an optional ORDER
BY clause that specifies the ordering of the result collection; and input
parameters that correspond to the arguments of the finder method.
-
enterprise application
- See J2EE application.
-
enterprise archive (EAR)
- A specialized
type of JAR file, defined by the J2EE standard, used to deploy J2EE applications
to J2EE application servers. An EAR file contains EJB components, a deployment
descriptor, and Web archive (WAR) files for individual Web applications. See
also Web archive, Java archive.
-
enterprise bean
- A component that
implements a business task or business entity and resides in an EJB container.
Entity beans, session beans, and message-driven beans are all enterprise beans.
(Sun) See also bean.
-
enterprise information system (EIS)
- The applications that comprise an enterprise's existing system for handling
companywide information. An enterprise information system offers a well-defined
set of services that are exposed as local or remote interfaces or both. (Sun)
-
Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)
- A component
architecture defined by Sun Microsystems for the development and deployment
of object-oriented, distributed, enterprise-level applications.
-
enterprise service discovery wizard
- A tool that is used to generate business objects, WSDL interfaces, and Service
Component Architecture (SCA) constructs from the enterprise information system
to run as an SCA component.
-
entity
- In markup languages such as
XML, a collection of characters that can be referenced as a unit, for example
to incorporate often repeated text or special characters within a document.
-
entity bean
- In EJB programming, an
enterprise bean that represents persistent data maintained in a database.
Each entity bean carries its own identity. (Sun) There are two types of entity
beans: container-managed persistence (CMP) entity beans and bean-managed persistence
(BMP) entity beans. See also session bean.
-
event
- A message, request, or notification
that is either sent or received by business integration applications.
-
event access interface
- A J2EE stateless
session bean that provides methods for querying historical events from the
event server.
-
event catalog
- A repository of event
metadata used by applications to retrieve information about classes of events
and their permitted content.
-
event catalog application
- An application
that stores or retrieves event metadata in the event catalog, such as a management
or development tool, or an event source or event consumer.
-
event correlation sphere
- The scope
of an ECSEmitter method that allows an event consumer to correlate events.
Each event includes the identifier of the correlation sphere to which it belongs
and the identifier of its parent correlation sphere from the event hierarchy.
-
event database
- A database in which
events that can be monitored are stored, and which is required to support
the persistence of those events.
-
event definition
- A description of
event classes and their allowed content, which is stored by the event catalog.
-
event factory
- An object that returns
new instances of either the CommonBaseEvent element or of the specialized
classes representing complex property data types.
-
event object
- An object that captures
information about an event that has occurred in a system application and then
passes the event object to the event infrastructure, where it is published
to event subscribers or stored in a database for later retrieval. The event
object describes an event type, indicates when the application generated the
event, and identifies properties relevant to the event.
-
exit condition
- A Boolean expression
that controls when processing at a process node is completed.
-
extended data element
- An application-specific
element that contains information relevant to an event.
-
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- A standard metalanguage for defining markup languages that is based on Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML). XML simplifies the process of authoring
and managing structured information and transmitting and sharing structured
information across diverse computing systems.
-
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
- A language for specifying style sheets for XML documents. XSL Transformation
(XSLT) is used with XSL to describe how an XML document is transformed into
another document.
-
Faces component
- One of a collection
of user interface components (such as input fields) and data components (representing
data such as records in a database) that can be dragged to a Faces JSP file
and then bound to each other to build a dynamic Web project. See also JavaServer Faces.
-
Faces JSP file
- A file that represents
a page in a dynamic Web project and contains JavaServer Faces UI and data
components. See also JavaServer Faces.
-
factory
- In object-oriented programming,
a class that is used to create instances of another class. A factory is used
to isolate the creation of objects of a particular class into one place so
that new functions can be provided without widespread code changes.
-
failed event
- An object that records
the source, destination, description, and time of failure between two service
connector components.
-
global instance identifier
- A globally
unique identifier that is generated either by the application or by the emitter
and is used as a primary key for event identification.
-
handle
- In the J2EE specification,
an object that identifies an enterprise bean. A client may serialize the handle,
and then later deserialize it to obtain a reference to the enterprise bean.
(Sun)
-
human task
- An interaction between
a Web service and a human.
-
interface map
- A supporting service
component in Service Component Architecture (SCA) that captures a fairly common
pattern, allowing module designers to resolve and reconcile differences across
multiple interfaces, using transforms and other rudimentary operations.
-
J2EE
- See Java
2 Platform, Enterprise Edition.
-
J2EE application
- Any deployable unit
of J2EE functionality. This unit can be a single module or a group of modules
packaged into an enterprise archive (EAR) file with a J2EE application deployment
descriptor. (Sun)
-
JAAS
- See Java
Authentication and Authorization Service.
-
JAR
- See Java
archive. See also enterprise archive, Web archive.
-
JAR file
- A Java archive file.
-
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
- An environment for developing and deploying enterprise applications,
defined by Sun Microsystems Inc. The J2EE platform consists of a set of services,
application programming interfaces (APIs), and protocols that provide the
functionality for developing multitiered, Web-based applications. (Sun)
-
Java archive (JAR)
- A compressed file
format for storing all the resources that are required to install and run
a Java program in a single file. See also enterprise
archive, Web archive.
-
Java Authentication and Authorization Service
(JAAS)
- In J2EE technology, a standard API for performing security-based
operations. Through JAAS, services can authenticate and authorize users while
enabling the applications to remain independent from underlying technologies.
-
Java bean
- See also enterprise bean, JavaBeans. See bean.
-
JavaBeans
- As defined for Java by
Sun Microsystems, a portable, platform-independent, reusable component model.
See also bean.
-
Java class
- A class that is written
in the Java language.
-
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)
- An industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java
platform and a wide range of databases. The JDBC interface provides a call-level
API for SQL-based database access.
-
Java Message Service (JMS)
- An application
programming interface that provides Java language functions for handling messages.
-
Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI)
- An extension to the Java platform that provides a standard interface
for heterogeneous naming and directory services.
-
JavaServer Faces (JSF)
- A framework
for building Web-based user interfaces in Java. Web developers can build applications
by placing reusable UI components on a page, connecting the components to
an application data source, and wiring client events to server event handlers.
See also JavaServer Pages, Faces component, Faces JSP file.
-
JavaServer Pages (JSP)
- A server-side
scripting technology that enables Java code to be dynamically embedded within
Web pages (HTML files) and executed when the page is served, in order to return
dynamic content to a client. See also JSP file, JSP page, JavaServer Faces.
-
JDBC
- See Java
Database Connectivity.
-
JMS
- See Java
Message Service.
-
JNDI
- See Java
Naming and Directory Interface.
-
join
- (1) An SQL relational operation
that allows retrieval of data from two or more tables based on matching column
values.
- (2) A incoming link that connects an activity to the rest
of the process.
-
JSF
- See JavaServer
Faces. See also JavaServer Pages, Faces component, Faces JSP file.
-
JSP
- See JavaServer
Pages. See also JSP file, JSP page, JavaServer Faces.
-
JSP file
- A scripted HTML file that
has a .jsp extension and allows for the inclusion of dynamic content in Web
pages. A JSP file can be directly requested as a URL, called by a servlet,
or called from within an HTML page. See also JavaServer
Pages, JSP page.
-
JSP page
- A text-based document using
fixed template data and JSP elements that describes how to process a request
to create a response. (Sun) See also JavaServer Pages, JSP file.
-
LDAP directory
- A hierarchical directory
of names that can reflect an organization's structure or geography and that
is accessed via the LDAP protocol. Running LDAP on a Domino server enables
the Domino Directory to serve as an LDAP directory.
-
local home interface
- In EJB, an interface
that specifies the methods used by local clients for locating, creating, and
removing instances of enterprise bean classes. See also remote home interface.
-
managed node
- A topology that consists
of one or more federated process servers.
-
mediation module
- A module that allows
communication between applications by transforming the service invocation
to a format that is understood by the target, passing the request to a target,
and returning the result to the originator.w
-
message
- In Web Services Description
Language (WSDL), a single piece of information moving between the invoker
and the service that describes which operations the service provides. A message
consists of logical parts, each of which is associated with a definition within
some type of system.
-
method
- (1) In Java programming, a function
that is defined in a class. (Sun)
- (2) In object-oriented programming,
an operation that an object can perform. An object can have many methods.
-
module
- In J2EE programming, a software
unit that consists of one or more components of the same container type and
one deployment descriptor of that type. Examples include EJB, Web, and application
client modules. (Sun)
-
namespace
- (1) In XML, a uniform resource
identifier (URI) that provides a unique name to associate with all the elements
and type definitions in a schema.
- (2) Space reserved by a file system
to contain the names of its objects.
-
naming service
- An implementation
of the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) standard.
-
node
- (1) An addressable element in a
portal navigation tree.
- (2) A logical grouping of managed servers.
-
persistent data store
- A nonvolatile
storage for event data, such as a database system, that is maintained across
session boundaries and that continues to exist after the execution of the
program or process that created it.
-
queue manager
- A system program that
provides queuing services to applications. It provides an application programming
interface so that programs can access messages on the queues that the queue
manager owns.
-
RAR
- See resource
adapter archive.
-
relationship instance
- The run-time
instantiation of the relationship. The relationship definition is a template
for the relationship instance.
-
relationship manager
- A tool for creating
and manipulating relationship and role data at run time.
-
relationship service
- A service used
to model and maintain relationships across business objects and other data
-
remote home interface
- In enterprise
beans, an interface that specifies the methods used by remote clients for
locating, creating, and removing instances of enterprise bean classes. See
also local home interface.
-
remote method
- A business method in
the remote interface that is callable by a client.
-
resource adapter archive (RAR)
- A
Java archive (JAR) file that is used to package a resource adapter for the
Java 2 Connector (J2C) architecture for WebSphere Application Server.
-
response file
- An ASCII file that
can be customized with setup and configuration data. When this file is invoked
from a command line, it automates installation or profile creation and augmentation
processes. A response file cannot be used interactively.
-
result set
- The set of rows that a
stored procedure returns.
-
role
- In J2EE development, the function
performed by an individual in the development and deployment phases of an
application. The J2EE specification defines several roles, including Application
Component Provider, Application Assembler, Deployer, System Administrator,
and Tool Provider.
-
SCA
- See Service
Component Architecture.
-
SDO
- See Service
Data Objects.
-
selector component
- A component that
provides a means of interposing a dynamic selection mechanism between the
client application and a set of target implementations.
-
Service Component Architecture (SCA)
- An architecture in which all elements of a business transaction, such as access
to Web services, Enterprise Information System (EIS) service assets, business
rules, workflows, databases and so on, are represented in a service-oriented
way.
-
Service Data Objects (SDO)
- An open
standard for enabling applications to handle data from heterogeneous data
sources in a uniform way. SDO incorporates J2EE patterns but simplifies the
J2EE data programming model.
-
service-oriented architecture (SOA)
- A conceptual description of the structure of a software system in terms of
its components and the services they provide, without regard for the underlying
implementation of these components, services and connections between components.
-
session
- (1) A logical or virtual connection
between two stations, programs, or devices on a network that allows the two
elements to communicate and exchange data, or the activities that occur during
the establishment, maintenance, and release of the connection. A session
can be activated and deactivated as requested.
- (2) In J2EE, an object
used by a servlet to track a user's interaction with a Web application across
multiple HTTP requests.
-
session bean
- An enterprise bean that
is created by a client and that usually exists only for the duration of a
single client/server session. (Sun) See also entity
bean.
-
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
- A lightweight, XML-based protocol for exchanging information in a decentralized,
distributed environment. SOAP can be used to query and return information
and invoke services across the Internet.
-
SOA
- See service-oriented
architecture.
-
SOAP
- See Simple
Object Access Protocol.
-
SQL
- See Structured
Query Language.
-
SQL query
- A component of certain
SQL statements that specifies a result table.
-
staff activity
- An activity in a process
that queries human interaction for decisions on how to proceed. It is used
in an interruptible process where the process will halt to await the outcome
of the human interaction.
-
stateful session bean
- A session bean
that acts on behalf of a single client and maintains client-specific session
information (called conversational state) across multiple method calls and
transactions. See also stateless session bean.
-
stateless session bean
- A session
bean with no conversational state. All instances of a stateless bean are identical.
(Sun) See also stateful session bean.
-
Structured Query Language (SQL)
- A standardized language for defining and manipulating data in a relational
database.
-
style sheet
- A specification of formatting
instructions that, when applied to structured information, provides a particular
rendering of that information (for example, online or printed). Different
style sheets can be applied to the same piece of structured information to
produce different presentations of the information.
-
synchronous process
- A process that
starts by invoking a request-response operation. The result of the process
is returned by the same operation.
-
target component
- A component that
is the final target of a client service request.
-
target namespace
- A unique logical
location for information about the service that associates a namespace with
a WSDL location.
-
transition condition
- A Boolean expression
that determines when processing control should be passed to the targeted node.
-
UDDI
- See Universal
Description, Discovery, and Integration.
-
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
- A unique address that is used to identify content on the Web, such as a page
of text, a video or sound clip, a still or animated image, or a program. The
most common form of URI is the Web page address, which is a particular form
or subset of URI called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URI typically
describes how to access the resource, the computer that contains the resource,
and the name of the resource (a file name) on the computer.
-
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
- The
unique address of a file that is accessible in a network such as the Internet.
The URL includes the abbreviated name of the protocol used to access the information
resource and the information used by the protocol to locate the information
resource.
-
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
(UDDI)
- A set of standards-based specifications that enables companies
and applications to quickly and easily find and use Web services over the
Internet.
-
URI
- See Uniform
Resource Identifier.
-
URL
- See Uniform
Resource Locator.
-
user registry
- A database of known
users and user-provided information that is used for authentication purposes.
-
Web archive
- A compressed file format,
defined by the J2EE standard, for storing all the resources required to install
and run a Web application in a single file. See also enterprise archive, Java archive.
-
Web server
- A software program that
is capable of servicing Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests.
-
Web server plug-in
- A software module
that supports the Web server in communicating requests for dynamic content,
such as servlets, to the application server.
-
Web Services Business Process Execution Language
(WS-BPEL)
- See Business Process Execution
Language.
-
WebSphere Process Server Failed Event Manager
- A graphical user interface in the administrative console from
which administrators can query, update, and manage failed events slated for
manual recovery.
-
WS-BPEL
- See Web Services Business Process Execution Language. See Business Process Execution Language.
-
XML
- See Extensible
Markup Language. XML simplifies the process of authoring and managing
structured information and transmitting and sharing structured information
across diverse computing systems.
-
XML Path Language (XPath)
- An XSL
sublanguage designed to uniquely identify or address parts of a source XML
document, for use with XSLT. XPath also provides basic facilities for manipulation
of strings, numbers and Booleans.
-
XML schema
- In XML, a mechanism for
describing and constraining the content of XML files by indicating which elements
are allowed and in which combinations. XML schemas are an alternative to the
document type definition (DTD) and can be used to extend functionality in
the areas of data typing, inheritance, and presentation.
-
XML Schema Definition Language (XSD)
- A language for describing XML files that contain XML schema.
-
XPath
- See XML Path Language.
-
XPath expression
- An expression that
searches through an XML document and extracts information from the nodes (any
part of the document, such as an element or attribute) in that document.
-
XSD
- See XML
Schema Definition Language.
-
XSL
- See Extensible
Stylesheet Language.
-
XSL style sheet
- Code that describes
how an XML document should be rendered (displayed or printed).
-
XSLT
- See XSL
Transformation.
-
XSL Transformation (XSLT)
- A standard
that uses XSL style sheets to transform XML documents into other XML documents,
fragments, or HTML documents.