Browsing the samples of Clemence i came by a little feature didn’t knew about yet.
It was clear to me you could trigger the events from within the mediator.

To trigger an event from withing your bpel process, just add the invoke-activity, for interaction type select ‘Event’ and select the event you want to trigger.

So instead of invoking a partnerlink you’ll now invoke the event definition.

<invoke name="Invoke_1" bpelx:eventName="ns2:EnvironmentEvent" inputVariable="MyEventInput"/>

Because of a little illness Lucas was a bit faster with the publish of his article but i decided to still post it on my blog.
In the new Fusion 11g, Oracle added a new extension to the bpel language for the coordination of master- and detail processes.
With this add on it is possible to relate a master process with his detail processes and give signals to each other when to start and when parts are finished.

Let’s start with building something
We created a new composite application and added 3 bpel processes to it.
The first process is the master process and this one will invoke 2 detail processes.
The idea is to let both detail process only get started when they receive a ’signal’ from the master processes. If they receive it,
they’ll execute their own logic and when either finished or at some point they want to communicate back to the master process, they give a ’signal’ back.

In the master process, after the the receive add the first signal

<bpelx:signal name="doDetail1" label="doDetail1" to="details"/>

This will give the first detail process a signal so it will be able to receive
Now we need to invoke the first detail process

        <invoke name="invokeDetail"
                inputVariable="invokeDetail_process_InputVariable"
                partnerLink="MyDetail.mydetail_client" portType="ns1:MyDetail"
                operation="process"
                bpelx:detailLabel="detailProcessComplete1"
                bpelx:invokeAsDetail="true">

Two things in here are needed. The first is the bpelx:invokeAsDetail=”true” and the second is the bpelx:detailLabel=”detailProcessComplete1″
The last property is used in cases in which we have multiple detail processes and the signals need to get correlated back with the master process.

Now lets see what is needed in the first detail process to receive the signal and eventually send one back to the master process.
The first activity after the receive is the receive signal

        <bpelx:receiveSignal name="WaitOnSignalFromMaster"
                             label="doDetail1" from="master"/>

This will receive the signal from its master process and after that will carry on. Without the signal the detail process won’t get started. So you will only be able to trigger this detail/sub process from it’s master process.

After receiving the signal the detail process can execute some logic and eventually send back the signal to the master process

        <bpelx:signal name="ReplyBackToMaster"
                      label="detailProcessComplete1" to="master"/>

In the master process we use the receiveSignal activity to receive it back from the detail process and go on with the process.

        <bpelx:receiveSignal name="waitForDetailProcess1"
                             label="detailProcessComplete1" from="details"/>

The same code is needed to invoke the second detail process. It’s up to you to decide wether or not the second detail process can run parallel to the first one.
If this is not the case we need to wait on the receiveSignal from the first detail process before we can start the second one.

If both processes can execute their logic and eventually send the signal back we can also receive both signals on the end of the master process. If both signals are receive we can do the callback because the whole process (master and all his details have been completed).
And in this case we can invoke the detail processes like oneway processes, but still inform the master process about the state of all these oneway (long running?) processes. At the end aggregate all the signals and do the callback or some other activity which is needed as soon all the detail processes reported back.

Testcase1
What will happen if we remove one of the receiveSignals from the Master process.

the master process will wait on the receivesignal activity until it receveid it.

Testcase2
What will happen when we do not send the signal from the master process to the detail process but leave the receiveSignal in the detail process.

The master process will wait on the receiveSignal from detail process1. Since the invoke of the both detail processes are oneway and we do the ‘check’ on the receiveSignals at the end, detail process1 will just complete and send the signal back to the master process. After this the master process will keep on waiting on the signal from detail process1.

Testcase3, when all just works

Eventually the flow of the master process can look like this.
In here i placed the receiveSignals to the end of the process. You can also place them after the invokes of the detail processes, so you’re sure they will wait on each other.

Resources
Amis weblog
Tom Hofte weblog
Oracle® Fusion Middleware Developer’s Guide for Oracle SOA Suite 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) – 15 Coordinating Master and Detail Processes

JDeveloper Project

Last week there was a question on the forum how to add values to the domain value maps on runtime.
In the Oracle SOA Suite 10g we could maintain those values from the console.
In Fusion 11g it’s a little bit different.

Oracle now supplies us a new tool called SOA Composer (patch set 1). This new tool can be used to maintain both rules and domain value maps at runtime.

1. Create a new composite and add a dvm to it



2. Create a new dvm


Select the project, goto File > New > SOA Tier > Transformation > Domain Value Map

3. Create the transformation in the mediator and connect the dvm

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <inp1:CountryInfo>
      <inp1:Code>
        <xsl:value-of select="/inp1:Input/inp1:Code"/>
      </inp1:Code>
      <inp1:Fullname>
        <xsl:value-of select="dvm:lookupValue(&quot;Countries.dvm&quot;,&quot;CODE&quot;,/inp1:Input/inp1:Code,&quot;Fullname&quot;,'not mapped')"/>
      </inp1:Fullname>
    </inp1:CountryInfo>
  </xsl:template>

Now deploy the composite and do a little test to see if the dvm works.

In my case it generated the file ‘my_dvm_out_1.txt’ with the next content :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><inp1:CountryInfo xmlns:inp1="http://xmlns.oracle.com/singleString" xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/singleString">
   <inp1:Code>NL</inp1:Code>
   <inp1:Fullname>Netherlands</inp1:Fullname>
</inp1:CountryInfo>

Test again from the console with the code DE. Content of my file :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><inp1:CountryInfo xmlns:inp1="http://xmlns.oracle.com/singleString" xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/singleString">
   <inp1:Code>DE</inp1:Code>
   <inp1:Fullname>not mapped</inp1:Fullname>
</inp1:CountryInfo>

Time to add the dvm lookup for code DE.

SOA Composer
The SOA Composer can be found at: http://hostname:port_of_soa_managed_server/soa/composer
Login into the console and go to Open > Open DVM. Open the correct DVM.

Click Edit at top and click the green arrow to add a new lookup.


Last step is to commit the changed dvm (without redeploy).

Let’s test the process again and check the content of file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><inp1:CountryInfo xmlns:inp1="http://xmlns.oracle.com/singleString" xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/singleString">
   <inp1:Code>DE</inp1:Code>
   <inp1:Fullname>Deutschland</inp1:Fullname>
</inp1:CountryInfo>

Looks like it works.

Nice new tool from Oracle, available in the new patchset 1 of SOA Suite 11g.

The rcu installer does a db prerequisite check on the version of the db you’re installing on.
Since i’m using the 11.1.0.6.0 version the installer would fail with the message ‘The database you are connecting is not a supported version. Enter Database with version equal to or higher than 10.2.0.4.0 in 10g or version equal to higher than 11.1.0.7.0 in 11g. Refer to the certification matrix for supported DB versions’.

Go to the file

<rcuHome>\rcu\config\ComponentInfo.xml

and find this xml

<DBPrerequisite PREREQ_TYPE="CustomSQL" DATA_TYPE="NUMBER" COMPARE_OPERATOR="EQ">
        <ValidIf  DBTYPE="ORACLE" >
        <CustomQueryFilter DATA_TYPE="NUMBER" COMPARE_OPERATOR="EQ" VALUE="0">
            select 1 from dual where exists (select column_name from dba_tab_columns where table_name(+) like 'V_$INSTANCE' and column_name(+) = 'EDITION') union select 0 from dual where not exists (select column_name from dba_tab_columns where table_name(+) like 'V_$INSTANCE' and column_name(+) = 'EDITION')
          </CustomQueryFilter>
        </ValidIf>
        <PrereqIdentifier>select count(*) from product_component_version  where product like 'Oracle%Database%'  AND version BETWEEN '11' AND '11.1.0.6.0' </PrereqIdentifier>
        <PrereqValue>0</PrereqValue>
		<PrereqErrorMsg>
				The database you are connecting is not a supported version.  Enter Database with version equal to or higher than 10.2.0.4.0 in 10g or version equal to higher than 11.1.0.7.0 in 11g. Refer to the certification matrix for supported DB versions
		  </PrereqErrorMsg>
	</DBPrerequisite>

And change the value of ‘PrereqValue’ from 0 to 1.
Run install again and it will pass the check.

Thanks to Edwin for pointing me to the file

The article which i wrote together with Ronald van Luttikhuizen is posted on the OTN site.
My first one for OTN and i’m proud of it.

If you still have any questions about it or other related subjects, i will be happy to help you.

link :

Jumpstart for Oracle Service Bus Development

In Oracle Bpel 10g we had the functionality to add preferences to your bpel process.
By adding the next xml to the bpel.xml file we could get the value as variable into our process and change the value from the console.

<preferences>
  <property name="myPref">MyCurrentValue</property>
</preferences>

In the new Oracle SOA 11g things changed a little but. Like Marc already described in his blog we now need to add the preferences to the composite.xml of our Composite Application.

Add the next xml to the composite.xml :

  <component name="BPELProcess1">
    <implementation.bpel src="BPELProcess1.bpel"/>
    <property name="bpel.preference.myPref">MyCurrentValue</property>
  </component>

Now we can use the function ora:getPreference(myPref) in our bpel process to retrieve the value of the preference.
Watch the naming convention. It expects it to start with “bpel.preference”.

Create the composite application and deploy it.
We only added an assign to the flow which will get assign the value of the preference to the outputVariable.
Run the bpel and check if the value of ‘MyCurrentValue’ is in the outputVariable.

In Oracle SOA Suite 10g we could change the value of the preferences from the bpel console.
In Oracle SOA Suite 11g things changed a but, we got a new fancy console to manage all the components.
To change to values from the prefences go to the ‘Enterprise Manager’ (http://localhost:7001/em).

On the left go to :
Farm_soa_domain > Weblogic Domain > soa_domain > right mouseclick and select ‘System MBean Browser’.

Navigate to Application Defined MBeans > oracle.soa.config > Server : soa_server1 > SCAComposite > your_project > SCAComposite.SCAComponent > your bpel_process.
Select the Attribute ‘Properties’.

Change the value of our preference and click apply.

Run the bpel again to see if the new value got used in the process.

Inspired by the article of Edwin about JMS Request Reply Interaction Pattern in Soa Suite 11g, i will show a little example of what functionality Oracle Service Bus supplies to implement the jms request/response (reply) pattern.
The solution is quiet simple.

Create the wls resources

• Create JMS Server, MyJMSServer
• Create JMS Modules, MyJMSResources
• Create a Connection Factory, MyConnectionFactory
• Create 2 queues, MyQueueIn (request message), MyQueueOut (response message)

Create the osb resource

• Create a new proxy service, JMSRequestResponsePS



For the Endpoint URi, insert the url to In-queue

Check the ‘Is Response Required’ option.
We will use JMSCorrelationID for the Response Correlation Pattern.
For the Response URI, insert the url to the Out-queue

Testing
Now test the flow by insert a little xml message in the MyQueueIn queue, wait a few seconds and check the MyQueueOut queue.
Only thing what’s left is to fill in the message flow of the proxy service and add some logica.

Error

weblogic.socket.MaxMessageSizeExceededException: Incoming message of size: '20000160' bytes exceeds the configured maximum of: '20000000' bytes for protocol: 't3'.
weblogic.socket.MaxMessageSizeExceededException: Incoming message of size: '20000160' bytes exceeds the configured maximum of: '20000000' bytes for protocol: 't3'
        at weblogic.socket.AbstractMuxableSocket.incrementBufferOffset(AbstractMuxableSocket.java:262)
        at weblogic.rjvm.t3.MuxableSocketT3.incrementBufferOffset(MuxableSocketT3.java:343)
        at weblogic.socket.SocketMuxer.readReadySocketOnce(SocketMuxer.java:910)
        at weblogic.socket.SocketMuxer.readReadySocket(SocketMuxer.java:859)
        at weblogic.socket.EPollSocketMuxer.dataReceived(EPollSocketMuxer.java:215)
        at weblogic.socket.EPollSocketMuxer.processSockets(EPollSocketMuxer.java:177)
        at weblogic.socket.SocketReaderRequest.run(SocketReaderRequest.java:29)
        at weblogic.socket.SocketReaderRequest.execute(SocketReaderRequest.java:42)
        at weblogic.kernel.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:145)
        at weblogic.kernel.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:11

Solution
Goto the Weblogic Console > Servers > AdminServer (or Managed Servers) > Protocols
Change the value of ‘Maximum Message Size’ to something which will succeed in your case.

This week we were messing around with a routing problem in one of the Oracle Service Bus projects.
We had an if-then-else construction which selects on the payload to see what transformation is needed and which business service it needs to call.

Example payload

<EDI>
  <CONF_UNB>
    <SYNTAX_ID>VALUE1</SYNTAX_ID>
    <SYNTAX_VERS>1</SYNTAX_VERS>
    <SENDER_ID>VALUE2</SENDER_ID>
    <SEND_QUAL>10</SEND_QUAL>
  </CONF_UNB>
</EDI>

test1 : /EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID
result : node SYNTAX_ID with value ‘VALUE1′

test2 : count(/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID) = 1
result : xs:boolean = true

test3 : /EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID = ‘VALUE1′
result : xs:boolean = true

test4 : count(/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID = ‘VALUE1′)
result : xs:integer = 1
This is the approach we used, but looking at the result of test5, you will see it will always evaluate to true or 1 in this case.

test5 : count(/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID = ‘VALUE2′)
result : xs:integer = 1

test6 : count(/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID[text() = 'VALUE2'])
result : xs:integer = 0

test7 : count(/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID[text() = 'VALUE1'])
result : xs:integer = 1

So for evaluation the xpath expression without being it embedded in an xquery function you can just select the node and compair it with a textvalue (/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID = ‘VALUE1′).
When you want to compair the xpath expression with a textvalue from within a call to a xquery function you need to select the text-value of the node to which you compair (count(/EDI/CONF_UNB/SYNTAX_ID[text() = 'VALUE2'])).

Routing works again!

Oracle SOA Suite Developer’s Guide

Finally i had some spare time to read this nice book!
It’s real bookshelf filler with 621 pages.

The book already got released before fusion 11g went live, but it was still nice to get some more information about the ‘old’ soa-suite stack.
Over at IT-eye we did quiet some soa implementations with the Oracle stack, so i already had good background on the information discussed in the book.
What i particularly was interested in was the best practices of others on the different components of the soa suite. When we start a project at IT-eye we have a default set of best practices and ways to go on how to implement certain functionality.
Matt Wright and Antony Reynolds gave a good overview of how to use the different components and what Oracles/their best use was for them.

Oracle also provides the Oracle SOA Suite Developer’s Guide as free guide on this internet, but this book discusses a lot of extra/advanced topics on the soa suite.
So i would recommend to read both to learn more and more about all the ins and outs of the soa suite. Since it delivers a lot of components in the stack, these 2 will give you a lot of good information.

Let’s go on with the book.

The book starts with a few topics with some basic information about the soa suite, the standards/frameworks which are used.
After that the components of the stack are getting discussed, writing your first bpel, implementing human workflow, adding bussines rules and building bam dashboards.

For starters the way to go. Get your hands dirty and just try to develop everything which is discussed in the book.
The authors explain it all real well, so it’s good step by step manual to get a feeling with all what the soa suite provides us.

Besides the real technical topics it gives some good information about the design concepts to implement (service enable existing systems, how too loosely couple services, design service contracts, good explanation about xsd schemas/wsdl and how to construct them).

To bring all of these topics in practise they added a use case called oBay. This one will be used in the whole book to implement all the functionality of the stack.
From developing the basics, adding rules, secure service invocations till testing and deployment, all will be reviewed.

And i was very pleased to see they even added the ‘new’ Oracle Service Bus (OSB) as subject of discussion to the book. They didn’t just added a topic for it, but after discussing every component in the soa suite stack, they added some extra information on how to implement this in the Oracle Service Bus. Sort of one on one compair to see what functionality is available in the new bus, good one!

Conclusion

I would really recommend this book to anyone who’s starting or already busy with the Oracle SOA Suite. The book discusses the 10g soa suite stack, but part of the components will be available as is, in the new fusion 11g stack. For example the implementation of Oracle Webservice Manager will be different.
Although there is a lot of information to read, it’s still all that well written it won’t take ages to finish it. The authors explain all very well by using good screengrabs and examples, so what i would recommend is to start up the soa suite, and get the hands on experience pon the topics the authors try to inform you about.

Book details

Contens

Section 1 Getting Started

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Oracle SOA Suite: An initial introduction to the Oracle SOA Suite and its various components.
• Chapter 2: Writing your first service: A hands-on introduction to the core components of the Oracle SOA Suite, namely the Oracle BPEL Process Manager and the Oracle Service Bus.
• Chapter 3: Service-enabling existing systems: Looks at a number of key technology adapters and how we can use them to service-enable existing systems.
• Chapter 4: Loosely coupling services: Describes how we can use the Oracle Service Bus to build services that are implementation-agnostic.
• Chapter 5: Building composite services and business processes: Covers how to use BPEL to assemble services to build composite services and long-running business process.
• Chapter 6: Adding in human workflow: This chapter looks at how human tasks can be managed through workflow activities embedded within a BPEL process.
• Chapter 7: Using business rules to define decision points: This chapter introduces business rules and how we can use them to externalize “decision points” in a BPEL process.
• Chapter 8: Building real-time dashboards: This chapter looks at how Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) can be used to give business users a real-time view into how business processes are performing.

Section 2 Putting it all together

• Chapter 9: oBay introduction: Provides a blueprint for our SOA architecture, highlighting some of the key design considerations and describing how they fit our architecture for oBay.
• Chapter 10: Designing the service contract: Gives guidance on how to design XML schemas and service contracts for improved agility, reuse, and interoperability.
• Chapter 11: Building business services: Examines different approaches for building new business services either from scratch or by re-using existing logic.
• Chapter 12: Building validation into services: Examines how we can implement validation within a service using XSD validation, Schematron, and Business Rules.
• Chapter 13: Error handling: This chapter examines strategies for handling system and business errors, with detailed coverage of the BPEL Fault Management Framework.
• Chapter 14: Message interaction patterns: Covers complex messaging interactions, including multiple requests and responses, timeouts, and message correlation (both system and business).
• Chapter 15: Workflow patterns: Looks at how to implement workflows involving complex chains of approval and how to use the Workflow Service API.
• Chapter 16: Using business rules to implement services: Here we look at the Rules engine’s inferencing capabilities, and how we can use them to implement types of business services.
• Chapter 17: The importance of bindings: Looks at the protocols available in addition to SOAP over HTTP for invoking web services and the advantages they provide.

Section 3 Other considerations

• Chapter 18: Packaging and deployment: Examines how to package up a SOA application for deployment into environments such as test and production.
• Chapter 19: Testing composite applications: Looks at how to create, deploy, and run test cases that automate the testing of composite applications.
• Chapter 20: Defining security and management policies: Details how to use Web Service Manager to secure and administer SOA applications.

You can order the book at Packt