Business Process Execution Language for Web Services: Second Edition

Table of Contents

Business Process Execution Language for Web Services

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

Preface

What This Book Covers

What You Need for Using This Book

Conventions

Reader Feedback

Customer Support

Downloading the Example Code for the Book

Errata

Questions

1. Introduction to BPEL and SOA

Why Business Processes Matter

Automation of Business Processes

Exposing and Accessing the Functionality of Applications as Services

Enterprise Bus Infrastructure for Communication and Management of Services

Integration between Services and Applications

Composition of Exposed Services into Business Processes

Web Services

How Web Services Differ from their Predecessors

Web Services Technology Stack

Enterprise Service Bus

ESB Features

Service Oriented Architecture

SOA Concepts

Services

Interfaces

Messages

Synchronicity

Loose Coupling

Registries

Quality of Service

Composition of Services into Business Processes

Service Composition

BPEL for Service Composition

BPEL Features

Orchestration and Choreography

Executable and Abstract Processes

Relation of BPEL to Other Languages

ebXML BPSS

BPML

WSCI

WS-CDL

BPEL Servers Overview

Oracle BPEL Process Manager

Microsoft BizTalk

IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation

IBM BPWS4J

ActiveBPEL Engine and ActiveWebflow

OpenStorm Service Orchestrator

The Future of BPEL

Conclusion

2. Web Services Technology Stack

E-Business Collaborations

WS-Security

Example

Binary Security Token

Referencing an External Security Token

Faults

Typical Business Transaction Scenario

WS-Coordination

The Framework

Scenario

CoordinationContext

CreateCoordinationContext

CreateCoordinationContextResponse

Register

RegisterResponse

Faults

Web Services Transaction Specifications

Atomic Transaction

Sharing Context Information

Coordination Protocols

Completion

CompletionWithAck

Two-Phase Commit

PhaseZero

OutcomeNotification

Business Activity

Sharing the Context Information

Coordination Protocols

BusinessAgreement

BusinessAgreementWithComplete

OASIS BTP

The BTP Stack

The BTP Model

Atomic Transactions

Cohesive Transactions

Reliable Messaging

Messaging Model

Example

Requesting Acknowledgement

Delivery Assurances

Other Assertions

Faults

WS-Addressing

Endpoint Reference

Faults

WS-Inspection

Inspection Document Hierarchy

WS-Policy

Policy Outline

The Operator

The Operator

The Operator

The Operator

Policy Assertions

Example

Policy Inclusion

WS-Eventing

Event Subscription

Response to Event Subscription

Subscription Renewal

Unsubscribing

Subscription End Message

Conclusion

3. Service Composition with BPEL

Developing Business Processes with BPEL

Core Concepts

Invoking Web Services

Invoking Asynchronous Web Services

Synchronous/Asynchronous Business Processes

Understanding Links to Partners

Partner Link Types

Defining Partner Links

BPEL Process Tag

Variables

Providing the Interface to BPEL Processes: , , and

Assignments

Conditions

BPEL Business Process Example

Involved Web Services

Employee Travel Status Web Service

Airline Web Service

Flight Availability Port Type

Flight Callback Port Type

WSDL for the BPEL Process

Partner Link Types

Business Process Definition

BPEL Process Outline

Partner Links

Variables

BPEL Process Main Body

Asynchronous BPEL Example

Modify the BPEL Process WSDL

Modify Partner Link Types

Modify the BPEL Process Definition

Conclusion

4. Advanced BPEL

Advanced Activities

Activity Names

Loops

Delays

Deadline and Duration Expressions

Empty Activities

Process Termination

Fault Handling and Signaling

WSDL Faults

Signaling Faults

Signaling Faults to Clients in Synchronous Replies

Example

Signaling Faults to Clients in Asynchronous Scenarios

Handling Faults

Selection of a Fault Handler

Synchronous Example

Asynchronous Example

Inline Fault Handling

Scopes

Example

First Scope

Second Scope

Third Scope

Serializable Scopes

Compensation

Compensation Handlers

Example

Invoking Compensation Handlers

Managing Events

Pick Activity

Message Events

Alarm Events

Example

Event Handlers

Example

Business Process Lifecycle

Correlation and Message Properties

Message Properties

Mapping Properties to Messages

Extracting Properties

Properties and Assignments

Correlation Sets

Using Correlation Sets

Concurrent Activities and Links

Sources and Targets

Example

Transition Conditions

Join Conditions and Link Status

Join Failures

Suppressing Join Failures

Dynamic Partner Links

Abstract Business Processes

Model Driven Approach: Generating BPEL from UML Activity Diagrams

Conclusion

5. Oracle BPEL Process Manager and BPEL Designer: Overview

Overview and Architecture

BPEL Server

Core BPEL Engine

WSDL Bindings

Integration Services

BPEL Console

BPEL Designer

Database

Process Deployment Example

Process Descriptor

Configuration Properties

Setting the Environment

BPEL Compiler and Revision Numbers

Deployment and Domains

Ant Utility

Process Management with the BPEL Console

Visual Flow

Instance Auditing

Debugging

Overview of Other BPEL Console Functions

Deploying Processes

Management

Performance Tuning

Domains and Administration

Administration of Server-Related Parameters

Managing BPEL Domains

Graphical Development with BPEL Designer

JDeveloper BPEL Designer

Importing Existing BPEL Processes

Partner Links and Web Services

Variables

Process Activities

Copy Rule Editor

XPath Expression Builder

XSLT Mapper

BPEL Validation Browser

Building and Deploying

Eclipse BPEL Designer

Partner Links and Web Services

Variables

XML Type Browser

Process Map

Copy Rule Editor

Function Wizard

Building and Deploying

Summary

6. Oracle BPEL Process Manager: Advanced Features

Extension Functions and Activities

Transformation and Query Support

Data and Array Manipulation

XML Manipulation

Date and Time Expressions

Process Identification

LDAP Access and User Management

Dynamic Parallel Flow

Dynamic Flow Example

Providing a List of Partner Links

Dynamic Parallel Invocation of Airline Services

Dynamic Partner Links

Offer Selection Loop

Deploying and Testing the Example

Web Services Invocation Framework

Advantages of WSIF

Java to XML Bindings

XML Façades

Invoking a Java Class through WSIF

Defining WSIF Bindings in WSDL

WSIF Bindings for Java Classes

Testing the Example

Exception Handling

User Exceptions in Java

Defining Faults in WSDL

Defining WSIF Binding for an Exception

Custom Exception Serializers

Defining Custom Fault Type in WSDL

Writing the Custom Exception Serializer

Registering the Custom Exception Serializer

Invoking EJB through WSIF

WSDL for Session Bean

WSIF Binding for EJB

Generating WSIF Bindings from JDeveloper

Java Code Embedding

Invoking a Java Class from Embedded Code

Notification Service

Email Example

Notification Wizard

Review of Code

Testing the Example

Mail and JMS Services

Workflow Service

Workflow Patterns

Example

Checking User Outcome

Worklist Application to Approve Ticket

Identity Service

BPEL Server APIs

Summary

7. MS BizTalk Server

Overview

Support for BPEL and XLANG/s

Architecture

Ports

Receive Locations

Adapters

Receive Pipelines

Message Contexts

Promoted Properties

Distinguished Fields

The MessageBox

How Publish-Subscribe works

Orchestrations

Maps

Business Rules Engine

Send Pipeline

Building a Sample Orchestration in BizTalk

Scenario

Implementation

Exporting Orchestration to BPEL

Importing BPEL Processes into BizTalk

Do’s and Don’ts for BPEL Compliance in BizTalk

Comparing BizTalk Orchestration Constructs with BPEL

Receive and Send Shapes (, , )

Port and Role Link Shapes (, , )

Expression and Message Assignment Shapes (, , , )

Decide Shape (, , )

Delay Shape ()

Parallel Actions Shape ()

Loop Shape ()

Suspend Shape

Terminate Shape ()

Advanced BPEL Functions using BizTalk

Listen Shape (, , )

Scope Shape ()

Throw Exception Shape and Exception Handling (, , , )

Compensate Shape and Compensation Block (, )

Correlation (, )

Other BizTalk-Specific Features

Integration with other BizTalk Servers

Integration with Web Services

Integration with the .NET Framework

Human Workflow Services (HWS)

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)

Health and Activity Tracking (HAT)

BizTalk Server 2006 and Beyond

Summary

A. BPEL Syntax Reference

Important BPEL Activities and Elements

, , ,

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Example

,

Syntax

Example

Syntax

Examples

Syntax

Example

BPEL Functions

getLinkStatus()

Syntax

Example

getVariableData()

Syntax

Example

getVariableProperty()

Syntax

Example

Deadline and Duration Expressions

Standard Elements

Syntax

Standard Attributes

Syntax

Default Values of Attributes

Standard Faults

Namespaces

Index

Business Process Execution Language for Web Services

Second Edition

Matjaz Juric

Poornachandra Sarang

Benny Mathew

Business Process Execution Language for Web Services

Second Edition

Copyright © 2006 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

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First published: October 2004

Second edition: January 2006

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 1-904811-81-7

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Cover Design by www.visionwt.com

Credits

Author

Matjaz B. Juric

Co-Authors

Benny Mathew

Poornachandra Sarang

Reviewers

Mark Little

Dave Shaffer

Prasad Yendluri

Technical Editor

Ashutosh Pande

Editorial Manager

Dipali Chittar

Development Editor

Louay Fatoohi

Indexer

Ashutosh Pande

Proofreader

Chris Smith

Production Coordinator

Manjiri Nadkarni

Cover Designer

Helen Wood

About the Authors

Matjaz B. Juric holds a Ph.D. in computer and information science. He is Associate Professor at the University of Maribor. In addition to this book, he has coauthored Professional J2EE EAI, Professional EJB, J2EE Design Patterns Applied, and .NET Serialization Handbook, published by Wrox Press. He has published chapters in More Java Gems (Cambridge University Press) and in Technology Supporting Business Solutions (Nova Science Publishers). He has also published in journals and magazines, such as Java Developer’s Journal, Java Report, Java World , Web Services Journal, eai Journal, theserverside.com, OTN, and ACM journals, and presented at conferences such as OOPSLA, Java Development, XML Europe, OOW, SCI, and others. He is a reviewer, program committee member, and conference organizer. Matjaz has been involved in several large-scale object technology projects. In cooperation with IBM Java Technology Centre, he worked on performance analysis and optimization of RMI-IIOP, an integral part of the Java platform.

Matjaz is an author of courses and consultant for the BPEL and SOA consulting company BPELmentor.com. For more information, please visit http://www.bpelmentor.com/

My efforts in this book are dedicated to my family. Special thanks to Jerneja, my friends at the University of Maribor, and to Louay and Damian at Packt Publishing.

Benny K. Mathew is a Sr. Software Engineer at IBM Global Services (India), Bangalore. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Applications. His fascination for computers started at the age of 14, when he first experienced the delight of programming on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum+.

He has co-authored books and articles on technologies like .NET, BizTalk, BPEL, etc.

During his free time, Benny likes to read blogs and help people on the newsgroups related to .NET and BizTalk. He has been awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for two consecutive years.

Before joining IBM, he was with companies like Hewlett Packard, Thomson Financials, and Delphi Software.

I’d like to thank Louay for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this book and to Matjaz for giving me valuable suggestions. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank my parents and family for their support in writing this book.

Poornachandra Sarang, Ph.D., is CEO of ABCOM Information Systems. Dr. Sarang is one of the leading software architects in the industry, has more than 20 years of IT experience and provides consulting services to worldwide clients in architecting and designing IT solutions based on Java, CORBA, Oracle, and .NET platforms. He has been a Visiting Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, USA and is currently a visiting professor for Post-Graduate Computer Science studies at the University of Mumbai. He conducts lectures/seminars on emerging technologies across the world and has made several presentations at international conferences. He has authored/coauthored several books and journal articles on Java, C++, J2EE, e-Commerce, Open-Source Technologies, and .NET.

In this book, Matjaz B. Juric wrote Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and Appendix A; Benny Matthew wrote Chapter 7; and Poornachandra Sarang wrote Chapter 2.

About the Reviewers

Mark Little is one of the primary authors of the OMG Activity Service specification and is on the expert group for the same work in J2EE (JSR 95). Mark is also the specification lead for JSR 156: Java API for XML Transactions. He is on the OTS Revision Task Force and the OASIS Business Transactions Protocol specification. Before joining HP he was, for over 10 years, a member of the Arjuna team within the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (where he continues to have a Visiting Fellowship). His research within the Arjuna team included replication and transaction support, including the construction of an OTS/JTS-compliant transaction processing system. Before Arjuna Technologies, Mark was a distinguished Engineer/Architect within HP Arjuna Labs, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, where he led the HP-TS and HP-WST teams, developing J2EE and web services transactions products respectively. Mark has published extensively in the Web Services Journal, Java Developers Journal, and other journals and magazines.

Dave Shaffer has held senior consulting, management, and software development roles over the last 15 years in a wide-range of technology companies including Oracle, Collaxa, Apple Computer, NeXT Software, and Integrated Computer Solutions. He has helped organizations ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 10 companies to design, implement, and manage mission-critical software systems for e-commerce and business process automation in the financial services, telecommunications, and manufacturing sectors. At Oracle, Dave is responsible for BPEL customer success, for both pre-sales POCs and post-sales project implementations. Dave is a former faculty member of the Computer Science department at the University of Vermont and holds an MS in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.

Preface

Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL, WS-BPEL, or BPEL4WS) is the new standard for defining business processes with composition of services. It is the cornerstone of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). With its ability to define executable and abstract business processes it opens new doors in business process management and represents the top-down approach to the realization of SOA.

BPEL is supported by the majority of software vendors including Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, BEA, SAP, Hewlett-Packard, Siebel, and others. Most of them already have products that support BPEL; others will follow soon.

This book explains the BPEL standard, provides a step-by-step guide to designing and developing business processes in BPEL, defines the role of BPEL in SOA, and discusses how BPEL relates to the web services stack and to other standards. It also covers two important BPEL servers—the Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Microsoft BizTalk Server. The book presents the service-oriented approach to business process definition using web services, which enables us to develop loosely coupled solutions.

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1 provides a detailed introduction to BPEL and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). It discusses business processes and their automation, explains the role of BPEL, web services, and Enterprise Service Buses (ESB) in SOA, provides insight into business process composition with BPEL, explains the most important features, compares BPEL to other specifications, provides an overview of BPEL servers, and discusses the future of BPEL.

Chapter 2 provides a detailed introduction to the Web Services Technology Stack. It discusses the important standards and specifications for using BPEL and implementing SOA with web services, such as WS-Security, WS-Addressing, WS-Coordination, WS-AtomicTransaction, WS-BusinessActivity, WS-Reliable Messaging, etc.

Chapter 3 discusses the composition of web services with BPEL. The chapter introduces the core concepts of BPEL and explains how to define synchronous and asynchronous business processes with BPEL. The reader gets familiar with BPEL process structure, partner links, sequential and parallel service invocation, variables, conditions, etc.

Chapter 4 goes deeper into the BPEL specification and covers advanced features for modeling complex business processes. Advanced activities, scopes, serialization, fault handing, compensations, event handling, correlation sets, concurrent activities and links, process lifecycle, and dynamic partner links are covered in detail.

Chapter 5 explains how to use the Oracle BPEL Process Manager for deploying and executing business processes defined in BPEL. It describes the server architecture, tools, features, and common approaches for managing and debugging BPEL processes. The chapter also looks at graphical development of BPEL processes using Oracle BPEL Designer for JDeveloper and for Eclipse.

Chapter 6 takes a detailed look at the advanced features of the Oracle BPEL Process Manager including extension functions, dynamic parallel flows, Web Services Invocation Framework, Java embedding, Notification service, Workflow service, Identity service, and Oracle BPEL Server APIs.

Chapter 7 discusses MS BizTalk Server 2004 and its support for BPEL. It explains how to develop business processes in BizTalk and export them to BPEL. It also explains how to import BPEL processes into BizTalk and how to use the Orchestration Designer tool to define processes graphically, and compares BizTalk and BPEL constructs.

Appendix A provides a syntax reference for BPEL version 1.1. The appendix covers standard BPEL activities and elements, functions, attributes, and faults.

What You Need for Using This Book

To test the examples in Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6, you need to have Oracle BPEL Process Manager 10g installed on your system (http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/bpel/), and for Chapter 7 you need Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 (http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/).

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive.

A block of code will be set as follows:

TravelApproval>

    tns:TravelRequestMessage />

   

aln:TravelResponseMessage />

    fault message=tns:TravelFaultMessage />

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:

TravelApproval>

    tns:TravelRequestMessage />

   

aln:TravelResponseMessage />

fault message=tns:TravelFaultMessage />

Any command-line input and output is written as follows:

schemac Employee.wsdl

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

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Chapter 1. Introduction to BPEL and SOA